Lule Sami

Lule Sami (julevsáme) 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.

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.

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.

	English	nominative	English	genitive
First person (singular)	I	mån	my	muv
Second person (singular)	you (thou)	dån	your, yours	duv
Third person (singular)	he, she	sån	his, her	suv
First person (dual)	we (two)	måj	our	munnu
Second person (dual)	you (two)	dåj	your	dunnu
Third person (dual)	they (two)	såj	theirs	sunnu
First person (plural)	we	mij	our	mijá
Second person (plural)	you	dij	your	tijá
Third person (plural)	they	sij	their	sijá

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

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	sån	såj	sij
Genitive	suv	sunnu	sijá
Accusative	suv	sunnuv	sijáv
Inessive	sujna	sunnun	sijan
Illative	sunji	sunnuj	sidjij
Elative	sujsta	sunnus	sijas
Comitative	sujna	sunnujn	sijájn

Verbs

Mood

Tense

Verbal nouns

Phonology

Stress

Writing system

The orthography used for Lule Sámi is written using an extended form of the Latin alphabet. Some of the letters are used on the Norwegian side and some on the Swedish side of the border.

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

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)

Finno-Ugric languages | Languages of Norway | Sami languages

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Lule Sami