PITE SAMI

'Pite Sami', also known as Arjeplog Sami, is a Sami language spoken in Sweden and Norway. It is a dying language that has only about 10 native speakers left and is spoken mainly on the Swedish side of the border along the Pite River in the north of Arjeplog and Arvidsjaur.

Contents

Grammar

Cases

Verbs

Person

Mood

Grammatical number

Tense

Negative verb

Phonology

Writing system

References

External links

Grammar

Cases

Pite Sámi has 9 cases:

★ Nominative

★ Genitive

★ Accusative

★ Inessive

★ Illative

★ Elative

★ Comitative

★ Essive

★ Abessive

Verbs

Person

Pite Sami verbs conjugate for three grammatical persons:

★ first person

★ second person

★ third person

Mood

Pite Sami has 5 grammatical moods:

★ indicative

★ imperative

★ conditional

★ potential

★ optative

Grammatical number

Pite Sami verbs conjugate for three grammatical numbers:

★ singular

★ dual

★ plural

Tense

Pite Sami verbs conjugate for two simple tenses:

★ past

★ non-past
and two compound tenses:

★ perfect

★ pluperfect

Negative verb

Pite Sami, like Finnish, the other Sámi languages and Estonian, has a negative verb. In Pite Sámi, the negative verb conjugates according to mood (indicative, imperative and optative), 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 and other Sami languages, that do not use the optative.
Non-past indicative Past indicative
sg. du. pl. sg. du. pl.
1 iv ien iehp 1 ittjiv iejmien iejmieh
iep ittjijmen ittjijmeh
2 ih iehpien iehpit 2 ittjih iejtien iejtieh
ehpien ihpit ittjijtien ittjijteh
ihpien
3 ij iepaa ieh 3 ittjij iejkaan ittjin
iepaan ittjijka
For non-past indicative versions that have more than one form, the second one is from the dialect spoken around Björkfjället and the third is from the Svaipa dialect. The plurality in the other forms is due to parallel forms that are not bound by dialect.
Imperative Optative
sg. du. pl. sg. du. pl.
1 - - - 1 alluv iellun iellup
allun allup
2 ielieh iellien iellit 2 alluh ielluten ielluteh
alluten alluteh
3 - - - 3 allus ielluska ielluseh
alluska alluseh

Phonology

Writing system

Pite Sámi is one of the four Sámi languages that does not have an official written language.

References

★ Lagercrantz, Eliel: Sprachlehre des Westlappischen nach der Mundart von Arjeplog. Helsinki: Suomalais-ugrilainen seura, 1926, ISSN 0355-0230.

★ Lehtiranta, Juhani: Arjeploginsaamen äänne- ja taivutusopin pääpiirteet. Helsinki: Suomalais-ugrilainen seura, 1992, ISBN 951-9403-55-8.

External links

★ Sámi lottit Names of birds found in Sápmi in a number of languages, including Skolt Sámi and English. Search function only works with Finnish input though.