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Pite Sami Language Information

Pite Sami, also known as Arjeplog Sami, is a Sami language traditionally spoken in Sweden and Norway. It is a critically endangered language[1] that has only about 25–50[2] native speakers left and is now only spoken on the Swedish side of the border along the Pite River in the north of Arjeplog and Arvidsjaur and in the mountainous areas of the Arjeplog municipality.

Contents

Grammar

Cases

Pite Sámi has 9 cases:

Verbs

Person

Pite Sami verbs conjugate for three grammatical persons:

Mood

Pite Sami has five grammatical moods:

Grammatical number

Pite Sami verbs conjugate for three grammatical numbers:

Tense

Pite Sami verbs conjugate for two simple tenses:

and two compound tenses:

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

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Writing system

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

References

  1. ^ UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger
  2. ^ At least 25 speakers in 2010 according to researcher Joshua Wilbur. At least 30 active, native speakers in 2010; at least an additional 20 native speakers who do not use the language actively according to the Pite Sami dictionary project leader Nils Henrik Bengtsson.

External links

Uralic languages
Finnic Estonian · Finnish (Kven · Meänkieli) · Ingrian · Karelian (Ludic · Olonets Karelian) · Livonian · South Estonian (Võro · Seto) · Veps · Votic
Sami Akkala · Inari · Kemi · Kildin · Lule · Northern · Pite · Skolt · Southern · Ter · Ume
Miscellanea Mari (Hill · Meadow) · Erzya · Moksha · Merya · Muromian · Meshcherian
Permic Komi (Zyrian · Permyak · Yodzyak) · Udmurt
Ugric Hungarian · Khanty · Mansi
Samoyedic Enets · Yurats · Forest Nenets · Tundra Nenets · Nganasan · Kamassian · Koibal · Mator · Selkup
Italics indicate extinct languages

Categories:

 

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