Skolt Sámi ( , "the Sámi language", or , "the Eastern Sámi language", if a distinction needs to be made between it and the other Sámi languages) is a
Uralic
The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian ...
,
Sámi language that is spoken by the
Skolts, with approximately 300 speakers in
Finland, mainly in
Sevettijärvi and approximately 20–30 speakers of the Njuõʹttjäuʹrr (Notozero) dialect in an area surrounding
Lake Lovozero
Lake Lovozero ( sjd, Луяввьр, sms, Luujäuˊrr, russian: Ловозеро, se, Lujávri, fi, Luujärvi) is located on the Kola Peninsula, in Murmansk Oblast within the Barents Sea basin and ensures runoff from the river Voronya. Area: ...
in
Russia. Skolt Sámi also used to be spoken in the
Neiden area of
Norway. It is written using a modified Roman
orthography which was made official in 1973.
The term ''Skolt'' was coined by representatives of the majority culture and has negative connotation which can be compared to the term ''Lapp''. Nevertheless, it is used in cultural and linguistic studies.
History

On Finnish territory Skolt Sámi was spoken in four villages before the Second World War. In
Petsamo, Skolt Sámi was spoken in Suonikylä and the village of Petsamo. This area was ceded to Russia in the
Second World War, and the Skolts were evacuated to the villages of
Inari
Inari may refer to:
Shinto
* Inari Ōkami, a Shinto spirit
** Mount Inari in Japan, site of Fushimi Inari-taisha, the main Shinto shrine to Inari
** Inari Shrine, shrines to the Shinto god Inari
* Inari-zushi, a type of sushi
Places
* Inari, ...
,
Sevettijärvi and
Nellim in the
Inari
Inari may refer to:
Shinto
* Inari Ōkami, a Shinto spirit
** Mount Inari in Japan, site of Fushimi Inari-taisha, the main Shinto shrine to Inari
** Inari Shrine, shrines to the Shinto god Inari
* Inari-zushi, a type of sushi
Places
* Inari, ...
municipality.
On the Russian (then Soviet) side the dialect was spoken in the now defunct Sámi settlements of Motovsky, Songelsky,
Notozero (hence its Russian name – the ''Notozersky'' dialect). Some speakers still may live in the villages of
Tuloma and
Lovozero.
On Norwegian territory Skolt Sámi was spoken in the
Sør-Varanger area with a cultural centre in
Neiden. The language is not spoken as mother tongue any more in Norway.
Status
Finland
In Finland, Skolt Sámi is spoken by approximately 400 people. According to Finland's Sámi Language Act (1086/2003), Skolt Sámi is one of the three Sámi languages that the Sámi can use when conducting official business in
Lapland
Lapland may refer to:
Places
*Lapland or Sápmi, an ethno-cultural region stretching over northern Fennoscandia (parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia)
**Lapland (Finland) (''Lappi''/''Lappland''), a Finnish region
*** Lapland (former pr ...
. It is an official language in the municipality of
Inari
Inari may refer to:
Shinto
* Inari Ōkami, a Shinto spirit
** Mount Inari in Japan, site of Fushimi Inari-taisha, the main Shinto shrine to Inari
** Inari Shrine, shrines to the Shinto god Inari
* Inari-zushi, a type of sushi
Places
* Inari, ...
, and elementary schools there offer courses in the language, both for native speakers and for students learning it as a foreign language. Only a small number of youths learn the language and continue to use it actively. Skolt Sámi is thus a seriously
endangered language, even more seriously than
Inari Sámi
Inari Sámi (, "the Inarian language", or , "the Inari (Aanaar) Sámi language") is a Sámi language spoken by the Inari Sámi of Finland. It has approximately 300 speakers, the majority of whom are middle-aged or older and live in the munici ...
, which has a nearly equal number of speakers and is even spoken in the same
municipality. In addition, there are a lot of Skolts living outside of this area, particularly in the capital region.
Use
Media
From 1978 to 1986, the Skolts had a quarterly called
Sääʹmođđâz published in their own language. Since 2013, a new magazine called
Tuõddri peeʹrel has been published once a year.
The Finnish news program
Yle Ođđasat featured a Skolt Sámi speaking newsreader for the first time on August 26, 2016. Otherwise Yle Ođđasat presents individual news stories in Skolt Sámi every now and then. In addition, there have been various TV programs in Skolt Sámi on YLE such as the children's TV series ''Binnabánnaš''.
Religion
The first book published in Skolt Sámi was an
Eastern Orthodox prayer book (, ''Prayerbook for the Orthodox'') in 1983. Translation of the
Gospel of John was published () in 1988 and
Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom (, ''Liturgy of our Holy Father John Chrysostom'') was published in 2002 Skolt Sámi is used together with
Finnish in worship of the
Lappi Orthodox Parish () at churches of
Ivalo,
Sevettijärvi and
Nellim.
Music
Like
Inari Sámi
Inari Sámi (, "the Inarian language", or , "the Inari (Aanaar) Sámi language") is a Sámi language spoken by the Inari Sámi of Finland. It has approximately 300 speakers, the majority of whom are middle-aged or older and live in the munici ...
, Skolt Sámi has recently borne witness to a new phenomenon, namely it is being used in rock songs
sung by
Tiina Sanila-Aikio
Tiina Juulia Sanila-Aikio or sms, Paavvâl Taannâl Tiina(born 25 March 1983 in Sevettijärvi, Inari, Finland) is a Skolt reindeer herder, musician, teacher, and a former vice-president and president of the Finnish Sámi Parliament.
Early l ...
, who has published two full-length CDs in Skolt Sámi to date.
Education
In 1993,
language nest programs for children younger than 7 were created. For quite some time these programs received intermittent funding, resulting in some children being taught Skolt Sámi, while others were not. In spite of all the issues these programs faced, they were crucial in creating the youngest generations of Skolt Sámi speakers. In recent years, these programs have been reinstated.
In addition, 2005 was the first time that it was possible to use Skolt Sámi in a
Finnish matriculation exam, albeit as a foreign language. In 2012, Ville-Riiko Fofonoff ( sms, Läärvan-Oʹlssi-Peâtt-Rijggu-Vääʹsǩ-Rijggu-Ville-Reeiǥaž) was the first person to use Skolt Sámi for the mother tongue portion of the exam; for this, he won the
Skolt of the Year Award the same year.
Writing system
Skolt Sámi uses the
ISO basic Latin alphabet with the addition of some special characters:
Notes:
* The letters
Q/q,
W/w,
X/x,
Y/y and
Ö/ö are also used, although only in foreign words or loans. Exactly like in
Finnish and
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
Ü/ü is alphabetized as ''y'', not ''u''.
* No difference is made in the standard orthography between and . In dictionaries, grammars and other reference works, the letter is used to indicate .
* The combinations and indicate the consonants and respectively.
Additional marks are used in writing Skolt Sámi words:
* A
prime symbol ʹ (U+02B9 MODIFIER LETTER PRIME) or standalone acute accent ´ or ˊ (U+00B4 ACUTE ACCENT or U+02CA MODIFIER LETTER ACUTE ACCENT) is added after the vowel of a syllable to indicate suprasegmental palatalization.
* An
apostrophe
The apostrophe ( or ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes:
* The marking of the omission of one o ...
ʼ (U+02BC MODIFIER LETTER APOSTROPHE) is used in the combinations and to indicate that these are two separate sounds, not a single sound. It is also placed between identical consonants to indicate that they belong to separate prosodic feet, and should not be combined into a geminate. It distinguishes e.g. ''lueʹštted'' "to set free" from its causative ''lueʹštʼted'' "to cause to set free".
* A hyphen – is used in compound words when there are two identical consonants at the juncture between the parts of the compound, e.g. ''ǩiõtt-tel'' "mobile phone".
* A vertical line ˈ (U+02C8 MODIFIER LETTER VERTICAL LINE),
typewriter apostrophe
The apostrophe ( or ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes:
* The marking of the omission of one o ...
or other similar mark indicates that a geminate consonant is long, and the preceding diphthong is short. It is placed between a pair of identical consonants which are always preceded by a diphthong. This mark is not used in normal Skolt Sámi writing, but it appears in dictionaries, grammars and other reference works.
Phonology
Special features of this Sámi language include a highly complex vowel system and a suprasegmental contrast of palatalized vs. non-palatalized stress groups; palatalized stress groups are indicated by a "softener mark", represented by the modifier letter prime (ʹ).
Vowels
The system of vowel phonemes is as follows:
Skolt Sámi has
vowel length, but it co-occurs with contrasts in length of the following consonant(s). Before a long consonant, vowels are short, while before a short consonant vowels are long (written with a doubled letter). For example, ''leʹtt'' ‘vessel’ vs. ''leeʹtt'' ‘vessels’.
The vowels can combine to form twelve opening
diphthong
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
s:
Like the monophthongs, all diphthongs can be short or long, but this is not indicated in spelling. Short diphthongs are distinguished from long ones by both length and stress placement: short diphthongs have a stressed second component, whereas long diphthongs have stress on the first component.
Diphthongs may also have two variants depending on whether they occur in a plain or palatalized environment. This has a clearer effect with diphthongs whose second element is back or central. Certain inflectional forms, including the addition of the palatalizing suprasegmental, also trigger a change in diphthong quality.
Consonants
The inventory of consonant phonemes is the following:
* Unvoiced stops and affricates are pronounced preaspirated after vowels and
sonorant
In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the manners of articulation that are most often voiced in the world's languages. Vowels are ...
consonants.
* Voiced stops and affricates are usually pronounced just weakly voiced.
* Older speakers realize the palatal affricates as plosives .
* In initial position, is realized as glottal .
Consonants may be phonemically short or long (
geminate) both word-medially or word-finally; both are exceedingly common. Long and short consonants also contrast in consonant clusters, cf. ''kuõskkâd'' 'to touch' : ''kuõskâm'' 'I touch'. A short period of voicelessness or ''h'', known as preaspiration, before geminate consonants is observed, much as in
Icelandic, but this is not marked orthographically, e.g. ''joʹǩǩe'' 'to the river' is pronounced .
Suprasegmentals
There is one phonemic
suprasegmental, the
palatalizing suprasegmental that affects the pronunciation of an entire syllable. In written language the palatalizing suprasegmental is indicated with a free-standing acute accent between a stressed vowel and the following consonant, as follows:
:: ''vääʹrr'' 'mountain, hill' (suprasegmental palatalization present)
:: cf. ''väärr'' 'trip' (no suprasegmental palatalization)
The suprasegmental palatalization has three distinct phonetic effects:
* The stressed vowel is pronounced as slightly more fronted in palatalized syllables than in non-palatalized ones.
* When the palatalizing suprasegmental is present, the following consonant or consonant cluster is pronounced as weakly palatalized. Suprasegmental palatalization is independent of segmental palatals: inherently palatal consonants (i.e. consonants with palatal place of articulation) such as the palatal glide , the palatal nasal (spelled ) and the palatal lateral approximant (spelled ) can occur both in non-palatalized and suprasegmentally palatalized syllables.
* If the word form is monosyllabic and ends in a consonant, a non-phonemic weakly voiced or unvoiced vowel is pronounced after the final consonant. This vowel is ''e''-colored if suprasegmental palatalization is present, but ''a''-colored if not.
Stress
Skolt Sámi has four different types of stress for words:
* Primary stress
* Secondary stress
* Tertiary stress
* Zero stress
The first syllable of any word is always the primary stressed syllable in Skolt Sámi as Skolt is a fixed-stress language. In words with two or more syllables, the final syllable is quite lightly stressed (tertiary stress) and the remaining syllable, if any, are stressed more heavily than the final syllable, but less than the first syllable (secondary stress).
Using the
abessive and the
comitative singular in a word appears to disrupt this system, however, in words of more than one syllable. The suffix, as can be expected, has tertiary stress, but the penultimate syllable also has tertiary stress, even though it would be expected to have secondary stress.
Zero stress can be said to be a feature of
conjunctions,
postpositions,
particles and monosyllabic pronouns.
Grammar
Skolt Sámi is a
synthetic Synthetic things are composed of multiple parts, often with the implication that they are artificial. In particular, 'synthetic' may refer to:
Science
* Synthetic chemical or compound, produced by the process of chemical synthesis
* Synthetic o ...
, highly
inflected language that shares many grammatical features with the other
Uralic languages. However, Skolt Sámi is not a typical
agglutinative language like many of the other Uralic languages are, as it has developed considerably into the direction of a
fusional language, much like
Estonian
Estonian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe
* Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent
* Estonian language
* Estonian cuisine
* Estonian culture
See also ...
. Therefore, cases and other grammatical features are also marked by modifications to the root and not just marked with suffixes. Many of the suffixes in Skolt Sámi are
portmanteau morphemes that express several grammatical features at a time.
Umlaut
Umlaut is a pervasive phenomenon in Skolt Sámi, whereby the vowel in the second syllable affects the quality of the vowel in the first. The presence or absence of palatalisation can also be considered an umlaut effect, since it is also conditioned by the second-syllable vowel, although it affects the entire syllable rather than the vowel alone. Umlaut is complicated by the fact that many of the second-syllable vowels have disappeared in Skolt Sámi, leaving the umlaut effects as their only trace.
The following table lists the Skolt Sámi outcomes of the Proto-Samic first-syllable vowel, for each second-syllable vowel.
Some notes:
* ''iẹʹ'' and ''uẹʹ'' appear before a quantity 2 consonant, ''eäʹ'' and ''uäʹ'' otherwise.
As can be seen, palatalisation is present before original second-syllable ''*ē'' and ''*i'', and absent otherwise. Where they survive in Skolt Sámi, both appear as ''e'', so only the umlaut effect can distinguish them. The original short vowels ''*ë'', ''*u'' and ''*i'' have a general raising and backing effect on the preceding vowel, while the effect of original ''*ā'' and ''*ō'' is lowering. Original ''*ē'' is fronting (palatalising) without having an effect on height.
Nouns
Cases
Skolt Sámi has 9 cases in the singular (7 of which also have a plural form), although the genitive and accusative are often the same.
The following table shows the inflection of ''čuäcc'' ('rotten snag') with the single
morphemes marking noun stem, number, and case separated by
hyphens for better readability. The last morpheme marks for case, ''i'' marks the plural, and ''a'' is due to
epenthesis
In phonology, epenthesis (; Greek ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the beginning syllable ('' prothesis'') or in the ending syllable (''paragoge'') or in-between two syllabic sounds in a word. The word ''epenth ...
and does not have a meaning of its own.
=Nominative
=
Like the other
Uralic languages, the
nominative
In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...
singular is unmarked and indicates the
subject
Subject ( la, subiectus "lying beneath") may refer to:
Philosophy
*''Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing
**Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective cons ...
or a
predicate. The nominative plural is also unmarked and always looks the same as the
genitive
In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
singular.
=Genitive
=
The ''genitive'' singular is unmarked and looks the same as the
nominative
In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...
plural. The genitive plural is marked by an ''-i''. The genitive is used:
* to indicate possession (''Tuʹst lij muu ǩeʹrjj.'' 'You have my book.' where muu is gen.)
* to indicate number, if said the number is between 2 and 6. (''Sieʹzzest lij kuõʹhtt põõrt.'' 'My father's sister (my aunt) has two houses.', where põõrt is gen.)
* with prepositions (''rääi +
EN': 'by something', 'beyond something')
* with most postpositions. (''Sij mõʹnne ääkkäd årra.'' 'They went to your grandmother's (house).', 'They went to visit your grandmother.', where ääkkäd is gen)
The genitive has been replacing the partitive for some time and is nowadays more commonly used in its place.
=Accusative
=
The
accusative is the direct
object case and it is unmarked in the singular. In the plural, its marker is ''-d'', which is preceded by the plural marker ''-i'', making it look the same as the plural
illative
In grammar, the illative case (; abbreviated ; from la, illatus "brought in") is a grammatical case used in the Finnish, Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian and Hungarian languages. It is one of the locative cases, and has the basic meaning of "i ...
. The accusative is also used to mark some adjuncts, e.g. ''obb tääʹlv'' ('the entire winter').
=Locative
=
The
locative
In grammar, the locative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by". The locative case belongs to the general local cases, together with the ...
marker in the singular is ''-st'' and ''-n'' in the plural. This case is used to indicate:
* where something is (''Kuäʹđest lij ǩeʹrjj'': 'There is a book in the ''kota''.')
* where it is coming from (''Niõđ puõʹtte domoi Čeʹvetjääuʹrest'': 'The girls came home from
Sevettijärvi.')
* who has possession of something (''Suʹst lij čâustõk'': 'He/she has a lasso.')
In addition, it is used with certain verbs:
* to ask someone s.t. : kõõččâd
loc
=Illative
=
The
illative
In grammar, the illative case (; abbreviated ; from la, illatus "brought in") is a grammatical case used in the Finnish, Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian and Hungarian languages. It is one of the locative cases, and has the basic meaning of "i ...
marker actually has three different markers in the singular to represent the same case: ''-a'', ''-e'' and ''-u''. The plural illative marker is ''-d'', which is preceded by the plural marker ''-i'', making it look the same as the plural
accusative. This case is used to indicate:
* where something is going
* who is receiving something
* the indirect
object
=Comitative
=
The
comitative marker in the singular is ''-in'' and ''-vuiʹm'' in the plural. The comitative is used to state ''with whom or what'' something was done:
* ''Njääʹlm sekstet leeiʹnin.'' The mouth is wiped with a piece of cloth.
* ''Vuõʹlǧǧem paaʹrnivuiʹm ceerkvest.'' I left church with the children.
* ''Vuõʹlǧǧem vueʹbbinan ceerkvest.'' I left church with my sister.
To form the comitative singular, use the genitive singular form of the word as the
root and ''-in''. To form the comitative plural, use the plural genitive root and ''-vuiʹm''.
=Abessive
=
The
abessive marker is ''-tää'' in both the singular and the plural. It always has a tertiary stress.
* ''Vuõʹlǧǧem paaʹrnitää ceerkvest.'' I left church without the children.
* ''Sij mõʹnne niõđtää põʹrtte.'' They went in the house without the girl.
* ''Sij mõʹnne niõđitää põʹrtte.'' They went in the house without the girls.
=Essive
=
The dual form of the
essive is still used with pronouns, but not with nouns and does not appear at all in the
plural.
=Partitive
=
The
partitive is only used in the
singular and can be replaced by the genitive in most cases. The partitive marker is ''-d''.
1. It appears after numbers larger than six:
* ''kääuʹc čâustõkkâd'': 'eight lassos'
This can be replaced with ''kääʹuc čâustõõǥǥ''.
2. It is also used with certain
postpositions:
* ''kuäʹtte'
d vuâstta'': 'against a kota'
This can be replaced with ''kuäʹđ vuâstta''
3. It can be used with the
comparative to express that which is being compared:
* ''kåʹlled pueʹrab'': 'better than gold'
This would nowadays more than likely be replaced by ''pueʹrab ko kåʹll''
Pronouns
= Personal pronouns
=
The
personal pronouns have three numbers: singular, plural and
dual
Dual or Duals may refer to:
Paired/two things
* Dual (mathematics), a notion of paired concepts that mirror one another
** Dual (category theory), a formalization of mathematical duality
*** see more cases in :Duality theories
* Dual (grammatical ...
. The following table contains personal pronouns in the nominative and genitive/accusative cases.
The next table demonstrates the declension of a personal pronoun ''he/she'' (no gender distinction) in various cases:
Possessive markers
Next to number and case, Skolt Sámi nouns also inflect for possession. However, usage of
possessive affixes seems to decrease among speakers. The following table shows possessive
inflection of the word ''muõrr'' ('tree').
Verbs
Skolt Sámi verbs
inflect (inflection of verbs is also referred to as
conjugation
Conjugation or conjugate may refer to:
Linguistics
*Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form
* Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language
Mathematics
*Complex conjugation, the change ...
) for
person,
mood,
number, and
tense. A full inflection table of all person-marked forms of the verb ''kuullâd'' ('to hear') is given below.
It can be seen that inflection involves changes to the verb stem as well as inflectional suffixes. Changes to the stem are based on verbs being categorized into several inflectional classes. The different inflectional suffixes are based on the categories listed below.
Person
Skolt Sámi
verbs conjugate for four
grammatical persons:
* first person
* second person
* third person
*
fourth person
Within linguistics, obviative (abbreviated ) third person is a grammatical-person clusivity marking that distinguishes a non- salient (obviative) third-person referent from a more salient (proximate) third-person referent in a given discourse cont ...
, also called the indefinite person
Mood
Skolt Sámi has 5
grammatical mood
In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used for signaling modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying (for example, a statement of ...
s:
*
indicative
*
imperative (''Pueʹtted sõrgg domoi!'' 'Come home soon!')
*
conditional
Conditional (if then) may refer to:
* Causal conditional, if X then Y, where X is a cause of Y
* Conditional probability, the probability of an event A given that another event B has occurred
*Conditional proof, in logic: a proof that asserts a ...
*
potential
*
optative
Number
Skolt Sámi
verbs conjugate for two
grammatical numbers:
*
singular
*
plural
Unlike other Sámi varieties, Skolt Sámi verbs do not inflect for
dual
Dual or Duals may refer to:
Paired/two things
* Dual (mathematics), a notion of paired concepts that mirror one another
** Dual (category theory), a formalization of mathematical duality
*** see more cases in :Duality theories
* Dual (grammatical ...
number. Instead, verbs occurring with the dual personal pronouns appear in the corresponding plural form.
Tense
Skolt Sámi has 2
simple tenses:
*
past (''Puõʹttem škoouʹle jåhtta.'' 'I came to school yesterday.')
*
non-past
A nonpast tense (abbreviated ) is a grammatical tense that distinguishes a verbal action as taking place in times present or future, as opposed to past tense
The past tense is a grammatical tense whose function is to place an action or situatio ...
(''Evvan puätt mu årra täʹbbe''. 'John is coming to my house today.')
and 2
compound tenses:
*
perfect
Perfect commonly refers to:
* Perfection, completeness, excellence
* Perfect (grammar), a grammatical category in some languages
Perfect may also refer to:
Film
* Perfect (1985 film), ''Perfect'' (1985 film), a romantic drama
* Perfect (2018 f ...
*
pluperfect
Non-finite verb forms
The verb forms given above are person-marked, also referred to as
finite. In addition to the finite forms, Skolt Sámi verbs have twelve
participial and
converb forms, as well as the
infinitive, which are
non-finite. These forms are given in the table below for the verb ''kuullâd'' ('to hear').
Auxiliary verbs
Skolt Sámi has two
auxiliary verbs, one of which is ''lee´d'' (
glossed as 'to be'), the other one is the
negative auxiliary verb (see the following paragraph).
Inflection of ''lee´d'' is given below.
''Lee'd'' is used, for example, to assign tense to
lexical verbs in the
conditional
Conditional (if then) may refer to:
* Causal conditional, if X then Y, where X is a cause of Y
* Conditional probability, the probability of an event A given that another event B has occurred
*Conditional proof, in logic: a proof that asserts a ...
or
potential mood
In linguistics, irrealis moods (abbreviated ) are the main set of grammatical moods that indicate that a certain situation or action is not known to have happened at the moment the speaker is talking. This contrasts with the realis moods.
Every ...
which are not marked for tense themselves:
* ''Jiõm âʹte mon ni kõõjjče, jos mon teâđčem, leʹččem veär raajjâm ouddâl.''
(negation (1st P. Sg.) – then – 1st P. Sg. – even – ask (negated conditional) – if – 1st P. Sg. – know (1st P. Sg. conditional) – be (1st P. Sg. conditional) – soup – make (past participle, no tense marking) – before)
'I wouldn't even ask if I knew, if I had made soup before!'
=Negative verb
=
Skolt Sámi, like Finnish, the other Sámi languages and Estonian, has a
negative verb. In Skolt Sámi, the negative verb conjugates according to
mood (indicative, imperative and optative),
person (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th) and
number (singular and plural).
Note that ''ij'' + ''leat'' is usually written as ''iʹlla'', ''iʹlleäkku'', ''iʹllää'' or ''iʹllä'' and ''ij'' + ''leat'' is usually written as ''jeäʹla'' or ''jeäʹlä''.
Unlike the other Sámi languages, Skolt Sámi no longer has separate forms for the dual and plural of the negative verb and uses the plural forms for both instead.
Word order
Declarative clauses
The most frequent word order in simple,
declarative sentences in Skolt Sámi is
subject–verb–object (SVO). However, as cases are used to mark relations between different
noun phrases, and verb forms mark person and number of the subject, Skolt Sámi word order allows for some variation.
An example of an SOV sentence would be:
* ''Neezzan suâjjkååutid kuårru.'' (woman (Pl., Nominative) – protection (Sg., Nominative) + skirt (Pl., Accusative) – sew (3rd P. Pl., Past)) 'The women sewed protective skirts.'
Intransitive sentences follow the order subject-verb (SV):
* ''Jääuʹr kâʹlmme.'' (lake (Pl., Nominative) – freeze (3rd P. Pl., Present)) 'The lakes freeze.'
An exception to the SOV word order can be found in sentences with an
auxiliary verb. While in other languages, an OV word order has been found to correlate with the auxiliary verb coming after the
lexical verb, the Skolt Sámi auxiliary verb ''lee'd'' ('to be') precedes the lexical verb. This has been related to the
verb-second (V2) phenomenon which binds the
finite verb to at most the second position of the respective clause. However, in Skolt Sámi, this effect seems to be restricted to clauses with an auxiliary verb.
An example of a sentence with the auxiliary in V2 position:
* ''Kuuskõõzz leʹjje ääld poorrâm.'' (northern light (Pl., Nominative) – be (3rd P. Pl., Past) – female reindeer (Sg., Accusative) – eat (Past Participle)) 'The northern lights had eaten the female reindeer.'
Interrogative clauses
= Polar questions
=
In Skolt Sámi,
polar questions, also referred to as yes-no questions, are marked in two different ways.
Morphologically, an
interrogative
An interrogative clause is a clause whose form is typically associated with question-like meanings. For instance, the English sentence "Is Hannah sick?" has interrogative syntax which distinguishes it from its declarative counterpart "Hannah is ...
particle, ''-a'', is added as an
affix
In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ar ...
to the first word of the clause.
Syntactically
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...
, the element which is in the scope of the question is moved to the beginning of the clause. If this element is the verb, subject and verb are inversed in comparison to the declarative SOV word order.
* ''Vueʹlǧǧveʹted–a tuäna muu ooudâst eččan ääuʹd ool?'' (leave (2nd P. Pl., Present, Interrogative) – 2nd P. Dual Nominative – 1st P. Sg. Genitive – behalf – father (Sg. Genitive 1st P. Pl.) – grave (Sg. Genitive) – onto) 'Will the two of you go, on my behalf, to our father's grave?'
If an auxiliary verb is used, this is the one which is moved to the initial sentence position and also takes the interrogative affix.
* ''Leäk–a ääʹvääm tõn uus?'' (be (2nd P. Sg., Present, Interrogative) – open (Past Participle) – that (Sg. Accusative) – door (Sg. Accusative)) 'Have you opened that door?'
* ''Leäk–a ton Jefremoff?'' (be (2nd P. Sg., Interrogative) – 2nd P. Sg. Nominative – Jefremoff) 'Are you Mr. Jefremoff?'
A negated polar question, using the negative auxiliary verb, shows the same structure:
* ''Ij–a kõskklumâs villjad puättam?'' (Negation 3rd P. Sg., Interrogative – middle – brother (Sg. Nominative, 2nd P. Sg.) – come (Past Participle)) 'Didn't your middle brother come?'
An example of the interrogative particle being added to something other than the verb, would be the following:
* ''Võl–a lie mainnâz?'' (still (Interrogative) – be (3rd P. Sg., Present) – story (Pl., Nominative)) 'Are there still stories to tell?'
= Information questions
=
Information questions in Skolt Sámi are formed with a question word in clause-initial position. There also is a gap in the sentence indicating the missing piece of information. This kind of structure is similar to
Wh-movement in languages such as
English. There are mainly three question words corresponding to the English 'what', 'who', and 'which' (out of two). They inflect for number and case, except for the latter which only has singular forms. It is noteworthy that the illative form of ''mii'' ('what') corresponds to the English 'why'. The full inflectional paradigm of all three question words can be found below.
Some examples of information questions using one of the three question words:
* ''Mâiʹd reäǥǥak?'' (what (Sg., Accusative) – cry (2nd P. Sg., Present)) 'What are you crying about?'
* ''Mõõzz pueʹttiǩ?'' (what (Sg., Illative) – come (2nd P. Sg., Past)) 'Why did you come?'
* ''Ǩii tuʹst leäi risttjeäʹnn?'' (who (Sg., Nominative) – 2nd P. Sg., Locative – be (3rd P. Sg., Past) – godmother (Sg., Nominative) 'Who was your godmother?'
* ''Kuäbbaž alttad heibbad?'' (which (Sg., Nominative) – begin (3rd P. Sg., Present) – wrestle (Infinitive)) 'Which one of you will begin to wrestle?'
In addition to the above-mentioned, there are other question words which are not inflected, such as the following:
* ''koʹst'': 'where', 'from where'
* ''koozz'': 'to where'
* ''kuäʹss'': 'when'
* ''mäʹhtt'': 'how'
* ''måkam'': 'what kind'
An example sentence would be the following:
* ''Koozz vuõʹlǧǧiǩ?'' (to where – leave (2nd P. Sg., Past)) 'Where did you go?'
Imperative clauses
The Skolt Sámi imperative generally takes a clause-initial position. Out of the five imperative forms (see
above), those of the second person are most commonly used.
* ''Puäʹđ mij årra kuâssa!'' (come (2nd P. Sg., Imperative) – 1st P. Pl., Genitive – way – on a visit) 'Come and visit us at our place!'
Imperatives in the first person form, which only exist as plurals, are typically used for
hortative constructions, that is for encouraging the listener (not) to do something. These imperatives include both the speaker and the listener.
* ''Äʹlǧǧep heibbad!'' (start (1st P. Pl., Imperative) – wrestle (Infinitive)) 'Let's start to wrestle!'
Finally, imperatives in the third person are used in
jussive
The jussive (abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood of verbs for issuing orders, commanding, or exhorting (within a subjunctive framework). English verbs are not marked for this mood. The mood is similar to the ''cohortative'' mood, which typically ap ...
constructions, the
mood used for orders and commands.
* ''Kuärŋŋaz sij tieʹrm ool!'' (climb (3rd P. Pl., Imperative) – 3rd P. Pl., Nominative – hill (Sg., Genitive) – onto) 'Let them climb to the top of the hill!'
References
Bibliography
* Feist, Timothy.
A Grammar of Skolt Saami'' Manchester, 2010.
* Feist, Timothy. ''A Grammar of Skolt Saami'' Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura Helsinki 2015.
* Korhonen, Mikko. Mosnikoff, Jouni. Sammallahti, Pekka. ''Koltansaamen opas.'' Castreanumin toimitteita, Helsinki 1973.
* Mosnikoff, Jouni and Pekka Sammallahti. ''Uʹcc sääm-lääʹdd sääʹnnǩeârjaž = Pieni koltansaame-suomi sanakirja''. Jorgaleaddji 1988.
* Mosnikoff, Jouni and Pekka Sammallahti. ''Suomi-koltansaame sanakirja = Lääʹdd-sääʹm sääʹnnǩeʹrjj''. Ohcejohka : Girjegiisá 1991.
* Moshnikoff, Satu. ''Muu vuõssmõs sääʹmǩeʹrjj'' 1987.
Sámi Language Act*
External links
*
The Children's TV series Binnabánnaš in Skolt Sámi
Nuõrttsääʹmǩiõl alfabeeʹtt – koltankieliset aakkoset�Skolt Saami alphabet by the Finnish Saami Parliament
Say it in SaamiYle's colloquial Northern Saami-Inari Saami-Skolt Saami-English phrasebook online
Surrey Morphology Group – Skolt Saami*Skolt Saami verb paradigm visualisations. Feist,Timothy, Matthew Baerman, Greville G. Corbett & Erich Round. 2019. Surrey Lexical Splits Visualisations (Skolt Saami). University of Surrey. https://lexicalsplits.surrey.ac.uk/skoltsaami.html
A very small Skolt Sámi – English vocabulary (< 500 words)
Skolt Sámi - Finnish/English/Russian dictionary(robust finite-state, open-source)
Northern Sámi – Inari Sámi – Skolt Sámi – English dictionary(requires a password nowadays)
Names of birdsfound in
Sápmi in a number of languages, including Skolt Sámi and English. Search function only works with Finnish input though.
SääʹmjieʹllemSámi Museum site on the history of the Skolt Sámi in Finland
A number of linguistic articles on Skolt Sámi.
Erkki Lumisalmi talks in Skolt Sámiarchive (mp3)
The Palatalization Mark in Skolt Sámi.
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Languages of Finland
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Eastern Sámi languages
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