Lule Sámi (, , ) is a Uralic, Sámi language spoken around the Lule River, Sweden, and in the northern parts of Nordland county in Norway, especially the Hamarøy (formerly Tysfjord) municipality, where Lule Sámi is an official language. It is written in the Latin script, having an official alphabet.
History
The language was originally only spoken around the Lule River, in Sweden. During the 18th century some Sámi migrated to Nordland in Norway, and their descendants still live in Norway, and speak Lule Sámi. The first book written in Lule Sámi, , was published in 1839 by Lars Levi Læstadius.
Status
With 650 speakers, it is the second largest of all Sámi languages. It is reported that the number of native speakers is in sharp decline among the younger generations. The language has, however, been standardised in 1983 and elaborately cultivated ever since.
Phonology
Consonants
Some analyses of Lule Sámi phonology may include preaspirated stops and affricates (, , , , ) and pre-stopped or pre-glottalised nasals (voiceless , , , and voiced , , , ). However, these can be treated as clusters for the purpose of phonology, since they are clearly composed of two segments and only the first of these lengthens in quantity 3. The terms "preaspirated" and "pre-stopped" will be used in this article to describe these combinations for convenience.
Stops before a homorganic nasal (pre-stopped nasals) are realised as unreleased stops. is realised as a labiodental fricative in the syllable onset (before a vowel), and as bilabial in the syllable coda (in a consonant cluster).
Vowels
Lule Sámi possesses the following vowels:
can be realised as a true diphthong, or a long monophthong . Long and the diphthongs and occur only in stressed syllables. Long and are very rare, as is short . They also only occur in stressed syllables. Short and long can occur in unstressed syllables, but only when a preceding stressed syllable contains .
Consonant length and gradation
Consonants, including clusters, that occur after a stressed syllable can occur in multiple distinctive length types, or quantities. These are conventionally labelled quantity 1, 2 and 3 or Q1, Q2 and Q3 for short. The consonants of a word alternate in a process known as consonant gradation, where consonants appear in different quantities depending on the specific grammatical form. Normally, one of the possibilities is named the strong grade, while the other is named weak grade. The consonants of a weak grade are normally quantity 1 or 2, while the consonants of a strong grade are normally quantity 2 or 3.
Quantity 1 includes any single consonant. It originates from Proto-Samic single consonants in the weak grade. Quantity 2 includes any combination of consonants (including two of the same) with a short consonant in the coda of the preceding syllable. It originates from Proto-Samic single consonants in the strong grade, as well as combinations of two consonants in the weak grade. Quantity 3 includes any combination of consonants (including two of the same) with a long consonant in the coda of the preceding syllable. It originates from Proto-Samic combinations of two consonants in the strong grade.
Throughout this article and related articles, consonants that are part of different syllables are written with two consonant letters in IPA, while the lengthening of consonants in quantity 3 is indicated with an IPA length mark ().
Not all consonants can occur in every quantity type. The following limitations exist: Single is restricted to quantity 1, and does not alternate. Single is also restricted to quantity 1, but alternates with . Voiced stops and affricates only occur in quantity 3, except for which can also occur in quantity 2. occurs in quantity 2 and 3, but not in quantity 1.
When a consonant can occur in all three quantities, quantity 3 is termed "overlong".
Phonological processes
Umlaut
Umlaut is a process whereby a diphthong in a stressed syllable changes depending on the vowel in the next syllable.
The first type of umlaut causes an alternation between and in words whose stems end with unstressed . For such words, these two diphthongs can be considered variants of each other, while in words whose stems end with another vowel, these vowels remain distinct. The following table shows the different patterns that occur with different following vowels: