Skolt Sámi Explained

Skolt Sámi
Nativename:nuõrttsääʹmǩiõll
Pronunciation:pronounced as / nuɘrʰtːɕa̟ːmʰc͡çiɘlː/
States:Finland, Russia
Ethnicity:Skolts
Speakers: 330
Date:2002-2023
Familycolor:Uralic
Fam2:Sámi
Fam3:Eastern
Fam4:Mainland
Script:Latin
Dialects:Northern:
  • Neiden
  • Paatsjoki

Southern:

  • Njuõʹttjäuʹrr
  • Suõʹnnʼjel
Iso2:sms
Iso3:sms
Glotto:skol1241
Glottorefname:Skolt Saami
Glottopedia:Skolt_Saami
Map:File:Skolt-SamiLanguageLocatorMap.svg
Mapcaption:Skolt Sami language area (red) within Sápmi (grey)
Map2:Lang Status 40-SE.svg
Notice:IPA

Skolt Sámi (Skolt Sami: sääʹmǩiõll pronounced as /ɕa̟ːmʰc͡çiɘlː/, "the Sámi language", or Skolt Sami: nuõrttsääʹmǩiõll pronounced as /nuɘrʰtːɕa̟ːmʰc͡çiɘlː/, "the Eastern Sámi language", if a distinction needs to be made between it and the other Sámi languages) is a Uralic, Sámi language that is spoken by the Skolts, with approximately 300[1] speakers in Finland, mainly in Sevettijärvi and approximately 20–30 speakers of the Skolt Sami: italic=no|Njuõʹttjäuʹrr (Notozero) dialect in an area surrounding Lake Lovozero in Russia. In Norway, there are fewer than 15 that can speak Skolt Sámi (as of 2023);[2] furthermore, the language is[2] largely spoken in the Neiden area. 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, Sevettijärvi and Nellim in the 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.

In Norwegian territory, Skolt Sámi was spoken in the Sør-Varanger area with a cultural centre in the village of Neiden. The language is not spoken as mother tongue anymore in Norway.

Status

Finland

In Finland, Skolt Sámi is spoken by approximately 300[3] or 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. It is an official language in the municipality of 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, 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 Skolt Sami: italic=no|[[Sääʹmođđâz]] published in their own language.[4] Since 2013, a new magazine called Tuõddri peeʹrel has been published once a year.[5]

The Finnish news program Northern Sami: italic=no|[[Yle Ođđasat]] featured a Skolt Sámi speaking newsreader for the first time on August 26, 2016. Otherwise Yle Northern Sami: italic=no|Ođđasat presents individual news stories in Skolt Sámi every now and then.[6] In addition, there have been various TV programs in Skolt Sámi on YLE such as the children's TV series Skolt Sami: Binnabánnaš.

Religion

The first book published in Skolt Sámi was an Eastern Orthodox prayer book (Skolt Sami: Risttoummi moʹlidvaǩeʹrjj, Prayerbook for the Orthodox) in 1983. Translation of the Gospel of John was published (Skolt Sami: Evvan evaŋǧeʹlium) in 1988 and Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom (Skolt Sami: Pââʹss Eʹččen Evvan Krysostomoozz Liturgia, Liturgy of our Holy Father John Chrysostom) was published in 2002 [7] Skolt Sámi is used together with Finnish in worship of the Lappi Orthodox Parish (Skolt Sami: Lappi ortodookslaž sieʹbrrkåʹdd) at churches of Ivalo, Sevettijärvi and Nellim.[8]

Music

Like Inari Sámi, Skolt Sámi has recently borne witness to a new phenomenon, namely it is being used in rock songs sung by Tiina Sanila-Aikio, 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 (Skolt Sami: 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.[9]

Writing system

In 1973, an official, standardized orthography for Skolt Sámi was introduced based on the Skolt Sami: italic=no|Suõʹnnʼjel dialect. Since then, it has been widely accepted with a few small modifications. The Skolt Sámi orthography uses the ISO basic Latin alphabet with the addition of a few special characters:

LetterPhoneme(s)LetterPhoneme(s)LetterPhoneme(s)
A apronounced as //ɑ//Ǧ ǧpronounced as //ɟ͡ʝ//Õ õpronounced as //ɘ//
 âpronounced as //ɐ//Ǥ ǥpronounced as //ɣ//P ppronounced as //p//
B bpronounced as //b//H hpronounced as //x//R rpronounced as //r//
C cpronounced as //t͡s//I ipronounced as //i//, pronounced as //j//S spronounced as //s//
Č čpronounced as //t͡ʃ//J jpronounced as //ʝ//Š špronounced as //ʃ//
Ʒ ʒpronounced as //d͡z//K kpronounced as //k//T tpronounced as //t//
Ǯ ǯpronounced as //d͡ʒ//Ǩ ǩpronounced as //c͡ç//U upronounced as //u//, pronounced as //w//
D dpronounced as //d//L lpronounced as //l//V vpronounced as //v//
Đ đpronounced as //ð//M mpronounced as //m//Z zpronounced as //z//
E epronounced as //e//, pronounced as //ɛ//N npronounced as //n//Ž žpronounced as //ʒ//
F fpronounced as //f//Ŋ ŋpronounced as //ŋ//Å åpronounced as //ɔ//
G gpronounced as //ɡ//O opronounced as //o//Ä äpronounced as //a//

Notes:

Additional marks are used in writing Skolt Sámi words:

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:

frontcentralback
closepronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
close-midpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
open-midpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
openpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/

Skolt Sámi has vowel length, but it co-occurs with contrasts in length of the following consonant(s). For example, Skolt Sami: leʹtt ‘vessel’ vs. Skolt Sami: leeʹtt ‘vessels’.

The vowels can combine to form twelve opening diphthongs:

frontfront to centralback to frontback to central
close to close-midpronounced as //pronounced as /iɘ/pronounced as /ue/pronounced as /uɘ/
close to open-midpronounced as /iɛ/pronounced as /iɐ/pronounced as /uɛ/pronounced as /uɐ/pronounced as /uɔ/
close to openpronounced as /ua/
close-mid to open-midpronounced as /eɐ/
close-mid to openpronounced as /ea/

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.

plainpalatalized
Skolt Sami: italic=no|iõSkolt Sami: italic=no|iõʹ
Skolt Sami: italic=no|iâSkolt Sami: italic=no|ieʹ
Skolt Sami: italic=no|eâSkolt Sami: italic=no|eäʹ
Skolt Sami: italic=no|eä
Skolt Sami: italic=no|uõSkolt Sami: italic=no|uõʹ
Skolt Sami: italic=no|uåSkolt Sami: italic=no|ueʹ
Skolt Sami: italic=no|uâ
Skolt Sami: italic=no|uäSkolt Sami: italic=no|uäʹ

Consonants

The inventory of consonant phonemes is the following:

LabialDental / AlveolarPostalveolarPalatalVelar
Nasalpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Plosive /
affricate
pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Fricativepronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
Trillpronounced as /link/
Approximantpronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/pronounced as /link/

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. Skolt Sami: kuõskkâd 'to touch' : Skolt Sami: kuõskam '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. Skolt Sami: joʹǩǩe 'to the river' is pronounced pronounced as /[jo̟ʰcc͡çe]/.

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:

Skolt Sami: vääʹrr 'mountain, hill' (suprasegmental palatalization present)

cf. Skolt Sami: väärr 'trip' (no suprasegmental palatalization)

The suprasegmental palatalization has three distinct phonetic effects:

Stress

Skolt Sámi has four different types of stress for words:

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, 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. 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.

Proto
  • ā, *ō
  • ē
  • ë, *u
  • i
Skoltaeâ, ue
  • ë
â âʹ õ õʹ
  • o
å åʹ o
  • i
e i
  • u
o u
  • ā
ä äʹ a
  • ea
eäʹ, iẹʹ ieʹ
  • ie
ieʹ iõʹ
  • oa
uäʹ, uẹʹ ueʹ
  • uo
ueʹ uõʹ

Some notes:

As can be seen, palatalisation is present before original second-syllable 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 , *u and *i have a general raising and backing effect on the preceding vowel, while the effect of original and is lowering. Original 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 Skolt Sami: 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 and does not have a meaning of its own.

 SingularPlural
NominativeSkolt Sami: italic=no|čuäcc pronounced as /[t͡ʃuatt͡s]/Skolt Sami: italic=no|čuäʒʒ pronounced as /[t͡ʃuadd͡z]/
Genitive Skolt Sami: italic=no|čuäʒʒ pronounced as /[t͡ʃuadd͡z]/ Skolt Sami: italic=no|čuäʒʒ-a-i pronounced as /[t͡ʃuadd͡zɑj]/
Accusative Skolt Sami: italic=no|čuäʒʒ-a-i-d pronounced as /[t͡ʃuadd͡zɑjd]/
Illative Skolt Sami: italic=no|čuåc'c-u pronounced as /[t͡ʃuɔʰtt͡su]/
Locative Skolt Sami: italic=no|čuäʒʒ-a-st pronounced as /[t͡ʃuadd͡zɑst]/ Skolt Sami: italic=no|čuäʒʒ-a-i-n pronounced as /[t͡ʃuadd͡zɑjn]/
Comitative Skolt Sami: italic=no|čuäʒʒ-a-in pronounced as /[t͡ʃuadd͡zɑjn]/ Skolt Sami: italic=no|čuäʒʒ-a-i-vuiʹm pronounced as /[t͡ʃuadd͡zɑjvʲu̟i̟m]/
Abessive Skolt Sami: italic=no|čuäʒʒ-tää pronounced as /[t͡ʃuadd͡ztaː]/ Skolt Sami: italic=no|čuäʒʒ-a-i-tää pronounced as /[t͡ʃuadd͡zɑjtaː]/
Essive Skolt Sami: italic=no|čuäcc-a-n pronounced as /[t͡ʃuaʰtt͡sɑn]/
Partitive Skolt Sami: italic=no|čuäcc-a-d pronounced as /[t͡ʃuaʰtt͡sɑd]/
Nominative

Like the other Uralic languages, the nominative singular is unmarked and indicates the subject or a predicate. The nominative plural is also unmarked and always looks the same as the genitive singular.

Genitive

The genitive singular is unmarked and looks the same as the nominative plural. The genitive plural is marked by an Skolt Sami: -i. The genitive is used:

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 Skolt Sami: -d, which is preceded by the plural marker Skolt Sami: -i, making it look the same as the plural illative. The accusative is also used to mark some adjuncts, e.g. Skolt Sami: obb tääʹlv ('the entire winter').

Locative

The locative marker in the singular is Skolt Sami: -st and Skolt Sami: -n in the plural. This case is used to indicate:

In addition, it is used with certain verbs:

Illative

The illative marker actually has three different markers in the singular to represent the same case: Skolt Sami: -a, Skolt Sami: -e and Skolt Sami: -u. The plural illative marker is Skolt Sami: -d, which is preceded by the plural marker Skolt Sami: -i, making it look the same as the plural accusative. This case is used to indicate:

Comitative

The comitative marker in the singular is Skolt Sami: -in and Skolt Sami: -vuiʹm in the plural. The comitative is used to state with whom or what something was done:

To form the comitative singular, use the genitive singular form of the word as the root and Skolt Sami: -i'. To form the comitative plural, use the plural genitive root and Skolt Sami: -vuiʹm.

Abessive

The abessive marker is Skolt Sami: -tää in both the singular and the plural. It always has a tertiary stress.

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 Skolt Sami: -d.

1. It appears after numbers larger than six:

This can be replaced with Skolt Sami: kääʹuc čâustõõǥǥ.

2. It is also used with certain postpositions:

This can be replaced with Skolt Sami: kuäʹđ vuâstta

3. It can be used with the comparative to express that which is being compared:

This would nowadays more than likely be replaced by Skolt Sami: pueʹrab ko kåʹll

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

The personal pronouns have three numbers: singular, plural and dual. The following table contains personal pronouns in the nominative and genitive/accusative cases.

singulardualplural
nominative
1st personSkolt Sami: italic=no|mon Skolt Sami: italic=no|muäna Skolt Sami: italic=no|mij
2nd personSkolt Sami: italic=no|ton Skolt Sami: italic=no|tuäna Skolt Sami: italic=no|tij
3rd personSkolt Sami: italic=no|son Skolt Sami: italic=no|suäna Skolt Sami: italic=no|sij
genitive
1st personSkolt Sami: italic=no|muu Skolt Sami: italic=no|muännai Skolt Sami: italic=no|mij
2nd personSkolt Sami: italic=no|tuu Skolt Sami: italic=no|tuännai Skolt Sami: italic=no|tij
3rd personSkolt Sami: italic=no|suu Skolt Sami: italic=no|suännai Skolt Sami: italic=no|sij

The next table demonstrates the declension of a personal pronoun he/she (no gender distinction) in various cases:

 SingularDualPlural
Nominative Skolt Sami: italic=no|son Skolt Sami: italic=no|suäna Skolt Sami: italic=no|sij
Genitive Skolt Sami: italic=no|suu Skolt Sami: italic=no|suännai Skolt Sami: italic=no|sij
Accusative Skolt Sami: italic=no|suu Skolt Sami: italic=no|suännaid Skolt Sami: italic=no|siʹjjid
Illative Skolt Sami: italic=no|suʹnne Skolt Sami: italic=no|suännaid Skolt Sami: italic=no|siʹjjid
Locative Skolt Sami: italic=no|suʹst Skolt Sami: italic=no|suännast Skolt Sami: italic=no|siiʹst
Comitative Skolt Sami: italic=no|suin Skolt Sami: italic=no|suännain Skolt Sami: italic=no|siʹjjivuiʹm
Abessive Skolt Sami: italic=no|suutää Skolt Sami: italic=no|suännaitää Skolt Sami: italic=no|siʹjjitää
Essive Skolt Sami: italic=no|suuʹnen Skolt Sami: italic=no|suännan
Partitive Skolt Sami: italic=no|suuʹđed

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 Skolt Sami: muõrr ('tree').

Possessor
1st person2nd person3rd person
Singular PluralSingular PluralSingular Plural
PossessedSingularNominativeSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrramSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrrâmSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrradSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrrâdSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrrâsSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrrâz
Accusative/
Genitive
Skolt Sami: italic=no|muõrranSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrrânSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõradSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrâdSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrâsSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrâz
IllativeSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrˈrsanSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrˈrseenSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrˈrsadSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrˈrseedSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrˈrsesSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrˈrseez
LocativeSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrstanSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrsteenSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrstadSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrsteedSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrstesSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrsteez
ComitativeSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrinanSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrineenSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrinadSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrineedSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrinesSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrineez
AbessiveSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrrantääSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrrântääSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõradtääSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrâdtääSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrâstääSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrâztää
EssiveSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrˈrnanSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrˈrneenSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrˈrnadSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrˈrneedSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrˈrnesSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrˈrneez
PluralNominativeSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrranSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrrânSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõradSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrâdSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrâsSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrâz
Accusative/
Genitive/
Illative
Skolt Sami: italic=no|muõrräänSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõreenSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõräädSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõreedSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõreesSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõreez
LocativeSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrinanSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrineenSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrinadSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrineedSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrinesSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrineez
ComitativeSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõräänvuiʹmSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõreenvuiʹmSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõräädvuiʹmSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõreedvuiʹmSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõreesvuiʹmSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõreezvuiʹm
AbessiveSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõrääntääSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõreentääSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõräädtääSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõreedtääSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõreestääSkolt Sami: italic=no|muõreeztää

Verbs

Skolt Sámi verbs inflect (inflection of verbs is also referred to as conjugation) for person, mood, number, and tense. A full inflection table of all person-marked forms of the verb Skolt Sami: kuullâd ('to hear') is given below.

!!Non-past!Past!Potential!Conditional!Imperative
1st Person SingularSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuulamSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuʹllemSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuulžemSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuulčem-
2nd P. Sg.Skolt Sami: italic=no|kuulakSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuʹlliǩSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuulžiǩSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuulčiǩSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuul
3rd P. Sg.Skolt Sami: italic=no|koollSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuuliSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuulâžSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuulčiSkolt Sami: italic=no|koolas
1st Person PluralSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuullâpSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuulimSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuulžepSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuulčimSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuullâp
2nd P. Pl.Skolt Sami: italic=no|kuullveʹtedSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuulidSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuulžidSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuulčidSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuullâd
3rd P. Pl.Skolt Sami: italic=no|koʹlleSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuʹlleSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuulžeSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuulčeSkolt Sami: italic=no|kollaz
4th PersonSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuulâtSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuʹllešSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuulžetSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuulčeš-
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:

Mood

Skolt Sámi has 5 grammatical moods:

Number

Skolt Sámi verbs conjugate for two grammatical numbers:

Unlike other Sámi varieties, Skolt Sámi verbs do not inflect for dual number. Instead, verbs occurring with the dual personal pronouns appear in the corresponding plural form.

Tense

Skolt Sámi has 2 simple tenses:

and 2 compound tenses:

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 Skolt Sami: kuullâd ('to hear').

!!Verb form
InfinitiveSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuullâd
Action ParticipleSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuullâm
Present ParticipleSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuulli
Past ParticipleSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuullâm
Passive ParticipleSkolt Sami: italic=no|kullum
Progressive ParticipleSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuullmen
Temporal ParticipleSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuuleen
Instrumental ParticipleSkolt Sami: italic=no|kulleeʹl
Abessive ParticipleSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuulkani
Negative converbSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuul, kullu (indicative and imperative mood, form depending on which person)
Skolt Sami: italic=no|kuulže (potential mood)
Skolt Sami: italic=no|kuulče (conditional mood)

Auxiliary verbs

Skolt Sámi has two auxiliary verbs, one of which is Skolt Sami: leeʹd (glossed as 'to be'), the other one is the negative auxiliary verb (see the following paragraph).

Inflection of Skolt Sami: italic=no|leeʹd is given below.

!!Non-past!Past!Potential!Conditional!Imperative
1st Person SingularSkolt Sami: italic=no|leämSkolt Sami: italic=no|leʹjjemSkolt Sami: italic=no|leʹžžemSkolt Sami: italic=no|leʹččem
2nd P. Sg.Skolt Sami: italic=no|leäkSkolt Sami: italic=no|leʹjjiǩSkolt Sami: italic=no|leʹžžiǩSkolt Sami: italic=no|leʹččiǩSkolt Sami: italic=no|leäkku
3rd P. Sg.Skolt Sami: italic=no|lijSkolt Sami: italic=no|leäiSkolt Sami: italic=no|leeʹžžSkolt Sami: italic=no|leʹččiSkolt Sami: italic=no|leäǥǥas
1st Person PluralSkolt Sami: italic=no|leäʹpSkolt Sami: italic=no|leeiʹmSkolt Sami: italic=no|leʹžžepSkolt Sami: italic=no|leʹččimSkolt Sami: italic=no|leäkkap
2nd P. Pl.Skolt Sami: italic=no|leäʹpedSkolt Sami: italic=no|leeiʹdSkolt Sami: italic=no|leʹžžveʹtedSkolt Sami: italic=no|leʹččidSkolt Sami: italic=no|leäkku
3rd P. Pl.Skolt Sami: italic=no|lie, liâ (both forms exist, they underlie idiolectal variation)Skolt Sami: italic=no|leʹjjeSkolt Sami: italic=no|leʹžžeSkolt Sami: italic=no|leʹččeSkolt Sami: italic=no|leäkkaz
4th PersonSkolt Sami: italic=no|leätSkolt Sami: italic=no|leʹjješSkolt Sami: italic=no|leʹžžetSkolt Sami: italic=no|leʹččeš
Skolt Sami: Lee'd is used, for example, to assign tense to lexical verbs in the conditional or potential mood which are not marked for tense themselves:

(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).

PersonIndicativeImperativeOptative
1SingularSkolt Sami: italic=no|jiõm
PluralSkolt Sami: italic=no|jeäʹpSkolt Sami: italic=no|jeälˈlap
2SingularSkolt Sami: italic=no|jiõkSkolt Sami: italic=no|jeäʹl
PluralSkolt Sami: italic=no|jeäʹpedSkolt Sami: italic=no|jieʹlled
3SingularSkolt Sami: italic=no|ijSkolt Sami: italic=no|jeälas
PluralSkolt Sami: italic=no|jie ~ jiâSkolt Sami: italic=no|jeällas
4Skolt Sami: italic=no|jeäʹt
Note that Skolt Sami: ij + Skolt Sami: leeʹd is usually written as Skolt Sami: iʹlla, Skolt Sami: iʹlleäkku, Skolt Sami: iʹllää or Skolt Sami: iʹllä Skolt Sami: jie + Skolt Sami: leeʹd is usually written as Skolt Sami: jeäʹla or Skolt Sami: 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:

Intransitive sentences follow the order subject-verb (SV):

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 Skolt Sami: leeʹd ('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:

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 particle, -a, is added as an affix to the first word of the clause. Syntactically, 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.

If an auxiliary verb is used, this is the one which is moved to the initial sentence position and also takes the interrogative affix.

A negated polar question, using the negative auxiliary verb, shows the same structure:

An example of the interrogative particle being added to something other than the verb, would be the following:

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 Skolt Sami: mii ('what') corresponds to the English 'why'. The full inflectional paradigm of all three question words can be found below.

!What!Who!Which
SingularNominativeSkolt Sami: italic=no|miiSkolt Sami: italic=no|ǩiiSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuäbbaž
AccusativeSkolt Sami: italic=no|mâiʹdSkolt Sami: italic=no|ǩeänSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuäbba
GenitiveSkolt Sami: italic=no|mõõnSkolt Sami: italic=no|ǩeänSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuäbba
IllativeSkolt Sami: italic=no|mõõzz ('why')Skolt Sami: italic=no|ǩeäzzSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuäbbže
LocativeSkolt Sami: italic=no|mâʹstSkolt Sami: italic=no|ǩeäʹstSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuäbbast
ComitativeSkolt Sami: italic=no|mõinSkolt Sami: italic=no|ǩeäinSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuäbbain
AbessiveSkolt Sami: italic=no|mõntääSkolt Sami: italic=no|ǩeäntääSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuäbbatää
EssiveSkolt Sami: italic=no|mââʹdenSkolt Sami: italic=no|ǩeäʹđenSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuäbbžen
PartitiveSkolt Sami: italic=no|mââʹđedSkolt Sami: italic=no|ǩeäʹđedSkolt Sami: italic=no|kuäbbžed
PluralNominativeSkolt Sami: italic=no|mõõkSkolt Sami: italic=no|ǩeäk-
AccusativeSkolt Sami: italic=no|mâidSkolt Sami: italic=no|ǩeäid-
GenitiveSkolt Sami: italic=no|mââiSkolt Sami: italic=no|ǩeäi-
IllativeSkolt Sami: italic=no|mâidSkolt Sami: italic=no|ǩeäid-
LocativeSkolt Sami: italic=no|mâinSkolt Sami: italic=no|ǩeäin-
ComitativeSkolt Sami: italic=no|mââivuiʹmSkolt Sami: italic=no|ǩeäivuiʹm-
AbessiveSkolt Sami: italic=no|mââitääSkolt Sami: italic=no|ǩeäitää-
Some examples of information questions using one of the three question words:

In addition to the above-mentioned, there are other question words which are not inflected, such as the following:

An example sentence would be the following:

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.

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.

Finally, imperatives in the third person are used in jussive constructions, the mood used for orders and commands.

Bibliography

External links

Notes and References

  1. K.H. "Språket bare en person snakker" [The language that only one person speaks]. 29 December 2020. Klassekampen. P. 29 "knapt 300 igjen som kan, som [...] Veikku Feodoroff fortalte til Klassekampen tidligere i år" [barely 300 left that can, as [...] Veikku Feodoroff told Klassekampen earlier this year]
  2. Ole Magnus Rapp. 2023-11-06. Klassekampen. P.24
  3. https://yle.fi/a/74-20074997. Yle.fi. Retrieved 2024-03-02
  4. Web site: Sää'mođđâz-lehti . Saa'mi Nue'tt ry . 27 April 2011 . fi .
  5. Web site: Tuõddri peeʹrel 2014 – Tarinoita kolttasaamelaisesta kulttuurista, elämästä ja ihmisistä . Saa'mi Nue'tt ry . 21 September 2016 . fi .
  6. Web site: Yle Ođđasat koltansaameksi ensimmäistä kertaa . 26 August 2016 . Yle . 21 September 2016 . fi .
  7. Web site: Jumala puhuu myös koltansaameksi – Vuâsppoʹd maainast še säämas . Suomen ortodoksinen kirkko . 4 September 2019 . fi .
  8. Web site: Lappi ortodookslaž sieʹbrrkåʹdd . Lapin ortodoksinen seurakunta . 17 February 2020 . sms.
  9. Web site: Ville-Riiko Fofonoff on Vuoden koltta 2012. Ville-Riiko Fofonoff is Skolt of the Year 2012. Moshnikoff, Minna. Saaʹmi Nueʹtt. 3 December 2012. fi, sms. 5 August 2018.