| | The Sami languages
The
Sami languages are spoken by over 30,000 Sami in the north of Norway, Sweden,
Finland and Russia
Present
status of the Sami languages
The
Sami people are traditionally considered the indigenous inhabitants of the
Scandinavian peninsula. It is estimated that there are at present between 50,000
to 80,000 Sami living in the region of Lapland, wich stretches over four countries
from northern Norway to the Kola peninsula in Russia. The exact number of Sami
inhabitants in all those four countries is not known because the definition of
Sami ethnic affiliation varies from country to country. In any case, the
largest Sami population is found in Norway, followed by Sweden, Finland and Russia.
A total of ten Sami languages are spoken in that very extense geographical area,
that equals the size of the largest European and north American states. Northern
Saami is the largest-spoken Sami language, with speakers in the three Nordic countries.
Some of the lesser-spoken Sami languages count only with a few hundred speakers
each and are threatened of extinction. It has been estimated that the total number
of Sami speakers is approximately 30,000.
The Sami languages are nowadays
official in some Sami territories of Norway, Sweden and Finland, and are taught
and learnt at schools and universities. The Norwegian Constitution of 1988 declared
that the State of Norway had a responsibility to "create conditions enabling
the Sami people to preserve and develop its language, culture and way of life".
In 1992 the Finnish Language Act granted the right for the Sami people to use
their languages for all communication with the local, regional and national government.
In 2002 Sami became one Sweden's of five recognised minority languages.
Classification of the Sami languages
The Sami languages belong
to the Finno-Ugrian language family and are therefore linguistically related to
other Finnic languages such as Finnish and Estonian. Similarly to what happens
with languages belonging to the Germanic family (English, German, Swedish, etc)
or to the Romance family (Spanish, Italian, Romanian, etc), some Sami languages
can be so different from one another that, for example, a speaker of Lule Sami
and a speaker of Kildin Sami woud not be able to understand each other if they
both tried to communicate only in their own Sami language. In total, there are
a ten Sami languages spoken today: the languages of the western Sami group
(South, Ume, Pite, Lule and North Sami) and the languages of the eastern Sami
group (Inari, Skolt, Akkala, Kildin and Ter Saami).
»
Northern Saami :
| | Northern
Sami is the largest-spoken Sami language, used by a 75% of all the Sami-speaking
population. According to different surveys, the total number of Northern Sami
speakers vary between 15,000-30,000 people across Norway, Sweden and Finland.
The Northern Sami language has a common grammar and is the principal teaching
language in some of the schools in Finnish Lapland. |
» Lule Saami :
| | Lule
Sami is the second largest Sami language with an estimated of 1,500-2,000 speakers
across Norway and Sweden. |
» Kildin Saami :
| | Kildin
Sami is still spoken by about 800 Sami people in the Kola peninsula, Russia. Kildin
Saami is written written in Cyrillic alphabet. |
» Southern Saami and Ume Saami :
| | Southern
Sami and Ume Sami are often considered as two dialects of the same Sami language.
Southern Sami is spoken in Norway and Sweden by about 500 people, most of them
concentrated in the Norwegian municipalities of Snåsa and Hattfjelldal.
Ume Sami counts only with about a dozen speakers and is on the verge of extinction. |
» Enare
Saami :
| | Inari
Sami is spoken by about 400 people in Inari, Finnish Lapland. Inari Sami enjoys
official status in the region where it is spoken and can be learnt at some schools.
The municipality of Inari has four official languages (Finnish, Inari Sami, Skolt
Sami and Northern Sami), and therefore local government communications are set
to be quatrilingual.. |
»
Skolt Saami :
| | Skolt
Sami is spoken by about 300 people in Finland, Russia, and in a small part of
Norway. Skolt Sami enjoys official status in the Finland, where it can be learnt
at some schools and is one of the four official languages of the Inari municipality,
along with Finnish, Inari Sami, and Northern Sami. |
» Akkala Saami, Ter Saami, Pite Saami :
| | Akkala
Sami, Ter Sami, and Pite Sami have very few speakers left and are in serious danger
of extinction. Akkala Sami and Ter Sami are spoken in Russia and count with less
than a dozen speakers each. Pite Sami was a language spoken by the Sami of Norway
and Sweden, but counts today with only ten speakers. |
» Kemi Saami (extinct) :
| | Kemi
Sami is an example of a Sami language that has already died. Kemi Sami was spoken
in the southernmost regions of Finnish Lapland and neighbouring Russia until the
1850s and was quite close to Inari Sami and Skolt Sami. Several written examples
of Kemi Sami have been conserved in two joik poems from 1673 and in a short vocabulary
collected in 1829. |
Do
you want to know more about the Sami languages?
The Nordic
Directory > Education
(Nordic)
Higher education institutions offering programmes on Sami
language and culture.
The Scandinavian Shop > Speak
Saami
Sami language courses.
The Nordic Directory >
Nordic Media
Newspapers
and radio in Sami language.
Visit The
Sámi Council website:
The Sámiráddi was founded
in 1956 to maintain the economic, social and cultural rights of the Sami in the
legislation of the four states where the Saami are living.
Visit The
Sami Parliament in Sweden website:
The Sámediggi / Sametinget
was founded in 1993 as a Government authority with 31 members, elected in a general
election by Sami entitled to vote.
|
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