Inari Sámi language

Inari Sámi ( or ) is a Sámi language spoken by the Inari Sámi of Finland. As of 2018, Inari Sámi has approximately 400 speakers, the majority of whom are middle-aged or older and live in the municipality of Inari. According to the Sámi Parliament of Finland, 269 persons used Inari Sámi as their first language. It is the only Sámi language that is spoken exclusively in Finland. There may be as many as nine Sámi languages. The traditional Sámi homeland, Sápmi, encompasses the northern regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and parts of Russia. Sámi is the only officially recognized indigenous group in the European Union. marking the beginning of Inari Sámi's decrease in use. since reindeer husbandry is part of traditional Sámi culture. Sámi languages like Inari Sámi were targeted and discouraged, with students encouraged to assimilate into Finnish language and culture.

Modern Inari Sámi

200px|thumb|left|Edvard Wilhelm Borg's Anar sämi kiela aapis kirje ja doctor Martti Lutherus Ucca katkismus

The first book in Inari Sámi was Anar sämi kiela aapis kirje ja doctor Martti Lutherus Ucca katkismus, which was written and translated by Edvard Wilhelm Borg in 1859. The written history of modern Inari Sámi, however, is said to begin with Lauri Arvid Itkonen's translation of the history of the Bible in 1906, although he had already translated some other books into Inari Sámi (Martin Luther and John Charles Ryles). After that, Inari Sámi was mainly published in books written by linguists, in particular Frans Äimä and Erkki Itkonen. For many years, very little literature was written in Inari Sámi, although Sämitigge has funded and published a lot of books, etc., in recent years.

The destruction of important historical items during World War II prompted the formation of the Siida Museum in Inari in 1963. The language nest model was inspired by a similar program used to preserve the Māori language in New Zealand. Olthuis then created the Complementary Aanaar Saami Language Education (CASLE) program, teaching nonnative adult speakers the Inari Sámi language. CASLE participants learned how to teach the language and use it on an everyday basis — they then became teachers for new language nests, allowing the Anarâškielâ servi program to expand.

Olthuis said in 2025 that she estimated Inari Sámi had about 500 total speakers as a result of language revival efforts. located on the shore of Lake Inari (the Inari Sámi name for the village is enclosed in parentheses):

Aksujärvi (Ákšujävri)
Iijärvi (Ijjävri)
Inari (Aanaar)
Ivalo (Avveel)
Kaamanen (Kaamâs)
Menesjärvi (Menišjävri)
Nellim (Njellim)
Partakko (Päärtih)
Repojoki (Riemâšjuuhâ)
Sevettijärvi (Čevetjävri)
Syysjärvi (Čovčjävri)
Tirro (Mosshâš)

Phonology

Consonants

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"

|+ Inari Sámi consonants

! colspan="2" |

! Labial

! Dental

! Alveolar

! Postalveolar

! Palatal

! Velar

! colspan="2" | Nasal

! rowspan="2" | Plosive / Affricate

!rowspan=2| Fricative

|rowspan=2|

! rowspan="2" | Approximant

!colspan=2| Trill

Vowels

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

! Front

! Central

! Back

! Close

! Mid

! Open

| ()

Notes:

The central open vowel was distinguished only in older Inari Sámi. In the modern language, it has merged into the front vowel .

Prosody

Inari Sámi, like the other Samic languages, has fixed word-initial stress. Words are furthermore divided into feet, usually consisting of two syllables each, and with secondary stress on the first syllable of every foot. In the other Samic languages the last syllable in a word with an odd number of syllables is not assigned to a foot. In Inari Sámi, however, two important changes in the early development of Inari Sámi have changed this structure, making the prosodic rhythm quite different:

In words with an odd number of syllables, the last two syllables were converted into a foot, leaving the third-last syllable as a foot of its own.
The apocope of certain final vowels, in words of three syllables or more, reduced this new final foot to a single syllable.

Consequently, Inari Sámi distinguishes prosodically between words that originally ended in a vowel but have undergone apocope, and words that already ended in a consonant in Proto-Samic.

This rearrangement of the foot structure has an effect on the length of vowels and consonants.

Orthography

Inari Sámi is written using the Latin script. The alphabet currently used for Inari Sámi was made official in 1996 and stands as follows:

{| style="font-family:Arial Unicode MS; font-size:1.4em; border-color:#000000; border-width:1px; border-style:solid; border-collapse:collapse; background-color:#F8F8EF"

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |A a

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Á á

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ä ä

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Â â

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |B b

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |C c

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Č č

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |D d

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Đ đ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |E e

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |F f

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |G g

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |H h

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |I i ,

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |J j

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |K k

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |L l

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |M m

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |N n

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ŋ ŋ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |O o

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |P p

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |R r

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |S s

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Š š

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |T t

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |U u

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |V v

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Y y

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Z z

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ž ž

As in Karelian but not Northern Sámi, b, d, and g represent true voiced stops, while p, t, and k represent voiceless unaspirated stops. However, the letters č, đ, ŋ, š, z, and ž have the same values as in Northern Sámi. Q/q, W/w, X/x, Å/å, Ö/ö are also used in words of foreign origin. Á was traditionally pronounced in the middle of a and ä, but in modern Inari Sámi the distinction between á and ä is nonexistent. In writing, Á and ä are nevertheless considered separate characters. Ä is used in:

the first syllable of a word, when there is an e or i in a second syllable of the same word,
a word of only one syllable (although á is also used), or
the diphthong iä (but not in the diphthong uá).

Marks used in reference works

In dictionaries, grammars and other linguistic works, the following additional marks are used. These are not used in normal writing.

A dot is placed below consonants to indicate a half-long consonant: đ̣, j̣, ḷ, ṃ, ṇ, ṇj, ŋ̣, ṛ, ṿ. Some works may instead print the letter in bold, or use a capital letter.
A vertical line ˈ (U+02C8 MODIFIER LETTER VERTICAL LINE), typewriter apostrophe or other similar mark is placed between consonants to indicate that the preceding consonant is long, and the preceding diphthong is short. It is only used when a diphthong precedes.
The same mark placed between a diphthong and a consonant indicates that the diphthong is short.
The same mark placed between a single vowel and a consonant indicates that the vowel is half-long.

Grammar

Consonant gradation

Consonant gradation is a pattern of alternations between pairs of consonants that appears in the inflection of words. Consonant gradation in Inari Sámi is more complex than that of other Sámi languages, because of the effects of the unique stress pattern of Inari Sámi. Like in other Sámi languages, there is a distinction between the strong and weak grade, but a second factor is whether the consonants appear in the middle of a foot (FM) or in the juncture between two feet (FJ). In the latter case, consonants are often lengthened.

{| class="wikitable"

! rowspan="2" | Q3

! colspan="2" | Q2

! rowspan="2" | Q1

! FM

! FJ

| đđ

| đ̣

| đđ

| đ

| jj

| j̣

| jj

| j

| ll

| ḷ

| ll

| l

| mm

| ṃ

| mm

| m

| nn

| ṇ

| nn

| n

| rr

| ṛ

| rr

| r

| vv

| ṿ

| vv

| v

{| class="wikitable"

! rowspan="2" | Q3

! colspan="2" | Q2

! colspan="2" | Q1

! FM

! FJ

! FM

! FJ

| cc

| c

| cc

| colspan="2" | s

| čč

| č

| čč

| j̣

| jj

| kk

| h

| h/hh

| ṿ

| vv

| pp

| p

| pp

| colspan="2" | v

| ss

| s

| ss

| colspan="2" | s

| šš

| š

| šš

| colspan="2" | š

| tt

| t

| tt

| colspan="2" | đ

Umlaut

Umlaut is a phenomenon in Inari Sámi, whereby the vowel in the second syllable affects the quality of the vowel in the first.

The following table lists the Inari Sámi outcomes of the Proto-Samic first-syllable vowel, for each second-syllable vowel.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

! Proto

! *ā, *ō

! *ē

! *ë, *i, *u

! Inari

! á, o/u

! e/i

! â/a, i, u

! *ë

| colspan="2" | a || o

! *o

| colspan="2" | o || u

! *i

| colspan="3" | i

! *u

| colspan="3" | u

! *ā

| á || ä || a

! *ea

| iä || colspan="2" | e

! *

| iä || colspan="2" |

! *oa

| colspan="2" | uá || o

! *uo

| uá || ye || uo

As can be seen, several of the Proto-Samic vowels have identical outcomes before certain second-syllable vowels. Only before Proto-Samic *ē are all vowels distinguishable. For example, Proto-Samic *oa and *ë both appear before *ë as o, while *o and *u both appear as u. In cases where the second-syllable vowel changes, it is necessary to know which series the vowel of a particular word belongs to. For example, "to drink" has the third-person singular present indicative form , while "to end" has ; the former originates from Proto-Samic *u, the latter from *o.

A second kind of umlaut also occurs, which operates in reverse: when the first syllable contains a (originating from Proto-Samic *ë) and the second syllable contains á, the second-syllable vowel is backed to a. Thus, the third-person singular present indicative form of "to go" is (rather than *), and the illative singular of "age" is (rather than *).

Nouns

Inari Sámi has nine cases, although the genitive and accusative are often the same:

Nominative
Genitive
Accusative
Locative
Illative
Comitative
Abessive
Essive
Partitive

The partitive appears to be a highly unproductive case in that it seems to only be used in the singular. In addition, unlike Finnish, Inari Sámi does not make use of the partitive case for objects of transitive verbs. Thus "" could translate into Finnish as either "" (English: "I'm eating (all of) the bread") or "" (I'm eating (some) bread, or generally, I eat bread); this telicity contrast is mandatory in Finnish.

Pronouns

The personal pronouns have three numbers: singular, plural and dual. The following table contains personal pronouns in the nominative and genitive/accusative cases.

{| class="wikitable"

! rowspan="2" |

! colspan="2" | singular

! colspan="2" | dual

! colspan="2" | plural

! nominative || genitive

! 1st person

! 2nd person

! 3rd person

The next table demonstrates the declension of a personal pronoun I/we (dual)/we (plural) in the various cases:

{| class="wikitable"

!Singular

!Dual

!Plural

!Nominative

| || ||

!Genitive-Accusative

| || ||

!Locative

| , || || ,

!Illative

| || ||

!Comitative

| , || , ||

!Abessive

| || ||

!Essive

| || ||

!Partitive

| || --- || ---

Verbs

Person

Inari Sámi verbs conjugate for three grammatical persons:

first person
second person
third person

Mood

Inari Sámi has five grammatical moods:

indicative
imperative
conditional
potential
optative

Grammatical number

Inari Sámi verbs conjugate for three grammatical numbers:

singular
dual
plural

Tense

Inari Sámi has two simple tenses:

past
non-past

and two compound tenses:

perfect
Pluperfect

Verbal nouns

Negative verb

Inari Sámi, like Finnish and the other Sámi languages, has a negative verb. In Inari Sámi, the negative verb conjugates according to mood (indicative, imperative and optative), person (1st, 2nd, 3rd) and number (singular, dual and plural).

{|class="wikitable"

!colspan="4"| Ind. pres.

!colspan="4"| Imperative

!colspan="4"| Optative

! || sg. || du || pl. || || sg. || du || pl. || || sg. || du || pl.

! 1

| jiem || iän || ep

! 1

| – || – || – |

! 1

| iällum|| iälloon|| iällup

! 2

| jieh || eppee|| eppeđ

! 2

| ele || ellee || elleđ

! 2

| ele || ellee || elleđ

! 3

| ij || iävá|| iä

! 3

| – || – || –

! 3

| iälus|| iällus || iällus

References

;General

Itkonen, Erkki. Inarilappisches Wörterbuch. Lexica societatis fenno-ugricae: 20. Suomalais-ugrilainen seura. Helsinki. .
Morottaja, Matti. Anarâškielâ ravvuuh – inarinsaamen kieliopas Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja: 56. Helsinki 2018. Näköisjulkaisu painetusta teoksesta (2007). .
Taarna Valtonen and Jussi Ylikoski and Ante Aikio. 2022. Aanaar (Inari) Saami. In Marianne Bakró-Nagy, Johanna Laakso and Elena Skribnik (eds.), The Oxford guide to the Uralic languages, 178–195. Oxford: Oxford University Press., ISSN 2323-3370.
Olthuis, Marja-Liisa. Kielâoppâ. Inari : Sämitigge, 2000.
Sammallahti, Pekka. Morottaja, Matti. Säämi-suoma sänikirje. Inarinsaamelais-suomalainen sanakirja. Girjegiisá. Ykkösoffset Oy, Vaasa 1993. .
Østmo, Kari. Sämikielâ vieres kiellân vuáđuškoovlâst. Helsinki : Valtion painatuskeskus, 1988.

External links

Say it in Saami Yle's colloquial Northern Sami-Inari Sami-Skolt Sami-English phrasebook online
Brief history of Inari Sami
Salminen, Tapani. UNESCO Red Book on Endangered Languages. 1993.
Kimberli Mäkäräinen A minute vocabulary (Inari Sami-English) (233 words)
Names of birds found in Sápmi in a number of languages, including Skolt Sami and English. Search function only works with Finnish input though.
Inari Sami language resources at Giellatekno
Clip about keeping Inari Sami alive (requires RealPlayer)
The Inari Sami Language by Toivonen and Nelson
Hans Morottaja speaks about himself, etc. in Inari Sami
The Children's TV series Binnabánnaš in Inari Sami
Pustaveh anarâškielân – Aakkoset inarinsaameksi Inari Sami alphabet by the Finnish Sami Parliament