Ter Sami

Ter Sámi is the easternmost of the Sámi languages. It was traditionally spoken in the northeastern part of the Kola Peninsula, but now it is a moribund language; in 2004, only ten speakers were left. By 2010, the number of speakers had decreased to two.[1]

Sámi dialects and settlements in Russia:
  Ter
Ter Sami
saa´mekiil / са̄мькӣлл
Native toRussia
Native speakers
2 (2010)[1]
Uralic
  • Sámi
    • Eastern Sámi
      • Ter Sami
Latin script (historical), Cyrillic script (current) [2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3sjt
Glottologters1235[3]
Ter Sámi is number 9 on the map.

History
Zoya Gerasimova (left), one of the last speakers of Ter Sámi.
Photo taken in 2006.

In the end of the 19th century, there were six Ter Sámi villages in the eastern part of the Kola Peninsula, with a total population of approximately 450. In 2004, there were approximately 100 ethnic Ter Sámi of whom two elderly persons speak the language; the rest have shifted their language to Russian.[4]

The rapid decline in the number of speakers was caused by Soviet collectivisation, during which its use was prohibited in schools and homes in the 1930s, and the largest Ter Sámi village, Yokanga, was declared "perspectiveless" and its inhabitants were forced to move to the Gremikha military base.[4]

Phonology

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Post-
alveolar		 Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive p b t d k ɡ
Affricate t͡s d͡z t͡ʃ d͡ʒ
Fricative f v s z ʃ ʒ x h
Nasal m n̥ n ŋ
Approximant
(Lateral)		 j
l̥ l
Trill r̥ r
  • All consonants except for /j/ may be palatalized [ʲ].
  • Consonants /t, d/ can also sound as half-palatalized.

Vowels
Front Central Back
short long short long short long
Close i iː ɨ ɨː u uː
Mid ɛ o
Open a aː ɔ
  • After palatalized consonants, /ɛ/ is realized as [e].[5]

Documentation

There are no educational materials or facilities in Ter Sámi, and the language has no standardized orthography. The language is incompletely studied and documented; text specimens, audio recordings as well as dictionaries for linguistic purposes exist,[6][7] but no grammatical description is available.

The earliest known documentation of Sámi languages is a short Ter Sámi vocabulary collected by the British explorer Stephen Burrough in 1557; the vocabulary was published by Richard Hakluyt.[8]

Writing system

A spelling system for Ter Sámi using the Latin alphabet and based on Skolt Sámi was developed in the 1930s. After the Second World War, this was replaced by a system using the Cyrillic alphabet and based on Kildin Sámi.[9]

Notes
  1. Sámi Languages Disappearing Barents Observer
  2. "Ter Sámi alphabet, pronunciation and language". Omniglot.com. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Ter Saami". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. Tiuraniemi Olli: "Anatoli Zaharov on maapallon ainoa turjansaamea puhuva mies", Kide 6 / 2004.
  5. Tereškin, Sergej N. (2002). Jokan'gskij dialekt Saamskogo Jazyka. Sankt Petersburg: Rossijskij Gosudarstvennyj pedagogičeskij Universitet imeni.
  6. Itkonen T. I.: "Koltan- ja kuolanlapin sanakirja", Helsinki: Société Finno-Ougrienne, 1958.
  7. Itkonen T. I.: "Koltan- ja kuolanlappalaisia satuja", 1931.Memoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 60
  8. Aikio Samuli: "Olbmot ovdal min - Sámiid historjá 1700-logu rádjái". Girjegiisá: Kárášjohka, 1992.
  9. "Ter Sami alphabet, pronunciation and language". Omniglot.com. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
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