Northern Sami language lesson 1

[magipojken]

The first chapter of "My Sami Language" translated from Swedish to English, for those learning Northern Sami. I have also made a Memrise course for it here (will make a Swedish version later): http://www.memrise.com/course/140756
Tumblr post with this same thing: http://magipojken.tumblr.com/post/61024489689
LiveJournal post: http://learn-nordic.livejournal.com/76039.html

If anyone has corrections, please tell me so I can fix things. I plan to translate more depending on if there is any demand, so if you want more, make sure to say so! If someone fluent in Northern Sami could record audio, that would be really great.

x

In compound words the compounds have been separated by a hyphen in order to more easily understand the words in the compound, ex. bæive-bælli "the sunny side", itku-bælli "the shady side", njæl'lje-nubbe-lågát "fourteenth".

Starting with lesson 18 the hyphens are omitted.

1 Vuostaš oappahallan / The first lesson

A låkkanbit'tá / Reading piece
Dát læ goatti. Goaði læ Biera dakkan. Goaði lakka læ jåkka. Dat boattá váris. Vári namma læ Allavårri ja jåga namma læ Gamajåkka. Boares namat læt dat.

B Sánit ja giellaoap'pa / Words and grammar
(T/N: Eventually I got too tired of translating the "see x-page"s and left them out)

vuostaš "first" (see 112)
oappahallan "lesson"
låkkanbit'tá "reading piece"
sádni "word", sánit "words"
dát "this, this here" (read 104-106)
læ "is" (3p sg pr, see 164)
dát læ "this is"
goatti "a goahti (type of Sami tent), the goahti" (nom sg)
goaði "the goahti's (gen sg), the goahti" (acc sg) (read 43 and 44:2-5)
goaðis "in the goahti, out of the goahti" (loc sg) (read 43 and 44:6)
Biera = a name
dakkan, læ dakkan "have done"
- dakkat kk 〜 g "do/make", dagan "I do/make". About the form dakkan, see 186:1
lakka "near"; goaði lakka "near the goahti" jfd 213 and 44:4
jåkka "creek, stream, river" (nom sg) 44:1
jåga "the creek's" (gen sg), "the creek" (acc sg)
jågas, Gamajågas "in/from Gamajokk"
dat "it"
boattá "it (she, he) comes" (3p sg pres)
boattit "come"
boaðán "i come/i am coming" (1p sg pres)
jokk - a stretch of water in the mountains
várri "a mountain, the mountain"
- Allavárri "tall mountain"
- vári "mountain's" (acc-gen sg)
- váris "from the mountain; on the mountain"
ja "and"
dat "they"
læt "are"
boaris, boares "old"
namma "name" (nom sg)
- namat "names"
mii "what?" (questioning pronoun)
gii "who?" (questioning pronoun)
gås "where? from where?" (questioning adverb)

Čállin-hár'jehus / Writing exercise
I. Čále ja bija buot busstávaid / Write and fill out all letters (fill in the +'s with letters)

Mii læ dát? Goa++i læ dat.
Gii læ goa+i dakkan? G++++ læ Biera da++an. (Biera is a name)
Mii l+ goaa++ lakka? Jå++a læ goaði la++a.
Gås dat boattá? D++ boa++á Allavá+is.
Mii læ dan vá+i namma?
V+++ na++a læ Allavá++i.
Mii læ jå+a na++a? Jå+a namma læ Gamajå++a.
Da+ læ+ boares na++t.

II. Jår'gal sámigillii / Translate to Sami.
Whose (gæn, see 96) goahti is this? It is Bieras goahti. Who has made the goahti? Biera has made it. It is near a creek. The creek comes from Allavárri. Its name is Gama Creek.

(Note that I am apparently missing page 96 so I can't translate whatever note is needed for you.)

[Lauren]

This is Northern Sami? Must be an obsolete orthography. :/

[Halfdan]

I'm probably wrong, but I think it's the 1948 orthography (Bergsland-Ruong).

[magipojken]

Yeah, someone elsewhere told me it's from before a spelling reform (I forgot to update that here).

I don't have any newer textbook though. Should I keep translating and someone update the spelling, or just stop?

Or if someone has a newer textbook or lessons, I can translate from theirs (provided it's in Icelandic/Faroese/Scandinavian).

[Lauren]

Well, except for linguists doing studies it wouldn't be particularly useful, but if you like doing it then continue and I'm sure it would be useful to someone somewhere. I mean, someone wanting to learn it to communicate with natives online would want the most current spelling reform.

I do have the PDF of the first level of Davvin in Norwegian, if you'd like that. Not sure how good it is, but it seems useful.

[magipojken]

I can translate that then, if it seems any good. I personally am not learning any Sami language, I just want to translate to help people learning Nordic languages.

I looked through what other things I had and they are all even older than the book in this thread, so that's no good. That or they were things like "ten words in Sami" out of a whole webpage. I do have a very modern book, but it's not a textbook and is just a list of inflections so there is nothing to translate.

[Lauren]

OK, I'll send you a link to the PDF in a couple minutes. All I did was upload it to my SkyDrive account.

[magipojken]

(Sorry for the late reply, it was around four in the morning when I was replying earlier so I went to bed)

Okay, it seems like a normal beginner's course-book, I will start translating today. It says it comes with cassettes though, do you have the audio for it too or should we ask around?

Update: First chapter is done, I just need someone to check over the poem in the beginning mostly, then I will post it here.

[Lauren]

I have the audio, but it's about 250mb and my internet connection is pretty slow, so it would probably take an hour or two to upload. I'm going to bed soon (it's almost 6am here ) but I'll upload it after I sleep.

Keep up the good work!

[magipojken]

Alright, great!

The second chapter is done now, I'm not sure how many more I will do today. I decided I will just wait to post until I finish everything and look them over/have my friend look them over. They're really fast to translate, so I can finish the whole thing by sometime next week, certainly. (I would say "at the end of this weekend" but it's a sort of holiday and I am going out to celebrate it).

I'll also start making a Memrise list for the vocabulary they teach. I can clip out the audio and match them to the words for Memrise, once you upload it.