Southern Sami language

Southern Sami
åarjelsaemien gïele
Region Norway, Sweden
Native speakers
 (600 cited 1992)[1]
Uralic
Latin
Official status
Official language in
 Snåsa & Røyrvik, Norway [2]
Recognised minority
language in
Norway
Sweden[3]
Language codes
ISO 639-2 sma
ISO 639-3 sma
Glottolog sout2674[4]
Southern Sami is 1 on this map.
Åarjel-saemiej skuvle (Southern Sami school) and maanagierte (kindergarten) in Snåsa.

Southern or South Sami (åarjelsaemien gïele) is the southwestern-most of the Sami languages. It is a seriously endangered language; the strongholds of this language are the municipalities of Snåsa, Røyrvik, Røros and Hattfjelldal in Norway.

Writing system

Southern Sami is one of the six Sami languages that has an official written language, but only a few books have been published for the language, one of which is an adequate-sized Southern Sami–Norwegian dictionary.

Southern Sami uses the Latin alphabet:

A a B b D d E e F f G g H h I i
(Ï ï) J j K k L l M m N n O o P p
R r S s T t U u V v Y y Æ æ Ö ö
Å å

The Sami Language Council recommended in 1976 to use ⟨æ⟩ and ⟨ö⟩, but in practice the latter is replaced by ⟨ø⟩ in Norway and the former by ⟨ä⟩ in Sweden.[5] This is in accordance with the usage in Norwegian and Swedish, based on computer or typewriter availability. The Ï ï represents a back version of I i, however many texts fail to distinguish between the two.

C c, Q q, W w, X x, Z z are only used in words of foreign origin.

Phonology

Southern Sami has two dialects, the northern and the southern dialect. The phonological differences between the dialects are relatively small; the phonemic system of the northern dialect is explained below.

Vowels

The vowel phonemes of the northern dialect are the following; orthographic counterparts are given in italics:

front central back
unrounded rounded unrounded rounded unrounded rounded
close i ⟨i⟩ y ⟨y⟩ ɨ ⟨ï⟩, ⟨i⟩[lower-alpha 1] ʉ ⟨u⟩ u ⟨o⟩
mid e ⟨e⟩ o ⟨å⟩
open ɛ ⟨æ⟩, ⟨ä⟩[lower-alpha 2], ⟨ae⟩[lower-alpha 3] ɑ ⟨a⟩
  1. ↑ The distinction between the vowels /i/ and /ɨ/ is normally not indicated in spelling: both of these sounds are written with the letter ⟨i⟩. However, dictionaries and other linguistically precise sources use the character ⟨ï⟩ for the latter vowel.
  2. ↑ The spelling ⟨æ⟩ is used in Norway, and ⟨ä⟩ in Sweden.
  3. ↑ Long /ɛː/ is written ⟨ae⟩.

The non-high vowels /e/, /ɛ/, /o/ and /ɑ/ contrast in length: they may occur as both short and long. High vowels only occur as short.

The vowels may combine to form ten different diphthongs:

front front to back central to back central to front back to front back
close to mid /ie/ ⟨ie⟩ /yo/ ⟨yø⟩, ⟨yö⟩ /ʉe/ ⟨ue⟩; /ɨe/ ⟨ïe⟩, ⟨ie⟩ /uo/ ⟨oe⟩
close to open /ʉa/ ⟨ua⟩
mid /oe/ ⟨øø⟩, ⟨öö⟩
mid to open /eæ/ ⟨ea⟩ /oæ/ ⟨åe⟩ /oa/ ⟨åa⟩

Consonants

Labial Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive unaspirated p ⟨b⟩, ⟨p⟩ t ⟨d⟩, ⟨t⟩ ts ⟨ts⟩ tʃ ⟨tj⟩ k ⟨g⟩, ⟨k⟩
aspirated pʰ ⟨p⟩ tʰ ⟨t⟩ kʰ ⟨k⟩
Fricative f ⟨f⟩ s ⟨s⟩ ʃ ⟨sj⟩ h ⟨h⟩
Nasal m ⟨m⟩ n ⟨n⟩ ɲ ⟨nj⟩ ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Lateral l ⟨l⟩
Trill r ⟨r⟩
Approximant β ~ w ⟨v⟩ j ⟨j⟩

Grammar

Sound alternations

In Southern Sami, the vowel in the second syllable of a word causes changes to the vowel in the first syllable, a feature called umlaut. The vowel in the second syllable can change depending on the inflectional ending being attached, and the vowel in the first vowel will likewise alternate accordingly. Often there are three different vowels that alternate with each other in the paradigm of a single word, for example as follows:

  • ae ~ aa ~ ee: vaedtsedh 'to walk' : vaadtsam 'I walk' : veedtsim 'I walked'
  • ue ~ ua ~ øø: vuelkedh 'to leave' : vualkam 'I leave' : vøølkim 'I left'

The following table gives a full overview of the alternations:

Proto-Samic
first vowel		 Followed by
*ā		 Followed by
*ē		 Followed by
*ō		 Followed by
*ë		 Followed by
*i
*ā aa ae aa aa ee
*ea ea ie ea aa ee
*ie ea ie ea ïe ie
*oa åa åe åa oe öö
*uo ua ue åa oe öö
*ë a e æ, å a, ï e
*i æ, ij i æ ïj i
*o å u å, a o, a, ov u
*u å, a u å o, ov u

On the other hand, Southern Sami is the only Sami language that does not have consonant gradation. Hence consonants in the middle of words never alternate in Southern Sami, even though such alternations are frequent in other Sami languages. Compare, for instance, Southern Sami nomme 'name' : nommesne 'in the name' to Northern Sami namma : namas, with the consonant gradation mm : m.

Cases

Southern Sami has 8 cases:

Case Singular ending Plural ending
Nominative - -h
Genitive -n -i / -j
Accusative -m -jte / -ite / -idie
Inessive -sne / -snie -ine / -jne / -inie
Elative -ste / -stie -jste / -jstie
Illative -n / -se / -sse -jte / -ite / -idie
Comitative -ine / -jne / -inie -igujmie / -jgujmie
Essive -ine / -jne / -inie (no plural form)

Verbs

Person

Southern Sami verbs conjugate for three grammatical persons:

  • first person
  • second person
  • third person

Grammatical number

Southern Sami verbs conjugate for three grammatical numbers:

Negative verb

Southern Sami, like Finnish, the other Sami languages and Estonian, has a negative verb. In Southern Sami, the negative verb conjugates according to tense (past and non-past), mood (indicative and imperative), person (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and number (singular, dual and plural). This differs from some other Sami languages, e.g. from Northern Sami, which do not conjugate according to tense.

Southern Sami negative verb, indicative forms
Non-past indicativePast indicative
SingularDualPluralSingularDualPlural
1st imeanibieidtjimidtjimenidtjimh
2nd ihidienidieidtjihidtjidenidtjidh
3rd ijeakaneahidtjiidtjiganidtjin
Southern Sami negative verb, imperative forms
Non-past imperativePast imperative
SingularDualPluralSingularDualPlural
1st aelliemaellienaellebeollemollenollebe
2nd aelliehaelledenaelledeollholledenollede
3rd aellisaellisaellisollesollesolles

Syntax

Like Skolt Sami and unlike other Sami languages, Southern Sami is an SOV language.

References

  1. ↑ Southern Sami at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ "Samelovens språkregler og forvaltningsområdet for samisk språk". Regjeringen.no (in Norwegian). Statsministerens kontor. 2014-08-12. Retrieved 2018-01-30. Forvaltningsområdet for samisk språk omfatter [...] Snåasen tjïelte/Snåsa kommune og Raarvihke Tjielte/Røyrvik kommune i Nord-Trøndelag.
  3. ↑ "To which languages does the Charter apply?". European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Council of Europe. p. 5. Retrieved 2014-04-03.
  4. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Southern Sami". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  5. ↑ Magga, Ole Henrik; Magga, Lajla Mattsson (2012). Sørsamisk grammatikk [A Grammar of South Sami] (in Norwegian). Kautokeino: Davvi Girji. p. 12. ISBN 978-82-7374-855-3.
  • Bergsland, Knut. Røroslappisk grammatikk, 1946.
  • Knut Bergsland. Sydsamisk grammatikk, 1982.
  • Knut Bergsland and Lajla Mattson Magga. Åarjelsaemien-daaroen baakoegærja, 1993.
  • Hasselbrink, Gustav. Südsamisches Wörterbuch I–III
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