Lajla Mattsson Magga (born 4 November 1942) is a Southern Sami teacher, children's writer and

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines: * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionary, dictionaries. * The ...

. Married to fellow Sami linguist

Ole Henrik Magga Ole Henrik Magga (born 12 August 1947) is a Sámi linguist, professor and politician from Kautokeino Municipality, Norway. As a linguist As a linguist, Magga is best known for his work on syntax. His master's thesis at the University of Osl ...

(born 1947), she lives in

Kautokeino Municipality Kautokeino (; ; ; ) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Finnmark Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Kautokeino (village), village of Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino. Other villag ...

in the far northern Norwegian county of

Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

Biography

Born in

Kall KALL (700 AM) is a sports radio station in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area licensed to North Salt Lake, Utah, though in station identifications and the FCC database, the station is listed as being licensed to "North Salt Lake City". The ...

in central Sweden's

Åre Municipality Åre Municipality (, ) is a municipalities of Sweden, municipality in Jämtland County in northern Sweden. Its administrative centre, seat is located in Järpen. The present municipality was formed in 1974 through the amalgamation of "old" Åre M ...

, Magga is the daughter of the reindeer herder Gustaf Edvard Mattson (1897–1973) and Elin Margareta Larsson (1887–1973), also a reindeer herder. A qualified teacher, she attended the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo (; ) is a public university, public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation#Europe, oldest university in Norway. Originally named the Royal Frederick Univ ...

where she studied the South Sami language. She has a wide field of interest, comprising fiction and non-fiction, translation, teaching, acquisition of language material, and lexicography. In addition to teaching South Sami in both Norway and Sweden, she has acted as an examiner for the

Nord-Trøndelag University College Nord-Trøndelag University College () was a Norwegian university college located throughout the county of Nord-Trøndelag. HiNT had about 5,500 students and 440 employees in 2013. In January 2016, the university was merged with Nesna University ...

. In 1984, she published her first book ''Maahke ryöknie'', followed by other children's books and textbooks. Magga has carried out research on the South Sami language and its terminology, leading for example to the standardization of place names. In 1993, together with

Knut Bergsland Knut Bergsland (7 March 1914 – 9 July 1998) was a Norwegian linguist. Working as a professor at the University of Oslo from 1947 to 1981, he did groundbreaking research in Uralic (especially Sami) and Eskaleut languages. Career He was born in K ...

, she published the

Southern Sami Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express ...

-Norwegian dictionary ''Åarjelsaemiendaaroen baakoegaerja/Sydsamisk-norsk ordbok''. She had also published children's books in the South Sami language as well as a Norwegian-South Sami dictionary. In 2010, Magga was awarded the Nordic Sami language prize, Gollegiella. Not only had Magga taught Southern Sami for many years, she had also published dictionaries. She was currently working on a translation of the Bible into South Sami and was writing a grammar of South Sami together with her husband.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mattsson Magga, Lajla 1942 births Living people People from Kautokeino People from Åre Municipality University of Oslo alumni Sámi linguists Southern Sámi people Sámi non-fiction writers Textbook writers Sámi lexicographers Norwegian Sámi writers Norwegian children's writers Norwegian women children's writers Norwegian lexicographers Norwegian women non-fiction writers Norwegian Sámi-language writers Linguists of Sámi Swedish emigrants to Norway