The Sámi languages ( ), also rendered in English as Sami and Saami, are a group of

Uralic languages The Uralic languages ( ), sometimes called the Uralian languages ( ), are spoken predominantly in Europe and North Asia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian. Other languages with speakers ab ...

spoken by the Indigenous

Sámi peoples Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

Northern Europe The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other ge ...

(in parts of northern

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, and extreme northwestern

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

). 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 An endonym (also known as autonym ) is a common, name for a group of people, individual person, geographical place, language, or dialect, meaning that it is used inside a particular group or linguistic community to identify or designate them ...

Lappish and ''Lappic''. The last two, along with the term ''Lapp'', are now often considered

pejorative A pejorative word, phrase, slur, or derogatory term is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hosti ...

Classification

The Sámi languages form a branch of the

Uralic language family The Uralic languages ( ), sometimes called the Uralian languages ( ), are spoken predominantly in Europe and North Asia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian. Other languages with speakers ab ...

. According to the traditional view, Sámi is within the Uralic family most closely related to the

Finnic languages The Finnic or Baltic Finnic languages constitute a branch of the Uralic language family spoken around the Baltic Sea by the Baltic Finnic peoples. There are around 7 million speakers, who live mainly in Finland and Estonia. Traditionally, ...

(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 A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...

in which the neighbouring languages may be

mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intellig ...

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 Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ...

, 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 (400 speakers) ****

Kemi Sámi Kemi Sámi was a Sámi language that was originally spoken in the southernmost district of Finnish Lapland as far south as the Sámi siidas around Kuusamo. A complex of local variants which had a distinct identity from other Sámi dialects, b ...

**** Kainuu Sámi ****

Skolt Sámi Skolt Sámi (, , ; or , , ) is a Sámi languages, Sámi language that is spoken by the Skolts, with approximately 300 speakers in Finland, mainly in Sevettijärvi and approximately 20–30 speakers of the (Notozero) dialect in an area surround ...

(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 Northern Sámi or North Sámi ( ; ; ; ; ; disapproved exonym Lappish or Lapp) is the most widely spoken of all Sámi languages. The area where Northern Sámi is spoken covers the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland. Geographic distr ...

( speakers) *** Southwestern Sámi ****

Southern Sámi Southern or South Sámi (; ; ) is the southwesternmost of the Sámi languages, and is spoken in Norway and Sweden. It is an endangered language. The designated main village of the language in Norway is Snåasen Municipality (Snåsa) where the c ...

(600 speakers) **** Ume Sámi (20 speakers) ''The above figures are approximate.''

Geographic distribution

The Sami languages are spoken in

Sápmi is the cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Sámi people. Sápmi includes the northern parts of Fennoscandia, stretching over four countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Most of Sápmi lies north of the Arctic Circle, boun ...

, in a region stretching over the four countries

and

, reaching from the southern part of central

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

in the southwest to the tip of the

Kola Peninsula The Kola Peninsula (; ) is a peninsula in the extreme northwest of Russia, and one of the largest peninsulas of Europe. Constituting the bulk of the territory of Murmansk Oblast, it lies almost completely inside the Arctic Circle and is border ...

in the east. The borders between the languages do not align with the ones separating the region's modern states. During the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

and

early modern period The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...

, now-extinct Sami languages were also spoken in the central and southern parts of

and

Karelia Karelia (; Karelian language, Karelian and ; , historically Коре́ла, ''Korela'' []; ) is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Russia (including the Soviet Union, Soviet era), Finland, and Sweden. It is currentl ...

and in a wider area on the

Scandinavian Peninsula The Scandinavian Peninsula is located in Northern Europe, and roughly comprises the mainlands of Sweden, Norway and the northwestern area of Finland. The name of the peninsula is derived from the term Scandinavia, the cultural region of Denm ...

. Historical documents as well as Finnish and Karelian

oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (19 ...

contain many mentions of the earlier Sami inhabitation in these areas (Itkonen, 1947). Also,

loanword A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...

s 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 The Gulf of Finland (; ; ; ) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and Estonia to the south, to Saint Petersburg—the second largest city of Russia—to the east, where the river Neva drains into it. ...

between 1000 BC to 700 AD, deriving from a common Proto-Sami-Finnic language (M. Korhonen 1981).Korhonen, Mikko 1981: Johdatus lapin kielen historiaan. Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden seuran toimituksia ; 370. Helsinki, 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).: 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. 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 __NOTOC__ Fennoscandia (Finnish language, Finnish, Swedish language, Swedish and ; ), or the Fennoscandian Peninsula, is a peninsula in Europe which includes the Scandinavian Peninsula, Scandinavian and Kola Peninsula, Kola peninsulas, mainland ...

during the

Nordic Iron Age Iron Age Scandinavia (or Nordic Iron Age) was the Iron Age, as it unfolded in Scandinavia. It was preceded by the Nordic Bronze Age. Beginnings The 6th and 5th centuries BC were a tipping point for exports and imports on the European contine ...

, reaching central

during the Proto-Scandinavian period ca. 500 AD (Bergsland 1996). Knut Bergsland: Bidrag til sydsamenes historie, Senter for Samiske Studier Universitet i Tromsø 1996 The language assimilated several strata of unknown

Paleo-European languages The Paleo-European languages (sometimes also called Old European languages) are the mostly unknown languages that were spoken in Neolithic () and Bronze Age Europe () prior to the spread of the Indo-European and Uralic families of languages. Th ...

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

today. (Aikio 2004, Aikio 2006).Aikio, A. (2006). ''On Germanic-Saami contacts and Saami prehistory.'' Journal de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 91: 9–55.

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 ISO 639-2:1998, ''Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code'', is the second part of the ISO 639 International standard, standard, which lists Language code, codes for the representation of the names of languages ...

code for all Sami languages without their own code is "smi". The eight written languages are: *

(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 639-1:2002, ''Codes for the representation of names of languages—Part 1: Alpha-2 code'', is the first part of the ISO 639 series of international standards for language codes. Part 1 covers the registration of "set 1" two-letter codes. The ...

: se/sme *

Lule Sami Lule Sámi (, , ) is a Uralic- Sámi language spoken around the Lule River in Sweden and in the northern parts of Nordland county in Norway. In Norway it is especially seen in Hamarøy Municipality (formerly Tysfjord Municipality), where Lule ...

(Norway, Sweden): The second largest group with an estimated 1,500 speakers.

: smj * Ume Sami (Norway, Sweden): likely has under 20 speakers left.

: sju * Pite Sami has about 30–50 speakers,

: sje * Southern Sami (Norway, Sweden): 500 speakers (estimated).

: sma * Inari Sami (''Enare Sami'') ( Inari, Finland): 500 speakers (estimated). SIL code: LPI,

: smn * Skolt Sami (Näätämö and the Nellim-Keväjärvi districts, Inari municipality, Finland, also spoken in

, previously in Norway): 400 speakers (estimated). SIL code: LPK,

: sms *

Kildin Sami Kildin may refer to: * Kildin Island Kildin (also Kilduin; , North Sami: Gieldasuolu) is a small Russian island in the Barents Sea, off the Russian shore and about 120 km from Norway. Administratively, Kildin belongs to the Murmansk Obla ...

(

, Russia): 608 speakers in

Murmansk Oblast Murmansk Oblast is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an oblast) of Russia, located in the northwestern part of the country, with a total land area of . Its only internal border is the Republic of Karelia to the south, and it is bor ...

, 179 in other Russian regions, although 1991 persons stated their Saami ethnicity (1769 of them live in

) SIL code: LPD,

ISO 639-3 ISO 639-3:2007, ''Codes for the representation of names of languages – Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive coverage of languages'', is an international standard for language codes in the ISO 639 series. It defines three-letter codes for ...

: sjd The other Sami languages are critically endangered (

moribund Moribund refers to a literal or figurative state near death. Moribund may refer to: * ''Moribund'' (album), a 2006 album by the Norwegian black metal band Koldbrann * " Le Moribond", a song by Jacques Brel known in English as "Seasons in the Sun ...

, 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 The lists and tables below summarize and compare the letter inventories of some of the Latin-script alphabets. In this article, the scope of the word "alphabet" is broadened to include letters with tone marks, and other diacritics used to represe ...

, with these respective additional letters. : 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 alphabet The Swedish alphabet () is a basic element of the Latin writing system used for the Swedish language. The 29 letters of this alphabet are the modern 26-letter basic Latin alphabet ( to ) plus , , and , in that order. It contains 20 consonants a ...

s, respectively, not differences in pronunciations. The letter Đ in Sámi languages is a capital D with a bar across it (

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...

code point A code point, codepoint or code position is a particular position in a Table (database), table, where the position has been assigned a meaning. The table may be one dimensional (a column), two dimensional (like cells in a spreadsheet), three dime ...

: U+0110), which is also used in

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian ( / ), also known as Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS), is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually i ...

, Vietnamese, etc., not the near-identical capital

eth Eth ( , uppercase: ⟨Ð⟩, lowercase: ⟨ð⟩; also spelled edh or eð), known as in Old English, is a letter used in Old English, Middle English, Icelandic, Faroese (in which it is called ), and Elfdalian. It was also used in Sca ...

(Ð; U+00D0) used in Icelandic, Faroese or

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

. 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 The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, Mongolic, Uralic languages, Uralic, C ...

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 An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

has provided on-screen keyboards for all eight Sámi languages still spoken (with

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

and

iPadOS iPadOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple for its iPad line of tablet computers. It was given a name distinct from iOS, the operating system used by Apple's iPhones to reflect the diverging features of the two product lines, suc ...

releases 17.2), thus enabling Sámi speakers to use their language on

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

s and

iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...

s without restrictions or difficulties. Inari Sámi IOS 17.2 screenshot showing the Kildin Sami virtual keyboard.png, Kildin Sámi IOS 17.2 screenshot showing the Lule Sami virtual keyboard.png, Lule Sámi IOS 17.2 screenshot showing the Northern Sámi virtual keyboard.png,

IOS 17.2 screenshot showing the Pite Sami virtual keyboard.png, Pite Sámi (apparently faulty in iOS/iPadOS 17.2, missing đ/ŧ) IOS 17.2 screenshot showing the Skolt Sámi virtual keyboard.png,

IOS 17.2 screenshot showing the Southern Sami virtual keyboard.png,

IOS 17.2 screenshot showing the Ume Sami virtual keyboard.png, Ume Sámi The Finnish keyboard standard of 2008 is designed for easily typing Sámi languages through use of AltGr and dead diacritic keys. KB Finnish Multilingual.svg, Original SFS-5966 layout; dead diacritic keys in red

Official status

Norway

Norwegian Labour Party shirt in three Saami languages

Adopted in April 1988, Article 108 of the

Norwegian Constitution The 'Constitution of Norway'' (complete name: The Constitution of the Kingdom of Norway; Danish: ; Norwegian Bokmål: ; Norwegian Nynorsk: ) was adopted on 16 May and signed on 17 May 1814 by the Norwegian Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll. ...

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 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 ...

Karasjok Municipality or (Northern Sami language, Northern Sami; ) (also: ) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Finnmark Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Karasjok (village), village of Kara ...

Kåfjord Municipality , , or is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Troms Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Olderdalen. Other notable villages include Løkvollen, Manndalen, Birtavarre, ...

Nesseby Municipality or (also unofficially ''Uuniemi'' in Kven language, Kven and Finnish language, Finnish) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Finnmark Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the vi ...

Porsanger Municipality Porsanger (; ) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Finnmark Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Lakselv. Other villages in the municipality include Børselv, Brenn ...

, Tana Municipality,

Tysfjord Municipality or is a former municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1869 until its dissolution in 2020. The area is now part of Narvik Municipality and Hamarøy Municipality in the traditional district of Ofoten. Its adminis ...

, Lavangen Municipality, and

Snåsa Municipality (Norwegian language, Norwegian; ) or ; /ˈsnɔ̯ɑse/ is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Trøndelag Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Innherred Districts of Norway, region. The administrative centre of the ...

. In 2005 Sámi,

Kven KVEN (1520 AM, "") is a commercial radio station that is licensed to Port Hueneme, California and serves the Ventura County area. The station is owned by Gold Coast Broadcasting and broadcasts a Spanish-language talk/sports format. By day ...

, Romanes and Romani were recognised as "regional or minority languages" in Norway within the framework of the

European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) is a European treaty (CETS 148) adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe to protect and promote historical regional and minority languages in Europe. However, t ...

Sweden

On 1 April 2000, Sami became one of five recognized

minority languages A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally (as of 2019) and ...

.Hult, F.M. (2010). Swedish Television as a mechanism for language planning and policy. Language Problems and Language Planning, 34(2), 158–181. It can be used in dealing with public authorities in Arjeplog Municipality,

Gällivare Municipality Gällivare Municipality (; or ; ; ) is a municipality in Norrbotten County in northern Sweden. Its seat is Gällivare. It is the third largest municipality in Sweden. Gällivare Lapland Airport is the only airport in the region able to accommod ...

, Jokkmokk Municipality, and

Kiruna Municipality Kiruna Municipality (; ; ; ) is a municipalities of Sweden, municipality in Norrbotten County in northernmost Sweden. Its administrative centre, seat is located in Kiruna. It is the northernmost municipality in Sweden, and at is Sweden's geograph ...

. 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

, 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'' (; ; ; ; ) made Sami an official language in Enontekiö, Inari,

Sodankylä Sodankylä (; ; ; ) is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the region of Lapland, and lies at the northern end of Highway 5 ( E63) and along Highway 4 ( E75). The Kitinen River flows near the center of Sodankylä. Its neighbouring mun ...

and Utsjoki

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

. 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). Samisktalande i Finland

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 Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Lexicon

Nordic countries and language names in Sámi languages

The words below illustrate similarities and differences between the different Sámi languages. The cultural influence of the majority language spoken around the Sámi is also reflected in the words used for the different country names. The word for language is almost identical across languages despite differences in spelling, /kielːa/, although in Skolt Sámi more changes have taken place /ˈciɤlː/. The words for "Finland" bear a resemblance not only to the word for Sápmi, but also to the Finnish word for their country, ''Suomi''. On the other hand, the word for "Norwegian" /daru/ is etymologically related to the word meaning "foreigner"’. Interestingly, in both Ume and Lule Sámi, the same word is used for both Norwegian and Swedish, ''dáruongiälla'' and ''dárogiella'', respectively.

References

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. * * 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

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) *

�
Sámi Language Act

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 ''Sámi Dieđalaš Áigečála'' is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary open access journal founded by the University of Tromsø, University of Tromsø Arctic University Center for Sámi Studies in Tromsø (city), Tromsø and the Sámi University o ...

'', the only peer-reviewed journal in Saami languages {{DEFAULTSORT:Sami Languages Languages of Finland Languages of Norway Languages of Russia Languages of Sweden L01 Indigenous languages of Europe