Pite Sami


Pite Sámi or Arjeplog Sámi is a Sámi language traditionally spoken in Sweden and Norway. It is a critically endangered language that has only about 25-50 native speakers left and is now only spoken on the Swedish side of the border along the Pite River in the north of Arjeplog and Arvidsjaur and in the mountainous areas of the Arjeplog municipality.

Classification

Pite Sámi is a part of the Western Sámi group, together with Southern Sámi and Ume Sámi to the south, Lule Sámi and Northern Sámi to the north. Of these, Pite Sámi shows closest affinity to Lule Sámi, but a number of features also show similarity to Ume and Southern Sámi.

Phonology

Consonants

The Pite Sámi consonant inventory is very similar to that found in neighbouring Lule Sámi, but lacks contrastive voicing of stops and affricates entirely.
The Pite Sámi vowel inventory has a relative lack of phonemic diphthongs, compared to other Sámi languages and particularly neighbouring Lule Sámi. Instead, there are more vowel height distinctions.
Sammallahti divides Lule Sami dialects as follows:
Features of the northern dialects are:
Features of the southern dialects are:
For a long time, Pite Sámi was one of the four Sámi languages without an official written language. A working orthography was developed in 2008–2011 by the Sámi Association of Arjeplog; this version was described by Joshua Wilbur and implemented in the dictionary Pitesamisk ordbok samt stavningsregler, published in 2016. On August 20, 2019, an official orthography was approved for the language. The orthography closely resembles the orthography of neighbouring Lule Sámi.
LetterPronunciationNotes
A a
Á á
B b
D d
Đ đ
E e,,
F f
G g
H h
I i
J j
K k,, Postaspirated at the beginning of a stressed syllable.
L l
M m
N n
Ŋ ŋ
O o,
P p,, Postaspirated at the beginning of a stressed syllable.
R r
S s
T t,, Postaspirated at the beginning of a stressed syllable.
Ŧ ŧ
U u,
V v
Å å,
Ä ä

Digraphs

DigraphPronunciationNotes
ie-
ua
uo
uä

Lexicographic sources

A number of sources exist with extensive collections of Pite Sámi lexical items, including grammatical and phonological information to various extents. These include:

Cases

Pite Sámi has 9 cases:
, archived at in.

Verbs

Person

Pite Sámi verbs conjugate for three grammatical persons:
Pite Sámi has five grammatical moods:
Pite Sámi verbs conjugate for three grammatical numbers:
Pite Sámi verbs conjugate for two simple tenses:
and two compound tenses:
Pite Sámi, like Finnish, the other Sámi languages and Estonian, has a negative verb. In Pite Sámi, the negative verb conjugates according to mood, person and number. This differs from some of the other Sámi languages, e.g. from Northern Sámi, which do not conjugate according to tense and other Sámi languages, that do not use the optative.
Non-past indicative Past indicative
sg. du. pl. sg. du. pl.
1 iv ien iehp 1 ittjiv iejmen iejmeh
iep ittjijmen ittjijmeh
2 ih iehpen iehpit 2 ittjih iejten iejteh
ähpen ihpit ittjijten ittjijteh
ihpen
3 ij iepá ieh 3 ittjij iejkán ittjin
iepán ittjijka
For non-past indicative versions that have more than one form, the second one is from the dialect spoken around Björkfjället and the third is from the Svaipa dialect. The plurality in the other forms is due to parallel forms that are not bound by dialect.
Imperative Optative
sg. du. pl. sg. du. pl.
1 - - - 1 alluv iellun iellup
allun allup
2 ieleh iellen iellit 2 alluh ielluten ielluteh
alluten alluteh
3 - - - 3 allus ielluska ielluseh
alluska alluseh