Ter Sámi

Ter Sámi is the easternmost of the Sámi languages. It was traditionally spoken in the northeastern part of the Kola Peninsula, but now it is a moribund language; in 2004, only ten speakers were left. By 2011, the number of speakers had decreased to two. Other estimates counted about 30 Ter Sámi speakers in Murmansk Oblast, as well as in St. Petersburg, in 2007. The mean age of the youngest Ter Sámi speakers at that time was 50.

History

In the end of the 19th century, there were six Ter Sámi villages in the eastern part of the Kola Peninsula, with a total population of approximately 450. In 2004, there were approximately 100 ethnic Ter Sámi of whom two elderly persons speak the language; the rest have shifted their language to Russian.
The rapid decline in the number of speakers was caused by Soviet collectivisation, in the 1930s, and the largest Ter Sámi village, Yokanga, was declared "perspectiveless" and its inhabitants were forced to move to the Gremikha military base.

Documentation

There are no educational materials or facilities in Ter Sámi, and the language has no standardized orthography. The language is incompletely studied and documented, though text specimens and audio recordings as well as dictionaries for linguistic purposes exist.

Phonology

Consonants

All consonants except for /j/ may be palatalized .
Consonants /t, d/ can also sound as half-palatalized.

Vowels

After palatalized consonants, is realized as.

Writing system

A spelling system for Sámi languages using the Latin alphabet and based on Skolt Sámi was developed in the 1930s. Oktyabrina Voronova published the only poetry booklet in Ter Sámi in 1989 using an orthography based on the Cyrillic Kildin Sámi orthography of 1982.

Morphology

Ter Sámi has 8 cases, Nominative, Genitive, Accusative, Essive, Inessive-Lative, Dative-Illative, Abessive, and Comitative.

case	singular	plural
	-	change of the main part of word
	change of the main part of word	change of the main part of word
	change of the main part of word	t
	n	n
	s't	n
	a, i	t
	ta	ta
	n	k'em, g'em

Examples of the genitive

= raining cloud
= slaughter of deer
= German inhabitant
= Russian boys

Plurals

In the nominative case, the base word changes when a plural is made.

Word	Meaning	Plural	Meaning
mi̮rr	forest	mi̮r	forests
k'iлл	language	k'iл	languages
šiɛn'n'	swamp	šiɛn'	swamps
tast	star	taast	stars

The word ku 'who' in the cases.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	ku	kogg
Genitive	konn	kojt
Accusative	konn	kojt
Essive	kon'n'in	kojn
Inessive	kon'n'es't	kojn
Dative	kon'n'i	kojt
Abessive	konta	kojta
Comitative	kon'in	kojgujm