is the south-westernmost of the
Sami Languages . It is a seriously endangered language; the last strongholds of this language are the municipalities of
Snåsa and
Hattfjelldal in
Norway . There are approximately 2000 people considered ethnically Southern Sami in Norway and Sweden, but only approximately 500 of them can fluently speak the language.
Even though Southern Sámi is one of the six
Sámi Languages that has an official written language, only a few books have been published for the language, one of which is a good-size Southern Sámi-Norwegian dictionary.
Southern Sami uses the
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, Ø/ø, Å/å
Ä/ä is a variant of Æ/æ, Ö/ö is a variant of Ø/ø. The variants Ä/ä, Ö/ö are used in
Sweden , Æ/æ, Ø/ø in Norway, in accordance with the usage in
Swedish and
Norwegian . The Ï/ï represents a back version of I/i, many texts do not distinguish between the two.
C/c, Q/q, W/w, X/x, Z/z are used in words of foreign origin.
Southern Sami has 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 vowel phonemes of the northern dialect are the following; orthographic counterparts are given in brackets:
1The distinction between the vowels and 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.
2The letter ''æ'' is used in Norway, and ''ä'' in Sweden.
The non-high vowels ''e'', ''ε'', ''o'' and ''a'' 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 :
A typical feature of Southern Sami is the alteration of first-syllable vowels through
Umlaut in the declension and conjugation of words. Often there are three different vowels that alterate 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'' ~ ''øø'': ''vuelkedh'' 'to leave' : ''vualkam'' 'I leave' : ''vøølkim'' 'I left'
On the other hand, Southern Sami is the only Sami language that does not have ''namma'' : ''namas'', with the consonant gradation ''mm'' : ''m''.
Southern Sámi has 8
Cases :
Southern Sámi is one of the few
Sámi Languages that still differentiates between the accusative and the genitive morphologically.
Southern Sami
Verbs conjugate for three
Grammatical Persons :
- first person
- second person
- third person
Southern Sami
Verbs conjugate for three
Grammatical Numbers :
Southern Sami, 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 the other
Sami Languages , e.g., from
Northern Sami , which do not conjugate according to
Tense .
Unlike the other
Sámi Languages , Southern Sámi is an
SOV Language .
- Bergsland, Knut. ''Røroslappisk grammatikk'', 1946.
- Bergsland, Knut. ''Sydsamisk grammatikk'', 1982.
- Bergsland, Knut and Lajla Mattson Magga. ''Åarjelsaemien-daaroen baakoegærja'', 1993.
- Hasselbrink, Gustav. ''Südsamisches Wörterbuch I–III''
