Ter Sami

Infobox Language
name=Ter Sami
nativename= unicode|saa´mekiill
region=Russia
speakers=10
iso1=smi
iso2=smi
iso3=sjt
familycolor=Uralic
fam1=Uralic
fam2=Finno-Ugric
fam3=Finno-Permic
fam4=Finno-Volgaic
fam5=Finno-Lappic
fam6=Sami
fam7=Eastern Sami
script=no writing system

Ter Sami is the easternmost of the Sami languages. It was traditionally spoken in the northeastern part of the Kola Peninsula, but now it is a dying language; in 2004, only ten speakers were left.fact|date=August 2008

History

In the end of the 19th century, there were six Ter Sami villages in the eastern part of the Kola Peninsula, with a total population of approximately 450. At present there are approximately 100 ethnic Ter Sami, of whom ten elderly persons speak the language; the rest have shifted their language to Russian. [Tiuraniemi Olli: "Anatoli Zaharov on maapallon ainoa turjansaamea puhuva mies", "Kide" 6 / 2004.]

The rapid decline in the number of speakers was caused by Soviet collectivisation, during which use of the language was prohibited in schools and homes in the 1930s, and the largest Ter Sami village Jokanga was declared "perspectiveless" and its inhabitants were forced to move to the Gremikha military base. [Tiuraniemi Olli: "Anatoli Zaharov on maapallon ainoa turjansaamea puhuva mies", "Kide" 6 / 2004.]

Documentation

There are no educational materials or facilities in Ter Sami, and the language has no standardized orthography. The language is incompletely studied and documented; text specimens, audio recordings as well as dictionaries for linguistic purposes exist [Itkonen T. I.: "Koltan- ja kuolanlapin sanakirja", Helsinki: Société Finno-Ougrienne, 1958.] [Itkonen T. I.: "Koltan- ja kuolanlappalaisia satuja", 1931."Memoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 60"] , but no grammatical description is available.

Curiously, the earliest known documentation of Sami languages is a short Ter Sami vocabulary collected by the British explorer Stephen Burrough in 1557; the vocabulary was published by Richard Hakluyt. [Aikio Samuli: "Olbmot ovdal min - Sámiid historjá 1700-logu rádjái". Girjegiisá: Kárášjohka, 1992.]

Notes