Inari Sami
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Inari Sami (anarâškielâ) is a Finno-Ugric, Sami language spoken in Finland by some 300-400 people, the majority of which are middle-aged or older and live in the town of Inari. It is the only Sami language that is spoken exclusively in Finland. The language is classified as being seriously endangered as few children learn the language.
History
The first book in Inari Sámi was Anar sämi kiela aapis kirje ja doctor Martti Lutherus Ucca katkismus written and translated by Edvard Wilhelm Borg in 1859. The written history of modern Inari Sami is said to begin with Lauri Arvid Itkonen's translation of the history of the bible in 1906 although he did translate some other books before that (Martin Luther and John Charles Ryles). After that, Inari Sami was mainly published in books written by linguists, Frans Äimä and Erkki Itkonen, in particular. For many years, there was little literature written in Inari Sami, although [Sämitigge] has funded and published a lot of books, etc., in recent years.
Since 1992, Finland's Sami have had the right to interact with officials in their own language in areas where they have traditionally lived: in Enontekiö, Utsjoki, Inari and the northern part of Sodankylä as official policy favors the conservation of the language. All announcements in Inari, which is the only officially quadrilingual municipality in Finland, must be made in Finnish, North Sami, Inari Sami and Skolt Sami. Only about 10% of public servants in the area can actually serve the Inari Saami-speaking population in Inari Saami, so Finnish is used by the remaining 90%.
In 1986, the Anarâškielâ Servi (Inari Sámi Association) was founded in order to promote the language and its use. The association also publishes a lot of books, textbooks, a calendar, etc. in Inari Sami. They have also established a language immersion program in 1997 for 3-6-year-old children in a day care in Inari and Ivalo.
A new phenomenon has been the fact that Inari Sami is currently being used in rap songs by Mikkal Morottaja, whose stage name is [Amoc].
Orthography
Inari Sámi is written using an extended version of the Latin alphabet. The alphabet currently used for Inari Sami was made official in 1996 and stands as follows:
A/a, (Â/â), B/b, C/c, Č/č, D/d, Đ/đ, E/e, F/f, G/g, H/h, I/i, J/j, K/k, L/l, M/m, N/n, O/o, P/p, R/r, S/s, Š/š, T/t, U/u, V/v, Y/y, Z/z, Ž/ž, Ä/ä, (Á/á).
The phonetic values are the same as in Karelian, and đ represents the voiced dental fricative (in English "the"), and á is a half-long "a". Q/q, W/w, X/x, Å/å, Ö/ö are also used in words of foreign origin.
Grammar
Cases
Inari Sámi has 9 cases, although the genitive and accusative are oftentimes the same:
The partitive appears to be a highly unproductive case in that it appears to only be used in the singular.
Pronouns
The personal pronouns have three numbers - singular, plural and dual. The following table contains personal pronouns in the nominative and genitive/accusative cases.
| English | nominative | English | genitive | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First person (singular) | I | mun | my | muu |
| Second person (singular) | you (thou) | tun | your, yours | tuu |
| Third person (singular) | he, she | sun | his, her | suu |
| First person (dual) | we (two) | muoi | our | munnuu |
| Second person (dual) | you (two) | tuoi | your | tunnuu |
| Third person (dual) | they (two) | suoi | theirs | sunnuu |
| First person (plural) | we | mij | our | mii |
| Second person (plural) | you | tij | your | tii |
| Third person (plural) | they | sij | their | sii |
The next table demonstrates the declension of a personal pronoun I/we (dual)/we (plural) in the various cases:
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | mun | muoi | mij |
| Genitive-Accusative | muu | munnuu | mii |
| Locative | must, muste | munnust | mist, miste |
| Illative | munjin | munnui | mijjân |
| Comitative | muuin, muin | munnuin, munnuuin | miiguim |
| Abessive | muuttáá | munnuuttáá | miitttáá |
| Essive | munen | munnun | minen |
| Partitive | muđe | munnud? | miđe? |
Mood
Inari Sámi has 4 grammatical moods:
- indicative
- imperative
- conditional
- potential
References
- Itkonen, Erkki. Inarilappisches Wörterbuch. Lexica societatis fenno-ugricae: 20. Suomalais-ugrilainen seura. Helsinki. ISBN 951-9019-94-4.
- Sammallahti, Pekka. Morottaja, Matti. Säämi-suoma sänikirje. Inarinsaamelais-suomalainen sanakirja. Girjegiisá. Ykkösoffset Oy, Vaasa 1993. ISBN 951-8939-27-6.
- Olthuis, Marja-Liisa. Kielâoppâ. [Inari] : Sämitigge, 2000.
- Østmo, Kari. Sämikielâ vieres kiellân vuáðuškoovlâst. Helsinki : Valtion painatuskeskus, 1988.
Links
- [Salminen, Tapani. UNESCO Red Book on Endangered Languages. 1993.]
- [Kimberli Mäkäräinen] A minute vocabulary (Inari Sámi-English) (233 words)
- [Northern Sámi - Inari Sámi - Skolt Sámi - English dictionary] (requires a password nowadays)
- [Names of birds found in Sápmi in a number of languages, including Skolt Sámi and English. Search function only works with Finnish input though.]
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