Ume Sámi
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Ume Sámi (, , ) is a
Sámi language 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 ...
spoken in
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 formerly in
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 ...
. According to UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010), there are fewer than 20 speakers of Ume Sami. It was spoken mainly along the
Ume River The Ume River (Swedish: ''Ume älv'' or ''Umeälven'') is one of the main rivers in northern Sweden. It is around long, and flows in a south-eastern direction from its source, the lake ''Överuman'' by the Norway, Norwegian border within the Scand ...
in the south of present-day
Arjeplog Arjeplog (; Pite Sami: ) is a locality and the seat of Arjeplog Municipality in Norrbotten County, province of Lapland, Sweden with 1,977 inhabitants in 2010. It is a popular winter test site for the Asian and European car industries and feat ...
, in
Sorsele Sorsele (; ; Ume Sami: ) is a locality and the seat of Sorsele Municipality in Västerbotten County, province of Lapland, Sweden with 1,277 inhabitants in 2010. Sorsele is also the nearest town to the ski resort Nalovardo. It is known for conta ...
and in
Arvidsjaur Arvidsjaur (; ; ) is a locality and the seat of Arvidsjaur Municipality in Norrbotten County, province of Lapland, Sweden with 4,635 inhabitants in 2010. Arvidsjaur is a center for the European car industry. During the winter months, major car-m ...
.


Dialects

The best documented variety of Ume Sami is that of one Lars Sjulsson (born 1871) from Setsele, close to
Malå Malå (, ) is a locality and the seat of Malå Municipality in Västerbotten County, province of Lapland, Sweden with 2,050 inhabitants in 2010. History The Swedish name Malå comes from the Sami ''Máláge''. The origin is unclear, but the ...
, whose
idiolect Idiolect is an individual's unique use of language, including speech. This unique usage encompasses vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. This differs from a dialect, a common set of linguistic characteristics shared among a group of people. Th ...
was documented by W. Schlachter in a 1958 dictionary and subsequent work. Dialect variation exists within the Ume Sami area, however. A main division is between more (north)western dialects such as those of Maskaure, Tärna and Ullisjaure (typically agreeing with
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 ...
), versus more (south)eastern dialects such as those of Malå, Malmesjaure and Mausjaure (typically agreeing with Pite Sami).


Phonology


Consonants

and are allophones of and , respectively. When a sound occurs before a plosive or an affricate sound, they are then realized as preaspirated sounds. If an sound occurs before a sound, it is realized as a palatal lateral sound. Some western dialects of the language lack the phoneme.


Vowels

Four diphthongs are included; , , , . A schwa sound may exist as an allophone of various vowel sounds.


Writing system

Until 2010, Ume Sámi did not have an official written standard, although it was the first Sámi language to be written extensively (because a private Christian school for Sámi children started in
Lycksele Lycksele (; ; Ume Sami language, Ume Sami: ) is a locality and the seat of Lycksele Municipality in Västerbotten County, province of Lapland (Sweden), Lapland, Sweden with 8,513 inhabitants in 2010. History Until the 1600s there were no settled ...
1632, where Ume Sámi was spoken). The
New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
was published in Ume Sámi in 1755 and the first Bible in Sámi was also published in Ume Sámi, in 1811. The current official orthography is maintained by the Working Group for Ume Sámi, whose most recent recommendation was published in 2016. Shortcomings: *Vowel length is ambiguous for the letters , and . In reference works, the length is indicated by a macron (, , ). In older orthographies, length could be indicated by writing a double vowel. *No distinction is made between long and overlong consonants, both being written with a double consonant letter. In reference works, the overlong stops are indicated with a vertical line (, etc.)


Grammar


Consonant gradation

Unlike its southern neighbor
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 ...
, Ume Sámi has
consonant gradation Consonant gradation is a type of consonant mutation (mostly lenition but also assimilation) found in some Uralic languages, more specifically in the Finnic, Samic and Samoyedic branches. It originally arose as an allophonic alternation ...
. However, gradation is more limited than it is in the more northern Sami languages, because it does not occur in the case of short vowels followed by a consonant that can gradate to quantity 1 (that is, Proto-Samic single consonants or geminates). In these cases, only quantity 3 appears. Consonant clusters can gradate regardless of the preceding vowel.


Cases

Ume Sámi has 8 cases:Korhonen Olavi & Barruk Henrik, 2010, Kurs i umesamiska (2010‑02‑07) # Nominative # Accusative # Genitive # Illative # Inessive # Elative # Comitative # Essive


Pronouns

Like other Sámi languages, Ume Sámi distinguishes pronouns in three numbers but not in gender. There are different words for “we”, “you”, and “they” depending on whether the referent is the ''two of us, the two of you, the two of them'' (dual) or if it includes more than two (three or more).


Verbs


Persons and numbers

Verbs in Ume Sámi encode three
persons A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such ...
, first, second and third. As with pronouns, verbs also enconde the three grammatical numbers: singular, dual and plural.


Tense, Mood, and aspect

Verbs in Ume Sámi encode two
tenses In grammar, tense is a category that expresses time reference. Tenses are usually manifested by the use of specific forms of verbs, particularly in their conjugation patterns. The main tenses found in many languages include the past, present, a ...
, present and past, and two
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 ...
s:
indicative A realis mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentence Dec ...
and imperative.


Negative verb

Ume Sámi, like all Finnic and other Sámi languages, has a
negative verb Dryer defined three different types of negative markers in language. Beside negative particles and negative affixes, negative verbs play a role in various languages. The negative verb is used to implement a clausal negation. The negative predic ...
. In Ume Sámi, the negative verb conjugates according to mood (indicative and imperative),
person A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations suc ...
(1st, 2nd and 3rd) and
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
(singular, dual and plural).


Lexicon


Kinship terms

Kinship terms Kinship terminology is the system used in languages to refer to the persons to whom an individual is related through kinship. Different societies classify kinship relations differently and therefore use different systems of kinship terminology; ...
in Ume Sámi mostly descend from proto-Uralic or proto-Samic (see below). As in many Uralic languages, the word for “son” is a borrowing, in Ume Sámi ''bárnnie,'' is also borrowed from Germanic ''barna''. For extended family members, Ume Sámi distinguishes not only the relationship to ego, but also their gender, sometimes their age and their own relationship to one's nuclear family.


Reindeer husbandry words

Traditionally, the Sámi are
reindeer herders Reindeer herding is when reindeer are herded by people in a limited area. Currently, reindeer are the only semi-domesticated animal which naturally belong to the North. Reindeer herding is conducted in nine countries: Norway, Finland, Sweden, Russ ...
, and as such, Sámi languages have developed a wide vocabulary with terms to describe both the animal and actions related to its
husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, management, production, nutrition, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. ...
. These terms describe not only gender and age but also their color, their position in the herd, and others. Below are only some of the underived words, and many other possibilities exist in compounds, especially with -''tjuoke'' and -''ahkka'' as head words: ''giätjuoke'' “untamed reindeer”, ''ruadtjuoke,'' “a reindeer that digs after urine”, ''tjånatahkka'' ''“''a reindeer that is tied to a sledge”, ''lijrestahkka'' “a reindeer that one leads”, etc.


See also

*
Sámi people The Sámi ( ; also spelled Sami or Saami) are the traditionally Sámi languages, Sámi-speaking indigenous people inhabiting the region of Sápmi, which today encompasses large northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and of the Kola Peninsula ...


References


External links


Sámi lottit
Names of birds found 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 number of languages, including Skolt Sámi and English. Search function only works with Finnish input though. {{Authority control Languages of Sweden Sámi in Sweden Western Sámi languages Endangered Uralic languages Endangered languages of Europe