Lule Sami

Infobox Language
name=Lule Sami
nativename=julevsábme
region=Norway and Sweden
speakers=~2,000
iso1=
iso2=smj
iso3=smj
familycolor=Uralic
fam1=Uralic
fam2=Finno-Ugric
fam3=Finno-Permic
fam4=Finno-Volgaic
fam5=Finno-Lappic
fam6=Sami
fam7=Western
script=Latin alphabet

Lule Sami "(julevsámegiella)" is a Finno-Ugric, Sami language spoken in Lule Lappmark, i.e., around Luleå Sweden and in the province of Nordland in Norway. It is written using an official Roman orthography.

tatus

With 1,500 to 2,000 speakers it is the second largest of all Sami languages. It is reported that the number of native speakers is in sharp decline among the younger generations. The language has, however, been standardised in 1983 and elaborately cultivated ever since.

Grammar

Cases

Lule Sámi has 8 cases:

Nominative

Like the other Uralic languages, the nominative singular is unmarked and indicates the subject or a predicate.The nominative plural is also unmarked and always looks the same as the genitive singular.

Genitive

The "genitive" singular is unmarked and looks the same as the nominative plural. The genitive plural is marked by an "-j". The genitive is used:

*to indicate possession
*with prepositions
*with postpositions.

Accusative

The accusative is the direct object case and it is marked with "-v" in the singular. In the plural, its marker is "-t", which is preceded by the plural marker "-j".

Inessive

The inessive marker is "-n" in the singular and the plural, when it is then preceded by the plural marker "-j". This case is used to indicate:

*where something is
*who has possession of something

Illative

The illative marker is "-j" in the singular and "-da" in the plural, which is preceded by the plural marker "-i", making it look the same as the plural accusative. This case is used to indicate:

*where something is going
*who is receiving something
*the indirect object

Elative

The elative marker is "-s" in the singular and the plural, when it is then preceded by the plural marker "-j". This case is used to indicate:

*where something is coming from

Comitative

The comitative marker in the singular is "-jn" and "-j" in the plural, which means that it looks like the genitive plural. The comitative is used to state "with whom or what" something was done.

Pronouns

The personal pronouns have three numbers - singular, plural and dual. The following table contains personal pronouns in the nominative and genitive/accusative cases.

The next table demonstrates the declension of a personal pronoun "he/she" (no gender distinction) in various cases:

Verbs

Person

Lule Sami verbs conjugate for three grammatical persons:

*first person
*second person
*third person

Mood

Lule Sami has 4 grammatical moods:

*indicative
*imperative
*conditional
*potential

Grammatical number

Lule Sami verbs conjugate for three grammatical numbers:

*singular
*dual
*plural

Tense

Lule Sami verbs has two simple tenses:

*past
*non-past

and 2 compound tenses:

*perfect
*pluperfect

Verbal nouns

Negative verb

Lule Sami, like Finnish, the other Sámi languages and Estonian, has a negative verb. In Lule Sami, the negative verb conjugates according to tense (past and non-past), mood (indicative and imperative), person (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and number (singular, dual and plural).

Phonology

tress

Writing system

The orthography used for Lule Sámi is written using an extended form of the Latin alphabet. There are few special characters: á (a-acute), ń (n-acute), and å (a-ring). The character n-acute (Ń/ń) is the eng sound found in the English word "song", IPA| [ŋ] . In place of n-acute (found in Unicode, but not in ASCII), many use ñ or even ng.

References

* Spiik, Nils-Erik: "Lulesamisk grammatik"
* Grundström, Harald: "Lulesamisches Wörterbuch"
* Kintel, Anders 1991: "Syntaks og ordavledninger i lulesamisk". Kautokeino : Samisk utdanningsråd.
* Wiklund, K.B. 1890: "Lule-lappisches Wörterbuch". Helsinki: Suomalais-ugrilaisen seuran toimituksia ; 1

External links

* [http://www.ur.se/samasta/samasta1/index.html Sámásta Lule Sami lessons and resources] (in Swedish)
* [http://giellatekno.uit.no/d-smj.en.html Morphological analyzer for Lule Sámi]
* [http://giellatekno.uit.no/g-smj.en.html Language generator for Lule Sámi]
* [http://www.risten.no/bakgrunn/gram/smj/index.html Lule Sámi grammar in Norwegian] (Currently only covers pronouns).
* [http://www.bibeln.se/om_bibeln/adatestamenntadownload.html Ådå Testamennta] The New Testament in Lule Sámi (PDF)