Hi Rob,
Knife (the generic term) in the North Sami language, according to the official database of the Norwegian Sami "union", is:
"niibi - S, If
Inflects like: niibi - niibái - niibbiide"
In South Sami it's "nejpie" etc.
So if you use the name from the book of Jussi you could probably be understood by the North Sami.
In Norway and Sweden (= Scandinavian part) four different languages are spoken (depending on "tribe"/region)
among the Western-Sami.
In Finland and Russia, except of North Sami in Finland, the main Eastern-Sami languages
are the Inari-, Skolt-, Akkala-, Kildin- and Ter-languages.
This means that altogether 9 distinct Sami languages still remain today.
All of them with different names for the local knives.
Michael
PS Correction to above is that one of the four Western/"Scandinavian" Sami languages is called Pite-Sami,
not Torne-Sami as I erroneously wrote in the earlier post.
Last edited by VVV; 20th April 2008 at 09:31 PM.
Reason: Added info and correction on Pite-Sami.
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