Lule Sami

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Lule Sami
julevsamegiella
Native to	Norway, Sweden
Ethnicity	Lule Sami people
Native speakers	650 (2015)[1]
Language family	Uralic Sami Western Central Lule-Pite Lule Sami
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Official language in	Norway
Recognised minority language in	Sweden[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-2	smj
ISO 639-3	smj
Glottolog	lule1254
ELP	Lule Saami
Lule Sami language area (red) within Sapmi (grey)
As of 2010, Lule Saami was classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Lule Sami (Lule Sami: julevsamegiella, Norwegian: lulesamisk, Swedish: lulesamiska) is a Uralic-Sami 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 Hamaroy Municipality (formerly Tysfjord Municipality), where Lule Sami is one of the official languages. It is written in the Latin script, having an official alphabet.

The language was originally only spoken around the Lule River, in Sweden. During the 18th century some Sami migrated to Nordland in Norway, and their descendants still live in Norway, and speak Lule Sami.^[3] The first book written in Lule Sami, Halaitattem Ristagasa ja Satte almatja kaskan, was published in 1839 by Lars Levi Laestadius.^[3]

With 650 speakers, Lule Sami is nonetheless the second largest of all Sami languages. It is reported that the number of native speakers is in sharp decline among the younger generations^{[citation needed]}. The written language was standardised in 1983 and has seen revitalization efforts in the past few decades.

In Norway, the Arran Language Center aims to promote the learning and use of Lule Sami.

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Some analyses of Lule Sami phonology may include preaspirated stops and affricates (/hp/, /ht/, /hts/, /htS/, /hk/) and pre-stopped or pre-glottalised nasals (voiceless /pm/, /tn/, /tn/, /kng/ and voiced /b:m/, /d:n/, /d:n/, /g:ng/). 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.

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m	n			n	ng
Plosive / Affricate	voiceless	p	t	ts	tS		k
	voiced	b	d	dz	dZ	j	g
Fricative	voiceless	f		s	S		h
	voiced	v
Semivowel						j
Lateral				l		y
Trill				r

• 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).

Lule Sami possesses the following vowels:

	Short vowels		Long vowels		Diphthongs
	Front	Back	Front	Back	Front	Back
Close	i	u	i:	u:	ie	uo
Mid	e	o	e:	o:	ea	oa
Open	a		a:

• /ea/ can be realised as a true diphthong, or a long monophthong [e:].
• Long /e:/ and the diphthongs /ea/ and /oa/ occur only in stressed syllables.
• Long /i:/ and /u:/ are very rare, as is short /e/. They also only occur in stressed syllables.
• Short /o/ and long /o:/ can occur in unstressed syllables, but only when a preceding stressed syllable contains /o/.

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 (:).

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 /j/.
• Voiced stops and affricates only occur in quantity 3, except for /j/ which can also occur in quantity 2.
• /y/ 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".

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 /ea/ and /ie/ in words whose stems end with unstressed /ie/. 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:

Second vowel	a:	uo	ie	a	u	i
Stem ends in /ie/	ea		ie	ea		ie
Stem ends in another vowel	ea		--	ea
Stem ends in another vowel	ie		--	ie

The second type of umlaut, called "diphthong simplification" or "monophthongization", is similar to its Northern Sami counterpart, but works differently. The diphthongs /ea/ and /oa/ become /e:/ and /o:/ 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 /ie/ and /uo/ 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 /a:/ to be rounded to /o/ and /o:/ respectively, if the preceding stressed vowel is short /o/.

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" ~ daga (1st p. sg. present)
• badnjat "to twist" ~ banja (1st p. sg. present)

Sammallahti^[4] divides Lule Sami dialects as follows:

• Northern dialects: Sorkaitum, Sirkas and Jakkakaska in Sweden and Hamaroy in Norway
• Southern dialects: Tuorpon in Sweden
• Forest dialects: Gallivare and Serri in Sweden

Features of the northern dialects of Lule Sami are:

• Long /a:/ is also rounded to /o:/ after /o/ in a first syllable.

Features of the southern dialects of Lule Sami are:

• Umlaut of short /a/ to /e/ before /i/.

The orthography used for Lule Sami is written using an extended form of the Latin script.

Letter	Phoneme(s)	Notes
A a	/a/
A a	/a:/
B b	/p/, /b/
D d	/t/, /d/
E e	/e:/, /ie/	/ie/ when unstressed.
F f	/f/
G g	/k/, /g/
H h	/h/
I i	/i/
J j	/j/
K k	/k/, /kh/	Postaspirated at the beginning of a stressed syllable.
L l	/l/
M m	/m/
N n	/n/
NG ng	/ng/
O o	/uo/	Only unstressed.
P p	/p/, /ph/	Postaspirated at the beginning of a stressed syllable.
R r	/r/
S s	/s/
T t	/t/, /th/	Postaspirated at the beginning of a stressed syllable.
U u	/u/
V v	/v/
A a	/o/, /o:/
A a	/ea/
	/oa/	Only stressed.
	/e/	Only stressed.
	/i:/
	/u:/

Traditionally, the character <N> has been used to represent /ng/. In place of n-acute (available in Unicode and mechanical type writers, but not in Latin-1 or traditional Nordic keyboards), many have used or even . 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 <ng> , in accordance with the orthography of many other Sami languages.

Lule Sami has seven cases:

Like the other Uralic languages, the nominative singular is unmarked and indicates the subject of a predicate. The nominative plural is also unmarked and is always formally the same as the genitive singular.

The genitive singular is unmarked and looks the same as the nominative plural. The genitive plural is marked by a -j. The genitive is used:

• to indicate possession
• with prepositions
• with postpositions.

The accusative is the direct object case and it is marked with -v in the singular. In the plural, its marker is -t, which is preceded by the plural marker -j.

The inessive marker is -n in the singular and the plural, when it is then preceded by the plural marker -j. This case is used to indicate:

• where something is
• who has possession of something

The illative marker is -j in the singular and -da in the plural, which is preceded by the plural marker -i, making it look the same as the plural accusative. This case is used to indicate:

• where something is going
• who is receiving something
• the indirect object

The elative marker is -s in the singular and the plural, when it is then preceded by the plural marker -j. This case is used to indicate:

• where something is coming from

The comitative marker in the singular is -jn and -j in the plural, which means that it looks like the genitive plural. The comitative is used to state with whom or what something was done.

The personal pronouns have three numbers - singular, plural and dual. The following table contains personal pronouns in the nominative and genitive/accusative cases.

	English	nominative	English	genitive
First person (singular)	I	man	my	muv
Second person (singular)	you (thou)	dan	your, yours	duv
Third person (singular)	he, she	san	his, her	suv
First person (dual)	we (two)	maj	our	munnu
Second person (dual)	you (two)	daj	your	dunnu
Third person (dual)	they (two)	saj	theirs	sunnu
First person (plural)	we	mij	our	mija
Second person (plural)	you	dij	your	dija
Third person (plural)	they	sij	their	sija

The next table demonstrates the declension of a personal pronoun he/she (no gender distinction) in various cases:

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	san	saj	sij
Genitive	suv	sunnu	sija
Accusative	suv	sunnuv	sijav
Inessive	sujna	sunnun	sijan
Illative	sunji	sunnuj	sidjij
Elative	sujsta	sunnus	sijas
Comitative	sujna	sunnujn	sijajn

Lule Sami verbs conjugate for three grammatical persons:

• first person
• second person
• third person

Lule Sami has five grammatical moods:

• indicative
• imperative
• optative (also known as "Imperative II")
• conditional
• potential

Lule Sami verbs conjugate for three grammatical numbers:

• singular
• dual
• plural

Lule Sami verbs have two simple tenses:

• past
• non-past

and two compound tenses:

• Present perfect
• Pluperfect

Lule Sami, like Finnish, the other Sami languages, and some Estonian dialects, has a negative verb. In Lule Sami, the negative verb conjugates according to tense (past and non-past), mood (indicative, imperative and optative), person (1st, 2nd and 3rd) and number (singular, dual and plural).

	Present indicative	Past indicative	Imperative	Optative
1st singular	iv	ittjiv	--	--
2nd singular	i	ittji	ale	allu
3rd singular	ij	ittjij	allis	allus
1st dual	en	ejma	allon	allun
2nd dual	ahppe	ejda	al'le	alluda
3rd dual	aba	ejga	alliska	alluska
1st plural	ep	ejma	allop	allup
2nd plural	ehpit	ejda	allit	allut
3rd plural	e	ettjin	allisa	allusa

• Grundstrom, Harald: Lulelappisches Worterbuch
• Kintel, Anders 1991: Syntaks og ordavledninger i lulesamisk. Kautokeino : Samisk utdanningsrad.
• Spiik, Nils-Erik 1989: Lulesamisk grammatik. Jokkmokk: Sameskolstyrelsen. ISBN 91-7716-019-3
• Ylikoski, Jussi 2022. Lule Saami. In Marianne Bakro-Nagy and Johanna Laakso and Elena Skribnik (eds.), The Oxford guide to the Uralic languages, 130-146. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Wiklund, K.B. 1890: Lule-lappisches Worterbuch. Helsinki: Suomalais-ugrilaisen seuran toimituksia ; 1

• The Children's TV series Binnabannas in Lule Sami
• Samasta Lule Sami lessons and resources (in Swedish)
• Morphological analyzer for Lule Sami
• Language generator for Lule Sami
• Lule Sami grammar in Norwegian(Currently only covers pronouns).
• Ada Testamennta The New Testament in Lule Sami (PDF)
• Giehttjit addja goaden audiobook in Lule Sami

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