Akkala Sámi

Akkala Sámi, also referred to, particularly in Russia, as Babin Sámi (Russian: Бабинский саа́мский), was a Sámi language spoken in the Sámi villages of Aʼkkel (Russian: Бабинский; Finnish: Akkala), Čuʼkksuâl (Russian: Экостровский) and Sââʼrvesjäuʼrr (Russian: Гирвасозеро; Finnish: Hirvasjärvi), in the inland parts of the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Formerly erroneously regarded as a dialect of Kildin Sámi, it has recently become recognized as an independent Sámi language that is most closely related to its western neighbor Skolt Sámi.

Akkala Sámi
Native toRussia
RegionSouthwest Kola Peninsula
Extinct29 December 2003[1]
with the death of Maria Sergina
Cyrillic
Language codes
ISO 639-3sia
Glottologakka1237
ELPAkkala Saami
Akkala Sami language area (red) within Sápmi (grey)
Akkala Sámi is classified as Extinct by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010)
[2]

Akkala Sámi was noted as extinct in the 2010 UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. Previously, it had been considered the most endangered Eastern Sámi language. On December 29, 2003, Maria Sergina  the last fluent native speaker of Akkala Sámi  died.[3][4] However, as of 2011 there were at least two people, both aged 70, with some knowledge of Akkala Sámi. Remaining ethnic Akkala Sámi live in the village Yona.[5]

Although there exists a description of Akkala Sámi phonology and morphology, a few published texts, and archived audio recordings,[5] the Akkala Sámi language remains among the most poorly documented Sámi languages.[5] One of the few items in the language are chapters 23–28 of the Gospel of Matthew published in 1897. It was translated by A. Genetz, and printed at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

In the Russian 2020 census, 1 person still claimed knowledge of Akkala.[6]

Sámi dialects and settlements in Russia:
  Akkala (Russian Babinsky)

A-1 Aʼkkel (Russian Babinsky, Finnish Akkala)
A-2 Čuʼkksuâl (Russian Ekostrovsky)
A-3 Yona
A-4 Sââʼrvesjäuʼrr (Russian Girvasozero, Finnish Hirvasjärvi)

Morphology

The following overview is based on Pekka (Pyotr) M. Zaykov's volume.[7] Zaykov's Uralic phonetic transcription is retained here. The middle dot ˑ denotes palatalization of the preceding consonant, analyzed by Zaykov as semisoft pronunciation.

Noun

Akkala Sámi has eight cases, singular and plural: nominative, genitive-accusative, partitive, dative-illative, locative, essive, comitative and abessive. Case and number are expressed by a combination of endings and consonant gradation:

  • Nominative: no marker in the singular, weak grade in the plural.
  • Genitive-accusative: weak grade in the singular, weak grade + -i in the plural.
  • Partitive: this case exists only in the singular, and has the ending -tti͔.
  • Dative-illative: strong grade + -a, -a͕ or in the singular, weak grade + -i in the plural.
  • Locative: weak grade + -st, -śtˑ in the singular, weak grade + -nˑ in the plural.
  • Essive: this case exists only in the singular: strong grade + -nˑ.
  • Comitative: weak grade + -nˑ in the singular, strong grade + -guim, -vuim or -vi̮i̭m in the plural.
  • Abessive: weak grade + -ta in the singular.

Pronoun

The table below gives the declension of the personal pronouns monn ‘I’ and mij ‘we’. The pronouns tonn ‘you (sg.)’ and sonn ‘(s)he’ are declined like monn, the pronouns tij ‘you (pl.)’ and sij ‘they’ are declined like mij.

  Singular Plural
Nominativemonnmij
Genitive-Accusativemii̭ji
Essivemunˑ---
Dative-illativemunˑnˑa͔mii̭ji
Locativemuśtˑmiśtˑ
Comitativemuinˑmii̭jivuim
Abessivemutamii̭ta

The interrogative pronouns ‘what?’ and tˑī, kī ‘who?’ are declined as follows:

  ‘what?’ tˑī, kī ‘who?’
Nominativetˑī, kī
Genitive-Accusativemi̮nt́an, ḱan
Dative-illativemi̮zkoz
Locativemi̮stkośtˑ
Comitativemi̮i̭nˑḱainˑ
Abessivemi̮ntaḱanta

The proximal demonstrative tˑa͕t ‘this’ and the medial demonstrative ti̮t ‘that’ are declined as follows:

  Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominativetˑa͕ttˑa͕kti̮tti̮k
Genitive-Accusativetˑa͕nˑtˑa͕iti̮nti̮i̭
Essivetˑa͕inˑ---ti̮i̭nˑ---
Dative-illativetˑa͕ztˑai(t)ti̮k, ti̮zti̮i̭(t)
Locativetˑa͕śtˑtˑa͕inti̮śtˑti̮i̼(n)
Comitativetˑa͕inˑtˑa͕ivuimti̮i̭nˑti̮i̭vuim
Abessivetˑa͕tatˑa͕itati̮tati̮i̭ta

Verb

Akkala Sámi verbs have three persons and two numbers, singular and plural. There are three moods: indicative, imperative and conditional; the potential mood has disappeared. Below, the paradigm of the verbs va͕n̄ˑće ‘to walk’ and korrɛ ‘to knit’ is given in the present and imperfect tense:

  Present Imperfect Present Imperfect
1sg.vā͕nʒamva͕n̄ˑcimkōramkorri͔m
2sg.va͕nʒakvā͕nˑcikkōrakkorri͔k
3sg.va͕n̄ˑcvānˑʒikorrkōri͔
1pl.va͕n̄ˑćepˑvānˑʒimkorrɛpˑkōri͔m
2pl.va͕nˑćepˑpˑevānˑʒitˑkorrɛpˑpˑekōri͔tˑ
3pl.vā͕nˑʒatˑvan̄ˑciškōratˑkorri͔š

The verb ĺiije ‘to be’ conjugates as follows:

  Present Imperfect
1sg.ĺamĺii̭jim
2sg.ĺakĺiijik
3sg.ĺieĺai
1pl.ĺepˑĺījim
2pl.ĺepˑpˑeĺījitˑ
3pl.ĺetˑĺii̭jiš

Compound tenses such as perfect and pluperfect are formed with the verb ĺii̭je in the present or imperfect as auxiliary, and the participle of the main verb. Examples are ĺam tĭĕhtmi̮nč ‘I have known’ from tĭĕhttɛ ‘to know’, and ĺai tui̭jāma ‘(s)he had made’ from tui̭je ‘to make’.

The conditional mood has the marker , which is added to the weak grade of the stem: kuarčim ‘I would sew’, vizzčik ‘you (sg.) would become tired’.

As in other Sámi languages, Akkala Sámi makes use of a negative verb that conjugates according to person and number, while the main verb remains unchanged. The conjugation of the negative verb is shown here together with the verb aĺ̄ḱe ‘to begin’:

 
1sg.jim aĺg
2sg.jik aĺg
3sg.ij aĺg
1pl.jepˑ aĺg
2pl.jepˑpˑe aĺg
3pl.jetˑ aĺg

The third person singular and plural of the verb ĺii̭je ‘to be’ have special contracted forms ɛĺĺa and jāĺa.

References

  1. Akkala Sámi at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (Report) (3rd ed.). UNESCO. 2010. p. 7.
  3. "Nordisk samekonvensjon" (PDF) (in Swedish). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-04-11. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
  4. Rantala, Leif, Aleftina Sergina 2009. Áhkkila sápmelaččat. Oanehis muitalus sámejoavkku birra, man maŋimuš sámegielalaš olmmoš jámii 29.12.2003. Roavvenjárga.
  5. Scheller, Elizabeth (2011). "The Sámi Language Situation in Russia" (PDF). In Grünthal, Riho; Kovács, Magdolna (eds.). Ethnic and Linguistic Context of Identity: Finno-Ugric Minorities. Helsinki, Finland: University of Helsinki, Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies. pp. 90–91. ISBN 978-952-5667-28-8. OCLC 755168782.
  6. "Росстат — Всероссийская перепись населения 2020". rosstat.gov.ru. Retrieved 2023-01-03.
  7. Зайков, П. М. Бабинский диалект саамского языка (фонолого-морфологическое исследование). Петрозаводск: «Карелия», 1987.
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