| Summary: | Previously, it was believed, cf. [Bakula, Normanskaja 2022], that the first extant text was a translation of the Gospel of Matthew into the Saami language, published in 1878 by A. Genets. It was believed that earlier translations of texts, in particular, created by St. Theodore of Kola, have not reached us. The Lapp dictionary of P.S.Pallas, published in 1787, had not previously attracted the attention of scientists, as far as we know. Probably, this is due to the fact that traditionally the opinion prevailed about the residence of Eastern Saami in Russia: speakers of Kildin, Skolt, Ter Saami languages and the now extinct Akkala Saami language. And in the dictionary of P.S. Pallas, the forms often differ significantly from the Eastern Saami lexemes. The analysis shows that speakers of at least three Sami dialects/languages: Sweden Saami, Norwegian Saami, and an unknown dialect lived on the territory of Russia in the XVIII century (it was impossible to establish the status of the language or dialect at that time), of which two are currently spoken only in EU countries: Sweden, Finland and Norway, and one has apparently disappeared.
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