Translated from âNorðurlandamĂĄlin með rĂłtum og fĂłtumâ which you can download for free here in Scandinavian, Faroese, and Icelandic. Neetainari gave a lot of corrections on typos/where the paper got it wrong.
*Translation Note: âFlatlandsâ was suggested as a better alternative by Neetainari as the actual translation âplains/prairiesâ is totally wrong and they donât even have those things (too big – so the flatlands are just small areas too). âboplatserna/bĂșsvÊðinâ was translated into âcamp sitesâ because of a discussion I found on the word, debating âcamp siteâ versus âsettlementâ, where it was pointed out that Sami people didnât really have âsettlementsâ.
The Icelandic chapter was translated from the Swedish version. The Icelandic version was missing some things and unclear on some things (namely the Sami names for Nordic places and some vocabulary) so I compared the Swedish to the Icelandic in those cases to get the translation.
Again this is intended for Sami-language learners, so I didnât translate many of the cultural/historical notes, just the language notes. In the Greenlandic chapter there were mistakes in what it was teaching, and now itâs been shown to have mistakes in the Sami chapter too, so if you see any more mistakes just tell me so I can fix them.
xxx
The Sami languages are usually broken down into three distinct languages with dialects within: Eastern Sami, Middle Sami, and Southern Sami. These Sami languages are not mutually intelligible.
(Note: Neetainari says the dialect break-down is wrong. They also got the Greenlandic dialects wrong, so maybe they just donât do good research.)
Eastern Sami languages include:
Inari Sami which is spoken around Finland and the lake Inari
Skolt Sami which is spoken in Finland and Russia
Kildin, Akka, and Ter Sami which are spoken in the Kola Peninsula.
Middle sami includes:
Northern Sami, spoken on the beach of Norway
Finnmark Sami, spoken in Finnmark in Norway (Kautokeino and Karasjokk) and spoken in some nearby areas of Finland (Utsjoki)
Torne Sami, Spoken in the north of GĂ€llivare in Sweden, and nearby areas in Finland and Norway. (Note: this seems to be very outdated/wrong, âTorne Samiâ might be something from the 1700âs if anything, but it doesnât seem to exist as a modern language and there seem to be only two sources {in Swedish] that used the term on the internet. It might be a miscategorization of one of the dialects.)
Lule Sami, spoken in Jokkmokk in Sweden and near Tysfjord in Norway
Pite Sami, spoken in the area of Arjeplog
Southern Sami includes:
Ume Sami, spoken in VĂ€sterbotten
Southern Sami, spoken in Southern-VĂ€sterbotten and in JĂ€mtland.
Places with Sami people often have Sami names, for example:
Giron (Kiruna – Sweden)
Guovdageaidnu (Finnmark Sami, Kautokeino – Norway)
KĂĄrĂĄĆĄjohka (Finnmark Sami, Karasujok – Norway)
Ohcejohka (Finnmark Sami, Utsjoki – Finland)
JiellevĂĄrri (Torne Sami, Gallivare – Sweden)
JĂ„hkĂ„mĂ„hkke (Lule Sami, Jokkmokk – Sweden)
Divtasvuodna (Lule Sami, Tysfjord – Norway)
GuolĂĄdat (Northern Sami, ĐĐŸÌĐ»ŃŃĐșĐžĐč ĐżĐŸĐ»ŃĐŸÌŃŃŃĐŸĐČ / Kola Peninsula – Russia)
In Sami are words that can be traced back to more than 6.000 years ago, for example the words njuolla (scar), juoksa (arc, curve, bow, now an archaic word), suotna (sinew, tendon), guolli (fish), njoammil (hare). These examples are from North Sami. There are words from the Uralic and West-Siberian languages too.
goahti – tent
liepma – meat broth
njuovvat – slaughter
lohkat – read/calculate
beana – dog
gĂĄma – shoe
reahpen – smoke-hole in a tent
mĂĄdjit – beer (Neetainariâs note: âNever heard this word being used of beer.â)
suotna – sinew (Indo-European loanword)
bassi – holy (Germanic loanword)
dohppa – knife sheath (Germanic)
ĂĄiru – oar (the book claimed this means âyearâ – the real word for year is âjahkiâ)
gĂĄica – goat (Old Norse – compare Icelandic geit)
gussa – cow (Old Norse)
vuostĂĄ – cheese (Old Norse – compare Icelandic ostur)
bĂĄlkĂĄ – salary (Old Finnish)
boallu – button (Old Finnish)
dĂĄvdĂĄ – disease/illness (Old Finnish)
oastit – buy (Old Finnish)
(T.N.: Neetainari and I agree that they might just be pulling this etymology out of their asses, to me especially because they donât list the similar words and are very unspecific – if you know what theyâre talking about, please comment)
Some parts of modern Swedish words have been taken from Sami:
sarvvis – Swedish: sarv (meaning male reindeer)
rĂĄidu – rajd (reindeer)
noaidi – nĂ„jd (Sami Shaman)
Many Finnish words about reindeer have also been taken from Sami, especially Northern Sami:
varit – Finnish: urakka, Swedish âhanren i tvÄÄrsĂ„ldernâ (male reindeers in their second winter)
suohpan – suopunki (lasso, snare)
Sami is a language with cases. Verbs change by subject and they get nine varying forms in the present because Sami isnât merely âsingular and pluralâ, but also has âdualâ. The word shown earlier, âborrat (eat)â is shown here again. All the examples are taken out of Northern Sami (saN).
(mon) boran – (I) eat
(don) borat – (you) eat
(son) borrĂĄ – (he/she) eats
(moai) borre – (us two) eat
(doai) borrabeahtti – (you two) eat
(soai) borraba – (those two) eat
(mii) borrat – (we) eat
(dii) borrabehtet – (you plural) eat
(sii) borret – (they) eat
Mutation in length and validity
In Sami there is a unique phenomenon, a so-called mutation in length and sound value, that means that consonants essentially change with conjugation/declination either in length like in âborat – borrĂĄâ in the example above, or in characteristic (for example âloddi – birdâ to âlotti – the birdâs). Many examples are of sound-mutations which basically change in verbs and nouns. The fact that Southern Sami is the only type of Sami without mutations in length or validity supports the idea that Southern Sami was separated from the other Sami languages early on in its history.
Cases:
In Sami words get cases – that is to say names, adjectives, nouns, pronouns, and numbers are often distinct in conjugation/declination patterns when there are prepositions, for example (saN) âvĂĄris – on the mountainsâ which is the locative-declined form of âvĂĄrri – mountainsâ. In Sami there are seven cases. Northern Sami has genitive (possessive form) and accusative case together, likewise for elative and inessive (together called locative).
Nominative case (dictionary form) – sĂĄpmi – a Sami
Genitive case (possessive form) – sĂĄmi – a Samiâs
Accusative (subject of sentence) – sĂĄmi – a Sami
Illative – sĂĄpmĂĄi – to a Sami
Elative – sĂĄmis – from a Sami
Inessive – sĂĄmis – with a Sami
Comitative – sĂĄmiin – with a Sami
Essive – sĂĄpmin – like a Sami
(Neetainari note: âWhile the word sĂĄpmi (sĂĄmi, sĂĄmit) gets used about the Saami people generally when spelled with a lower-case s, the uppercase SĂĄpmi refers to the Saami area. When referring to an individual Saami person, the more specific word sĂĄpmelaĆĄ is used.â)
There are no articles in Sami, neither definite (âtheâ) or indefinite (âaâ) and for example âsĂĄpmiâ means Sami, the Sami, or a Sami and the translation depends on context.
Unique prepositions are in Sami, for example âbirra dĂĄlu – around the houseâ, but a natural translation is to use suffixes that go on after the main word, for example âdĂĄlu duohken – behind the houseâ, literally âhouse behindâ.
The declension system has its own word order and isnât so important (like how it is in English) for the meaning to be clear. In the sentence âNiila oaidnĂĄ MĂĄhteâ (NĂls sees Matthias) itâs NĂls who sees Matthias even if the word order were different, for example âMĂĄhte oaidnĂĄ Niilaâ. The word MĂĄhte is changed to accusative and is the object of the sentence but Niila stands in nominative and is the subject of the sentence. (Which case the words are in determines the meaning of the sentence, not where the words are placed in the sentence.) Often though, the object is nearer to the end of the sentence.
Many declination/conjugation forms are also generated from existing possibilities to form new words with so-called derived-endings. From the verb borrat (eat) it is, for example, possible to form the following new words with derived-endings:
borralit – eat fast
borastit – eat little
boradit – eat (a meal)
borahit – spoon-feed
borahallat – to be bitten
borrojuvvot – eating
borramuĆĄ – the thing to eat (ex. food)
New words in Sami can be derived from old words, for example:
dieÄĂĄhus (information) from dieÄihit (illuminate/inform/educate),
bagadeaddji (supervisor/ advisor) from bagadit (give advice),
Äoavddus (solution) from Äoavdit (loosen/solve),
ÄĂĄlĂĄn (writer/printer) from ÄĂĄllit (write).
There are special verbs – negative verbs – that are used in sentences with negations, for example âmon in dieÄe – I know notâ. Negative verbs conjugate according to person, but the main verb dieÄe (from diehtit – know) stands in infinitive and is unconjugated. In the past tense a different conjugation pattern is used.
mon in dieÄe – I donât know (I know not)
mii eat dieÄe – we donât know
mon in diehtĂĄn – I didnât know
mon in diehtĂĄn – we didnât know
Time and mood:
Although present and past tense are the same, word-forms in the perfect and pluperfect/past perfect tenses (in the indicative mood) form with the helper-word leat. In Sami, helper words decline based on person, number, and mood.
son lea oastĂĄn odda biila – he/she has bought a new car
mon lean oastĂĄn odda biila – I have bought a new car
son leai oastĂĄn odda biilla – he/she had bought a new car
mon ledjen oastĂĄn odda biilla – I had bought a new car
The indicative mood is a mood that says that which is being said is understood to be the truth (factual statements/positive beliefs). Another mood in Sami is the imperative which says that what is being said is understood to be a request or command, ex. BoaÄe sisa! – (Come in! – said to an individual). This is done in another way if said to two people: Boahtti sisa! (Neetainariâs note: this is used, but the correct form is actually âboahttitâ) And if said about more than two: Bohtet sisa!
In addition verbs can be in the conditional mood, which talks of conditions, ex. mon vuolggĂĄĆĄin dohko, jus ⊠(I would go there ifâŠ) and the potential (potentialis), a mood that governs possibility and doubt, ex. in dieÄe boÄeĆĄ go son ihttin (I donât know if heâs coming tomorrow). In this manner Sami verbs can take many forms, like how borrat (eat) can be conjugated in 45 different ways.
Written customs and language sounds:
In Northern Sami the alphabet is the following:
a ĂĄ b c Ä d Ä e f g h i j k l m n Ć o p r s ĆĄ t Ƨ u v z ĆŸ
The sound ĂĄ is a longer sound and distinguishes pronunciation, ex. âmannĂĄ – he goesâ and âmĂĄnnĂĄ – childâ. The sound o is pronounced like the Icelandic o-sound (in English: oa in oar, o in more, ou in four) and u is pronounced like the Icelandic Ăł-sound (in English: o in sew, row, foe), ex.:
loddi [lĂ„d.di] – bird
unni [on.ni] – little
The period is to introduce a new syllable.
C stands for the âseeâ sound and Ä for the âteeâ sound, Z and ĆŸ are similarly voiced sounds, for example:
ÄĂĄhci [tjah.tsi] – water
vĂĄzzit [vad.dsit] – walk/go
oaĆŸĆŸut [oad.dtjot] – recieve
ĆĄ stands for the âssâ sound, ex.:
ĆĄaddu [sjad.do] – fruit
Ä and Ƨ (Icelandic ð and ĂŸ) are voiced and unvoiced fricatives, for example (the th sounds in bathe versus bath):
lieÄÄi [liedh.dhi] – red
muoƧƧå [muoth.tha] – motherâs sister (aunt on the motherâs side)
(Neetainariâs note: This paper is outdated and the publications it talks about are no longer made, however âthe Internet is, believe it or not, TOTALLY a thing. Some Saami publications and news sources worth checking out:
- Ăvvir (newspaper published in Norway)
- Ć (a youth magazine published in Norway)
- Anarùƥ (Inari Saami publication from Anarùƥkielù servi, not exactly a news source)
- SĂĄgat (Saami section at Lapin Kansa, published both in print and online in Finlandâmostly in North Saami, with some Skolt and Inari Saami articles)
- YLE SĂĄpmi
- NRK SĂĄpmi
- SVT SĂĄpmi
Iâm missing some, for example thereâs an excellent magazine published by the SĂĄminuorra in Sweden, but I forget its name and couldnât find it online. Feel free to add, yo.â)
By Paulus Utsi:
Reagganan rĂĄhkisvuohta / Painful love
Nu go roankesoahki / Like a crooked birch
orru duottarravddas / on a brown mountain
nu lea biegga botnjan / my life is
mu nai eallima / shaken by the wind
Nu go soagi mĂĄtta / Like the birchâs trunk
bievlla vuostĂĄ ÄuovgĂĄ / shines on naked earth
nu ohcalan vĂĄriide / I long for the mountains
lĂĄguide ja oruhagaide / flatlands* and camp sites* (see T.N. at the top)
Dat lea mu eallin / Such is my life
man mon rĂĄhkistan / that I love