| Skolt Sami |
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HISTORY The Skolt Sami language was spoken in four villages on Finnish territory prior to the Second World War. In Petsamo, there was Suonikylä, and the Petsamo village. This area was ceded to Russia in the Second World War, and Skolts were evacuated to the villages of Inari, Sevettijärvi and Nellimö in the Inari municipality. As a historic note, this region was hit hard by the first of the great famines of the 19th Century which happened about 1913. Most people moved out of this northernmost area to the Americas or parts of Fennoscandia further South as a consequence. For those interested in doing Sami-American research, check York county, Pennsylvania. This area had five Sami settlements since the 17th Century. Many Skolt Sami fled there to escape the famine mentioned above. STATUS In the Finnish side of the border, the language is officially supported. It is an official language in the municipality of Inari , and the elementary schools offer courses in the language. However, most youths have Finnish as their first language, such that it must be taught like a foreign language. These youths do learn the language and some continue to use it actively. Skolt Sami is thus an Endangered Language , unlike the neighboring Inari Sami with the same number of speakers, in the same Municipality . According to Roger Took, author of several books focusing on the Sami, there are about 1,000 remaining native speakers of Skolt Sami in Russia. PHONOLOGY Special features of this Sami language include the most complex vowel system in Finnic languages, and various soft consonants. There is a "softener mark", represented by the free-standing acute accent (´), which marks phonemic fronting of the preceding vowel, and also palatalizes the following consonant. Vowels may be phonemically long or short. The vowel system is as follows: :Notes:
There are 13 phonemic segmental diphthongs: ui, uo/uõ, ue, uå, uâ, uä, oä, iõ, ie, iâ, iä, ea, eä. The total number of diphthongs is 18, but all do not phonemically contrast, e.g. 'oa' and 'oä'. Most diphthongs may also be affected by the softener mark. Also, the first vowel may be long or short. Consonants may be phonemically long or short word-medially or word-finally; both are exceedingly common. A typical Sami feature is that also consonant clusters may be long or short, e.g. ''ju´rdded'' "to think", ''kuoskkâd'' "to touch". In consonants, all voiced plosives are half-voiced (weak voicing). Alveolar affricates are denoted Ʒ (voiced) and '''C''' [ts (voiceless). The caron is used inconsistently for postalveolar articulation in '''Č''' '''Ǯ''' [dʒ , '''Š''' '''Ž''' [ʒ , and for the palatal or velar palatalized stops '''Ǧ''' and '''Ǩ''' [c . The latter (Ǩ, Ǧ) are in between K and T with respect to place of articulation. (Notice the disagreement between Skolt Sami orthography and IPA, and the difference between historical and synchronic palatalization.) The strike indicates fricative articulation; '''D''' is a dental stop, '''Đ''' is a dental fricative. Palatalization is distinguished for three degrees. The plain form is velarized and receives no overt marking, the palatalized form is recognized by an adjacent softener mark, and full palatal articulation receives overt marking by digraphs in 'j'. For example, plain L is velarized with the tip of the tongue barely touching the back of the teeth, the softened '''´L''' is constricted by keeping the tongue wider against the teeth, and the fully palatal '''LLJ''' has the middle of the tongue touching the hard palate. The same distinction is found for '''N''', '''´N''' and '''NJ'''. Orthography A short period of voicelessness or 'h' before geminate consonants is observed, but this receives no marking, e.g. ''jo´kke'' "to the river" is pronounced The epenthetic vowels are not phonemic or syllabic, and thus not marked, e.g. ''mie´ll'' [miellɘ̯ "sandbank", cf. ''mielle'' [mielle] "to the mind". A Roman alphabet is used: A/a, Â/â, B/b, C/c, Č/č, Ʒ/ʒ, Ǯ/ǯ, D/d, Đ/đ, E/e, F/f, G/g, Ǧ/ǧ, Ǥ/ǥ, H/h, I/i, J/j, K/k, Ǩ/ǩ, L/l, M/m, N/n, Ŋ/ŋ, O/o, Õ/õ, P/p, R/r, S/s, Š/š, T/t, U/u, V/v, Z/z, Ž/ž, Å/å, Ä/ä, ´ (softener mark). The letters Q/q, W/w, X/x, Y/y and Ö/ö are also used in words of a foreign origin. REFERENCES
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