#samic

[sugarbear2001]

I might need to write a fic about Samira and Eric; their chemistry is insane.

[possessivesuffix]

Crossposting from Twxttxr: some interesting news about ongoing research by colleagues, from a workshop "Diversification of Uralic" just this Thursday and Friday

Do the Permic languages have loanwords from Old Norse? e.g. ONo. ár ~ Komi & Udmurt ar 'year'. This would've been sensible during the brief time when Norsemen originally from Sweden were in charge of trade along the Volga and settling in inner Russia, forming the Rus' (later Slavicized, but as we know from Byzantine sources they remained Norse for centuries) — and also the Norwegians too were known to conduct exploration + trade along the Barents Sea at the time, our oldest written reports of "Bjarmia" come from them after all.

Do the Finnic languages have loanwords already from Pre-Proto-Germanic into Pre-Proto-Finnic? My first reply would've been "yes surely", this has been discussed for half a century and there's dozens of etymologies out by now. Turns out though that there's still a lot of room for skepticism if we try to assemble a big picture. Most of these could be (and have been proposed by other analyses) to be proper Germanic after all, or from some non-Germanic kind of Indo-European, or even incorrect. There is unambiguous evidence I think at least of loans lacking *ā > *ō, but that's already though to be one of the latest common Germanic innovations, perhaps barely post-PG. [Follow-up question: do we even know where Pre-Proto-Germanic was spoken? might not have been anywhere convenient for contacts with Pre-Proto-Finnic.] — A few similar problems also in the less discussed supposed layer of Proto-Balto-Slavic or pre-BSl. loans, but by areal considerations it seems obvious to me there must've been Uralic/IE contact somewhere in the Russian forest belt for ages already, even if it might not have left enough evidence to clearly distinguish from things like pre-Indo-Iranian loans.

Do the Samic languages have loanwords that are not from any historically attested branch of Scandinavian, but some sort of a lost variety entirely? This could be an explanation for an unexpected sound correspondence *j → *ć in many loans; it might also explain some loans that look surprizingly archaic, e.g. lacking any reflection of Siever's Law. One example showing both is indeed *Tāńćə 'Norse', from some sort of a *Danji- variant of Proto-Germanic *Daniz.

Several new hypotheses on the history of of sibilants in Ugric, adding to the growing tally of evidence that traditionally reconstructed *s > *θ and *ś > *s "in Proto-Ugric" are actually later developments. A paper supposed to be coming out soon!

No linguistic evidence so far, but a 1670 travelogue by de La Martinière appears to still report seemingly pre-Uralic populations along the Barents Sea coast — and even on Novaya Zemlya, traditionally thought to have been uninhabited (as reported by other early modern explorers) before some Tundra Nenets briefly settled there in mid 19th century. Apparently there's been no real archeological investigation, but also at least two stone labyrinths are known as signs that humans still must've at least visited there sometime in the past. [By current knowledge, labyrinths from Sweden and Finland have mostly been built in late medieval and early modern times though, so they don't suggest especial antiquity either. Could the ones on NZ in fact have been left behind by some of these historical Northwest European expeditions?]

Various discussion also on the development of Samoyedic. Nothing particularly all-new (maybe on Nganasan, more on that in a PhD thesis to appear later this year though), but a few main results include 1. clear recognition that there is no "North Samoyedic" group (as has been suspected for several years now), 2. confirmation that there is regardless a narrower Nenets–Enets group, and 3. some development of a model where all three of Nenets, Enets and Nganasan may have moved to the tundra zone independently from further down south (as is certainly the case for Northern Selkup, the most recent northern expansion of Samoyedic speakers).

[lonelyslutavatar]

I swear to god if Alice turns out to still be into him I'm gonna lose it

[possessivesuffix]

If you're thinking about the "suprasegmental palatalization" of Skolt / Kildin / Ter Sami, yeah it goes leftward thru arbitrarily many consonants; but it does get realized also on them (yielding also a cross-linguistically rare /nʲ lʲ/ ≠ /ɲ ʎ/ contrast in the process), and is just a floating feature anyway instead of an entire segment, so would not really count as "metathesis" by any measure I think.

FWIW there are theories about locality-of-sound-change that attribute Germanic umlaut in particular and maybe metaphony in general to a similar process too, so that, say, *kukkaz >> *kokk goes thru *kukᵃkᵃaz first of all with an a-colored allophone of /k/ extended leftwards, and only then *u > o / _Cᵃ, but this also doesn't really involve metathesis of anything in there.

I have seen a 189X proposal that pre-Proto-Samic *-äC(C)e-, *-oC(C)e- >> modern Sami varieties' -ieC(C)â-, -uoC(C)â- would start by a way-leftward "metathetic metaphony" to *-êäCCê-, *-êoCCê- (circumflex for close-mid), but that's long since obsolete: lack of lowering and then unconditional *ä > *e > *ē > ie, *o > *ō > uo in stressed syllables works internally just as well and areally better (cf. *ee > ie, *oo > uo in Finnish; in Southern & Pite Sami, *ē > ie, *ō > uo also in unstressed syllables).

(conditioned-by-stress? seems kinda weird to call something "unconditional in X position" actually)

— Northern Finnish has varieties that metathesize *h pretty far leftwards, but all intermediates are on show in other dialects for it to be clear that it's really multiple metatheses all in a row; i.e. something like ⁽*⁾kirvehen (standard Fi kirveen, gen.sg. of kirves 'axe') > kirvhe(e)n > kirhven (phonetically variable, e.g. [kirfʋ̥en], [kirʰfen]). IIRC in most advanced forms in some particular phonological contexts even (equivalent of) > kihrven, but don't quote me on that just yet.

(Also, I'm sure if we left Northern Finnish alone for 500 more years we would find some varieties metathesizing this all the way further to word-initial aspiration.)

Yo linguists, anybody got languages where a segment regularly undergoes metathesis across multiple segments of a given class, or anything basically equivalent to that? A plausible example that comes to mind is like [+high]C₀V -> [+high]C₀ʲV -> [+high]C₀jV, or perhaps jC₀V -> C₀ʲV -> C₀jV, or anything of that general nature. I just need features jumping across substrings of arbitrary lengths. @yeli-renrong @siberian-khatru-72 @possessivesuffix? I vaguely recall something like this from... some Sámi language?

[humrpocesku]

Drahý čumblre, máme tu zase ornitologické okénko, protože, prosím pěkně, cestou na vlak jsem u nás na Sázavě narazila na trans kačera.

Začneme základy - samce kachny divoké od samice odlišíme takřka vždy s naprostou jistotou podle zobáku, který je u samců sytě žlutý, zatímco u samic je zabarven do oranžova nebo hněda a většinou na sobě má tmavé skvrny. Proč se řídit podle barvy zobáku a ne prostě podle toho, že je samice celá hnědá, zatímco samec má výraznou zelenou hlavu a tak dále? To proto, že na jaře začnou samci přepeřovat a "obléknou si" krycí šat, který je shodný se zbarvením samic. Právě v tuto chvíli se dají kačeři od kachen rozpoznat právě jen podle toho zobáku.

A teď k jedinci na fotce. Když se podíváte na zobák, můžete vidět, že je oranžový s tmavými skvrnami, tedy typicky samičí. Zbarvení peří by ale odpovídalo na samce, byť hlava není zelená celá, ale je zelené pouze její temeno a zátylek. Na tom však není nic až tak zvláštního, v období přepeřování samci pochopitelně nemají hned zase zelenou celou hlavu.

Problém je v tom, že teď je únor. A v únoru už mají kačeři přepeřování do svatebního šatu dávno za sebou, jedince, co nemá zelenou kebuli, byste na rybníce hledali horko těžko. A druhým problémem je tedy "nesmyslná" kombinace zabarvení zobáku vůči zabarvení peří.

Takže... Co se stalo? Inu, tenhle jedinec se docela jistě vylíhl jako kachna, samice. A s největší pravděpodobností mu v průběhu života selhal vaječník, specificky levý (ono totiž ptáci jiný ani nemají). V těchto případech dochází k tomu, že jedinec začne přebírat chování samců a zároveň tedy i jejich zbarvení, je temperamentnější, dokonce se i může snažit spářit s kachnami-samicemi. A teď k tomu komplikovanějšímu a ne tak probádanému. Podle všeho u těchto kachen může dojít i k tomu, že jim naroste penis, který by dle všeho mohl být zřejmě i funkční. Bohužel se toho o této problematice neví tolik, aby se to dalo říci s naprostou spolehlivostí.

Ještě bych chtěla dodat, že trans nemusejí být jen kachny divoké, ale třeba i jiné druhy vrubozobých. Tento jev byl zaznamenán například ještě u kachniček mandarínských, kterých je jen tak mimochodem jak nas*áno v Brně.

[possessivesuffix]

Confirming much later: yes lah táágu is clearly Inari, you can also tell from the word-final h which doesn't exist in Northern Sami orthography either, where 'you are' is leat (even if in many dialects still pronounced [lea̯h] rather than [lea̯ʰt]).

Tangentially, áá is by now kind of vestigial in written Inari really; it used to stand for distinct /aː/, but this merged with /æː/ (ää) in the mid-20th century — probably since that's the closest equivalent in Finnish phonology, which has been influencing the development of Inari Sami for a solid few centuries now.

Will not openly spoil the phraselist here, turns out I can figure out about a third of the Skolt just from knowing general comparative Samic and it becomes fairly easy really once given also the English translations…

Greenlandic-Skolt Saami phrase list

Hopefully all you Greenlanders/Nigerians found my previous Kalaallisut (Greenlandic)-Yorùbá phrase list useful, although with a combined total of 30 million speakers it’s probably a bit mainstream, so I thought I’d offer up a short Greenlandic-Skolt Saami phrase list to commemorate another recent trip I took.  Combined speakers of both languages are about 57,500 (sadly in a ratio of about 115:1), but unlike the last list there are probably a few more things culturally in common between these groups in terms of lifestyle, given their common Northern latitudes.

Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) - Skolt Saami (Nuõrttsäämas) phrase list

Ippernaq ataaseq qasulerpoq.      Õhtt čuõškk levvji. 

Sivisuumik angalavoq.   Mäˊtǩǩ leäi kuˊǩǩ.

Arsarnerit tuttut nerisimavaat.     Kuuskõõzz leˊjje ääld poorrâm. 

Aputeqaqaaq.      Jõnn muõtt lij.

Uinngiarneq inerteqqutaavoq.    Njorggam jiâ sååvaž sij.

—

The sentences are:

A. The journey was long.

B. There is a lot of snow.

C.  One mosquito grew weary.

D. They do not allow whistling.*

(* I should imagine.) 

E. The Northern Lights had eaten the reindeer.

—

All very useful phrases! But they are not in the same order as the Greenlandic - Skolt Saami phrase list above. A special mention to anyone who can solve the challenge and put A-E in the right order!

Note also that the second language on the border sign is Skolt Saami, and it is also the third language on the map. The second language on the map is probably Inari Sami (Anarâš) - I believe Inari Sami has a double “á” but North Sami does not, but would probably need someone else to confirm this.  

(Skolt Saami phrases taken from: A Grammar of Skolt Saami, Feist, T. (2010).    It’s a recommended read!)

[jontheketeld]

levels.

don't take the head splitting tag as from a gunshot. i know it's misleading, but it's actually a reference to John Carpenter's The Thing.

[rinkunokoisuru]

*Quietly drops this redesign of an old SonAmy fan child and runs* Obligatory “If you like my art, please reblog :)” even though this is an OC lol    

[hana-loves-bumblebees]

Kdo vymyslel, že samice od psa je fena??? Jako pardon, ale naprosto jistě to měla být ✨psina✨

[possessivesuffix]

I just remembered that, despite my username, I have not posted anything about possessive suffixes on here so far; to set right this oversight, here is a small sample of possessive suffix systems across the Uralic languages from reference literature I have around

Proto-Samic, from Sammallahti 1998, The Saami Languages: An Introduction

Proto-Samoyedic, from Mikola 2004, Studien zur Geschichte der samojedischen Sprachen

Late Proto-Permic, from Csúcs 2005, Die Rekonstruktion der permischen Grundsprache

Erzya and Moksha (in the nominative), from Bartens 1999, Mordvalaiskielten rakenne ja kehitys

[tiredpoet7]

15.11

700 kcal, 10.000 kroków, 30 minut ćwiczeń

bardzo dużo dzisiaj się u mnie działo lol

jako że pamięć mam raczej słabą, to pewnie pominę połowę wydarzeń. zacznijmy więc od momentu jak wyszłam ze szkoły, kulturalnie czekałam na przystanek i pewien powszechnie znany facet w okolicy zagadał do mnie i koleżanki. powszechnie znany — ma on prawdopodobnie coś nie tak z głową, jest bardzo pozytywny, NAIWNY i szuka dziewczyny. pyta się każdą napotkaną samice o numer telefonu xD. zapytał czy mamy jakieś ładne wolne koleżanki, a moja kochana znajoma wskazała na mnie, mówiąc, że nikogo nie mam. wjebała mnie porządnie, więc zaczęłam się tłumaczyć, jak to nie jestem świeżo po zerwaniu i nie jestem gotowa na związek. wpadłyśmy jednak na genialny pomysł i podałyśmy mu numer do "Natalii lat 19" która oczywiście nie istnieje. numer należy do chłopaka tej koleżanki, który nieźle się zdziwi jak dziś zadzwoni do niego jakiś napalony facet xDD

po szkole od razu pojechałyśmy z siostrą i mamą na cmentarz, a potem do ciotki posiedzieć. bawiłam się z 10 letnią kuzynką która ma przyznam talent do jakiś rękodzieł. sama robi świeczki, bransoletki, jakieś maskotki z włóczki i oczywiście zostałam hojnie obdarowana. najwięcej mam chyba świątecznych naklejek. mój case na telefon wygląda jakbym kupiła go w wiosce świętego Mikołaja.

następnie zajrzałysmy do mieszkania babci i dla mojej mamy było to bardzo ciężkie, ja też niechętnie siedziałam tam przez atmosferę. odmówiłam wybrania się na jedzenie, mało o nim myślałam, a wieczorem udało mi się zrobić trening. 20 minut takiego czystego spalania i 10 pilatesu. umieram ze stresu przed francuskim, ale postanowiłam tylko szybko sobie powtórzyć. uczyłam się codziennie od niedzieli i nie powinnam dostać złej oceny. w każdym razie życzcie mi proszę powodzenia xD

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Det sted man er fra er alltid pent, det er fedrelandsfølelsen i det små, hjemmefølelsen.*

- Knut Hamsun

*The place you're from is always beautiful, it's the sense of country in a small way, the feeling of home.

Most of us have heard of Lapland, but we’re not supposed to call it that anymore. The correct term these days is Sápmi - i.e. the land inhabited by the Lapps (or, rather, the Sami - as they very much prefer to be known). And, fair enough: they’ve got every right to assert their own identity, especially after centuries of domination by their southern neighbours.

Some of those neighbours are now keen to make amends for past injustices. For instance, the Swedish government made a point of using its presidency of the EU Council of Ministers to celebrate Sami National Day.

I can only imagine that it was worded with the best intentions, but if you read any of the Scandinavian press and media, it’s clear that it hasn’t gone down well with everyone. The problematic claim is that the Sami are “the EU’s only indigenous people” (my italics).

For a start, what is meant here by ‘indigenous’? According to most dictionaries, it’s the property of being original to, or characteristic of, a particular part of the world. In which case, there are all sorts of European peoples who could claim to be indigenous to Europe. For instance, the geneticist Razib Khan points out that the ancestors of today’s majority-Swedish population have been in Scandinavia for at least as long as the ancestors of today’s Sami.

The Norwegians and Swedes originated from the Norse people. The Norse people in turn originated from the Proto-Germanic peoples who migrated to the area of northern Germany, Denmark, southern Scandinavia. The Proto-Germanic peoples in turn originated from the Proto-Indo-European people whose homeland lies in the Pontic-Caspian steppe, the area around Ukraine and southern Russia.

Likewise, the Sami are not quite indigenous to the area either. The Sami originated from the Proto-Uralic people, whose homeland was around the Ural mountains (and was therefore close to the Proto-Indo-Europeans and resulted in interactions between their protolanguages, resulting in lexical borrowings). The Proto-Uralic peoples, just like the Proto-Indo-Europeans, slowly expanded and migrated, but in their case they expanded to the northwest and the northeast (with the notable exception of the Hungarians who ended up in Hungary). The Proto-Samic people, a subgroup of the Proto-Uralic peoples that gave rise to the modern Sami, were said to have displaced or merged with a much earlier indigenous Paleo-European group that was already in northern Scandinavia. This is evidenced by substrate words present in the Sami languages that derive neither from Proto-Uralic nor from Proto-Indo-European.

In any case, if Europeans are going to have a competition as to who was in Europe first, then it might be won by those with the most Neanderthal ancestry - because, as genomic testing has revealed, millions of us carry Neanderthal genes.

But perhaps the Swedish government is using indigenous to mean something more specific. According to Merriam-Webster the word relates to “the earliest known inhabitants of a place and especially of a place that was colonised by a now-dominant group”. This extra element of oppression by outsiders sharpens up the definition. However, while it applies to the Sami people and their history, it doesn’t do so uniquely. There are many ethnic groups in Europe that have been around for ages and which have been maltreated by foreign overlords. Just ask the Welsh, for instance, or the Basques.

It could be argued that the Sami are in a special category because of where they live (i.e. the most northerly reaches of Europe) and how they lived there (e.g. by reindeer herding). To have maintained a traditional culture for so long into the modern era surely sets them apart. But, again, this is debatable. While there’s no doubting the distinctiveness of the Sami, other Europeans can also lay claim to ancient traditions that have survived against the odds. To take a topical example, the Ukrainians are literally sacrificing their lives for a distinctive culture, language and history that Putin wants to erase.

Progressives ought to think twice before making an issue about who is and isn’t indigenous in Europe. While the label might play into the victim/oppressor narratives of the woke Left, it can also be exploited by the far-Right.

At a time when populism is a constant threat, telling people that they’re not indigenous to a place where they and their ancestors have lived for “time immemorial��� is less than helpful. I’m sure that the Swedish government meant well, but it’s pulling on a dangerous thread.  

When language is allowed to become dissociated from meaning or the map from the territory, then fractional strife and chaos awaits. Orwell understood it perfectly from his observations of Stalinists: control language and you control expression; control expression, you control dialogue, and eventually the political narrative.

[artemlegere-art]

The Samic Sibyl

Artist: Abraham Janssens (Flemish, 1575–1632)

The Samian Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle near Hera's temple on the Isle of Samos, a Greek colony. The word Sibyl comes (via Latin) from the ancient Greek word sibylla, meaning prophetess.

[humrpocesku]

Obrázeček obrázek a popisek instagramovej (to abyste se mohli taky vzdělávat): I přes chřipku, kterou si z neznámých důvod nyní procházím, jsem napatlala tohle drobné zvířátko. Vakoveverka bezblaná je ohrožený druh malého vačnatce vyskytující se v Austrálii. Jejich budoucnost bohužel moc zářně nevypadá, dokonce se odhaduje, že do pár desítek let zcela vymřou. V minulosti se dokonce dlouhé roky věřilo, že už vyhynuly. Tyto vakoveverky žijí v rodinných skupinách čítající asi deset jedinců. Přes den spějí společně v jednom pelechu, v noci se vydávají shánět potravu, kterou tvoří různé bezobratlé potvůrky. Hlavou rodiny je matka. Ta ale bývá poněkud agresivní vůči ostatním členům rodiny, především vůči svým dcerám, přičemž čím jsou dcery starší, tím matčina agresivita vzrůstá. Musejí proto poměrně brzy opouštět hnízdo, což však ústí v poměrně vysokou mortalitu a také to, že počet samců v populaci je výrazně vyšší než počet samic. A proč to s nima jde z kopce? Stejně jako mnoho jiných zvířat nemají vakoveverky bezblané prostě a jednoduše kde žít. Jsou vázány na lesy a hlavně na tromy s dutinami. Tyto stromy jim poskytují nejen úkryt, ale jsou pro ně důležité i z hlediska potravy. Lesy v těchto končinách ohrožují nejen požáry, ale také těžaři, které nějaké "malé myšičky" samozřejmě ani v nejmenším nezajímají, protože dřevo je dřevo a peníze jsou peníze. A aby toho nebylo málo, ohrožují je ještě lovící toulavé, respektive zdivočelé kočky domácí, kterých je na australském kontinentu požehnaně. Záchranné programy samozřejmě existují, pokud se však nepovede zachovat lesy, v nichž vakoveverky bezblané žijí, pak jsou snahy záchranářů bohužel takřka bezcenné. A když vymřou vakoveverky bezblané, vymře i jeden druh blechy, který ani nemá český název - Stephanocircus domrowi, anglicky goblin flea. Žijí totiž právě jen a pouze na vakoveverkách bezblaných. Věděli jste, že suprčupr zdrojem obrázků (nejen) méně známých druhů zvířat je moje milovaná stránka inaturalist?!

[autorkaromansow]

"Czuję się jak samiec, który musi spełniać zachcianki napalonych samic. Ale ja jestem tak zestresowany, że nie potrafię. Jestem mężczyzną, a nie maszyną. Potrafisz być z kimś takim, jak ja?”

Ewelina C Lisowska 49 WESTCHNIEŃ TECI