Also Known As: Lapp,Saam,Kildin Lappish,Saami
Description:
Kildin Sami (also spelled Sámi or Saami; formerly Lappish) is a Sami language spoken by approximately 500 people on the Kola Peninsula in northwestern Russia. Kildin Sami is written using an official Cyrillic script.
Although Kildin Sámi is spoken by about 500 people throughout the Kola Peninsula, the area around Lovozero has the highest concentration of speakers. It is the largest of the Eastern Sami languages by virtue of the number of its speakers. Its future, however, appears to not be as bright as that of Skolt Sámi or Inari Sámi. The Sámi language that is often considered to be closest to Kildin Sámi, Akkala Sámi, is often considered to be a dialect of Kildin Sámi.
Kildin Sami is written in an extended version of the Cyrillic alphabet that was officially approved in 1937.
ҍ or letters with * follow palatalized д, т, н.
Long vowels are marked with a macron (¯) over the vowel letter (and above the diaeresis in the cases of ӓ and ӭ).
The letters ӓ, ҋ/ј, ӆ, ӎ, ӊ, ӈ, ҏ, ъ, ь, ҍ and ӭ do not occur word initially, either because the letters mark features of preceding consonants (like, e.g. ӓ, ъ) or the sounds they represent do not occur word initially (like, e.g. ӆ). So these..... full article at Wikipedia |