Sámi Languages: Group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sámi people in northern Europe

They are spoken in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. They are related to the Finnish, the Estonian, and the Hungarian language.

Sámi
Native to	Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Russia
Region	Sápmi (Lapland)
Ethnicity	Sámi
Native speakers	Approximately 20,000–30,000[source?]
Language family	Uralic Sámi
Official status
Official language in	Sweden and some parts of Norway; recognized as a minority language in several municipalities of Finland.
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: sia – Akkala sjd – Kildin sjk – Kemi sjt – Ter smn – Inari sms – Skolt sju – Ume sje – Pite sme – Northern smj – Lule sma – Southern
Historically verified distribution of the Sami languages: 1. Southern Sami, 2. Ume Sami, 3. Pite Sami, 4. Lule Sami, 5. Northern Sami, 6. Skolt Sami, 7. Inari Sami, 8. Kildin Sami, 9. Ter Sami. Darkened area represents municipalities that recognize Sami as an official language.

"The Sámi languages ... are sometimes considered dialects of one language", says Encyclopædia Britannica; those who speak one Sámi language, [mostly] do not understand other Sami languages; "[t]he Sámi languages share many features (or things,) with the Baltic-Finnic languages (Finnish, Estonian, Karelian, etc.)," but "they cannot be closely related to any of these"... "[T]heir grammars are similar to that of Finnish, although their syntax has been influenced by the Scandinavian languages."

Some researchers of linguistics, have an idea that the Sami languages have come from a proto-Sámi language; That kind of a language, can have existed c. 500 before Common Era.

Among the Sámi languages are

• East Sami language

• Southwestern
  • Southern Sami (600)
    • Åsele dialect
    • Jämtland dialect
  • Ume Sami (20)
• Northwestern
  • Northwestern proper
    • Pite Sami (20)
    • Lule Sami (1,000–2,000)
  • Northern Sami (20,000)
    • Torne Sami
    • Finnmark Sami
    • Sea Sami

 

• Mainland
  • Inari Sami (300)
  • Kemi Sami (extinct)
  • Skolt Sami (420)
  • Akkala Sami (extinct)
  • Kainuu Sami (extinct)
• Peninsular
  • Kildin Sami (500)
  • Ter Sami (2–10)

• Sami literature