Northern Sami resources (mostly) for Finnish speakers
This is a non-exhaustive list of the resources I use (or have heard of, but don’t use) for learning Northern Sami from Finnish. This post will therefore be of the most use (if any, haha) to Finnish speakers, but I’m writing this in English because many of these resources are also available in several other languages.
The majority of the following websites are available in Northern Sami, naturally (there really needs to be a Sami flag emoji!). I’ve listed the other languages after each resource. Links lead to the Finnish-language page.
Neahttadigisánit 🇫🇮 🇳🇴 // 🇬🇧
This is my favourite online dictionary because it has autocomplete and includes declensions and conjugations for most entries. The interface is available in Northern Sami, Finnish, Norwegian, and English, but the dictionaries are only available in Northern Sami, Finnish, and Norwegian.
Here’s an example of it in action:
Álgu database 🇫🇮 🇬🇧 🇩🇪
Database containing approximately 25,000 Northern Sami entries. Available in Northern Sami, Finnish, English, and German (translations too, but to varying extents).
Divvun 🇫🇮 🇳🇴 🇸🇪 🇬🇧
Spellchecker for word processing applications, among other things. Available in Northern Sami, Southern Sami, Lule Sami, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, and English.
Giellatekno 🇫🇮 🇳🇴 🇬🇧 🇷🇺
Information about different Sami languages, including links to dictionaries and other resources. Available in Northern Sami, Finnish, Norwegian, English, and Russian.
Oahpa! 🇫🇮 🇳🇴 🇬🇧 🇷🇺
Resources for different Sami languages; includes some vocab, grammar, exercises, and links to dictionaries, among other things. Available in Northern Sami, Finnish, Norwegian, English, and Russian.
🇫🇮 I often use Yle Sápmi (articles) in conjunction with Yle Ođđasat Sápmi (radio, also available as a podcast) because there is a lot of overlap in content. If a topic is mentioned on radio, chances are there’ll be a news article about it. I find this very useful both for listening and vocab, as I can often find out the words I didn’t manage to catch on audio from the text. Yle Sápmi also sometimes publishes both Northern Sami and Finnish versions of the same article (look for two of the same thumbnail), which can then be read as parallel texts. Like so:
🇫🇮 Another radio broadcast/podcast to check out is Beaivvi sagat. Unlike the news, which is often read fairly slowly and clearly, this features more casual, spontaneous speech, so I find it more challenging.
🇫🇮 For TV, there’s Yle Ođđasat (~4 min, with Finnish subtitles) and Ođđasat (~14 min, with Finnish and Swedish subtitles).
🇸🇪 For Swedish speakers, there’s Sameradion & SVT Sápmi (radio and articles) and Ođđasat (TV).
🇳🇴 For Norwegian speakers, there’s NRK Sápmi (articles), NRK Sámi radio, and NRK TV.
🇫🇮 Definitely check out Sano se saameksi, which has lots of information about Sami languages and culture (and a gorgeous layout to boot). There’s also a phrase book coming out soon!
…that’s about it for now, I don’t actually have that many resources 😅
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