#family: eadni

[valokki]

Buori sámegielaid vahku! Happy Sámi Language Week!

This week, October 25-31, is celebrated as the Sámi language week to raise awareness of the languages and cultures of the indigenous Sámi people whose homeland, Sápmi, is spread over the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. To celebrate the week, I thought I’d share a few interesting details about these languages:

🔴 There are nine living Sámi languages and approximately 30 000-40 000 speakers

🔵 All the Sámi languages are considered endangered, and some of them are even on the brink of extinction (such as Ume Sámi with only a few native speakers left)

🟢 The largest of the Sámi languages is Northern Sámi with 20 000 speakers, and it’s spoken in Norway, Sweden, and Finland

🟡 Sámi languages belong to the Uralic language family and they are most closely related to the Baltic-Finnic languages (such as Estonian, Finnish, and Karelian). There are a lot of similarities both grammar and vocabulary wise:

                                               Sámi          Finnish

brother                                  viellja          veli

shaman/witch                     noaidi          noita

nature                                   luondu        luonto

forest                                   meahcci      metsä

🔴 The Sámi languages have adapted very well to life in the Arctic environment with a huge vocabulary of nature and weather-related words to describe the Arctic nature. Sometimes the Sámi languages are called the languages of snow as there are over 300 different words for snow and ice

🔵 Sámi languages are gender-neutral, and instead of having only six personal pronouns, they have nine of them:

I                                                     mun

you                                                don

she, he, they (singular)                son

we (of two people)                       moai

you (of two people)                      doai

they (of two people)                    soai

we                                                 mii

you                                              dii

they                                              sii

🟢 Some of my favourite words in Northern Sámi: eallin (life), duottar (fell), ráhkisvuohta (love), eadni (mother), muorra (tree), biegga (wind), oabbá (sister), jiekŋa (ice), beaivváš (sun), boazu (reindeer)

[poortrashplant]

Rebuilding Newcrest ✩ Hungry Herbalist Gen 1.2

After living in a self-imposed solitude with plants as your friends, you begin to learn about yourself. Especially about regrets.

I regret not paying attention more in math class to understand how to properly space my garden. I regret sleeping in for so long that the midday sun became my alarm clock and I had to learn first hand the heat of the midday sun pressing on my neck when i first began tilling the ground. I regret pranking my landlord during repairs because I have the scarred hands of someone that has replaced and sinks and unclogged toilets with the best of them. I regret not tipping food vendors once I realized that, no Frances, cooking “isn’t” as easy as it looks on Iron Sim: Oasis Springs.

Most importantly, and maybe most painfully, I regret not hugging my mother and father more. While I was here, they passed and are buried in cities I can no longer return to outside of my dreams.

I refuse to regret this choice, however, because as I feel the gentle kicks under my ribcage, I know that this little bean will be so much better off than if I had left everything else behind.

✩ Directory

[languagestoday]

Sami languages

Sámi language fluency has been declining rapidly for decades. Pite Sámi is critically endangered, with fewer than 50 living speakers, all in Sweden. Today, Northern Sámi is the most widely spoken.

Due to assimilation policies in all the countries the Sámi found themselves in, older generations of Sámi people were not allowed to speak their own language in school, meaning some languages have already been lost.

The Local spoke to speakers and researchers of the languages to find out some of the most unique and beautiful words still in use.

1. Sápmi  

Sápmi is the Northern Sámi word for the traditional dwelling place of the Sámi people, which encompasses the northern parts of Scandinavia and the Kola peninsula of Russia. Since the 20th century, national borders and state policies have divided Sápmi and the people who call it home.

“The word means a Sápmi without borders, it means relatives, sisters and brothers, and community,”.

2. Eadni

Eadni means ‘mother’ in Northern Sámi.

“It’s one of the first words that children learn,” 

It has a complex phonology (sound system), and is similar to the Northern Sámi word for Earth, which is eanan.

3. Guohtun  

Guohtun is a Northern Sámi word that describes the ideal conditions for reindeer to find lichen to graze under a covering of snow. But it’s more complicated than that. It’s one of those words that resists simple translation.

 “Guohtun is a very complex word. It encompasses geography, plants, lichens, snow, and reindeer. It exemplifies the language and its connection to land and water.”

“It’s a very soothing word because it means that there is food and the reindeer can reach it,”.

4. Giitu  

Giitu means ‘thank you’ in Northern Sámi.

Anyone who knows some Finnish might notice that it sounds quite similar to the Finnish word for ‘thank you’, kiitos. That’s because Sámi languages have more in common with Finnish than with Swedish, Danish or Norwegian, coming from the same language family: Finno-Uralic.

You can respond to giitu with leage buorre which means ‘you’re welcome.’

5. Čáiddas

This means snowball. We couldn’t have a list of Sámi words without having something specific to snow, could we?

6. Vuovdi

This means forest in Northern Sámi. Vast swathes of Sápmi is covered in forest. Sámi reindeer herders rely on old-growth forests to let their reindeer graze; they eat the kind of lichen that only grows in older forests.

‘Never have I seen so few old trees around’: What’s happening to Sweden’s forests?

7. Boazu

Reindeer husbandry is a vital part of Sámi life.

In all Sámi languages, there are two different words for reindeer. In Northern Sámi there is goddi and boazu.

Boazu means a reindeer who has been tamed and can be milked. Goddi is the word for wilder reindeer.  

Reindeer herding is an important aspect of Sámi culture and a vital source of income for many Sámi people. The Sámi parliament estimates that about 2,500 people are dependent on income from reindeer husbandry.

8. Bures

An easy one! This is how you say “hello” to another person in Northern Sámi.

9. Goahte  

Goahte is a type of hut in Lule Sámi. It’s a traditional Sámi home that can be built in several different ways, depending on what material is available, like with wooden panels or a construction of wooden poles covered with peat or cloth.

10. Sámediggi

This is the Northern Sámi word for the Sámi Parliament. There’s a Sámi parliament in each country that divides Sápmi.

In the Scandinavian countries, it’s essentially a government agency with the aim of representing the Sámi people and increasing opportunities to participate in public debate.