Lule Sámi (Lule Sami: julevsámegiella, Norwegian: lulesamisk, Swedish: lulesamiska) is a Uralic-Sámi language spoken around the Lule River in Sweden and in the northern parts of Nordland county in Norway. In Norway it is especially seen in Hamarøy Municipality (formerly Tysfjord Municipality), where Lule Sámi is one of the official languages. It is written in the Latin script, having an official alphabet.
History
The language was originally only spoken around the Lule River, in Sweden. During the 18th century some Sámi migrated to Nordland in Norway, and their descendants still live in Norway, and speak Lule Sámi.
The first book written in Lule Sámi, Hålaitattem Ristagasa ja Satte almatja kaskan, was published in 1839 by Lars Levi Læstadius.
Status
With 650 speakers, Lule Sámi is nonetheless the second largest of all Sámi languages. It is reported that the number of native speakers is in sharp decline among the younger generations. The written language was standardised in 1983 and has seen revitalization efforts in the past few decades.
In Norway, the Árran Language Center aims to promote the learning and use of Lule Sámi.
Phonology
Consonants
Some analyses of Lule Sámi phonology may include preaspirated stops and affricates (/hp/, /ht/, /ht͡s/, /ht͡ʃ/, /hk/) and pre-stopped or pre-glottalised nasals (voiceless /pm/, /tn/, /tɲ/, /kŋ/ and voiced /bːm/, /dːn/, /dːɲ/, /gːŋ/). However, these can be treated as clusters for the purpose of phonology, since they are clearly composed of two segments and only the first of these lengthens in quantity 3. The terms "preaspirated" and "pre-stopped" will be used in this article to describe these combinations for convenience.
Stops before a homorganic nasal (pre-stopped nasals) are realised as unreleased stops.
/v/ is realised as a labiodental fricative [v] in the syllable onset (before a vowel), and as bilabial [w] in the syllable coda (in a consonant cluster).
Vowels
Lule Sámi possesses the following vowels:
/ea̯/ can be realised as a true diphthong, or a long monophthong [ɛː].
Long /eː/ and the diphthongs /ea̯/ and /oɑ̯/ occur only in stressed syllables.
Long /iː/ and /uː/ are very rare, as is short /e/. They also only occur in stressed syllables.
Short /o/ and long /oː/ can occur in unstressed syllables, but only when a preceding stressed syllable contains /o/.
Consonant length and gradation
Consonants, including clusters, that occur after a stressed syllable can occur in multiple distinctive length types, or quantities. These are conventionally labelled quantity 1, 2 and 3 or Q1, Q2 and Q3 for short. The consonants of a word alternate in a process known as consonant gradation, where consonants appear in different quantities depending on the specific grammatical form. Normally, one of the possibilities is named the strong grade, while the other is named weak grade. The consonants of a weak grade are normally quantity 1 or 2, while the consonants of a strong grade are normally quantity 2 or 3.
Quantity 1 includes any single consonant. It originates from Proto-Samic single consonants in the weak grade.
Quantity 2 includes any combination of consonants (including two of the same) with a short consonant in the coda of the preceding syllable. It originates from Proto-Samic single consonants in the strong grade, as well as combinations of two consonants in the weak grade.
Quantity 3 includes any combination of consonants (including two of the same) with a long consonant in the coda of the preceding syllable. It originates from Proto-Samic combinations of two consonants in the strong grade.
Throughout this article and related articles, consonants that are part of different syllables are written with two consonant letters in IPA, while the lengthening of consonants in quantity 3 is indicated with an IPA length mark (ː).
Not all consonants can occur in every quantity type. The following limitations exist:
Single /h/ is restricted to quantity 1, and does not alternate.
Single /j/ is also restricted to quantity 1, but alternates with /ɟ/.
Voiced stops and affricates only occur in quantity 3, except for /ɟ/ which can also occur in quantity 2.
/ʎ/ occurs in quantity 2 and 3, but not in quantity 1.
When a consonant can occur in all three quantities, quantity 3 is termed "overlong".
Phonological processes
Umlaut
Umlaut is a process whereby a diphthong in a stressed syllable changes depending on the vowel in the next syllable.
The first type of umlaut causes an alternation between /ea̯/ and /ie̯/ in words whose stems end with unstressed /ie̯/. For such words, these two diphthongs can be considered variants of each other, while in words whose stems end with another vowel, these vowels remain distinct. The following table shows the different patterns that occur with different following vowels:
The second type of umlaut, called "diphthong simplification" or "monophthongization", is similar to its Northern Sami counterpart, but works differently. The diphthongs /ea̯/ and /oɑ̯/ become /eː/ and /oː/ respectively, if:
The vowel in the next syllable is short (thus including also /a/), and
The following consonant is quantity 1 or 2.
The diphthongs /ie̯/ and /uo̯/ are unaffected. The reverse process also occurs, turning the long vowels back into diphthongs if the consonant becomes quantity 3 or the vowel in the next syllable becomes long.
The third type of umlaut, progressive umlaut, works in the other direction. It causes the unstressed vowels /a/ and /aː/ to be rounded to /o/ and /oː/ respectively, if the preceding stressed vowel is short /o/.
Unstressed vowel lengthening
If a stressed syllable contains a short vowel followed by a single (quantity 1) consonant, then a short vowel in the following syllable is lengthened.
dahkat "to do" ~ dagá (1st p. sg. present)
bådnjåt "to twist" ~ bånjå̄ (1st p. sg. present)
Dialects
Sammallahti divides Lule Sámi dialects as follows:
Northern dialects: Sörkaitum, Sirkas and Jåkkåkaska in Sweden and Hamarøy in Norway
Southern dialects: Tuorpon in Sweden
Forest dialects: Gällivare and Serri in Sweden
Features of the northern dialects of Lule Sámi are:
Long /aː/ is also rounded to /oː/ after /o/ in a first syllable.
Features of the southern dialects of Lule Sámi are:
Umlaut of short /a/ to /e/ before /i/.
Orthography
The orthography used for Lule Sámi is written using an extended form of the Latin script.
Traditionally, the character ⟨Ń⟩ has been used to represent /ŋ/. In place of n-acute (available in Unicode and mechanical type writers, but not in Latin-1 or traditional Nordic keyboards), many have used ⟨ñ⟩ or even ⟨ng⟩. In modern orthography, such as in the official publications of the Swedish government and the translation of the New Testament published 2007, it is usually replaced with ⟨ŋ⟩, in accordance with the orthography of many other Sámi languages.
Grammar
Cases
Lule Sámi has seven cases:
Nominative
Like the other Uralic languages, the nominative singular is unmarked and indicates the subject of a predicate.