Saami

• Main Author: Koponen, Eino
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University PressOxford 2022
• Subjects: Fennoscandia; saami; Lapland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198767664.003.0007; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/47094429/oso-9780198767664-chapter-7.pdf

Abstract This chapter provides an introduction to the Saami languages, a chain of indigenous language varieties constituting the westernmost branch of Uralic, especially their reconstructible proto-form, Proto-Saamic, its genesis and central features. Proto-Saamic, a sister language of Proto-Finnic, was probably spoken (also) south of the historical Saami areas (“Lapland”) in the North of Fennoscandia, and its genesis and emergence from Northwest Uralic may have involved contacts with other, partly unknown languages. The chapter briefly describes the main features of Proto-Saamic and the Saami languages, phonology (developments in the vowel and consonant system, consonant gradation, phonotactics and word structure), morphology (case, number, person, tense, mood, the origins of the characteristically rich derivation system), syntax, and lexicon.