Pite Sami

Infobox Language
name=Pite Sami
nativename=
region=flagicon|Norway Norway
flagicon|Sweden Sweden
speakers=~20
iso1=
iso2=smi
iso3=sje
familycolor=Uralic
fam1=Uralic
fam2=Finno-Ugric
fam3=Finno-Permic
fam4=Finno-Volgaic
fam5=Finno-Lappic
fam6=Sami
fam7=Western
script=Latin alphabet

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 ten 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.

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 five 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

* [http://www.kirjasto.oulu.fi/saamilottit/ 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.