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Ter Sámi

Nearly extinct Uralic language From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ter Sámi
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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 2011, the number of speakers had decreased to two.[3][1] Other estimates counted about 30 Ter Sámi speakers in Murmansk Oblast, as well as in St. Petersburg, in 2007. The mean age of the youngest Ter Sámi speakers at that time was 50.[4]

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Sámi dialects and settlements in Russia:
  Ter
Quick Facts Native to, Region ...
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History

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Zoya Gerasimova (left), one of the last speakers of Ter Sámi, 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.[5]

The rapid decline in the number of speakers was caused by Soviet collectivisation, 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.[5]

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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, though text specimens and audio recordings as well as dictionaries for linguistic purposes exist.[6][7]

Phonology

Consonants

More information Labial, Alveolar ...
  • All consonants except for /j/ may be palatalized [ʲ].
  • Consonants /t, d/ can also sound as half-palatalized.

Vowels

More information Front, Central ...
  • After palatalized consonants, /ɛ/ is realized as [e].[8]

Writing system

A spelling system for Sámi languages using the Latin alphabet and based on Skolt Sámi was developed in the 1930s.[9] Oktyabrina Voronova published the only poetry booklet in Ter Sámi in 1989 using an orthography based on the Cyrillic Kildin Sámi orthography of 1982.[10]

Ter Sámi alphabet
А а Ӓ ӓ Б б В в Г г Д д Е е Ё ё Ж ж
З з И и Й й К к Л л Ӆ ӆ М м Ӎ ӎ Н н
Ӊ ӊ Ӈ ӈ О о П п Р р Ҏ ҏ С с Т т У у
Ф ф Х х Ц ц Ч ч Ш ш Ъ ъ Ы ы Ӹ ӹ Ь ь
Ҍ ҍ Э э Ӭ ӭ Ю ю Я я
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Morphology

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Perspective

Ter Sámi has 8 cases, Nominative, Genitive, Accusative, Essive, Inessive-Lative, Dative-Illative, Abessive, and Comitative.[11]

More information case, singular ...

Examples of the genitive

(in the UPA)

abre' paл = raining cloud

pɛci̮ pal'čemi̮š = slaughter of deer

taja oлmi̮j = German inhabitant

tara parnɛ = Russian boys

Plurals

In the nominative case, the base word changes when a plural is made.

More information Word, Meaning ...

The word ku 'who' in the cases.

More information Case, Singular ...
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Vocabulary

More information Latin transcription, English gloss ...

Notes

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