Southern Sami is a seriously endangered language. The last strongholds of this language are the municipalities of Snåsa and Hattfjelldal in Norway. There are approximately 2000 people considered Southern Sámi in Norway and Sweden, although only approximately 500 of them can fluently speak the language.

Grammar

Consonant gradation

Like Ume Sámi, Southern Sami does not have consonant gradation.

Cases

Southern Sámi has has 8 cases:

• Nominative
• Genitive
• Accusative
• Inessive
• Illative
• Elative
• Comitative
• Essive

Southern Sámi is one of the few Sámi languages that still differentiates between the accusative and the genitive morphologically.

Verbs

Person

Southern Sami verbs conjugate for three grammatical persons:

• singular
• dual
• plural

Mood

Tense

Negative verb

Southern Sami, like Finnish, the other Sámi languages and Estonian, has a negative verb. In Southern Sámi, the negative verb conjugates according to tense and person.

Phonology

Syntax

Unlike the other Sámi languages, Southern Sámi is an SOV language.

Writing system

Even though Southern Sámi is one of the six Sámi languages that has an official written language, only a few books have been published for the language, one of which is a good-size Southern Sámi-Norwegian dictionary

Roman alphabet: A/a, B/b, D/d, E/e, F/f, G/g, H/h, I/i, (Ï/ï), J/j, K/k, L/l, M/m, N/n, O/o, P/p, R/r, S/s, T/t, U/u, V/v, Y/y, Æ/æ, Ø/ø, Å/å

Ä/ä is a variant of Æ/æ, Ö/ö is a variant of Ø/ø.

C/c, Q/q, W/w, X/x, Z/z are also used in words of foreign origin.

References

• Bergsland, Knut. Røroslappisk grammatikk, 1946.
• Bergsland, Knut. Sydsamisk grammatikk, 1982.
• Bergsland, Knut and Lajla Mattson Magga. Åarjelsaemien-daaroen baakoegærja, 1993.
• Hasselbrink, Gustav. Südsamisches Wörterbuch I–III

External links

• Sámi lottit Names of birds found in Sápmi in a number of languages, including Skolt Sámi and English. Search function only works with Finnish input though.
• Southern Sámi grammar
• Southern Sámi analyzer
• Samien Sijte - Southern Sámi Museum and Cultural Center
• Sørsamisk forskning og undervisning - Universitetet i Tromsø

Sami languages | Languages of Norway | Finno-Ugric languages

Samieg ar su | Suðursámiskt | Lingua sami meridionale | Sørsamisk | Sørsamisk språk | Lullisámegiella | Eteläsaame | Sydsamiska