Southern Sámi
åarjelsaemien gïele
RegionNorway, Sweden
Native speakers
(600 cited 1992)[1]
Uralic
Latin
Official status
Official language in
Norway[2]
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-2sma
ISO 639-3sma
Glottologsout2674
ELPSouth Saami
Southern Sami language area (red) within Sápmi (grey)
South Saami is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010)
Åarjel-saemiej skuvle (Southern Sámi school) and maanagierte (kindergarten) in Snåsa.

Southern or South Sámi (Southern Sami: åarjelsaemien gïele; Norwegian: sørsamisk; Swedish: sydsamiska) is the southwesternmost of the Sámi languages, and is spoken in Norway and Sweden. It is an endangered language; the strongholds of this language are the municipalities of Snåsa, Røyrvik, Røros (Trøndelag, Central Norway) and Hattfjelldal (Nordland, Northern Norway) in Norway. Of the approximately 2000 Southern Sami, only about 500 still speak fluent Southern Sami. This language 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 Saami varieties/languages but these different Saamic languages are not individually recognized, and in Norway South Saami is recognized as a minority language in its own right.

It is possible to study Southern Sámi at Nord University in Levanger, Umeå University in Umeå, and Uppsala University in Uppsala. In 2018, two master's degrees were written in the language at Umeå University.[4] Language courses are also offered in different Sámi language centres throughout the south Sámi area.

Writing system

Southern Sámi is one of the six Sámi languages that has 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 language since 1978. The spelling is closely based on Swedish and Norwegian and uses the following Latin alphabet:

A a B b D d E e F f G g H h I i
Ï ï J j K k L l M m N n O o P p
R r S s T t U u V v Y y Æ æ Ö ö
Å å

The Sámi Language Council recommended in 1976 to use ⟨æ⟩ and ⟨ö⟩, but in practice the latter is replaced by ⟨ø⟩ in Norway and the former by ⟨ä⟩ in Sweden.[5] This is in accordance with the usage in Norwegian and Swedish, 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⟩, ⟨Z z⟩ are only used in words of foreign origin.

Long sounds are represented with double letter for both vowels and consonants.

Phonology

Southern Sámi has 15 consonant and 11 vowel phonemes, there are six places of articulation for consonants (bilabial, labio-dental, denti-alveolar, palatal, velar and glottal) and six manners of articulation.

There are also two dialects, the northern and the southern dialect. The phonological differences between the dialects are relatively small; the phonemic system of the northern dialect is explained below.

The typical word in South Saami is disyllabic with a long stem vowel and ends in a vowel, like in the word /pa:ko/ 'word'. Functional words are monosyllabic as are the copula and the negative auxiliarity. Stress is fixed and always word initial. Words with more than 3 syllables get a secondary stress in the penultimate syllable.

Vowels

The 11 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, ae, o).

The vowel phonemes of the northern dialect are the following; orthographic counterparts are given in italics:

front central back
unrounded rounded unrounded rounded
close i ⟨i⟩ y ⟨y⟩ ɨ ⟨ï⟩, ⟨i⟩[lower-alpha 1] ʉ ⟨u⟩ u ⟨o⟩
mid e ⟨e⟩, eː ⟨ee⟩ øː ⟨öö⟩ o ⟨å⟩, oː ⟨åå⟩
near-open æ ⟨æ⟩, ⟨ä⟩,[lower-alpha 2] ⟨ee⟩[lower-alpha 3]
open aː ⟨ae⟩ ɑ ⟨a⟩, ɑː ⟨aa⟩
  1. ↑ 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.
  2. ↑ The spelling ⟨æ⟩ is used in Norway, and ⟨ä⟩ in Sweden.
  3. ↑ Long /æː/ is written ⟨ee⟩.

The non-high vowels /e/, /æ/, /o/ and /ɑ/ contrast in length: they may occur as both short and long. High vowels only occur as short.

The vowels may combine to form ten different diphthongs:

front front to back central to back central to front back to front back
close to mid /ie/ ⟨ie⟩ /yo/ ⟨yø⟩, ⟨yö⟩ /ʉe/ ⟨ue⟩; /ɨe/ ⟨ïe⟩, ⟨ie⟩ /uo/ ⟨oe⟩
close to open /ʉɑ/ ⟨ua⟩
mid /oe/ ⟨øø⟩, ⟨öö⟩
mid to open /eæ/ ⟨ea⟩ /oæ/ ⟨åe⟩ /oɑ/ ⟨åa⟩

Consonants

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

Labial Dental Alveolar Postalveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m ⟨m⟩ n ⟨n⟩ ɲ ⟨nj⟩ ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Plosive unaspirated p ⟨b⟩, ⟨p⟩ t ⟨d⟩, ⟨t⟩ ts ⟨ts⟩ tʃ ⟨tj⟩ c ⟨gi⟩, ⟨ki⟩ k ⟨g⟩, ⟨k⟩
aspirated pʰ ⟨p⟩ tʰ ⟨t⟩ cʰ ⟨ki⟩ kʰ ⟨k⟩
Fricative voiceless f ⟨f⟩ s ⟨s⟩ ʃ ⟨sj⟩ h ⟨h⟩
voiced v~ʋ ⟨v⟩
Approximant j ⟨j⟩
Lateral l ⟨l⟩
Trill r ⟨r⟩

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:

  • ⟨ae⟩ ~ ⟨aa⟩ ~ ⟨ee⟩: vaedtsedh 'to walk' : vaadtsam 'I walk' : veedtsim 'I walked'
  • ⟨ue⟩ ~ ⟨ua⟩ ~ ⟨öö⟩: 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
*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 Sami is the only Sami language that does not have consonant gradation. Hence consonants in the middle of words never alternate in Southern Sami, even though such alternations are frequent in other Sami languages. Compare, for instance, Southern Sami nomme 'name' : nommesne 'in the name' to Northern Sami namma : namas, with the consonant gradation mm : m.

Cases

Southern Sami has eight cases:

Case (kaasuse) Singular (aktentaale) Plural (gellientaale)
Nominative (nominatijve) — -h
Accusative (akkusatijve) -m -i·te; -i·die; -j·te
Genitive (genitijve) -n -i; -j
Illative (illatijve) -se; -sse; -n -i·te; -i·die; -j·te
Inessive (inessijve) -sne; -snie -i·ne; -i·nie; -j·ne
Elative (elatijve) -ste; -stie -i·ste; -i·stie; -j·ste
Comitative (komitatijve) -i·ne; -i·nie; -j·ne -i·gujmie; -j·gujmie
Essive (essijve) — -i·ne; -i·nie; -j·ne

Morphology

Nouns

Southern Sami's nouns inflect for singular and plural and has eight cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, illative, locative, elative, comitative and essive, but number is not distinguished in the essive. The inflection is essentially agglutinative, but the case endings are not always the same in the plural as in the singular. The plural sign 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 is also used to mark plural objects, also called differential object marking and here, the object gets an indefinite reading, while the accusative plural marks definite objects. The genitive is used in adnominal possession and marks the dependet of postpositions. Illative is a spatial case marking the recipient, while locative and elative are also spatial cases, but the locative is also used in existential constructions and the elative in partitive constructions. And comitative expresses participation and instrumental and the essive marks a stare or a function.

Four stem classes can be distinguished: ie-stems, e-stems, a-stems, and oe-stems.

Overview of the modern inflection of guelie '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.

Pronouns

The personal pronouns inflect for singular, dual and plural and seven cases which are all of the above with 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 make distinctions across three distances relative to the speaker.

South Saami personal pronouns:
Person Singular Dual Plural
1 manne monnah mijjieh
2 datne dotnah dijjieh
3 dihte dah dah

Verbs

The South Sami verbs inflect for person and number, singular, dual and plural, whereby, dual is an optional category. And, there are also two finite inflectional categories, the present and the past tense. The subject suffixes are the same and there are three different inflectional classes which are 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, the verbs express the TMA categories present tense indicative, past tense indicative, perfect, pluperfect, progressive and imperative but additionally, 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.

Overview of the forms of the ie stems using the example of båetedh 'to come':

Present Past Tense Imperative
1.Sg. båatam böötim
2.Sg. båatah böötih båetieh
3.Sg. båata bööti
1.Du. båetien böötimen
2.Du. båeteden böötiden båeteden
3.Du. båetiejægan böötigan
1.Pl. båetebe böötimh
2.Pl. båetede böötidh båetede
3.Pl båetieh böötin
Participle båetije båateme
Negative Form båetieh Gerund båetieminie
Infinitive båetedh Verbal noun båeteme

Adjectives

The morphology of adjectives is restricted to comparative and superlative forms. Some have different forms in attributive and predicative position but the most are invariable.

Person

Southern Sámi verbs conjugate for three grammatical persons:

  • first person
  • second person
  • third person

Mood

Tense

Grammatical number

Southern Sámi verbs conjugate for three grammatical numbers:

Negative verb

Southern Sámi, like Finnish, the other Sámi languages, and Estonian, has a negative verb. In Southern Sámi, the negative verb conjugates according to tense (past and non-past), mood (indicative and imperative), person (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and number (singular, dual and plural). This differs from some other Sámi languages, e.g. from Northern Sámi, which do not conjugate according to tense.

Southern Sámi negative verb, indicative forms
Non-past indicativePast indicative
SingularDualPluralSingularDualPlural
1st imeanibieidtjimidtjimenidtjimh
2nd ihidienidieidtjihidtjidenidtjidh
3rd ijeakaneahidtjiidtjiganidtjin
Southern Sámi negative verb, imperative forms
Non-past imperativePast imperative
SingularDualPluralSingularDualPlural
1st aelliemaellienaellebeollemollenollebe
2nd aelliehaelledenaelledeollholledenollede
3rd aellisaellisaellisollesollesolles

Syntax

Like Skolt Sámi and unlike other Sámi languages, Southern Sámi has the basic structure SOV (Subject-Object.-Verb). Only the copula ('to be') and auxiliary verbs appear second. The case alignment system is nominative-accusative. But, plural objects are also 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 for plural object in the nominative:

dellie manne naarra-h tjeegk-i-m

then 1.SG.NOM snare-NOM.PL set.up-PST-1SG

"Then I set up snares".

Subject and agent are always marked identically, with the nominative and 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 expressed in periphrastic constructions with an auxiliary. Subject agrees with auxiliary but it is not obligatory. Subject is either marked on the pronoun or inferred from context. Imperative second singular uses the same non-finite irrealis form also used in negation constructions.

Verbal Agreement
Verb form Auxiliarity 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

South Saami has some features that separate it from it closest relatives, like SOV instead of SVO as basic constituent order, no stem gradation and a genitive possessive. Nevertheless, most features in the language are commonly found in other Uralic languages.

References

  1. ↑ Southern Sámi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ "Samelovens språkregler og forvaltningsområdet for samisk språk". Regjeringen.no (in Norwegian). Statsministerens kontor. 2014-08-12. Retrieved 2018-01-30. Forvaltningsområdet for samisk språk omfatter [...] Snåasen tjïelte/Snåsa kommune og Raarvihke Tjielte/Røyrvik kommune i Nord-Trøndelag.
  3. ↑ "To which languages does the Charter apply?". European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Council of Europe. p. 5. Archived from the original on 2013-12-27. Retrieved 2014-04-03.
  4. ↑ "Umeå University". Retrieved 2019-07-06.
  5. ↑ Magga, Ole Henrik; Magga, Lajla Mattsson (2012). Sørsamisk grammatikk [A Grammar of South Sami] (in Norwegian). Kautokeino: Davvi Girji. p. 12. ISBN 978-82-7374-855-3.
  • Bergsland, Knut. Røroslappisk grammatikk, 1946.
  • Jussi Ylikoski. South Saami, 2022.
  • Knut Bergsland. Sydsamisk grammatikk, 1982.
  • Knut Bergsland and Lajla Mattson Magga. Åarjelsaemien-daaroen baakoegærja, 1993.
  • Hasselbrink, Gustav. Südsamisches Wörterbuch I–III
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