Introduction
This website was designed to host what aims to be the first English language grammar of South Saami, an endangered language spoken by between a few hundred and a thousand Saami people on both sides of the border between Norway and Sweden in the southwest of the Sápmi region. A map of this region and the extent of the different Saami languages is included on this page.
The Saami languages all developed from a common ancestor we call Proto-Saami. As a result, the languages share much basic vocabulary and some linguistic features. However, many differences between the languages have developed since the time that Proto-Saami was spoken. Furthermore, many populations were forced to move from their traditional lands and many varieties of Saami languages were lost, forming gaps in what was once a dialect continuum. The extant Saami languages are thus not mutually intelligible.
Particularly notable for South Saami specifically is that it is the only Saami language not to exhibit consonant gradation. It has separate inessive and elative cases where e.g. North Saami has a single locative case, subject-object-verb (SOV) word order, and a system of metaphony. It has also been affected by phonological shifts and significant influence from the North Germanic Swedish and Norwegian languages. The result is that it is rather distinct from the other Saami languages, and this impression is reinforced by a writing system which owes more to Swedish and Norwegian than other Saami orthographies.
South Saami grammar will feel quite unfamiliar to English speakers, with its dense system of grammatical cases, lack of articles and SOV word order. Other features include a dual grammatical number, no grammatical gender, and a negative verb. On the other hand, the Saami languages are closely related to the Finnic languages, a group which includes Finnish and Estonian, having developed from a common protolanguage. Thus, the two groups share some features, and Finnish speakers in particular will be familiar with some of the grammatical concepts. However, the aim has been to make these features comprehensible to those who have not come across them before—that is, most English speakers.
This grammar is split into a section on fundamentals, which are relevant across many parts of speech, followed by sections on each part of speech. As an appendix, there is a section on phonology. There is no recommended order to read these sections, but familiarity with the fundamentals of South Saami grammar (cases, stems, metaphony) will make the latter sections easier to understand and an idea of the phonology of the language is assistive when reading the examples throughout the grammar.
This grammar is by no means comprehensive and is not intended as a language-learning course. It also likely contains errors, for which I apologise in advance, and if you have any corrections, comments or suggestions please get in touch by email to jack@southsaami.com.
Finally, it is left only to add that, in producing this resource, I am indebted to the work of Marit Fjellheim, Sissel Jåma, Trond Trosterud and Lene Antonsen, whose Norwegian language online mini grammar serves as the basis for this resource, as well as my introduction to the language and my inspiration. I direct speakers of Norwegian to their certainly superior effort on the OAHPA website. A short bibliography follows, although it is worth mentioning again that the majority of these are in Norwegian:
Bibliography
Fjellheim, Marit, Sissel Jåma, Trond Trosterud & Lene Antonsen. 2012. Sørsamisk nettgrammatikk. Tromsø: Aajege og Giellatekno, UiT Norges arktiske universitet.
Bergsland, Knut. 1994. Sydsamisk grammatikk. Kárášjohka/Karasjok: Davvi Girji.
Magga, Ole Henrik & Lajla Mattsson Magga. 2012. Sørsamisk grammatikk. Kárášjohka/Karasjok: Davvi Girji.
Sammallahti, Pekka. 1998. The Saami languages: an introduction. Kárášjohka/Karasjok: Davvi Girji.
Ylikoski, Jussi. 2022. South Saami In: The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages. Ed. Bakró-Nagy et al. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
The grammar is a work-in-progress: at the moment, only the section on fundamentals and the appendix on phonology have content.
