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Sámi
Sami, Saami, Samic
Native to	Finland, Norway, Russia, and Sweden
Region	Sápmi
Ethnicity	Sámi
Native speakers	(30,000 cited 1992–2013)
Language family	Uralic Sámi
Early form	Proto-Sámi
Official status
Official language in	Norway; recognized as a minority language in several municipalities of Finland and Sweden.
Language codes
ISO 639-2	smi
ISO 639-3	Variously: sma – Southern sju – Ume sje – Pite smj – Lule sme – Northern sjk – Kemi smn – Inari sms – Skolt sia – Akkala sjd – Kildin sjt – Ter
Glottolog	saam1281
Recent distribution of the Sami languages: 1. Southern Sami, 2. Ume Sami, 3. Pite Sami, 4. Lule Sami, 5. Northern Sami, 6. Inari Sami, 7. Skolt Sami, 8. Kildin Sami, 9. Ter Sami. Striped areas are multilingual or overlapping.

The Sámi languages (/ˈsɑːmi/ SAH-mee), also rendered in English as Sami and Saami, are a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Indigenous Sámi peoples in Northern Europe (in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden, and extreme northwestern Russia). There are, depending on the nature and terms of division, ten or more Sami languages. Several spellings have been used for the Sámi languages, including Sámi, Sami, Saami, Saame, Sámic, Samic and Saamic, as well as the exonyms Lappish and Lappic. The last two, along with the term Lapp, are now often considered pejorative.

Classification

The Sámi languages form a branch of the Uralic language family. According to the traditional view, Sámi is within the Uralic family most closely related to the Finnic languages (Sammallahti 1998). However, this view has recently been doubted by some scholars who argue that the traditional view of a common Finno-Sami protolanguage is not as strongly supported as had been earlier assumed, and that the similarities may stem from an areal influence on Sámi from Finnic.

In terms of internal relationships, the Sámi languages are traditionally divided into the two groups of western and eastern. The groups may be further divided into various subgroups and ultimately individual languages. (Sammallahti 1998: 6-38.) Recently it has been proposed on the basis of (1) different sound substitutions seen between the Sámi languages in the Proto-Scandinavian loanwords and (2) historical phonology that the first unit to branch off from Late Proto-Sámi was Southern Proto-Sámi, from which descend South Sámi, Ume Sámi, and Gävle Sámi (extinct during the 19th century).

Parts of the Sámi language area form a dialect continuum in which the neighbouring languages may be mutually intelligible to a fair degree, but two more widely separated groups will not understand each other's speech. There are, however, some sharp language boundaries, in particular between Northern Sami, Inari Sami and Skolt Sami, the speakers of which are not able to understand each other without learning or long practice. The evolution of sharp language boundaries seems to suggest a relative isolation of the language speakers from each other and not very intensive contacts between the respective speakers in the past. There is some significance in this, as the geographical barriers between the respective speakers are no different from those in other parts of the Sámi area.

• Sámi
  • Eastern Sámi
    • Mainland Eastern Sámi
      • Akkala Sámi †
      • Inari Sámi (300 speakers)
      • Kemi Sámi †
      • Kainuu Sámi †
      • Skolt Sámi (320 speakers)
    • Peninsular Eastern Sámi
      • Kildin Sámi (600 speakers)
      • Ter Sámi (2 speakers)
  • Western Sámi
    • Central Western Sámi
      • Lule–Pite Sámi
        • Lule Sámi (1,000–2,000 speakers)
        • Pite Sámi (20 speakers)
      • Northern Sámi (26,000 speakers)
    • Southwestern Sámi
      • Southern Sámi (600 speakers)
      • Ume Sámi (20 speakers)

The above figures are approximate.

Geographic distribution

The Sami languages are spoken in Sápmi in Northern Europe, in a region stretching over the four countries Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, reaching from the southern part of central Scandinavia in the southwest to the tip of the Kola Peninsula in the east. The borders between the languages do not align with the ones separating the region's modern states.

During the Middle Ages and early modern period, now-extinct Sami languages were also spoken in the central and southern parts of Finland and Karelia and in a wider area on the Scandinavian Peninsula. Historical documents as well as Finnish and Karelian oral tradition contain many mentions of the earlier Sami inhabitation in these areas (Itkonen, 1947). Also, loanwords as well as place-names of Sami origin in the southern dialects of Finnish and Karelian dialects testify of earlier Sami presence in the area (Koponen, 1996; Saarikivi, 2004; Aikio, 2007). These Sami languages, however, became extinct later, under the wave of the Finno-Karelian agricultural expansion.

History

The Proto-Sámi language is believed to have formed in the vicinity of the Gulf of Finland between 1000 BC to 700 AD, deriving from a common Proto-Sami-Finnic language (M. Korhonen 1981). However, reconstruction of any basic proto-languages in the Uralic family have reached a level close to or identical to Proto-Uralic (Salminen 1999). According to the comparative linguist Ante Aikio, the Proto-Samic language developed in South Finland or in Karelia around 2000–2500 years ago, spreading then to northern Fennoscandia. The language is believed to have expanded west and north into Fennoscandia during the Nordic Iron Age, reaching central Scandinavia during the Proto-Scandinavian period ca. 500 AD (Bergsland 1996). The language assimilated several strata of unknown Paleo-European languages from the early hunter-gatherers, first during the Proto-Sami phase and second in the subsequent expansion of the language in the west and the north of Fennoscandia that is part of modern Sami today. (Aikio 2004, Aikio 2006).

Written languages and sociolinguistic situation

At present there are nine living Sami languages. Eight of the languages have independent literary languages; the other one has no written standard, and of it, there are only a few, mainly elderly, speakers left. The ISO 639-2 code for all Sami languages without their own code is "smi". The eight written languages are:

• Northern Sami (Norway, Sweden, Finland): With an estimated 15,000 speakers, this accounts for probably more than 75% of all Sami speakers in 2002. ISO 639-1/ISO 639-2: se/sme
• Lule Sami (Norway, Sweden): The second largest group with an estimated 1,500 speakers. ISO 639-2: smj
• Ume Sami (Norway, Sweden): likely has under 20 speakers left. ISO 639-2: smu
• Pite Sami has about 30–50 speakers, ISO 639-2: sje
• Southern Sami (Norway, Sweden): 500 speakers (estimated). ISO 639-2: sma
• Inari Sami (Enare Sami) (Inari, Finland): 500 speakers (estimated). SIL code: LPI, ISO 639-2: smn
• Skolt Sami (Näätämö and the Nellim-Keväjärvi districts, Inari municipality, Finland, also spoken in Russia, previously in Norway): 400 speakers (estimated). SIL code: LPK, ISO 639-2: sms
• Kildin Sami (Kola Peninsula, Russia): 608 speakers in Murmansk Oblast, 179 in other Russian regions, although 1991 persons stated their Saami ethnicity (1769 of them live in Murmansk Oblast) SIL code: LPD, ISO 639-3: sjd

The other Sami languages are critically endangered (moribund, have very few speakers left) or extinct. Ten speakers of Ter Sami were known to be alive in 2004. The last speaker of Akkala Sami is known to have died in December 2003, and the eleventh attested variety, Kemi Sami, became extinct in the 19th century. An additional Sami language, Kainuu Sami, became extinct in the 18th century, and probably belonged to the Eastern group like Kemi Sami, although the evidence for the language is limited.

Orthographies

Most Sámi languages use Latin alphabets, with these respective additional letters.

Northern Sámi:	Áá Čč Đđ Ŋŋ Šš Ŧŧ Žž
Inari Sámi:	Áá Ââ Ää Čč Đđ Ŋŋ Šš Žž
Skolt Sámi:	Ââ Čč Ʒʒ Ǯǯ Đđ Ǧǧ Ǥǥ Ǩǩ Ŋŋ Õõ Šš Žž Åå Ää
Lule Sámi (Sweden):	Áá Åå Ŋŋ Ää
Lule Sámi (Norway):	Áá Åå Ŋŋ Ææ
Southern Sámi (Sweden):	Ïï Ää Öö Åå
Southern Sámi (Norway):	Ïï Ææ Øø Åå
Ume Sámi:	Áá Đđ Ïï Ŋŋ Ŧŧ Üü Åå Ää Öö
Pite Sámi:	Áá Đđ Ŋŋ Ŧŧ Åå Ää

The use of Ææ and Øø in Norway vs. Ää and Öö in Sweden merely reflects the orthographic standards used in the Norwegian and Swedish alphabets, respectively, not differences in pronunciations.

The letter Đ in Sámi languages is a capital D with a bar across it (Unicode code point: U+0110), which is also used in Serbo-Croatian, Vietnamese, etc., not the near-identical capital eth (Ð; U+00D0) used in Icelandic, Faroese or Old English.

The capital letter Ŋ (eng) is commonly presented in Sámi languages using the "N-form" variant based the usual Latin uppercase N with a hook added. Unicode assigns code point U+014A to the uppercase eng, but does not prescribe the form of the glyph.

The Skolt Sámi standard uses ʹ (U+02B9) as a soft sign, but other apostrophes, such as ' (U+0027), ˊ (U+02CA) or ´ (U+00B4), are also sometimes used in published texts.

The Kildin Sámi orthography uses the Russian Cyrillic script with these additional letters: А̄а̄ Ӓӓ Е̄е̄ Ё̄ё̄ Һһ/ʼ Ӣӣ Јј/Ҋҋ Ӆӆ Ӎӎ Ӊӊ Ӈӈ О̄о̄ Ҏҏ Ӯӯ Ҍҍ Э̄э̄ Ӭӭ Ю̄ю̄ Я̄я̄

Availability

In December 2023, Apple has provided on-screen keyboards for all eight Sámi languages still spoken (with iOS and iPadOS releases 17.2), thus enabling Sámi speakers to use their language on iPhones and iPads without restrictions or difficulties.

• Sámi on-screen keyboards on iPhones
• Inari Sámi
• Kildin Sámi
• Lule Sámi
• Northern Sámi
• Pite Sámi (apparently faulty in iOS/iPadOS 17.2, missing đ/ŧ)
• Skolt Sámi
• Southern Sámi
• Ume Sámi

The Finnish SFS 5966 [fi] keyboard standard of 2008 is designed for easily typing Sámi languages through use of AltGr and dead diacritic keys.

• Original SFS-5966 layout; dead diacritic keys in red

Official status

Norway

Adopted in April 1988, Article 110a of the Norwegian Constitution states: "It is the responsibility of the authorities of the State to create conditions enabling the Sami people to preserve and develop its language, culture and way of life". The Sami Language Act went into effect in the 1990s. Sámi is an official language alongside Norwegian in the "administrative area for Sámi language", that includes eight municipalities in the northern half of Norway, namely Kautokeino Municipality, Karasjok Municipality, Kåfjord Municipality, Nesseby Municipality, Porsanger Municipality, Tana Municipality, Tysfjord Municipality, Lavangen Municipality, and Snåsa Municipality. In 2005 Sámi, Kven, Romanes and Romani were recognised as "regional or minority languages" in Norway within the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

Sweden

On 1 April 2000, Sami became one of five recognized minority languages in Sweden. It can be used in dealing with public authorities in Arjeplog Municipality, Gällivare Municipality, Jokkmokk Municipality, and Kiruna Municipality. In 2011, this list was enlarged considerably. In Sweden the University of Umeå teaches North, Ume and South Sami, and Uppsala University has courses in North, Lule and South Sami.

Finland

In Finland, the Sami language act of 1991 granted the Northern, Inari, and Skolt Sami the right to use their languages for all government services. The Sami Language Act of 2003 (Northern Sami: Sámi giellaláhka; Inari Sami: Säämi kielâlaahâ; Skolt Sami: Sääʹmǩiõll-lääʹǩǩ; Finnish: Saamen kielilaki; Swedish: Samisk språklag) made Sami an official language in Enontekiö, Inari, Sodankylä and Utsjoki municipalities. Some documents, such as specific legislation, are translated into these Sami languages, but knowledge of any of these Sami languages among officials is not common. As the major language in the region is Finnish, Sami speakers are essentially always bilingual with Finnish. Language nest daycares have been set up for teaching the languages to children. In education, Northern Sami, and to a more limited degree, Inari and Skolt Sami, can be studied at primary and secondary levels, both as a mothertongue (for native speakers) and as a foreign language (for non-native speakers).

Russia

In Russia, Sámi has no official status, neither on the national, regional or local level. It is included in the list of Indigenous minority languages. (Kildin) Sami has been taught at the Murmansk State Technical University since 2012; before then, it was taught at the Institute of the Peoples of the North in Saint Petersburg.

See also

• Sami parliaments of Finland, Norway, and Sweden
• Norwegianization of the Sámi
• Pre-Finno-Ugric substrate

References

1. Southern at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   Ume at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   Pite at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   Lule at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   Northern at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   Kemi at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
   (Additional references under 'Language codes' in the information box)
2. Vikør, Lars S.; Jahr, Ernst Håkon; Berg-Nordlie, Mikkel. "språk i Norge" [languages of Norway]. Great Norwegian Encyclopedia (in Norwegian Bokmål). Retrieved 30 August 2020.
3. Kultur- og kirkedepartementet (27 June 2008). "St.meld. nr. 35 (2007-2008)". Regjeringa.no (in Norwegian Nynorsk).
4. Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student’s Handbook, Edinburgh
5. Karlsson, Fred (2008). An Essential Finnish Grammar. Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire: Routledge. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-415-43914-5.
6. T. Salminen: Problems in the taxonomy of the Uralic languages in the light of modern comparative studies. — Лингвистический беспредел: сборник статей к 70-летию А. И. Кузнецовой. Москва: Издательство Московского университета, 2002. 44–55. AND
7. Piha, Minerva; Häkkinen, Jaakko (2020-10-30). "Kantasaamesta eteläkantasaameen: Lainatodisteita eteläsaamen varhaisesta eriytymisestä". Sananjalka (in Finnish). 62 (62): 102–124. doi:10.30673/sja.95727. ISSN 2489-6470.
8. Häkkinen, Jaakko (2023-01-01). "Kantasaamesta eteläkantasaameen, osa 2 Äännehistorian todisteita eteläsaamen varhaisesta eriytymisestä". Sananjalka 65. doi:10.30673/sja.115746.
9. Saami, Inari at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
10. Saami, Skolt at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
11. Saami, Kildin at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
12. Saami, Ter at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
13. Saami, Lule at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
14. Saami, Pite at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
15. Saami, North at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
16. Saami, South at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
17. Saami, Ume at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
18. "Mapping SÁMI Languages". Cartography M.Sc. Retrieved 2022-04-25.
19. Korhonen, Mikko 1981: Johdatus lapin kielen historiaan. Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden seuran toimituksia ; 370. Helsinki, 1981
20. : Problems in the taxonomy of the Uralic languages in the light of modern comparative studies. — Лингвистический беспредел: сборник статей к 70-летию А. И. Кузнецовой. Москва: Издательство Московского университета, 2002. 44–55.
21. ^ Aikio, Ante (2004). "An essay on substrate studies and the origin of Saami". In Hyvärinen, Irma; Kallio, Petri; Korhonen, Jarmo (eds.). Etymologie, Entlehnungen und Entwicklungen: Festschrift für Jorma Koivulehto zum 70. Geburtstag. Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique de Helsinki. Vol. 63. Helsinki: Société Néophilologique. pp. 5–34.
22. Knut Bergsland: Bidrag til sydsamenes historie, Senter for Samiske Studier Universitet i Tromsø 1996
23. Aikio, A. (2006). On Germanic-Saami contacts and Saami prehistory. Journal de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 91: 9–55.
24. According to researcher Joshua Wilbur and Pite Sami dictionary committee leader Nils Henrik Bengtsson, March 2010.
25. Russian Census (2002). Data from http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_nac_02.php?reg=0
26. Tiuraniemi Olli: "Anatoli Zaharov on maapallon ainoa turjansaamea puhuva mies", Kide 6 / 2004.
27. "Nordisk samekonvensjon: Utkast fra finsk-norsk-svensk-samisk ekspertgruppe, Oppnevnt 13. november 2002, Avgitt 26. oktober 2005" (PDF). 20 July 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 July 2011.
28. "Character design standards - Uppercase for Latin 1: Uppercae Eng". Microsoft Typography documentation. 2022-06-09. Retrieved 2022-12-16.
29. Cunningham, Andrew (2004-02-04). Global & local dimensions of emerging community languages support (PDF). VALA2004 12th Biennial Conference and Exhibition. Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. p. 15. Retrieved 2022-12-16.
30. "Documentation for Skolt Sami keyboards". UiT Norgga árktalaš universitehta: Sámi Text-to-Speech project. Archived from the original on 2018-08-16.
31. "About iOS 17 Updates". Apple Inc. Retrieved 2023-12-16.
32. "New Finnish Keyboard Layout" (PDF). 2005-11-30. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04.
33. "Suomalainen monikielinen näppäimistökaavio, viimeiseksi tarkoitettu luonnos" (PDF) (in Finnish). 2006-06-20. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-20.
34. Tromsø positiv til samisk språk, NRK
35. Minoritetsspråk, Language Council of Norway
36. Hult, F.M. (2004). Planning for multilingualism and minority language rights in Sweden. Language Policy, 3(2), 181–201.
37. Hult, F.M. (2010). Swedish Television as a mechanism for language planning and policy. Language Problems and Language Planning, 34(2), 158–181.

Sources

• Fernandez, J. 1997. Parlons lapon. – Paris.
• Itkonen, T. I. 1947. Lapparnas förekomst i Finland. – Ymer: 43–57. Stockholm.
• Koponen, Eino 1996. Lappische Lehnwörter im Finnischen und Karelischen. – Lars Gunnar Larsson (ed.), Lapponica et Uralica. 100 Jahre finnisch-ugrischer Unterricht an der Universität Uppsala. Studia Uralica Uppsaliensia 26: 83–98.
• Saarikivi, Janne 2004. Über das saamische Substratnamengut in Nordrußland und Finnland. – Finnisch-ugrische Forschungen 58: 162–234. Helsinki: Société Finno-Ougrienne.
• Sammallahti, Pekka (1998). The Saami Languages: an introduction. Kárášjohka: Davvi Girji OS. ISBN 82-7374-398-5.
• Wilbur, Joshua. 2014. A grammar of Pite Saami. Berlin: Language Science Press. (Open access)

External links

• Ođđasat TV Channel in Sami languages
• On line radio stream in various sami languages
• Introduction to the history and current state of Sami
• Kimberli Mäkäräinen "Sámi-related odds and ends," including 5000+ word vocabulary list
• Risten Sámi dictionary and terminology database.
• Giellatekno Morphological and syntactic analysers and lexical resources for several Sami languages
• Divvun Proofing tools for some of the Sami languages
• Sámedikki giellastivra – Sami language department of the Norwegian Sami parliament (in Norwegian and Northern Sami)
• Finland – Sámi Language Act
• Sami Language Resources All about Sami Languages with glossaries, scholarly articles, resources
• Álgu database, an etymological database of the Sami languages (in Finnish and North Sámi)
• Sami anthems, Sami anthems in various Sami languages
• , The Internationale in Northern Sami
• An extensive intro to Saami languages and grammar from How To Learn Any Language
• Sámi Dieđalaš Áigečála, the only peer-reviewed journal in Saami languages

v t e Uralic languages
List of Uralic languages
Finnic	Bjarmian languages Estonian Laiuse Romani Northeastern coastal South Estonian Seto Võro Mulgi Tartu Ludza Kraasna Leivu Finnish Fingelska Kven Meänkieli Siberian Finnish Ingrian Siberian Ingrian Finnish Karelian Karelian proper Livvi Ludic Livonian Veps Votic Krevinian Kukkuzi
Sámi	Eastern Sámi Akkala Inari Kainuu Kemi Kildin Skolt Ter Western Sámi Lule Northern Pite Southern Ume
Mordvinic	Erzya Shoksha dialect [de; ru] Moksha
Mari	Hill Mari Meadow Mari Northwestern Mari
Permic	Komi Komi-Yazva Komi-Permyak Udmurt
Ugric	Hungarian Ob-Ugric Khanty Northern Khanty Southern Khanty Eastern Khanty Mansi Northern Mansi Western Mansi Eastern Mansi Southern Mansi
Samoyedic	Enets Kamas Koibal Mator Taygi [ru] Karagas [ru] Nenets Forest Nenets Tundra Nenets Nganasan Selkup Yurats
Others	Merya Meshcherian Muromian
Reconstructed	Proto-Uralic homeland Proto-Finnic Proto-Sámi Proto-Samoyedic
Italics indicate extinct languages Languages between parentheses are varieties of the language on their left.

• Sámi languages
• Languages of Finland
• Languages of Norway
• Languages of Russia
• Languages of Sweden
• Sámi peoples