Northern Sámi phrasebook

Northern Sámi (davvisámegiella), the Sámi language used in this phrasebook, is the most widely-spoken of the Sámi languages. It is spoken mainly in northern Norway, northern Sweden and much of the Sámi area in Finland. It is used often in towns such as Kiruna (Giron), Utsjoki (Ohcejohka), Kautokeino (Guovdageaidnu) and Karasjok (Kárášjohka). It also acts as a lingua franca among many Sámi who speak other Sámi languages.

The Northern Sámi has four major dialects: Torne, Western Finnmark, Eastern Finnmark, and Sea Sámi. The standard language follow Western Finnmark Kautokeino sub-dialect. The dialects are mutually intelligible, but there are considerable differences in pronunciation, and to some extent also in the vocabulary. The Sea Sámi dialect has adopted strong influences from eastern-group Sámi languages.

Sámi (also spelled Saami or Sami) is a group of languages spoken by the Sámi people who dwell in northern Europe. Their traditional homeland consists of the central and northern parts of Norway and Sweden, northern Finland, and the Kola Peninsula in Russia. They are now a minority in most of this area.

Because of earlier language politics, not all Sámi speak Sámi and some Sámi languages are extinct. There are nine living Sámi languages. They are Uralic languages and thus have many linguistic similarities and some common vocabulary (including many loanwords) with other languages in the family, such as Finnish, Karelian, and Estonian. The similarities are far from enough for understanding, but help in learning the language. Even the Sámi languages are generally not mutually intelligible, but many Sámi understand the neighbouring languages. There are also loanwords from the unrelated Scandinavian languages of Norwegian and Swedish (and for the eastern Sámi languages, from Russian).

"Sámi" is mostly used as a shorthand for Northern Sámi below.

Pronunciation guide

Like Finnish or Estonian, Sámi is written quite phonetically, with a certain letter mostly pronounced the same way and doubled letters meaning longer sounds. Northern Sámi uses the Latin alphabet with some extra letters, some of which are not found in Swedish, Norwegian or Finnish. The current writing system is from 1979, modified in 1985.

Below are the vowels and consonants, with name of the letter (spelt in Sami) and normal pronunciation with IPA codes. The standard(ish) pronunciation used in textbooks follow Kautokeino dialect but in practice the learners will obtain their teacher's dialect.

Stress is always on the first syllable. In longer words certain syllables get secondary stress which gives spoken Sámi a distinctive, nodding melody.

Vowels

A Á E I O U

A a	Á á	E e	I i	O o	U u
a	á	e	i	o	u
(IPA: /ɑ/)	(IPA: /a/) or (IPA: /æ/)	(IPA: /e/)	(IPA: /i/)	(IPA: /o/)	(IPA: /u/)

The letter á tends to be pronounced as a long, vivid a in the western dialects and like æ in the eastern dialects. There are short and long vowels in the language, but as they do not change the meaning of words these are never expressed in the written language, and the exact pronunciation depends on the speaker's dialect.

Consonants

B C Č D Đ F G H J K L M N Ŋ P R S Š T Ŧ V Z Ž

(NB: Đ đ in Sámi is a different letter from the Icelandic Ð ð and African Ɖ ɖ, although sometimes similarly looking.)

The letter i is pronounced as a j if it is preceded by a vowel, whereupon it is considered a consonant.

Letters đ, ŋ, ŧ, z, or ž never appear as the first letter in a Sámi word. Letters p, k, and t appear at the beginning of the word only in some, mostly Norwegian or Swedish, loanwords. In such case they are strongly aspirated. For many of these words a more native-sounding version starting with b, g or d (e.g. kirku ~ girku, church) is also in use.

B b	C c	Č č	D d	Đ đ	F f	G g	H h
be	ce	če	de	đje	eff	ge	ho
(IPA: /b/)	(IPA: /ts/)	(IPA: /tʃ/)	(IPA: /d/)	(IPA: /ð/)	(IPA: /f/)	(IPA: /ɡ/)	(IPA: /h/)
J j	K k	L l	M m	N n	Ŋ ŋ	P p	R r
je	ko	ell	emm	enn	eŋŋ	pe	err
(IPA: /j/)	(IPA: /k/)	(IPA: /l/)	(IPA: /m/)	(IPA: /n/)	(IPA: /ŋ/)	(IPA: /p/)	(IPA: /r/)
S s	Š š	T t	Ŧ ŧ	V v	Z z	Ž ž
ess	eš	te	ŧe	ve	ez	ež
(IPA: /s/)	(IPA: /ʃ/)	(IPA: /t/)	(IPA: /θ/)	(IPA: /v/)	(IPA: /dz/)	(IPA: /dʒ/)

Exceptions: the letter t is pronounced as /ht/ if it is at the end of a sentence, and as /h/ if it is at the end of a word somewhere in the middle of a sentence. Letter d is pronounced as đ if it is between the second and third syllables.

In addition, the letter combinations dj, lj, and nj are palatalized d, l, and n, respectively. Combinations hj, hl, hn, hm, and hr denote very rare unvoiced consonant sounds.

In total there are about 30 different consonant phonemes which is quite a lot for a Uralic language.

Just like in Finnic languages, Sámi consonants can be different lengths. There are three different consonant lengths: short, long, and overlong. Short consonants are easy to pronounce and are written as a single letter. Long and overlong ones are both written as double letters. Pronouncing such consonants may be quite tricky for non-native speakers. In some dictionaries overlong sounds are denoted by ' (for example bus'sá, cat) but the difference is not shown in normal text. So you can't really know that there is more s in the word bussá than in word oassi (part/piece).

Diphthongs

ea	ie	oa	uo
(IPA: /eæ/)	(IPA: /ie/)	(IPA: /oɑ/)	(IPA: /uo/)

Diphthongs may appear only in stressed syllables. The exact pronunciation of these varies a lot depending on the speaker's dialect.

If a vowel change in the syllable following the diphthong, the diphthong simplifies into a simple long vowel. This is indeed very common! For example: Mun viehkan (I run) → Mun vihken (I ran). Now i in vihken is a long vowel (like in "teen" in English) although its not written with two letters.

Grammar

Being a member of the Uralic language family, Sámi grammar is quite different from that of any Indo-European language, such as English, Norwegian or Russian. On the other hand, if you are already familiar with Finnish, Estonian or Hungarian grammar you'll find learning any Sámi-group language quite reasonable and cosy.

In Northern Sámi, nouns can be declined in six or seven different cases, the exact number depending on whether the genitive and the accusative are considered the same or not (they have different uses, but the forms differ only in a few words). Cases handle things like living in the North, going to the town or working with a friend. Cases are coded into suffixes (i.e. word endings) but they often cause some changes to the 'central consonants' and sometimes even vowels in the word itself. This phenomenon is known as consonant gradation and exhibits perhaps its most extensive form in Sámi languages.

If you are studying the language by reading poems or song lyrics you'll encounter possessive suffixes, one of the iconic features of the Uralic language family. However, using them in normal speech is nowadays uncommon.

Many adjectives have a separate attribute form which you must use if the adjective is an attribute to the noun. There are no rules on how the attribute form is formed from the adjective; you just have to learn them together with the adjective. When used as predicative the adjective follows the noun's case and number.

Verbs have four tenses: present, preterite, perfect, and pluperfect. Perfect and pluperfect are formed in a similar way to English but using "to be" instead of "have". In fact, this is not a coincidence: it is a relic from close contact between Germanic language speakers and Finno-Samic tribes some 3000-3500 years ago! Verbs express also four moods: indicative, imperative, conditional, and potential. The optative mood, mentioned in some sources, is extremely rarely used form of the imperative. In modern-day speech, the potential mood (i.e. something is considered likely) is often used to indicate future tense (logical, as the events in future are always uncertain!) The word "no" is a verb and inflects with the person and mood just like in many other Uralic languages.

In addition to the grammatical singular and plural, the Sámi languages have a third number: dual. So, "we two" is different from "we many". This means that verbs conjugate in nine persons instead of six. The dual is used only for people, never for animals or things.

Northern Sámi has no articles and no grammatical gender. Also rules for conjugation are mostly quite simple and the language itself is fairly regular.

Phrase list

Basics

Hello.: Bures. ( )
Hello. (informal): Bures bures. ( )
Hello again: Buorat ain ( )
How are you?: Mo dat manná? ( ?)
Fine, thank you.: Dat manná bures, giitu. ( )
What is your name?: Mii du namma lea? ( ?)
My name is ______ .: Mu namma lea ______ . ( _____ .)
Nice to meet you.: Somá deaivvadit. ( )
Please.: Leage buorre. ( )
Thank you.: Giitu. ( )
Thank you for everything (when leaving): Giitu buot buriid ovddas ( )
You're welcome.: Leage buorre. ( ):. ()
Yes.: Juo/Jo. ( )
No.: Ii. ( ), in spoken language very often: a-a ( )
Excuse me. (getting attention): Ándagassii. ( ) / Gula... ( )
Excuse me. (begging pardon): Ándagassii. ( )
I'm sorry.: Ándagassii. ( )
Goodbye: Báze dearvan (to one person when leaving). ( )
Goodbye: Báhcci dearvan (to two people when leaving) ( )
Goodbye: Báhcet dearvan (to more than two people when leaving) ( )
See you!: Oaidnaleabmai!( )
I don't speak Saami [well].: Mun in hála sámegiela. ( [ ])
Do you speak English?: Hálatgo eaŋgalasgiela? ( ?)
Do you speak Finnish/Swedish/Norwegian?: Hálatgo suomagiela/ruoŧagiela/dárogiela ( ?)
Is there someone here who speaks English?: Hállágo giige dáppe eaŋgalasgiela? ( ?)
Help!: Veahket! ( !)
Look out!: Fárut! ( !)
Good morning.: Buorre iđit. ( )
Good afternoon: Buorre beaivvi. ( )
Good evening.: Buorre eahket. ( )
(Reply to any greeting above; To you also.): Ipmel atti. ( )
Good night.: Buorre idjá. ( )
Good night (to sleep): Buorre idjá. ( )
I don't understand.: Mon in ádde / ipmir. ( )
Where is the toilet?: Gos hivsset lea? ( ?)

Problems

_____ doesn't work.: _____ ii doaimma.
Leave me alone!: Atte mu leat ráfis!
Don't touch me!: Ale guoskka!
I will call the police.: Riŋgen poliissa.
Police!: Poliisa! / Boles!
Stop! Thief!: Bisán! Suola!
I need your help.: Darbbašan du veahkki.
It's an emergency.: Mus lea heahtti.
I'm lost.: Lean láhppon.
I lost my bag.: Mu lávka láhppui.
I lost my wallet.: Mu bursa láhppui.
I'm sick / I've fallen ill.: Lean buozus.
I've been injured.: Lean roasmmohuvvan.
I need a doctor.: Dárbbašan doaktára.
Can I use your phone?: Sáhtango riŋget?
I need some mosquito repellant / a mosquito net: Dárbbašan čuoikavuoiddas / čuoikaluvra

Numbers

½ - beal

0 - nolla

1 - okta

2 - guokte

3 - golbma

4 - njeallje

5 - vihtta

6 - guhtta

7 - čiežá

8 - gávcci

9 - ovcci

10 - logi

11 - oktanuppelohkái

12 - guoktenuppelohkái

20 - guoktelogi

21 - guoktelogiokta

30 - golbmalogi

40 - njealljelogi

50 - vihttalogi

100 - čuođi

200 - guoktečuođi

300 - golbmačuođi

400 - njeallječuođi

500 - vihttačuođi

1,000 - duhát

2,000 - guokteduhát

3,000 - golbmaduhát

4,000 - njealljeduhát

5,000 - vihtaduhát

1,000,000 - miljovdna

1,000,000,000 - miljárda

Time

now: dál ()
later: maŋŋil ()
before: ovdal ()
morning: iđit ()
afternoon: eahketbeaivi ()
evening: eahket ()
night: idja ()

Clock time

In spoken language the 12-hour clock is normally used, with no formal AM/PM notation, though the time of day can be clarified if needed.

one o'clock (AM): diibmu okta (iddes) ()
seven o'clock (AM): diibmu čieža (iddes)
noon: gaskabeaivi ()
one o'clock PM / 13:00: diibmu okta (beaivit) / diibmu golbmanuppelohkái ()
two o'clock PM / 14:00: diibmu guokte (beaivit) / diibmu njealljenuppelohkái ()
midnight: gaskaidja ()

Minutes and fractions:

twenty past (one): guoktelogi badjel (okta) ()
five to (two): vihtta váile (guokte) ()
a quarter to (three): njealjádas váile (golbma) ()
a quarter past (four): njealjádas badjel (njeallje) ()
half past (one): beal (guokte) () NB! This literally means "half two", time is expressed "half to", not "half past".

Duration

_____ minute(s): _____ minuhta ()
_____ hour(s): _____ diimmu ()
_____ day(s): _____ beaivvi ()
_____ week(s): _____ vahku ()
_____ month(s): _____ mánu ()
_____ year(s): _____ jagi ()

Days

today: otne ()
the day before yesterday: ovddet beaivve ()
yesterday: ikte ()
tomorrow: ihtin ()
the day after tomorrow: don beaivve ()
this week: dán vahku ()
last week: mannan vahku ()
next week: boahtte vahku ()

In the Nordic countries, the week starts on Monday.

Monday: vuossárga / mánnodat ()
Tuesday: maŋŋebárga / disdat ()
Wednesday: gaskavahkku ()
Thursday: duorastat ()
Friday: bearjadat ()
Saturday: lávvordat ()
Sunday: sotnabeaivi ()

For Sunday, the word bassebeaivi (lit. "holy day") or just bassi is often used.

Months

Most Sámi month names describe the cycle of the year from the perspective of nature and the reindeer. Occasionally, you may come across with direct loanwords such as "novembármánnu" (in Sweden and Norway) or "márrásmánnu" (in Finland) for November.

January: ođđajagimánnu ()
February: guovvamánnu ()
March: njukčamánnu ()
April: cuoŋománnu ()
May: miessemánnu ()
June: geassemánnu ()
July: suoidnemánnu ()
August: borgemánnu ()
September: čakčamánnu ()
October: golggotmánnu ()
November: skábmamánnu ()
December: juovlamánnu ()

Writing time and date

When written by numbers, dates are written in the day-month-year order, e.g. 2.5.1990 for 2nd May 1990. If the month is written out, 2. b. miessemánus (literally: 2nd day in May) is used. Notice that month must be in locative case (here fairly simple as -mánnu just becomes -mánus).

Colours

Like many adjectives, some colours have a separate attribute form which must be used if the adjective is an attribute to the noun. For example, when saying vilges beana (a white dog) you must use the attribute form but in a sentence beana lea vielgat (a dog is white), the dictionary form applies. In Sámi dictionaries, the attribute form is usually marked with #.

black: čáhppat #čáhppes ()
white: vielgat #vilges ()
grey: ránis #ránes ()
red: ruoksat #rukses ()
blue: alit ()
blue-green: turkosa ()
yellow: fiskat #fiskes ()
green: ruoná ()
orange: oránša ()
purple: fiolehtta ()
brown: ruškat #ruškes ()
pink: čuvgesruoksat #-rukses ()

Transportation

How do I get to _____ ?: Mo mun beasan _____? ()
...the train station?: ...ruovdegeaidnostašuvdnii? ()
...the bus station?: ...bussestašuvdnii? ()
...the airport?: girdingieddái ()
...downtown?: ...guovddažii? ()
...the youth hostel?: ...vánddardanvissui? ()
...the _____ hotel?: ... _____ hoteallai? ()
...the American/ Canadian/ Australian/ British consulate?: _____ konsuláhtii?()
Where are there a lot of...: Gos lea ollu... ()
...hotels?: ...hoteallaid? ()
...restaurants?: ...restauráŋŋaid? ()
...bars?: ...báraid? ()
...sites to see?: ...oaidnámušaid? ()
...reindeer?: ... bohccuid? ()
Can you show me on the map?: Oaččutgo čajehit dát gárttas? ()
street: geaidnu / gáhta ()
Turn left.: Jorgal gurutguvlui. ()
Turn right.: Jorgal olgešguvlui. ()
Go back.: Mana ruovttoluotta. ()
left: gurut ()
right: olgeš ()
straight ahead: ovddosguvlui ()
towards the _____: _____ guvlui ()
past the _____: meaddil _____ ()
before the _____: ovdal _____ ()
Watch for the _____.: Várut _____. ()
intersection: geaidnoruossa ()
north: davvi ()
south: lulli / máddi ()
east: nuorti ()
west: oarji ()
uphill: vustolat ()
downhill: mihtolat ()

Place names

America: Amerihká ()
Canada: Kanáda ()
Denmark: Dánmárku ()
Estonia: Estlánda ()
Finland: Suopma ()
France: Fránkariika ()
Germany: Duiska ()
Japan: Jáhpan ()
China: Kiinná
Norway: Norga (), Norwegian language : dárogiella
Poland: Polska ()
Russia: Ruošša ()
Spain: Espánnja ()
Sweden: Ruoŧŧa ()
UK: Ovttastuvvan gonagasriika ()
USA: Amerihká ovttastuvvan stáhtat / USA ()

Copenhagen: Københápman ()
London: London ()
Moscow: Moskva ()
Paris: Paris ()
Saint Petersburg: Biehtára ()
Stockholm: Stockholbma ()
Helsinki: Helsset ()

Taxi

Taxi!: Tákse! ()
Take me to _____, please.: _____, giitu. ()
How much does it cost to get to _____?: Man ollu máksa _____ -ii/-ái/-ui? [e.g. siidii = to the village, guovddažii = to the centre] ()
(Take me) there, please.: Dohko, giitu.

Weather conditions

Northern Sámi has a vast number of expressions for different weather conditions and, especially, for different forms of snow and snowy conditions. The language is also very productive when it comes to various derivative expressions like arvvestit "drizzling", njuohpahat "site where someone has slipped" or borggahallat "to be caught by snow storm by surprise".

weather: dálki
warm weather: liekkádat
warm weather when enormous hordes of mosquitoes are flying: čuoikabálggádat
cold weather: galmádat
freezing: buolaš
milder weather after freezing cold: bivvalat
sunny weather: beaivvádat
raining: arvit
snowing: muohttit
snowing wet snow: šlahttit
wet snow on the ground: soavli
slippery: njuohpa
sticky snow (that appears at very cold weather): buolašsábadat
icy: jiekŋa (this is also 'ice' as a noun)
windy: biekkus, (windy weather at summertime) jáldu
strong wind: ruvaš
storm: riđđu
blowing snow: borggas / njeađgga
There are too many mosquitoes here!: Dáppe lea menddo olu čuoika!

Authority

In Finland, Norway and Sweden the authorities will speak fluent English, so there is no need to communicate by phrasebook. Also, often the authorities will not speak Sámi, while all will know the main language of the country.

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