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Sámi languages ( / ˈsɑːmi / SAH-mee ), [4] in English also rendered as Sami and Saami, are a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Indigenous Sámi people in Northern Europe (in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden, and extreme northwestern Russia ). There are, depending on the nature and terms of division, ten or more Sami languages.
Nearly all Sami are bilingual in a Sami language and in the official language of the country in which they live. The Sami languages have some literature and are used in newspapers, but they are little used in education or government; they also lack a uniform orthography or literary language.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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The majority of the Sámi now speak the majority languages of the countries they live in, i.e., Swedish, Russian, Finnish and Norwegian. Efforts are being made to further the use of Sámi languages among Sámi and persons of Sámi origin.
Sápmi (and corresponding terms in other Sami languages) refers to both the Sami land and the Sami people. The word "Sámi" is the accusative-genitive form of the noun "Sápmi"—making the name's ( Sámi olbmot) meaning "people of Sápmi". The origin of the word is speculated to be related to the Baltic word *žēmē, meaning "land". [8]
Sami, any member of a people speaking the Sami language and inhabiting Lapland and adjacent areas of northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland, as well as the Kola Peninsula of Russia. The three Sami languages, which are mutually unintelligible, are sometimes considered dialects of one language.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Who are the Sami?The Sami are an indigenous people who inhabit Sápmi, their preferred name for Lapland, and adjacent areas of northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland a...
- Where do the Sami come from?The Sami who inhabit Sápmi today are the descendants of nomadic peoples who had inhabited northern Scandinavia and what is now Finland for thousand...
- What do the Sami do?Reindeer herding was the traditional basis of the Sami economy, although that practice has significantly declined. The Sami people engage in fishin...
The Sámi languages belong to the Finno-Ugric language family, the same family as Finnish and Hungarian. The Sámi languages are spoken across language borders, and have an especially rich vocabulary when it comes to nature terminology, for instance weather, snow conditions, and reindeer herding.
Close. This article contains special characters. Sámi languages, in English also rendered as Sami and Saami, are a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sámi people in Northern Europe. There are, depending on the nature and terms of division, ten or more Sami languages.
