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.
Southern Sámi is one of the eightSámi 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 followingLatin 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.[7] This is in accordance with the usage inNorwegian andSwedish, based on computer or typewriter availability. The⟨Ï ï⟩ represents a back version of⟨I i⟩; however, many texts fail to distinguish between the two.
⟨C c⟩,⟨Q q⟩,⟨W w⟩,⟨X x⟩, and⟨Z z⟩ are only used in words of foreign origin.
Long sounds are represented with double letters for both vowels and consonants.
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.
The eleven vowel phonemes comprise four phonologically short and long vowels (i-i:, e-e:, a-a:, u-u:) and three vowel phonemes which do not distinguish length (ø, æ, o).
The vowel phonemes of the northern dialect are the following; orthographic counterparts are given in italics:
^The distinction between the vowels/i/ and/ɨ/ is normally not indicated in spelling: both of these sounds are written with the letter⟨i⟩. However, dictionaries and other linguistically precise sources use the character⟨ï⟩ for the latter vowel.
^The spelling⟨æ⟩ is used in Norway, and⟨ä⟩ in Sweden.
In Southern Sámi, the vowel in the second syllable of a word causes changes to the vowel in the first syllable, a feature calledumlaut. 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:
The following table gives a full overview of the alternations:
Proto-Samic first vowel
Followed by *ā
Followed by *ē
Followed by *ō
Followed by *ë
Followed by *i
*ā
aa
ae
aa
aa
ee
*ea
ea
ie
ea
aa
ee
*ie
ea
ie
ea
ïe
ie
*oa
åa
åe
åa
oe
öö
*uo
ua
ue
åa
oe
öö
*ë
a
e
æ,å
a,ï
e
*i
æ,ij
i
æ
ïj
i
*o
å
u
å,a
o,a,ov
u
*u
å,a
u
å
o,ov
u
On the other hand, Southern Sámi is the only Sami language that does not haveconsonant 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 Sáminomme 'name' :nommesne 'in the name' toNorthern Sáminamma :namas, with the consonant gradationmm :m.
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 (direct) objects, a feature calleddifferential 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 ofguelie 'fish':
Nominative
Genitive
Accusative
Illative
Locative
Ablative
Comitative
Essive
Singular
guelie
guelien
gueliem
gualan
guelesne
gueleste
gueline
gueline
Plural
guelieh
gueliej
guelide
guelide
gueline
guelijste
gueliejgujmie
-
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.
Personal pronouns inflect for three numbers (singular, dual, and plural) and seven cases (all of the above with the exception of the essive). 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.
Southern Sámi verbs inflect for person (first, second, and third) and number (singular, dual, and plural, where dual is an optional category). 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':
The morphology of adjectives is restricted to comparative and superlative forms. Some have different forms in attributive and predicative position, but most are invariable.
Southern Sámi, like Finnish and the other Sámi languages, has anegative verb. In Southern Sámi, the negative verb conjugates according totense (past and non-past),mood (indicative and imperative),person (first, second, and third), andnumber (singular, dual, and plural). This differs from some other Sámi languages, e.g.Northern Sámi, which do not conjugate according to tense.
LikeSkolt Sámi and unlike other Sámi languages, Southern Sámi has preserved the basic structureSOV (Subject-Object-Verb). Only the copula ('to be') and auxiliary verbs appear second. The case-alignment system is nominative-accusative. However, plural objects are also sometimes marked with the nominative. Objects in the nominative plural get an indefinite reading, while objects in the accusative plural are definite. This applies for nouns as well as pronouns. An example of a plural object in the nominative:
Subject and agent are always marked identically, while the marking of the object depends on definiteness.
Different marking strategies
Subject
Object
Reading of object
NOM
ACC.SG
definite or indefinite
NOM
ACC.PL
definite
NOM
NOM.PL
indefinite
The verb agrees with the subject in person and number. The TAM categories mentioned above are based on non-finite verb forms and are expressed in periphrastic constructions with an auxiliary. The subject agrees with the auxiliary, but it is not obligatory. It is either marked on the pronoun or inferred from context. The imperative second singular uses the same non-finite irrealis form also used in negation constructions.
Verbal Agreement
Verb form
Auxiliary
Agreement
present
finite
–
person/number
past
finite
–
person/number
imperative
non-finite
–
2SG
perfect
non-finite
yes-PRS
person/number with AUX
pluperfect
non-finite
yes-PST
person/number with AUX
progressive
non-finite
yes-PRS
person/number with AUX
past progressive
non-finite
yes-PST
person/number with AUX
Southern Sámi has some features that separate the language from its closest relatives, like SOV instead of SVO as basic constituent order, no stem gradation, and a genitive possessive. Nevertheless, most features of Southern Sámi are commonly found in other Uralic languages.
^"Samelovens språkregler og forvaltningsområdet for samisk språk".Regjeringen.no (in Norwegian). Statsministerens kontor. 2014-08-12. Retrieved2018-01-30.Forvaltningsområdet for samisk språk omfatter [...] Snåasen tjïelte/Snåsa kommune og Raarvihke Tjielte/Røyrvik kommune i Nord-Trøndelag.
^Magga, Ole Henrik; Magga, Lajla Mattsson (2012).Sørsamisk grammatikk [A Grammar of South Sami] (in Norwegian). Kautokeino: Davvi Girji. p. 12.ISBN978-82-7374-855-3.
Sámi lottit Names of birds found inSápmi in a number of languages, including Skolt Sámi and English. Search function only works with Finnish input though.
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