View Single Post
Old 20th April 2008, 07:40 AM   #11
VVV
Member
 
VVV's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Sweden
Posts: 1,637
Default

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.
VVV is offline   Reply With Quote