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| Sámi group, 1800's |
Today, The Grandma wants to talk about Akkala Sámi, a Sámi language.
Sámi languages are a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sámi people in Northern Europe, in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and extreme north-western Russia.
The Grandma loves languages. They represent the most beautiful and exciting demonstration of a community, of its culture, traditions and history. Protecting languages must be an obligation for all the governments around the world, especially minority languages that are in danger of being supplanted by other with more speakers. Minorities must be respected and protected as treasures of our past, our present and our future. A community that respects their minorities is a stronger and more democratic one.
On a day like today in 2003, Maria Sergina –the last fluent native speakers of Akkala Sámi- died. When a language dies, a community dies and with it all its culture and history.
More information: National Geographic
Akkala Sámi is a Sámi language that was spoken in the Sámi villages of A´kkel, Ču´kksuâl and Sââ´rvesjäu´rr, in the inland parts of the Kola Peninsula in Russia.
Formerly erroneously regarded as a dialect of Kildin Sámi, it has recently become recognized as an independent Sámi language that is most closely related to its western neighbor Skolt Sámi.
Akkala Sámi is the most endangered Eastern Sámi language. On December 29, 2003, Maria Sergina –the last fluent native speakers of Akkala Sámi– died. However, as of 2011 there were at least two people, both aged 70, with some knowledge of Akkala Sámi. Remaining ethnic Akkala Sámi live in the village Yona.
Although there exist a
description of Akkala Sámi phonology and morphology, a few published
texts, and archived audio recordings, the Akkala Sami language remains
among the most poorly documented Sami languages.
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| Sámi Family in Finland, 1936 |
Akkala Sámi has eight cases, singular and plural: nominative, genitive-accusative, partitive, dative-illative, locative, essive, comitative and abessive. Case and number are expressed by a combination of endings and consonant gradation:
-Nominative: no marker in the singular, weak grade in the plural
-Genitive-accusative: weak grade in the singular, weak grade + -i in the plural
-Partitive: this case exists only in the singular, and has the ending -tti͔
-Dative-illative: strong grade + -a, -a͕ or -ɛ in the singular, weak grade + -i in the plural
-Locative: weak grade + -st, -śtˑ in the singular, weak grade + -nˑ in the plural
-Essive: this case exists only in the singular: strong grade + -n
-Comitative: weak grade + -nˑ in the singular, strong grade + -guim, -vuim or -vi̮i̭m in the plural
-Abessive: weak grade + -ta in the singular
More information: Endangered Languages
Sámi languages, in English also rendered as Sami, are a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sámi people in Northern Europe, in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and extreme north-western Russia.
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 Lappish and Lappic. The last two, along with the term Lapp, are now often considered pejorative.
The Sámi languages form a branch of the Uralic language family. According to the traditional view, Sámi is within the Uralic family most closely related to the Finnic languages. 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 Samic from Finnic.
In terms of internal
relationships, the Sami languages are divided into two groups: western
and eastern. The groups may be further divided into various subgroups
and ultimately individual languages.
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| Sámi People, Norway |
Parts of the Sami language area form a dialect continuum in which the neighbouring languages may be mutually intelligible 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, 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 Sami area.
The Sami languages are spoken in Sápmi in Northern Europe, in a region stretching over the four countries Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, reaching from the southern part of central Scandinavia in the southwest to the tip of the Kola Peninsula in the east.
The borders between the languages do not align with the ones separating the region's modern nation states.
During the Middle Ages and early modern period, now-extinct Sami languages were also spoken in the central and southern parts of Finland and Karelia and in a wider area on the Scandinavian Peninsula. Historical documents as well as Finnish and Karelian oral tradition contain many mentions of the earlier Sami inhabitation in these areas. Also, loanwords 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. These Sami languages, however, became extinct later, under the wave of the Finno-Karelian agricultural expansion.
More information: The Bubble
The Proto-Samic language is believed to have formed in the vicinity of the Gulf of Finland between 1000 BC to 700 AD, deriving from a common Proto-Sami-Finnic language.
However, reconstruction of any basic proto-languages in the Uralic family have reached a level close to or identical to Proto-Uralic. 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 during the Nordic
Iron Age, reaching central Scandinavia during the Proto-Scandinavian
period ca. 500 AD. The language assimilated several layers of unknown
Paleo-European languages 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 Sami today.
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| Sámi Flag |
At present there are nine living Sami languages. The largest six of the languages have independent literary languages; the three others have no written standard, and of them, there are only a few, mainly elderly, speakers left. The seven written languages are:
-Northern Sami (Norway, Sweden, Finland): With an estimated 15,000 speakers, this accounts for probably more than 75% of all Sami speakers in 2002
-Lule Sami (Norway, Sweden): The second largest group with an estimated 1,500 speakers
-Ume Sami (Norway, Sweden)
-Southern Sami (Norway, Sweden): 500 speakers (estimated)
-Inari Sami (Enare Sami) (Inari, Finland): 500 speakers (estimated)
-Skolt Sami (Näätämö and the Nellim-Keväjärvi districts, Inari municipality, Finland, also spoken in Russia, previously in Norway): 400 speakers (estimated)
-Kildin Sami (Kola Peninsula, Russia): 608 speakers in Murmansk Oblast, 179 in other Russian regions, although 1991 persons stated their Saami ethnicity (1769 of them live in Murmansk Oblast)
More information: IWGIA
The other Sami languages are critically endangered or moribund and have very few speakers left.
Pite Sami has about 30-50 speakers, and a dictionary and an official orthography is under way. A descriptive grammar has been published. Ume Sami likely has under 20 speakers left, and 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.
Adopted in April 1988, Article 110a of the Norwegian Constitution 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, Karasjok, Gáivuotna -Kåfjord- Kaivuono, Nesseby, Porsanger, Tana, Tysfjord, Lavangen and Snåsa.
In 2005 Sámi, Kven, Romanes and Romani were recognised as regional or minority languages in Norway within the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
More information: Life in Norway
On 1 April 2000, Sami became one of five recognized minority languages in Sweden. It can be used in dealing with public authorities in the municipalities of Arjeplog, Gällivare, Jokkmokk, and Kiruna.
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.
More information: Sami in Sweden
In 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 and Utsjoki municipalities. 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.
More information: Visit Finland
In Russia, Sámi has no official status, neither on the national, regional or local level, and no formal recognition as a minority language. Sámi has been taught at the Murmansk University since 2012; before then, Sámi was taught at the Institute of Peoples of the North (Институт народов севера) in Saint Petersburg.
More information: Samediggi
We are the Sami people and we want to be Sami,
without being neither more not less than other people in the world.
We have throughout the history survived and lived in Sápmi,
and we have a culture that we want to continue to thrive.
Mikael Ursi
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