Kemi Sámi was a
Sámi language that was originally spoken in the southernmost district of Finnish
Lapland as far south as the
Sámi siidas around
Kuusamo
Kuusamo (; ; ; ) is a List of cities and towns in Finland, town and municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland. It is located in Koillismaa, the northeastern part of the Northern Ostrobothnia regions of Finland, region. The municipality h ...
.
A complex of local variants which had a distinct identity from other Sámi dialects, but existed in a linguistic continuum between
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 ...
(some Kemi groups sounded more like Inari, and some more like Skolt, due to geographic proximity).
Extinct now for over 100 years,
few written examples of Kemi Sámi survive.
Johannes Schefferus's ''
Lapponia'' from 1673 contains two
yoik poems by the Kemi Sámi
Olof (Mattsson) Sirma, "Guldnasas" and "Moarsi favrrot". A short vocabulary was written by the Finnish
priest
A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...
Jacob Fellman in 1829 after he visited the villages of
Salla (Kuolajärvi until 1936) and
Sompio.
[Äima, F, Itkonen, T.I. 1918: Jacob Fellmanin muistiinpanot Sompion ja Kuolajärven lapin murteista. Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Aikakauskirja 30 p. 1-91.]
Sample texts
The following translation of the
Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer, also known by its incipit Our Father (, ), is a central Christian prayer attributed to Jesus. It contains petitions to God focused on God’s holiness, will, and kingdom, as well as human needs, with variations across manusc ...
still survives, recorded in the Sompio dialect:
Lord's Prayer, village of Sompio (
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 ...
)
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This is Sirma's first poem, "Guldnasas", a Sámi love story which he sang to spur on his
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 ...
so that they will run faster:
This is Sirma's second poem, "Moarsi favrrot", the one he sang when he was far away from his love to prize her beauty.
See also
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Sámi people
The Sámi ( ; also spelled Sami or Saami) are the traditionally Sámi languages, Sámi-speaking indigenous people inhabiting the region of Sápmi, which today encompasses large northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and of the Kola Peninsula ...
*
Akkala Sámi language
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Kildin Sámi language
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Sápmi
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Colonialism
Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism c ...
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Orajärvi
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Extinct language
An extinct language or dead language is a language with no living native speakers. A dormant language is a dead language that still serves as a symbol of ethnic identity to an ethnic group; these languages are often undergoing a process of r ...
References
{{Uralic languages
Languages of Finland
Sámi in Finland
Eastern Sámi languages
Extinct languages of Europe
Languages extinct in the 20th century