Everything about Skolt Sami totally explained
Skolt Sami (sääˊmǩiõll) is a
Finno-Ugric,
Sami language spoken by approximately 400 speakers in
Finland, mainly in Sevettijärvi, and approximately 20–30 speakers of the Njuõˊttjäuˊrr (Notozero) dialect in an area surrounding
Lake Lovozero in
Russia. Skolt Sami used to also be spoken on the
Neiden area of
Norway, although it has died out there. It is written using a Roman
orthography that was made official in 1973.
History
Skolt Sámi was spoken in four villages on Finnish territory prior to 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.
Status
Skolt Sami is spoken by approximately 400 individuals, nearly all of whom live in Finland; very few speakers remain today on the Russian side. On the Finnish side of the border, the language is recognized by the government as one of the official
Sami languages used in
Lapland and can thus be used by anyone conducting official business in that area. 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 do learn the language and continue to use it actively. Skolt Sami is thus a seriously
endangered language, even more seriously than
Inari Sami in the same
municipality, which has a nearly equal number of speakers.
In 1993,
language immersion programs for children younger than 7 were created. At present, however, no funding has been forthcoming for these programs in years and as a result they're on hold. These programs were extremely important in creating the youngest generation of Skolt Sami speakers.
Like
Inari Sami, Skolt Sami has recently borne witness to a new phenomenon, namely it's being used in rock songs
sung by
Tiina Sanila, who has published two full-length CDs in Skolt Sami to date.
In addition, 2005 saw the first time that it was possible to use Skolt Sámi in a Finnish matriculation examination, albeit as a foreign language.
Writing system
Skolt Sami uses the standard
Latin alphabet with the addition of some special characters:
| А а |
 â |
B b |
C c |
Č č |
Ʒ ʒ |
Ǯ ǯ |
D d |
| Đ đ |
E e |
F f |
G g |
Ǧ ǧ |
Ǥ ǥ |
H h |
I i |
| J j |
K k |
Ǩ ǩ |
L l |
M m |
N n |
Ŋ ŋ |
O o |
| Õ õ |
P p |
R r |
S s |
Š š |
T t |
U u |
V v |
| Z z |
Ž ž |
Å å |
Ä ä |
ˊ |
The letters Q/q, W/w, X/x, Y/y and Ö/ö are also used, although only in foreign words or loans.
A short period of voicelessness or
h before geminate consonants is observed, but this isn't marked, for example,
joˊkke ‘to the river’ is pronounced [jo̟hk̟k̟e]. The epenthetic vowels are not phonemic or syllabic, and are thus not marked, for example,
mieˊll [miellɘ̯] ‘sandbank’ cf.
mielle [mielle] ‘to the mind’.
Phonology
Special features of this Sami 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 free-standing acute accent (ˊ).
Vowels
The system of vowel phonemes is as follows; their orthographic representations are given in brackets.
Notes:
- The difference between /e/ and /ɛ/ isn't indicated in the standard orthography, where both of these sounds are spelled e.
- /ɘ/ is pronounced much like Estonian õ.
Long and short vowels contrast phonologically: cf.
leˊtt ‘vessel’ vs.
leeˊtt ‘vessels’. All vowels can occur as both long and short.
The vowels can combine to form twelve opening
diphthongs:
All diphthongs can occur as both long and short, although this isn't 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.
Consonants
The inventory of consonant phonemes is the following; their orthographic representations are given in brackets:
1Unvoiced stops and affricates are pronounced preaspirated after vowels and
sonorant consonants.
2Voiced stops and affricates are usually pronounced just weakly voiced.
3/x/ has the allophone [h] in initial position.
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.
kuõskkâd 'to touch' :
kuõskâm 'I touch'.
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:
» :
vääˊrr 'mountain, hill' (suprasegmental palatalization present)
:cf.
väärr 'trip' (no suprasegmental palatalization)
The suprasegmental palatalization has three distinct phonetic effects:
The stressed vowel is pronounced as slightly more fronted in palatalized syllables than in non-palatalized ones.
When the palatalizing suprasegmental is present, the following consonant or consonant cluster is pronounced as weakly palatalized. It should be noted that suprasegmental palatalization is independent of segmental palatalization: inherently palatal consonants such as the palatal glide /j/ and the palatalized nasal /ń/ (spelled <nj>) can occur both in non-palatalized and suprasegmentally palatalized syllables.
If the word form is monosyllabic and ends in a consonant, a non-phonemic weakly voiced or unvoiced vowel is pronounced after the final consonant. This vowel is e-colored if suprasegmental palatalization is present, but a-colored if not.
Stress
Skolt Sámi has four different types of stress for words:
Primary stress
Secondary stress
Tertiary stress
Zero stress
The first syllable of any word is always the primary stressed syllable in Skolt Sami 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 teratiary stress, but the penult 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 Sami is a synthetic, highly inflected language that shares many grammatical features with the other Uralic languages. However, Skolt Sami isn't 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 Sami are portmanteau morphemes that express several grammatical features at a time.
Cases
Skolt Sámi has 9 cases in the singular, although the genitive and accusative are often the same:
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 -i. The genitive is used:
to indicate possession (Tuˊst lij mu ǩeˊrjj.: You have my book.)
to indicate number, if said the number is between 2 and 6. (Sieˊzzest lij kuõˊhtt põõrt. My father’s sister (my aunt) has two houses.)
with prepositions (rääi + [GEN]: by, beyond something)
with most postpositions. (Sij mõˊnne ääkkäd årra.: They went to your grandmother’s (house). They went to visit your grandmother.)
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's unmarked in the singular. In the plural, its marker is -d, which is preceded by the plural marker -i, making it look the same as the plural illative. The accusative is also
used to mark some adjuncts, for example, obb tääˊlv (the entire winter).
Locative
The locative marker in the singular is -st and -n in the plural. This case is used to indicate:
where something is (Kuäˊđest lij ǩeˊrjj: There is a book in the kota.)
where it's coming from (Niõđ puõˊtte domoi Čeˊvetjääuˊrest. The girls came home from Sevettijärvi.)
who has possession of something (Suˊst lij čâustõk: He/she has a lasso.)
In addition, it's used with certain verbs:
to ask someone s.t. : kõõččâd [+loc]
Illative
The illative marker actually has three different markers in the singular to represent the same case: -a, -e and -u. The plural illative marker is -d, which is preceded by the plural marker -i, making it look the same as the plural accusative. This case is used to indicate:
where something is going
who is receiving something
the indirect object
Comitative
The comitative marker in the singular is -in and -vuiˊm in the plural. The comitative is used to state with whom or what something was done:
Njääˊlm sekstet leeiˊnin. The mouth is wiped with a piece of cloth.
Vuõˊlğğem paaˊrnivuiˊm ceerkvest. I left church with the children.
Vuõˊlğğem vueˊbbinan ceerkvest. I left church with my sister.
To form the comitative singular, use the genitive singular form of the word as the root and -in. To form the comitative plural, use the plural genitive root and -vuiˊm.
Abessive
The abessive marker is -tää in both the singular and the plural. It always has a tertiary stress.
Vuõˊlğğem paaˊrnitää ceerkvest. I left church without the children.
Sij mõˊnne niõđtää põˊrtte. They went in the house without the girl.
Sij mõˊnne niõđitää põˊrtte. They went in the house without the girls.
Essive
The dual form of the essive is still used with pronouns, but not with nouns and doesn't appear at all in the plural.
Partitive
The partitive is only used in the singular and can always be replaced by the genitive. The partitive marker is -d.
1. It appears after numbers larger than 6:
kääuˊc čâustõkkâd: eight lassos
This can be replaced with kääˊuc čâustõõǥǥ.
2. It is also used with certain postpositions:
kuäˊtted vuâstta: against a kota
This can be replaced with kuä'đ vuâstta.
3. It can be used with the comparative to express that which is being compared:
Kåˊlled pueˊrab : better than gold
This would nowadays more than likely be replaced by pueˊrab ko kåˊll
Pronouns
The personal pronouns have three numbers - singular, plural and dual. The following table contains personal pronouns in the nominative and genitive/accusative cases.
| |
English |
nominative |
English |
genitive |
| First person (singular) |
I |
mon |
my |
muu |
| Second person (singular) |
you (thou) |
ton |
your, yours |
tuu |
| Third person (singular) |
he, she |
son |
his, her |
suu |
| First person (dual) |
we (two) |
muäna |
our |
muännai |
| Second person (dual) |
you (two) |
tuäna |
your |
tuännai |
| Third person (dual) |
they (two) |
suäna |
theirs |
suännai |
| First person (plural) |
we |
mij |
our |
mij |
| Second person (plural) |
you |
tij |
your |
tij |
| Third person (plural) |
they |
sij |
their |
sij |
The next table demonstrates the declension of a personal pronoun he/she (no gender distinction) in various cases:
| |
Singular |
Dual |
Plural |
| Nominative |
son |
suäna |
sij |
| Genitive |
suu |
suännai |
sij |
| Accusative |
suu |
suännaid |
siˊjjid |
| Illative |
suˊnne |
suännaid |
siˊjjid |
| Locative |
suˊst |
suännast |
siiˊst |
| Comitative |
suin |
suännain |
siˊjjivuiˊm |
| Abessive |
suutää |
suännaitää |
siˊjjitää |
| Essive |
suuˊnen |
suännan |
-- |
| Partitive |
suuˊđed |
-- |
-- |
Verbs
Person
Skolt Sami verbs conjugate for four grammatical persons:
first person
second person
third person
fourth person, also called the indefinite person
Mood
Skolt Sami has 5 grammatical moods:
indicative
imperative (Pueˊtted sõrgg domoi! Come home soon!)
conditional
potential
optative
Grammatical number
Skolt Sami verbs conjugate for three grammatical numbers:
singular
dual
plural
Tense
Skolt Sami has 2 simple tenses:
past (Puõˊttem škoouˊle jåhtta.: I came to school yesterday.)
non-past (Evvan puätt mu årra täˊbbe. John is coming to my house today.)
and 2 compound tenses:
perfect
pluperfect
Verbal nouns
Skolt Sami verbs have 6 nominal forms:
the infinitive
the gerund
the active participle (progressive)
the abessive
the present participle
the past participle
Negative verb
Skolt Sami, like Finnish, the other Sámi languages and Estonian, has a negative verb. In Skolt Sami, the negative verb conjugates according to mood (indicative, imperative and optative), person (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th) and number (singular, dual and plural).
Ind. pres. Imperative Optative
sg. du/pl. sg. du/pl. sg. du/pl.
1 jiõm jeäˊp 1 - - 1 ? jeällap
jim jep
2 jiõk jeäˊped 2 jieˊl jieˊlled 2 jieˊl jieˊlled
jik jeˊped jeˊl jeˊlled jeˊl jeˊlled
3 ij jiâ, jeä, jie 3 - - 3 jeälas jeällaz
4 jeäˊt
Note that ij + leat is usually written as iˊlla, iˊlleäkku, iˊllää or iˊllä and ij + leat is usually written as jeäˊla or jeäˊlä.
Unlike the other Sami languages, Skolt Sami no longer has separate forms for the dual and plural of the negative verb and uses the plural forms for both instead.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Skolt Sami'.
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