Lule Sami

Lule Sami julevsábme
Spoken in:	Norway and Sweden
Total speakers:	~2,000
Language family:	Uralic  Finno-Ugric   Finno-Permic    Finno-Volgaic     Finno-Lappic      Sami       Western        Lule Sami
Writing system:	Latin alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	smj
ISO 639-3:	smj
Lule Sami is 4 on this map.
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

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.

[edit] Status

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.

[edit] Grammar

[edit] Cases

Lule Sámi has 8 cases:

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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

[edit] 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

[edit] 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

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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:

[edit] Verbs

[edit] Person

Lule Sami verbs conjugate for three grammatical persons:

• first person
• second person
• third person

[edit] Mood

Lule Sami has 4 grammatical moods:

• indicative
• imperative
• conditional
• potential

[edit] Grammatical number

Lule Sami verbs conjugate for three grammatical numbers:

• singular
• dual
• plural

[edit] Tense

Lule Sami verbs has two simple tenses:

• past
• non-past

and 2 compound tenses:

• perfect
• pluperfect

[edit] Verbal nouns

[edit] 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).

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Stress

[edit] 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", [ŋ]. In place of n-acute (found in Unicode, but not in ASCII), many use ñ or even ng.

[edit] 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

[edit] External links

• Sámásta Lule Sami lessons and resources (in Swedish)
• Morphological analyzer for Lule Sámi
• Language generator for Lule Sámi
• Lule Sámi grammar in Norwegian(Currently only covers pronouns).
• Ådå Testamennta The New Testament in Lule Sámi (PDF)