Lule Sami language

Lule Sami
julevsámegiella
Native to	Norway, Sweden
Native speakers	1,000–2,000 (2007)
Language family	Uralic Sami Western Lule Sami
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Norway; Sweden
Language codes
ISO 639-2	smj
ISO 639-3	smj
Glottolog	lule1254
Lule Sami is 4 on this map

Lule Sami (julevsámegiella) is a Uralic, Sami language spoken in Lule Lappmark, i.e. around the Lule River, Sweden and in the northern parts of Nordland county in Norway, especially Tysfjord municipality, where Lule Sami is an official language. It is written in the Latin script, having an official alphabet.

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 seven cases:

Nominative

Like the other Uralic languages, the nominative singular is unmarked and indicates the subject of a predicate. The nominative plural is also unmarked and is always formally 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	dijá
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	siján
Illative	sunji	sunnuj	sidjij
Elative	sujsta	sunnus	sijás
Comitative	sujna	sunnujn	sijájn

Verbs

Person

Lule Sami verbs conjugate for three grammatical persons:

• first person
• second person
• third person

Mood

Lule Sami has 4 grammatical moods:

• indicative
• imperative
• conditional
• potential

Grammatical number

Lule Sami verbs conjugate for three grammatical numbers:

• singular
• dual
• plural

Tense

Lule Sami verbs has two simple tenses:

• past
• non-past

and 2 compound tenses:

• Present perfect
• Pluperfect

Negative verb

Lule Sami, like Finnish, the other Sámi languages and some Estonian dialects, has a negative verb. In Lule Sami, the negative verb conjugates according to tense (past and non-past), mood (indicative and imperative), person (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and number (singular, dual and plural).

Writing system

The orthography used for Lule Sámi is written using an extended form of the Latin script. There are few special characters: á (a-acute), ń (n-acute), and å (a-ring). Traditionally, the character n-acute (Ń/ń) has been used to represent the [ŋ] sound found for example in the English word "song". In place of n-acute (found in Unicode, but not in Latin-1 or traditional Nordic keyboards), many have used ñ or even ng. In modern orthography, such as in the official publications of the Swedish government and the recently published translation of the New Testament, it is usually replaced with ŋ, in accordance with the orthography of many other Sami languages.

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)