Top photo credit: kallerna
Inari Sami belongs to the Eastern group of Sami languages.
- Other living Eastern Sami languages include Ter Sámi, Skolt Sami and Kildin Sami.
- Eastern Sami languages which are now extinct include Akkala Sami, Kemi Sami and Kainuu Sami.
Inari Sami is a seriously endangered language with approximately 300 speakers.
- The majority of speakers are middle aged or older.
The language is spoken by the Inari Sami who originate from the area around Lake Inari in Finland.
- It is the only Sami language spoken exclusively in Finland.
- It is one of four official languages spoken in Inari municipality in Finland. The other three are Finnish, Northern Sami and Skolt Sami.
Mikkal Morottaja, who goes by the stage name ‘Amoc’, is a rapper who uses Inari Sami in his songs.
- His full length Inari Sami rap CD, the first of its kind was released on February 6, 2007.
Here is the Inari Sami alphabet:
Like other Sami languages, Inari Sami has three grammatical numbers – singular, dual and plural.
Here is a brief video of a woman speaking Inari Sami:
If you are interested in discovering more about this language, visit this page in addition to the reference links below.
References
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inari_Sami_language
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/smn
http://www.samimuseum.fi/anaras/english/yleistietoa/yleistietoa.html
Polyglot in Progress 