Skolt Saami

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Skolt Saami
Autoglottonym: Sääˊmǩiõll
Pronunciation: [{{{Pronunciation}}}]
Ethnologue name: Saami, Skolt
OLAC name: {{{OLACname}}}
Location point:
Genealogy
Family: Uralic
Genus: Mainland East-Saamic
Speakers
Country: Finland, Norway, Russian Federation
Official in: Finland (Inari)
Speakers:
Writing system: {{{WritingSyst}}}
Codes
ISO 639-3: {{{ISO3}}}

Skolt Saami is one of the five living East-Saamic languages.

Name

The name "skolt" is derived from the Scandinavian "skalle" meaning "scull", however the Skolt Saami people themselves prefer to be referred to as "Eastern Saami" since "Skolt" is perceived to be more negative.

Location

Skolt Saami is spoken on the mainland, as opposed to Kildin and Ter Saami which are peninsular languages. It is spoken primarily in Finland, but there are also small numbers of speakers in Russia and Norway. Since the Skolt Saami populations are distributed over these three countries and not all Skolt Saami acquire the language, Skolt Saami is considered a minority language which is threatened by extinction.

Speakers

There are estimated to be about 330-340 speakers, with the majority of whom (about 300) living in Finland. There are about 30 Skolt Saami speakers in Russia and just 3 in Norway. Almost all of its speakers are bilingual.

Dialects

Skolt-Saami can be split up into the following dialects:

  • Njauddâm
  • Paaččjokk – Peäccam – Mue´tǩǩ
  • Suõ´nn’jel
  • Njuõ´ttjäu´rr – Sââ´rvesjäu´rr.

Classification

Uralic
Saamic
East-Saamic
Mainland East-Saamic

Links


Works on the language

Tim Feist. 2010. A Grammar of Skolt Saami. Ph.D. thesis, University of Manchester. https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/uk-ac-man-scw:123128

References


See also

Survey articles on Skolt Saami linguistic structures:

Language articles on the other Kola Saami languages

Other Languages