Southern Sámi


Southern Sámi 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 where the country's sole museum about Southern Sámi and a long-running Southern Sámi primary school for Years 1 through 7. Southern Sámi belongs to the Saamic group within the Uralic language family.
In Sweden, Saami is one of five recognized minority languages, but the term "Saami" comprises different varieties/languages, and they are not individually recognized. In Norway, Southern Sámi is recognized as a minority language in its own right.
It is possible to study Southern Sámi at Nord University in Levanger Municipality, Umeå University in Umeå Municipality, and Uppsala University in Uppsala Municipality. In 2018, two master's degrees were written in the language at Umeå University. Language courses are also offered at different Sámi-language centres throughout the Southern Sámi area.

Writing system

Southern Sámi is one of the eight Sámi languages that have an official written standard, but only a few books have been published for the language, one of which is an adequate-sized Southern Sámi–Norwegian dictionary. This language has had an official written form since 1978. The spelling is closely based on Swedish and Norwegian and uses the following Latin alphabet:
In 1976, the Sámi Language Council recommended the use of ⟨æ⟩ and ⟨ö⟩, but in practice the latter is replaced by ⟨ø⟩ in Norway and the former by ⟨ä⟩ in Sweden. This is in accordance with the usage in Norwegian and Swedish, based on computer or typewriter availability. The represents a back version of ; however, many texts fail to distinguish between the two.
,,,, and are only used in words of foreign origin.
Long sounds are represented with double letters for both vowels and consonants.

Phonology

Southern Sámi has fifteen consonant and eleven vowel phonemes; there are six places of articulation for consonants and six manners of articulation.
There are also two dialects, northern and southern. The phonological differences are relatively small; the phonemic system of the northern dialect is explained below.
The typical word in Southern Sámi is disyllabic, containing a long stem vowel and ending in a vowel, as in the word /pa:ko/ 'word'. Function words are monosyllabic, as are the copula and the negative auxiliary. Stress is fixed and always word-initial. Words with more than three syllables are given secondary stress in the penultimate syllable.

Vowels

The eleven vowel phonemes comprise four phonologically short and long vowels and three vowel phonemes which do not distinguish length.
The vowel phonemes of the northern dialect are the following; orthographic counterparts are given in italics:
The non-high vowels,,, and contrast in length: they may occur as both short and long. High vowels only occur short.
The vowels may combine to form ten different diphthongs:
frontfront to backcentral to backcentral to frontback to frontback
close to mid , ; ,
close to open
mid,
mid to open

Consonants

In Southern Sámi, all consonants occur as geminates in word-medial position.

Grammar

Sound alternations

In Southern Sámi, 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:
  • ~ ~ : vaedtsedh 'to walk' : vaadtsam 'I walk' : veedtsim 'I walked'
  • ~ ~ : vuelkedh 'to leave' : vualkam 'I leave' : vöölkim 'I left'
The following table gives a full overview of the alternations:
Proto-Samic
first vowel		Followed by
italic=no		Followed by
italic=no		Followed by
italic=no		Followed by
italic=no		Followed by
italic=no
italic=noitalic=noitalic=noitalic=noitalic=noitalic=no
italic=noitalic=noitalic=noitalic=noitalic=noitalic=no
italic=noitalic=noitalic=noitalic=noitalic=noitalic=no
italic=noitalic=noitalic=noitalic=noitalic=noitalic=no
italic=noitalic=noitalic=noitalic=noitalic=noitalic=no
italic=noitalic=noitalic=noitalic=no, italic=noitalic=no, italic=noitalic=no
italic=noitalic=no, italic=noitalic=noitalic=noitalic=noitalic=no
italic=noitalic=noitalic=noitalic=no, italic=noitalic=no, italic=no, italic=noitalic=no
italic=noitalic=no, italic=noitalic=noitalic=noitalic=no, italic=noitalic=no

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

Cases

Southern Sámi has eight cases:
Case Singular Plural
Nominative —italic=no
Accusative italic=noitalic=no; italic=no; italic=no
Genitive italic=noitalic=no; italic=no
Illative italic=no; italic=no; italic=noitalic=no; italic=no; italic=no
Inessive italic=no; italic=noitalic=no; italic=no; italic=no
Elative italic=no; italic=noitalic=no; italic=no; italic=no
Comitative italic=no; italic=no; italic=noitalic=no; italic=no
Essive —italic=no; italic=no; italic=no

Morphology

Nouns

Southern Sámi nouns inflect for singular and plural and have eight cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, illative, locative, elative, comitative, and essive, but number is not distinguished in the essive. Inflection is essentially agglutinative, but the case endings are not always the same in the plural and in the singular. The plural marker is -h in the nominative case, otherwise -i/j-, to which the case endings are added. There are five different inflection classes but no declension classes. All nouns take the same case markers.
The function of the nominative is to mark the subject, and the accusative marks the object. The nominative plural can also be used to mark plural objects, a feature called differential object marking, and here the noun gets an indefinite reading, while the accusative plural marks definite direct objects. The genitive is used in adnominal possession and marks the dependent of postpositions. The illative is a spatial case marking the recipient; while the locative and elative are also spatial cases, the locative is additionally used in existential constructions and the elative in partitive constructions. The comitative expresses participation and instrument, and the essive marks a state or a function.
Four stem classes can be distinguished: ie-stems, e-stems, a-stems, and oe-stems.
An overview of the modern inflection of guelie 'fish':
NominativeGenitiveAccusativeIllativeLocativeAblativeComitativeEssive
Singulargueliegueliengueliemgualanguelesneguelesteguelinegueline
Pluralgueliehgueliejguelideguelideguelineguelijstegueliejgujmie-

Earlier, in the comitative singular and in the plural, besides the nominative i, umlaut of the root vowel to öö took place: Gen. Pl. göölij etc.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns inflect for three numbers and seven cases. A demonstrative pronoun without specific deictic bias is employed as the third-person pronoun, treating dual and plural forms as indistinguishable. Additional pronouns encompass pronominal and adnominal demonstratives, along with interrogative and relative pronouns, reflexive, logophoric, reciprocal, and a variety of indefinite pronouns. The majority of these pronouns change based on whether they refer to a singular or plural entity, and some also adapt to different cases. Demonstratives distinguish between three degrees of distance relative to the speaker.
PersonSingularDualPlural
1mannemonnahmijjieh
2datnedotnahdijjieh
3dihtedahdah

Verbs

Southern Sámi verbs inflect for person and number. There are also two finite inflectional categories, the present and the past tense. Subject suffixes are the same across the tenses, and there are three different inflectional classes based on the thematic vowels and their behaviour in inflection. Furthermore, there are 4 non-finite forms: the perfect participle, the progressive, the infinitive, and the connegative and imperative form. Meanwhile, verbs express the TAM categories present indicative, past indicative, perfect, pluperfect, progressive, and imperative. The copula also inflects for the conditional.
In the verbum, a distinction must be made between odd-syllable and even-syllable verbs; in the latter, there are six different stem classes.
An overview of the forms of the ie stems using the example of båetedh 'to come':
PresentPastImperative
1SGbåatamböötimN/A
2SGbåatahböötihbåetieh
3SGbåataböötiN/A
1DUbåetienböötimenN/A
2DUbåetedenböötidenbåeteden
3DUbåetiejæganböötiganN/A
1PLbåetebeböötimhN/A
2PLbåetedeböötidhbåetede
3PLbåetiehböötinN/A
ParticiplebåetijebåatemeN/A
Negative FormbåetiehGerundbåetieminie
InfinitivebåetedhVerbal nounbåeteme