Inari Sámi ( or ) is a
Sámi language spoken by the
Inari Sámi of
Finland
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
. It has approximately 400 speakers, the majority of whom are middle-aged or older and live in the municipality of
Inari. According to the
Sámi Parliament of Finland, 269 persons used Inari Sámi as their first language. It is the only
Sámi language that is spoken exclusively in Finland.
The language is classified as being seriously endangered, as few children learn it; however, more and more children are learning it in
language nests. In 2018, Inari Sámi had about 400 speakers; due to revival efforts, the number had increased.
History
Inari Sámi is one of three Sámi languages spoken in Finland; the other two are
Northern Sámi
Northern Sámi or North Sámi ( ; ; ; ; ; disapproved exonym Lappish or Lapp) is the most widely spoken of all Sámi languages. The area where Northern Sámi is spoken covers the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland.
Geographic distr ...
and
Skolt Sámi
Skolt Sámi (, , ; or , , ) is a Sámi languages, Sámi language that is spoken by the Skolts, with approximately 300 speakers in Finland, mainly in Sevettijärvi and approximately 20–30 speakers of the (Notozero) dialect in an area surround ...
, which are endangered languages as well.
There may be as many as nine Sámi languages.
The traditional Sámi homeland,
Sápmi
is the cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Sámi people. Sápmi includes the northern parts of Fennoscandia, stretching over four countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Most of Sápmi lies north of the Arctic Circle, boun ...
, encompasses the northern regions of
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
,
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
, Finland, and parts of
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
. Sámi is the only officially recognized indigenous group in the
European Union.
Language decline
From the 13th to early 19th century, Finland was under
Swedish rule. Sweden imposed conversion to Christianity on the Sámi, marking the beginning of Inari Sámi's decrease in use.
The
Lapp Codicil of 1751 created a legal protection for Sámi as a part of the
Strömstad Treaty. This addendum stated that Sámi would be allowed to move across the border freely in order to follow
reindeer
The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only re ...
migration
since
reindeer husbandry
Reindeer herding is when reindeer are herded by people in a limited area. Currently, reindeer are the only semi-domesticated animal which naturally belong to the North. Reindeer herding is conducted in nine countries: Norway, Finland, Sweden, Russ ...
is part of traditional Sámi culture.
Over the next century, northern Scandinavian borders became less open to the Sámi, with Norway closing the border to them completely in 1852.
Further constriction of the reindeer migratory range meant more Sámi had to leave Sápmi in order to find work, moving to areas like Helsinki and learning
Finnish. Over half of the modern Sámi population now lives outside of Sápmi.
By the start of the 20th century, Finland introduced compulsory education policies for the Sámi.
Sámi languages like Inari Sámi were targeted and discouraged, with students encouraged to assimilate into Finnish language and culture.
The evacuation of Lapland during the
Lapland War
During World War II, the Lapland War (; ; ) saw fighting between Finland and Nazi Germany – effectively from September to November 1944 – in Finland's northernmost region, Lapland. Though the Finns and the Germans had been fighting together ...
of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
meant that Sámi populations in northern Finland were relocated to central Finland and Sweden.
Nearly every building was destroyed by retreating Nazi forces, and many Sámi homes — as well as artifacts and important historical sites — were lost.
Modern Inari Sámi
200px, left, Edvard Wilhelm Borg's ''Anar sämi kiela aapis kirje ja doctor Martti Lutherus Ucca katkismus''
The first book in Inari Sámi was ''Anar sämi kiela aapis kirje ja doctor Martti Lutherus Ucca katkismus'', which was written and translated by Edvard Wilhelm Borg in 1859. The written history of modern Inari Sámi, however, is said to begin with Lauri Arvid Itkonen's translation of the history of the
Bible
The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...
in 1906, although he had already translated some other books into Inari Sámi (Martin Luther and John Charles Ryles). After that, Inari Sámi was mainly published in books written by linguists, in particular Frans Äimä and Erkki Itkonen. For many years, very little literature was written in Inari Sámi, although
Sämitigge has funded and published a lot of books, etc., in recent years.
The destruction of important historical items during World War II prompted the formation of the
Siida Museum in Inari in 1963.
"Siida" means "the place," and the museum aims to preserve Sámi history and the Inari Sámi language.
Since 1992, Finland's Sámi have had the right to interact with officials in their own language in areas where they have traditionally lived:
Enontekiö
Enontekiö (; ; ; ; ) is a municipality in the Finnish part of Lapland with approximately inhabitants. It is situated in the outermost northwest of the country and occupies a large and very sparsely populated area of about between the Swedis ...
,
Utsjoki
Utsjoki (; ; ; ; ) is a municipality in Finland, the northernmost in the country. It is in Lapland and borders Norway as well as the municipality of Inari. The municipality was founded in 1876. It has a population of
() and covers an area of ...
,
Inari and the northern part of
Sodankylä
Sodankylä (; ; ; ) is a municipality of Finland. It is located in the region of Lapland, and lies at the northern end of Highway 5 ( E63) and along Highway 4 ( E75). The Kitinen River flows near the center of Sodankylä. Its neighbouring mun ...
as official policy favors the conservation of the language. All announcements in
Inari, which is the only officially quadrilingual municipality in
Finland
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...
, must be made in
Finnish,
North Sámi
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north'' is ...
, Inari Sámi and
Skolt Sámi
Skolt Sámi (, , ; or , , ) is a Sámi languages, Sámi language that is spoken by the Skolts, with approximately 300 speakers in Finland, mainly in Sevettijärvi and approximately 20–30 speakers of the (Notozero) dialect in an area surround ...
. Only about 10% of the public servants in the area, however, can serve the Inari Sámi-speaking population in Inari Sámi, so
Finnish is used by the remaining 90%.
Anarâškielâ servi and language preservation
The
Anarâškielâ servi
Anarâškielâ servi (Inari Sámi Language Association) is a Sámi association from Inari, Finland. The association was founded in the auditorium of the Ivalo Hotel in Ivalo on December 4, 1986, by Veikko Aikio, Ilmari Mattus, and Matti Morotta ...
(Inari Sámi Language Association) was founded in 1986 to promote the language and its use; that year, there were only four children who spoke Inari Sámi, two of which were taught by their parents
Matti Morottaja and Ilmari Mattus who founded the association.
The association publishes numerous books, textbooks, a calendar, etc., in Inari Sámi. They established a language immersion program in 1997 for 3- to 6-year-old children in a day care in Inari and
Ivalo
Ivalo (, , , ) is a village in the municipality of Inari, Lapland, Finland, located on the Ivalo River south of Lake Inari in the Arctic Circle. It has a population of 3,998 and a small airport, located 11 kilometres (7 mi) southwest from Iv ...
. The
language nest model was inspired by a similar program used to preserve the
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...
language in
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
.
Its first nest produced about 40 new Inari Sámi speakers over the next decade, but it faced initial expansion issues because the program only had two teachers.
In 2007, the association started publishing an Inari Sámi newspaper called ''
Kierâš Kierâš was an Inari Sámi-language online weekly newspaper
Weekly newspaper is a general-news or Current affairs (news format), current affairs publication that is issued once or twice a week in a wide variety broadsheet, magazine, and electro ...
'' online, with Morottaja's son
Petter serving as editor-in-chief. Morottaja's other son Mikkâl, whose stage name is
Amoc
The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is the main ocean current system in the Atlantic Ocean.IPCC, 2021Annex VII: Glossary atthews, J.B.R., V. Möller, R. van Diemen, J.S. Fuglestvedt, V. Masson-Delmotte, C. Méndez, S. Seme ...
, uses Inari Sámi in rap songs. Amoc published the first full-length Inari Sámi rap CD in the world on
Sámi National Day
The Sámi National Day is an ethnic national day for the Sámi (Saami) people that falls on February 6, the date when the first Sámi congress was held in 1917 in Trondheim, Norway. The congress was the first time that Norwegian and Swedish S ...
in 2007.
Linguist
Marja-Liisa Olthuis became the first person to use Inari Sámi to defend a
doctoral thesis
A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...
in April 2007 from the
University of Oulu
The University of Oulu () is one of the largest universities in Finland, located in the city of Oulu. It was founded on July 8, 1958. The university has around 14,200 students and 3,800 staff. 21 International Master's Programmes are offer ...
. Olthuis then created the Complementary Aanaar Saami Language Education (CASLE) program, teaching nonnative adult speakers the Inari Sámi language. CASLE participants learned how to teach the language and use it on an everyday basis — they then became teachers for new language nests, allowing the Anarâškielâ servi program to expand.
One of Olthuis's students,
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
-born Fabrizio Brecciaroli, began overseeing Anarâškielâ servi's publications in 2019. The Inari Sámi version of Wikipedia launched in 2020 and expansion is led by Brecciaroli and Anarâškielâ servi.
As of 2025, it has over 6,000 articles. In 2023, Anarâš Aavis, the only daily newspaper written in Inari Sámi, was founded; Brecciaroli currently serves as editor.
Olthuis said in 2025 that she estimated Inari Sámi had about 500 total speakers as a result of language revival efforts.
Geographic distribution
Along with
Finnish,
Skolt Sámi
Skolt Sámi (, , ; or , , ) is a Sámi languages, Sámi language that is spoken by the Skolts, with approximately 300 speakers in Finland, mainly in Sevettijärvi and approximately 20–30 speakers of the (Notozero) dialect in an area surround ...
and
Northern Sámi
Northern Sámi or North Sámi ( ; ; ; ; ; disapproved exonym Lappish or Lapp) is the most widely spoken of all Sámi languages. The area where Northern Sámi is spoken covers the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland.
Geographic distr ...
, Inari Sámi is one of the four official languages in the municipality of
Inari, in particular in the following villages located on the shore of
Lake Inari
Lake Inari (, , , , , ) is the largest lake in Sápmi and the third-largest lake in Finland. It is located in the northern part of Lapland, north of the Arctic Circle. The lake is above sea level, and is regulated at the Kaitakoski power plan ...
(the Inari Sámi name for the village is enclosed in parentheses):
*
Aksujärvi (Ákšujävri)
*
Iijärvi (Ijjävri)
*
Inari (Aanaar)
*
Ivalo
Ivalo (, , , ) is a village in the municipality of Inari, Lapland, Finland, located on the Ivalo River south of Lake Inari in the Arctic Circle. It has a population of 3,998 and a small airport, located 11 kilometres (7 mi) southwest from Iv ...
(Avveel)
*
Kaamanen
Kaamanen is a village in the municipality of Inari, Finland, Inari, Lapland (Finland), Lapland.
The village counts about 200 inhabitants, whose main sources of livelihood are reindeer husbandry and tourism. The area is extremely valuable for bird ...
(Kaamâs)
*
Menesjärvi (Menišjävri)
*
Nellim
Nellim ( or '; ; ) is a village on the shore of Lake Inari in Inari, Finland that has three distinctly different cultures: Finns, the Inari Sámi and the Skolt Sámi
Skolt Sámi (, , ; or , , ) is a Sámi languages, Sámi language that is ...
(Njellim)
*
Partakko (Päärtih)
*
Repojoki (Riemâšjuuhâ)
*
Sevettijärvi
Sevettijärvi (Skolt Sámi: Čeʹvetjäuʹrr, and ) is a village in the municipality of Inari, Finland approximately north of downtown Inari. Neiden in Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...
(Čevetjävri)
*
Syysjärvi (Čovčjävri)
*
Tirro (Mosshâš)
Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
Notes:
* The central open vowel was distinguished only in older Inari Sámi. In the modern language, it has merged into the front vowel .
Prosody
Inari Sámi, like the other Samic languages, has fixed word-initial stress. Words are furthermore divided into
feet
The foot (: feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is an organ at the terminal part of the leg made up of ...
, usually consisting of two syllables each, and with secondary stress on the first syllable of every foot. In the other Samic languages the last syllable in a word with an odd number of syllables is not assigned to a foot. In Inari Sámi, however, two important changes in the early development of Inari Sámi have changed this structure, making the prosodic rhythm quite different:
# In words with an odd number of syllables, the last two syllables were converted into a foot, leaving the third-last syllable as a foot of its own.
# The apocope of certain final vowels, in words of three syllables or more, reduced this new final foot to a single syllable.
Consequently, Inari Sámi distinguishes prosodically between words that originally ended in a vowel but have undergone apocope, and words that already ended in a consonant in
Proto-Samic.
This rearrangement of the foot structure has an effect on the length of vowels and consonants.
Orthography
Inari Sámi is written using the
Latin script
The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...
. The alphabet currently used for Inari Sámi was made official in 1996 and stands as follows:
The phonetic values are the same as in
Karelian, and ''đ'' represents the
voiced dental fricative
The voiced dental fricative is a consonant sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to English-speakers as the ''th'' sound in ''father''. Its symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is eth, or and was taken from the Old Engl ...
(in English "the"). Q/q, W/w, X/x, Å/å, Ö/ö are also used in words of foreign origin. ''Á'' was traditionally pronounced in the middle of ''a'' and ''ä'', but in modern Inari Sámi the distinction between ''á'' and ''ä'' is nonexistent. In writing, ''Á'' and ''ä'' are nevertheless considered separate characters. ''Ä'' is used in:
* the first syllable of a word, when there is an ''e'' or ''i'' in a second syllable of the same word,
* a word of only one syllable (although ''á'' is also used), or
* the diphthong ''iä'' (but not in the diphthong ''uá'').
Marks used in reference works
In dictionaries, grammars and other linguistic works, the following additional marks are used. These are not used in normal writing.
* A
dot
A dot is usually a small, round spot.
Dot, DoT or DOT may also refer to:
Orthography
* Full stop or "period", a sentence terminator
* Dot (diacritic), a mark above or below a character (e.g. ȧ, ạ, İ, Ċ, ċ, etc.), usually to indicate sou ...
is placed below consonants to indicate a half-long consonant: ''đ̣, j̣, ḷ, ṃ, ṇ, ṇj, ŋ̣, ṛ, ṿ''. Some works may instead print the letter in bold, or use a capital letter.
* A vertical line ˈ (U+02C8 MODIFIER LETTER VERTICAL LINE),
typewriter apostrophe
The apostrophe (, ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes:
* The marking of the omission of one o ...
or other similar mark is placed between consonants to indicate that the preceding consonant is long, and the preceding diphthong is short. It is only used when a diphthong precedes.
* The same mark placed between a diphthong and a consonant indicates that the diphthong is short.
* The same mark placed between a single vowel and a consonant indicates that the vowel is half-long.
Grammar
Consonant gradation
Consonant gradation is a pattern of alternations between pairs of consonants that appears in the inflection of words. Consonant gradation in Inari Sámi is more complex than that of other Sámi languages, because of the effects of the unique stress pattern of Inari Sámi. Like in other Sámi languages, there is a distinction between the strong and weak grade, but a second factor is whether the consonants appear in the middle of a foot (FM) or in the juncture between two feet (FJ). In the latter case, consonants are often lengthened.
Umlaut
Umlaut is a phenomenon in Inari Sámi, whereby the vowel in the second syllable affects the quality of the vowel in the first.
The following table lists the Inari Sámi outcomes of the Proto-Samic first-syllable vowel, for each second-syllable vowel.
As can be seen, several of the Proto-Samic vowels have identical outcomes before certain second-syllable vowels. Only before Proto-Samic ''*ē'' are all vowels distinguishable. For example, Proto-Samic ''*oa'' and ''*ë'' both appear before ''*ë'' as ''o'', while ''*o'' and ''*u'' both appear as ''u''. In cases where the second-syllable vowel changes, it is necessary to know which series the vowel of a particular word belongs to. For example, "to drink" has the third-person singular present indicative form , while "to end" has ; the former originates from Proto-Samic ''*u'', the latter from ''*o''.
A second kind of umlaut also occurs, which operates in reverse: when the first syllable contains ''a'' (originating from Proto-Samic ''*ë'') and the second syllable contains ''á'', the second-syllable vowel is backed to ''a''. Thus, the third-person singular present indicative form of "to go" is (rather than *), and the illative singular of "age" is (rather than *).
Nouns
Inari Sámi has nine cases, although the genitive and accusative are often the same:
*
Nominative
In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case, or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb, or (in Latin and formal variants of E ...
*
Genitive
In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can ...
*
Accusative
In grammar, the accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to receive the direct object of a transitive verb.
In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: "me", "him", "her", " ...
*
Locative
In grammar, the locative case ( ; abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. In languages using it, the locative case may perform a function which in English would be expressed with such prepositions as "in", "on", "at", and " ...
*
Illative
In grammar, the illative case (; abbreviated ; from "brought in") is a grammatical case used in the Finnish, Estonian, Lithuanian, Latvian and Hungarian languages. It is one of the locative cases, and has the basic meaning of "into (the inside ...
*
Comitative
In grammar, the comitative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case that denotes accompaniment. In English, the preposition "with", in the sense of "in company with" or "together with", plays a substantially similar role. Other uses of "with", l ...
*
Abessive
In linguistics, abessive (abbreviated or ), caritive (abbreviated ) and privative (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case expressing the lack or absence of the marked noun. In English, the corresponding function is expressed by the preposition '' ...
*
Essive
In grammar, the essive case, or similaris case, ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical case.O'Grady, William, John Archibald, Mark Aronoff, and Janie Rees-Miller. "Morphology: The Analysis of Word Structure." Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction. 6 ...
*
Partitive
In linguistics, a partitive is a word, phrase, or Grammatical case, case that indicates partialness. Nominal (linguistics), Nominal partitives are syntactic constructions, such as "some of the children", and may be classified semantically as either ...
The
partitive
In linguistics, a partitive is a word, phrase, or Grammatical case, case that indicates partialness. Nominal (linguistics), Nominal partitives are syntactic constructions, such as "some of the children", and may be classified semantically as either ...
appears to be a highly unproductive case in that it seems to only be used in the
singular
Singular may refer to:
* Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms
* Singular or sounder, a group of boar, see List of animal names
* Singular (band), a Thai jazz pop duo
*'' Singula ...
. In addition, unlike
Finnish, Inari Sámi does not make use of the partitive case for objects of transitive verbs. Thus "" could translate into Finnish as either "" (English: "I'm eating (all of) the bread") or "" (''I'm eating (some) bread'', or generally, ''I eat bread''); this
telicity
In linguistics, telicity (; from Greek τέλος "end, goal") is the property of a verb or verb phrase that presents an action or event as having a specific endpoint. A verb or verb phrase with this property is said to be ''telic''; if the situ ...
contrast is mandatory in Finnish.
Pronouns
The personal pronouns have three numbers: singular, plural and
dual
Dual or Duals may refer to:
Paired/two things
* Dual (mathematics), a notion of paired concepts that mirror one another
** Dual (category theory), a formalization of mathematical duality
*** see more cases in :Duality theories
* Dual number, a nu ...
. The following table contains personal pronouns in the nominative and genitive/accusative cases.
The next table demonstrates the declension of a personal pronoun ''I/we (dual)/we (plural)'' in the various cases:
Verbs
Person
Inari Sámi
verb
A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
s conjugate for three
grammatical person
In linguistics, grammatical person is the grammatical distinction between deictic references to participant(s) in an event; typically, the distinction is between the speaker ( first person), the addressee ( second person), and others ( third p ...
s:
*first person
*second person
*third person
Mood
Inari Sámi has five
grammatical mood
In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used for signaling modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying (for example, a statement ...
s:
*
indicative
A realis mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentence
Dec ...
*
imperative
*
conditional
*
potential
Potential generally refers to a currently unrealized ability. The term is used in a wide variety of fields, from physics to the social sciences to indicate things that are in a state where they are able to change in ways ranging from the simple r ...
*
optative
The optative mood ( or ; abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood that indicates a wish or hope regarding a given action. It is a superset of the cohortative mood and is closely related to the subjunctive mood but is distinct from the desiderative ...
Grammatical number
Inari Sámi
verb
A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
s conjugate for three
grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a Feature (linguistics), feature of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verb agreement (linguistics), agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two" or "three or more"). English and many other ...
s:
*
singular
Singular may refer to:
* Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms
* Singular or sounder, a group of boar, see List of animal names
* Singular (band), a Thai jazz pop duo
*'' Singula ...
*
dual
Dual or Duals may refer to:
Paired/two things
* Dual (mathematics), a notion of paired concepts that mirror one another
** Dual (category theory), a formalization of mathematical duality
*** see more cases in :Duality theories
* Dual number, a nu ...
*
plural
In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...
Tense
Inari Sámi has two
simple tenses
Simple or SIMPLE may refer to:
*Simplicity, the state or quality of being simple
Arts and entertainment
* ''Simple'' (album), by Andy Yorke, 2008, and its title track
* "Simple" (Florida Georgia Line song), 2018
* "Simple", a song by John ...
:
*
past
The past is the set of all Spacetime#Definitions, events that occurred before a given point in time. The past is contrasted with and defined by the present and the future. The concept of the past is derived from the linear fashion in which human ...
*
non-past
The nonpast tense (also spelled non-past) ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical tense that distinguishes an action as taking place in times present or future. The nonpast tense contrasts with the past tense, which distinguishes an action as taking place ...
and two
compound tenses:
*
perfect
Perfect commonly refers to:
* Perfection; completeness, and excellence
* Perfect (grammar), a grammatical category in some languages
Perfect may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''Perfect'' (1985 film), a romantic drama
* ''Perfect'' (20 ...
*
Pluperfect
The pluperfect (shortening of plusquamperfect), usually called past perfect in English, characterizes certain verb forms and grammatical tenses involving an action from an antecedent point in time. Examples in English are: "we ''had arrived''" ...
Verbal nouns
Negative verb
Inari Sámi, like Finnish and the other Sámi languages, has a
negative verb
Dryer defined three different types of negative markers in language. Beside negative particles and negative affixes, negative verbs play a role in various languages. The negative verb is used to implement a clausal negation. The negative predic ...
. In Inari Sámi, the negative verb conjugates according to
mood (indicative, imperative and optative),
person
A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations suc ...
(1st, 2nd, 3rd) and
number
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
(singular, dual and plural).
References
;General
*
Itkonen, Erkki. ''Inarilappisches Wörterbuch.'' Lexica societatis fenno-ugricae: 20. Suomalais-ugrilainen seura. Helsinki. .
*
Morottaja, Matti''Anarâškielâ ravvuuh – inarinsaamen kieliopas''Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja: 56. Helsinki 2018. Näköisjulkaisu painetusta teoksesta (2007). .
*Taarna Valtonen and Jussi Ylikoski and Ante Aikio. 2022. Aanaar (Inari) Saami. In
Marianne Bakró-Nagy,
Johanna Laakso and Elena Skribnik (eds.), The Oxford guide to the Uralic languages, 178-195. Oxford: Oxford University Press., ISSN 2323-3370.
*
Olthuis, Marja-Liisa. ''Kielâoppâ.''
Inari : Sämitigge, 2000.
*Sammallahti, Pekka. Morottaja, Matti. ''Säämi-suoma sänikirje. Inarinsaamelais-suomalainen sanakirja.'' Girjegiisá. Ykkösoffset Oy, Vaasa 1993. .
*Østmo, Kari. ''Sämikielâ vieres kiellân vuáðuškoovlâst.'' Helsinki : Valtion painatuskeskus, 1988.
External links
*
Say it in SaamiYle's colloquial Northern Sami-Inari Sami-Skolt Sami-English phrasebook online
Brief history of Inari Sami*
ttp://www.uta.fi/~km56049/same/inarinsaame.html Kimberli MäkäräinenA minute vocabulary (Inari Sami-English) (233 words)
Names of birdsfound in
Sápmi
is the cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Sámi people. Sápmi includes the northern parts of Fennoscandia, stretching over four countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Most of Sápmi lies north of the Arctic Circle, boun ...
in a number of languages, including Skolt Sami and English. Search function only works with Finnish input though.
Inari Sami language resources at Giellatekno (requires
RealPlayer
RealPlayer, formerly RealAudio Player, RealOne Player and RealPlayer G2, is a cross-platform media player (software), media player app, developed by RealNetworks. The media player is compatible with numerous container file formats of the multimed ...
)
The Inari Sami Language by Toivonen and NelsonHans Morottaja speaks about himself, etc. in Inari SamiThe Children's TV series Binnabánnaš in Inari SamiPustaveh anarâškielân - Aakkoset inarinsaameksiInari Sami alphabet by the Finnish Sami Parliament
{{DEFAULTSORT:Inari Sámi Language
Endangered languages of Europe
Endangered Uralic languages
Inari, Finland
Inari Sámi
Languages of Finland
Eastern Sámi languages