The Sami language is the language of the northern people (Sami) scattered across countries such as Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia. It is a subgroup of the Finno-Volga group of languages, and its "relatives" can be called the languages of Estonians, Finns and Karelians. Slightly less closely related to the Sami are the Mordovian and Mari languages.
Language distribution
All Sami speak different dialects, which are usually combined into one continuum, that is, all of them, so to speak, being on the same territory, have minimal differences between themselves. Nevertheless, this is a moot point. To this day, linguists cannot come to a common opinion: whether to divide the Sami language into several independent ones or to combine the existing dialects into one.
Here's the thing. Sami, living in separate groups in different territories, have a different culture. This, in turn, is reflected in the language of each group. And not only that. In fact, there are many more influencing factors:
- country of residence (Finland, Sweden, Russia or Norway);
- occupation of certain Sami (fishing, reindeer husbandry, hunting);
- natural features of the territory (mountain Sami and forest Sami);
- traditional place of origin (Saami of internal Finnmark in Norway, Sami from Jukkasjärvi in Sweden, Iokang, Varzin, Lovozero Sami);
- current place of residence (city or countryside).
Officially, Sami languages are divided into Western and Eastern groups. The western part includes the Sami of Finland, Norway and Sweden, and the eastern Sami of Finland and Russia.
Classification of Western and Eastern Sami Languages
We delve deeper into the Sami. Both western and eastern languages also include several languages. The Western group includes South Sami, North Sami, as well as Uma-Sami, Pita-Sami, Lule-Sami. All of them are distributed to one degree or another in Sweden, Finland and Norway.
The Sámi language, which is spoken by both the Sámi of Russia and the Sámi of Finland, belongs to the eastern group, and some of them are already considered dead languages:
- Kemi-Sami - once you speak Sami in central Lapland (Finland);
- Babinsky Sami - his second name is Akkala, and the Sami of Russia spoke this language (the last native speaker of Akkala died in 2003).
The living East Sami languages include Terek-Sami and Kildin Sami. They are spoken by the few Sami of Russia. Colt Saami is spoken by about 420 people in total, 20 of whom live in Russia, the remaining 400 in Finland.
Sami writing
Saami people living in Finland, Sweden and Norway use the alphabet based on the Latin alphabet, Russian Sami use the alphabet based on the Cyrillic alphabet, respectively. The first mention of the written language of the Western Sami dates back to the 17th century, when the literary Swedish-Sami language was born. Later, in the 18th century, the Norwegian Sami acquired their own written language, and even later, Finnish (the writing came to them in the 19th century). And already in the second half of the last century, spelling was developed, which is common for all Sámi in Finland, Norway and Sweden.
Today, the Sami language in these countries is taught in elementary schools. The Sami of Russia, who mainly live on the Kola Peninsula, have their own written language, and it is based on the Cyrillic alphabet. She appeared at the end of the XIX century. In 1926, the Cyrillic alphabet was replaced by the Latin alphabet, and ten years later the Cyrillic alphabet again became the basis of writing. Today, there is a new version of Cyrillic writing, which first saw the light in 1982. It began to be printed in primers the same year. And in 1985, a large Sami language dictionary was published.
Interesting linguistic features
The Sami language is distinguished by very complex phonetics. There are long vowels and consonants here, there are not only diphthongs, but also trifthongs (when one syllable is formed from three consonants). Vowels and consonants alternate in this language, stress can fall on the first syllable, but it can also be secondary (that is, it falls on other odd syllables, but can never fall on the last).
The Sami language is distinguished by a dual number, that is, dual or paired objects bow and conjugate. There is no category of genus. Sami adjectives are not consistent with nouns in number and case.
There are eight cases, case values are expressed by prepositions and postpositions, and the verb has four tenses, as well as the infinitive, participle and participle form. Verbs can form verbal nouns.
The Sami language borrowed many words from the Baltic-Finnish languages, as well as from the Russian language and the large macro-family of the Uralic languages. However, some of the words here have no analogues in other Finno-Ugric languages.
The situation of the Sami languages in Russia
According to a census conducted in 2002, about 800 Sami people are registered in our country. However, according to these data, it is still difficult to assess the extent of the Sami language in Russia. The fact is that census information is given voluntarily, so it is impossible to accurately calculate how many people speak the language or its dialects. In the same way, it was difficult to determine how many of the Sami were fluent in the language, and which of them possessed only basic knowledge.
In 2007, a large-scale questionnaire began to be conducted, the purpose of which was to identify how many Sami live in Russia and how many of them speak their native language. And here, no matter how good this knowledge played. Such studies significantly help to preserve and develop the language, develop textbooks, publish books, textbooks and phrasebooks of the Sami language.