Northern Sámi

Northern Sámi is the most widely spoken of all Sámi languages. The area where Northern Sámi is spoken covers the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland.

Geographic distribution

The number of Northern Sámi speakers is estimated to be somewhere between 15,000 and 25,000. About 2,000 of these live in Finland and between 5,000 and 6,000 in Sweden, with the remaining portions being in Norway.
Based on the highest estimates above of 18,000 speakers in Norway, and Statistics Norway estimating the total population of Norway to be 5,594,340 at the start of 2025, this gives the percentage of Northern Sámi speakers in Norway as approximately 0.32%. Similar calculations for Sweden and Finland give them as 0.05% and 0.03% respectively in those countries.

History

Among the first printed Sámi texts is Swenske och Lappeske ABC Book, written in Swedish and what is likely a form of Northern Sámi. It was published in two editions in 1638 and 1640 and includes 30 pages of prayers and confessions of Protestant faith. It has been described as the first book "with a regular Sámi language form".
Northern Sámi was first described by Knud Leem in 1748 and in dictionaries in 1752 and 1768. One of Leem's fellow grammaticians, who had also assisted him, was Anders Porsanger, himself Sámi and in fact the first Sámi to receive higher education, who studied at the Trondheim Cathedral School and other schools, but who was unable to publish his work on Sámi due to racist attitudes at the time. The majority of his work has disappeared.
In 1832, Rasmus Rask published the highly influential Ræsonneret lappisk Sproglære, Northern Sámi orthography being based on his notation.
No major official nationwide surveys on the distribution of speakers by municipality or county in Norway have been done. A 2000 survey by the Sami Language Council showed Kautokeino Municipality and Karasjok Municipality as 96% and 94% Sami-speaking respectively; should those percentages still be true as of the 2022 national population survey, this would result in 2,761 and 2,428 speakers respectively, virtually all of which being speakers of Northern Sámi. Tromsø Municipality has no speaker statistics despite having the largest voter roll in the Norwegian Sámi parliamentary election">Norwegian language">Norwegian Sámi parliamentary election. A common urban myth is that Oslo has the largest Sámi population despite being nowhere near the core Sápmi area, but it had only the 5th largest voter roll in 2019.

Assimilation

The mass mobilization during the Alta controversy as well as a more tolerant political environment caused a change to the Norwegian policy of assimilation during the last decades of the twentieth century.
In Norway, Northern Sámi is currently an official language in Troms and Finnmark counties along with eight municipalities. Sámi born before 1977 have never learned to write Sámi according to the currently used orthography in school, so it is only in recent years that there have been Sámi capable of writing their own language for various administrative positions.
In the 1980s, a Northern Sámi Braille alphabet was developed, based on the Scandinavian Braille alphabet but with seven additional letters required for writing in Northern Sámi.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonant inventory of Northern Sámi is large, contrasting voicing for many consonants. Some analyses of Northern Sámi phonology may include preaspirated stops and affricates and pre-stopped or pre-glottalised nasals. 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.
Notes:

Voiceless stops have voiced or partly voiced allophones when they occur adjacent to voiced sounds, and sometimes also word-initially.
Stops before a homorganic nasal are realised as unreleased stops. Some, particularly younger, speakers instead realise voiceless stops as a glottal stop in this position, and decompose voiced stops into a homorganic nasal + glottal stop combination.
is realised as a labiodental fricative in the syllable onset, and is realised in the syllable coda as before a stop in quantity 2, as bilabial otherwise in quantity 2, and as before a stop in quantity 3. Although is a fricative, it behaves phonologically like an approximant, in particular like.
Quantity 3 geminated plain stops and affricates are variously described as voiced or partly voiced.
Voiceless sonorants are very rare, but occur more frequently as allophonic realisations. A combination of sonorant followed by in the coda, is realised as the equivalent voiceless sonorant. Voiceless only occurs this way, and is quite rare.
A combination of followed by a stop or affricate in the onset is realised as preaspiration.
is extremely rare.
is realized as when it is between two unstressed syllables.
The pronunciation of the cluster varies between,, and depending on dialect.
can be pronounced.

Dialectal variation

Not all Northern Sámi dialects have identical consonant inventories. Some consonants are absent from some dialects, while others are distributed differently.

Western Finnmark lacks, using in its place. This also applies to sequences of pre-stopped and, which become and respectively. is retained before a velar consonant, but as an allophone of.
Eastern Finnmark does not have voiced pre-stopped nasals, replacing them with voiceless equivalents.
Sea Sámi does not have pre-stopped nasals at all, having geminate nasals in their place.
The postaspirated stops do not occur in Western Finnmark dialects, plain stops are used instead. They occur only in recent loanwords from the Scandinavian languages, and only before a stressed syllable when not next to another consonant.

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 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 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.
Postaspirated consonants do not occur after a stressed syllable, and thus do not have any quantity distinctions.
Voiced stops and affricates only occur in quantity 3. In quantity 1, voiced stops are allophones of the corresponding voiceless stops.
, and occur in quantity 2 and 3, but not in quantity 1.

When a consonant can occur in all three quantities, quantity 3 is termed "overlong".
In quantity 3, if the syllable coda consists of only, or, the additional length of this consonant is realised phonetically as an epenthetic vowel. This vowel assimilates to the quality of the surrounding vowels:

Between two rounded vowels in the adjacent syllables, it becomes.
Before a front vowel in the next syllable, it becomes, e.g. muorji, phonetically.
Otherwise, it becomes, e.g. silba, phonetically.

This does not occur if the second consonant is a dental/alveolar stop, e.g. gielda, phonetically, or sálti, phonetically.

Vowels

Northern Sámi possesses the following vowels:
Closing diphthongs such as also exist, but these are phonologically composed of a vowel plus one of the semivowels or. The semivowels still behave as consonants in clusters.
Not all of these vowel phonemes are equally prevalent; some occur generally while others occur only in specific contexts as the result of sound changes. The following rules apply for stressed syllables:

Short,, and, the normal diphthongs, and the long vowel occur generally.
The other long vowels occur only in the context of diphthong simplification.
Short is rare, and mostly occurs due to the combination of diphthong simplification plus stressed vowel shortening.
Rising diphthongs and half-long occur only due to unstressed vowel shortening in the next syllable.

The distribution in post-stressed syllables is more restricted:

Short and long, and occur generally.
Short and occur more rarely, sometimes from Proto-Samic *i and *u and sometimes as a result of unstressed vowel shortening.
Short and occur only before.
No diphthongs occur at all, nor do half-long or long and.

In a second unstressed syllable, no long vowels occur and, and are the only vowels that occur frequently.
The standard orthography of Northern Sámi distinguishes vowel length in the case of versus, although this is primarily on an etymological basis. Not all instances of are phonemically long, due to both stressed and unstressed vowel shortening. Some dialects also have lengthening of under certain circumstances. Nonetheless, a default length can be assumed for these two letters. For the remaining vowels, vowel length is not indicated in the standard orthography. In reference works, macrons can be placed above long vowels that occur in a position where they can be short. Length of and in a post-stressed syllable is assumed, and not indicated, except in the combinations and, where these letters can also indicate short vowels.

Dialectal variation

The Eastern Finnmark dialects possess additional contrasts that other dialects of Northern Sámi do not:

There is a maximally three-way contrast among open vowels between, and, both short and long.
* The vowel spelled is in stressed syllables, in unstressed syllables.
* The vowel spelled is in stressed syllables if the next syllable has a back vowel, and everywhere else.
In other eastern varieties, only a two-way contrast between and is found. Jarvansalo reports the Kárášjohka dialect following this contrast, but having for, for stressed.
There is a length contrast between short and long diphthongs. In other dialects, this distinction exists as well, but is allophonic.

Some Torne dialects have and instead of stressed and as well as unstressed and.

Phonological processes

Diphthong simplification

Diphthongs can undergo simplification when the following syllable contains short e, short o, ii, or ui. This means that only the first vowel of the diphthong remains, which also undergoes lengthening before grade 1 and 2 consonant clusters and geminates. Note that some instances of e, o, and ui do not cause simplification. Below are some examples:ie → ī: viehkat "to run" → vīhken "I ran"ea → ē: geassi "summer" → gēsiid "of the summers"oa → ō: goarrut "to sew" → gōrro "they sew"uo → ū: muorra "tree" → mūrrii "into the tree"

Unstressed vowel shortening

Shortening of long vowels in unstressed syllables occurs irregularly. It commonly occurs in the first element of a compound word, in a fourth syllable, and in various other unpredictable circumstances. When shortened, and are lowered to and, except before. Shortened vowels are denoted here, and in other reference works, with an underdot: ạ, ẹ, ọ, to distinguish them from originally-short vowels.
When a long vowel or diphthong occurs in the stressed syllable before the shortened vowel, it becomes half-long/rising.

"oldest" ~ boarásēpmosa
"fearless" ~ baluhēmiid

When the consonant preceding the shortened vowel is quantity 3, any lengthened elements are shortened so that it becomes quantity 2. However, the resulting consonant is not necessarily the weak-grade equivalent of that consonant. If the consonant was previously affected by consonant lengthening, this process shortens it again.

"mother" → "mother pig"; contrast the weak grade in
"year" → jahkẹbealli "half-year"

Stressed vowel shortening

In the Eastern Finnmark dialects, long vowels as well as diphthongs are shortened before a quantity 3 consonant. This is phonemic due to the loss of length in quantity 3 in these dialects.

"mother" ~ etniid
"waterfall" ~ guikii
"teaching" ~ oahpa
"guest" ~ guossi
"grandmother" ~ áhku

Outside Eastern Finnmark, long is only shortened before a long preaspirate, not before any other consonants. The shortening of diphthongs remains allophonic due to the preservation of quantity 3 length, but the shortening of long vowels that result from diphthong simplification is phonemic.

Stressed vowel lengthening

In the Eastern Finnmark dialects, short vowels are lengthened when they occur before a quantity 1 or 2 consonant. Combined with the preceding change, vowel length in stressed syllables becomes conditioned entirely by the following consonant quantity. Moreover, because the coda lengthening in quantity 3 is lost in these dialects, vowel length becomes the only means for distinguishing quantities 3 and 2 in many cases.

"lock" ~ lohka
"nail" ~ gacca
"cat" ~ bussá

Lengthening of unstressed short /a/

In the Western Finnmark dialects, a short in a post-stressed syllable is lengthened to if the preceding consonants are quantity 1 or 2, and the preceding syllable contains a short vowel. Compare the Eastern Finnmark pronunciations of these words under "stressed vowel lengthening".

"lock" ~ lohka .
"nail" ~ gacca
"cloud" ~ balvva

A long that originates from this process does not trigger consonant lengthening.

Consonant lengthening

In dialects outside Eastern Finnmark, in quantity 2, the last coda consonant is lengthened if the following vowel is long, and the preceding vowel is a short monophthong. Since the coda now contains a long consonant, it is considered as quantity 3, but the lengthening is mostly allophonic and is not indicated orthographically. It is phonemic in the Western Finnmark dialects when the following vowel is, because lengthening is triggered by an original long but not by an original short that was lengthened.
The new consonant may coincide with its Q3 consonant gradation counterpart, effectively making a weak grade strong, or it may still differ in other ways. In particular, no change is made to syllable division, so that in case of Q2 consonants with a doubled final consonant, it is actually the first of this pair that lengthens, making it overlong.

"year" ~ jagi
"fear" ~ balu
"sum" ~ supmi ; contrast "polar night" ~ skápma
"eye" ~ čalmmi ; contrast "palm tree" ~ bálmma
"bird" ~ lotti ; contrast "period" ~ botta

Lengthening also occurs if the preceding vowel is a close diphthong or. In this case, the diphthong also shortens before the new quantity 3 consonant.

, phonetically "protection" ~ duotti, phonetically ; contrast "track, trail", phonetically ~ luotta with no lengthening.
, phonetically "field" ~ gietti, phonetically

Prosody

Stress is generally not phonemic in Northern Sámi; the first syllable of a word always carries primary stress. Like most Sámi languages, Northern Sámi follows a pattern of alternating stress, in which each odd-numbered syllable after the first is secondarily stressed and even-numbered syllables are unstressed. The last syllable of a word is never stressed, unless the word has only one syllable.
Consequently, words can follow three possible patterns:

A single stressed syllable.
An even number of syllables: Ending in a stressed odd-numbered syllable followed by an unstressed even-numbered syllable.
An odd number of syllables: Ending in a stressed odd-numbered syllable followed by an unstressed even-numbered syllable, and an unstressed odd-numbered syllable.

This gives the following pattern, which can be extended indefinitely in theory. S indicates stress, _ indicates no stress:

S
S _
S _ _
S _ S _
S _ S _ _
S _ S _ S _
etc.

The number of syllables, and the resulting stress pattern, is important for grammatical reasons. Words with stems having an even number of syllables from the last inflect differently from words with stems having an odd number of syllables. This is detailed further in the grammar section.
In compound words, which consist of several distinct word roots, each word retains its own stress pattern, potentially breaking from the normal trochaic pattern. If the first element of a compound has an odd number of syllables, then there will be a sequence of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one, which does not occur in non-compound words. In some cases, the first element of a compound has only one syllable, resulting in two adjacent stressed syllables. Hence, stress is lexically significant in that it can distinguish compounds from non-compounds.
Recent loanwords generally keep the stress of the language they were borrowed from, assigning secondary stress to the syllable that was stressed in the original word. The normal trochaic pattern can also be broken in this case, but words will still be made to fit into the even or odd inflection patterns. Words with penultimate stress ending in a consonant will follow the odd inflection:

"neon"
"apostle"

Words with antepenultimate or earlier stress will have the stress modified, as this is not allowed in Northern Sámi:

"pineapple"
"Africa"
"America"

Final stress is not allowed, so if the original word has final stress, an extra dummy syllable is added in Northern Sámi to avoid this.

"car"
"bomb"
"culture"
"adverb"
"tomato"
"lawyer"
"capacity"
"mathematics"

As a result of retaining the original stress pattern, some loanwords have sequences of three unstressed syllables, which do not occur in any other environment:

"to specialise"
"to theorise"
"administration"

Conjunctions, postpositions, particles, and monosyllabic pronouns tend to be unstressed altogether, and therefore fall outside the above rules.

Dialects

Sammallahti divides Northern Sámi dialects into certain regions as follows:

Finnmark dialects
* Western Finnmark: eastern Enontekiö, northern Sodankylä, and part of Inari in Finland plus Kautokeino and Alta in Norway
* Eastern Finnmark: Utsjoki and part of Inari in Finland plus Karasjok, Porsanger, and Tana in Norway
Torne dialects
* Finnish Wedge: western Enontekiö in Finland plus Skibotnelva, Gálggojávri, and Nordreisa in Norway
* Karesuando: Könkämävuoma and Lainiovuoma in Sweden plus Lyngen and Balsfjord in Norway
* Jukkasjärvi: Saarivuoma, Talma, Rautasvuoma and Kaalasvuoma in Sweden plus Vågsfjord and Ofotfjord in Norway
* Kaitum: Norrkaitum and Mellanbyn in Sweden
Sea Sámi

The written language is primarily based on the western Finnmark dialects, with some elements from the eastern Finnmark dialects.

Western Finnmark dialects

Features of the western Finnmark dialects are:

Merging of the velar nasals into the palatal nasals, except before a homorganic stop.
Lengthening of short when the preceding syllable contains a short vowel and a quantity 1 or 2 consonant. This new long does not trigger consonant lengthening.
Kautokeino: Merging of into.
Kautokeino: Assibilation of into.

Eastern Finnmark dialects

The eastern Finnmark dialects have the following characteristics:

Lengthening of stressed vowels before quantity 1 and 2 consonants.
Shortening of the first element of quantity 3 consonants, merging them with quantity 2 consonants. Combined with the previous change, this causes Q3-Q2 gradation in Eastern Finnmark to become primarily about vowel length rather than consonant length.
A distinction between and, the former spelled and reflecting Proto-Samic *ā, the latter spelled and reflecting Proto-Samic *ë.
Fronting of to in unstressed syllables.
Umlaut: fronting of vowels before a following front vowel in the second syllable.
* is fronted to.
* is fronted to.
* is fronted to.
* is fronted to.
Between vowels, lenition of to, and of to, which in modern speech becomes between a stressed vowel and a front vowel, and zero otherwise.
Raising of the non-close diphthongs and.
* Along the lower Tana river, these merge entirely with standard and, resulting in and or and .
* Along the upper Tana, the non-close diphthongs are only raised before single and geminate consonants, and they may or may not merge with original and.
* In dialects south of Tana bru, only fronted and are raised to and.

Torne dialects

Jukkasjärvi, Karesuando, Finnish Wedge: Loss of distinction between postalveolar and plain alveolar consonants, with the result being alveolar in Karesuando and postalveolar in the Finnish Wedge.
Use of -n instead of -s in the locative singular. This originates from the old inessive case, whereas the standard ending is from the old elative case.
Use of -o instead of -u in the third-person singular present tense.
Jukkasjärvi and Kaitum: Use of -is instead of -in in the locative plural. Again, these originate from two different older cases.
Karesuando: Long and from diphthong simplification are re-diphthongised to and.
Jukkasjärvi and Karesuando: Raising of short to before and.
Jukkasjärvi and Karesuando: and instead of standard long and in post-stressed syllables.
All except Finnish Wedge: and instead of standard and from the Proto-Samic clusters *mt and *mč.

Sea Sámi dialects

Lack of fortition in strong-grade nasals and glides, thus,,, rather than,, and.
Use of -st instead of -s in the locative singular.
Eastern Sea Sámi: Loss of distinction between postalveolar and plain alveolar consonants.

Orthography

Northern Sámi has a long orthographic history, which includes no fewer than 9 Latin alphabets.

History

The roots of the current orthography for Northern Sámi were laid by Rasmus Rask who, after discussions with Nils Vibe Stockfleth, published Ræsonneret lappisk sproglære efter den sprogart, som bruges af fjældlapperne i Porsangerfjorden i Finmarken. En omarbejdelse af Prof. Knud Leems Lappiske grammatica in 1832. Rask opted for a phonemic orthographic system. All of the orthographies that have been used for Northern Sámi trace their roots back to Rask's system, unlike the orthographies used for Lule and Southern Sámi, which are mainly based on the orthographical conventions of Swedish and Norwegian. Following in the tradition of Rask meant that diacritics were used with some consonants, which caused data-processing problems before Unicode was introduced. Both Stockfleth and J. A. Friis went on to publish grammar books and dictionaries for Sámi. It can be said that Northern Sámi was better described than Norwegian was before Ivar Aasen published his Grammar of the Norwegian Dialects.
Northern Sámi was and is used in three countries, each of which used its own orthography for years. Friis' orthography was used when work on translating the Bible into Northern Sámi commenced, in the first Sámi newspaper called Saǥai Muittalægje, and in the Finnemisjonen's own newspaper Nuorttanaste. The groundwork for Northern Sámi lexicography was laid by Konrad Nielsen who used an orthography of his own creation in his dictionary Lappisk ordbok. Starting in 1948, the orthographies used in Norway and Sweden were combined into a single Bergsland-Ruong orthography. It was not greatly used in Norway. In 1979, an official orthography for Northern Sámi was adopted for use in Norway, Sweden and Finland.
Thus, until the official orthography currently in use was adopted in 1979, each country had its own, slightly different standard, so it is quite possible to come across older books that are difficult to understand for people unacquainted with the orthography:

Maanat leät poahtan skuvllai.
Mánát leat boahtán skuvlii.

The first sentence is from Antti Outakoski's Samekiela kiellaoahpa from 1950; the second one is how it would be written according to the current orthography.

Alphabet

The most recent alphabet was approved in 1979 and last modified in 1985:

Letter	Name	Phoneme	English approximation	Notes
A a	a		spa	Also in Western Finnmark. In Eastern Finnmark, or in stressed syllables, or in unstressed syllables.
Á á	á	,	chai	In Eastern Finnmark, also or.
B b	be	,	bat	in the combinations and.
C c	ce	,	lets	after a voiced consonant.
Č č	če	,	chew	after a voiced consonant.
D d	de	,,	do	in the combinations, and. between two unstressed vowels.
Đ đ	đe		this
E e	e	,	sleigh
F f	áf		fun
G g	ge	,	go	in the combinations and. In Western Finnmark, in instead.
H h	ho		he
I i	i	,,	he	after a vowel.
J j	je		yes
K k	ko	,,	cat	after a voiced consonant. at the beginning of a stressed syllable.
L l	ál		lip
M m	ám		myth
N n	án		no
Ŋ ŋ	áŋ		sing	in Western Finnmark, except before a velar stop.
O o	o	,	go
P p	pe	,,	park	after a voiced consonant. at the beginning of a stressed syllable.
R r	ár		rat
S s	ás		sip
Š š	áš		shed
T t	te	,,,,	told	after a voiced consonant. at the beginning of a stressed syllable. word-finally. in the combination tk.
Ŧ ŧ	ŧe		thick
U u	u	,	do
V v	ve		vex
Z z	ez	,	rods	in the combination.
Ž ž	ež	,	hedge	in the combination.

When typing, if there is no way of entering the letters particular to Northern Sámi correctly, an acute accent is sometimes placed over the corresponding Latin letter as a substitute. These substitutions are still found in books printed after the common orthography was adopted due to system limitations when typing.

Marks used in reference works

Some additional marks are used in dictionaries, grammars and other reference works, including in this article. They are not used in normal writing. The following are used in Pekka Sammallahti's Sámi-suoma sátnegirji:

A vertical mark ˈ or apostrophe or other similar mark is placed between two identical consonants to indicate an overlong consonant, e.g. golˈli "gold".
The same mark may be used in the combination to indicate the Q3 consonant cluster.
A macron is placed above vowel letters to indicate a long vowel.
A dot is placed below vowel letters to indicate an unstressed vowel that has been shortened, which in turn hints that preceding vowels are rising/half-long, and preceding Q3 consonants are shortened.

Multigraphs

Northern Sámi orthography includes many combinations of multiple letters. In most cases, a double consonant letter corresponds to a doubled consonant phoneme, e.g. mm stands for. Overlong consonants are not distinguished from regular double consonants, but are commonly denoted with a vertical mark between the two consonant letters in reference works.
Combinations of different consonant letters stand for their equivalent individual phonemes, as described by the pronunciations of the individual letters, above. The last consonant in a sequence may be doubled. This indicates that the consonant cluster is quantity 2, while a cluster with an undoubled last consonant is generally quantity 3. It often also indicates a doubling of the corresponding consonant phoneme, but not if the preceding consonant is voiceless.
The following details combinations of multiple letters which are exceptions to the general pronunciation rules of each letter.

Diphthongs

The diphthongs, as may be expected, are written using a combination of two letters. Length is not indicated, nor is the distinction between normal and rising diphthongs. This distinction can be inferred by the presence of and in the next syllable, and in reference works by the presence of vowels with an underdot in the next syllable.

Letters	Phonemes
ea	,
	,
oa	,
uo	,

Ending in

The combinations, and indicate, and respectively. The first letter is doubled to indicate longer versions, and a vertical line is then used for overlong.
In the case of, there are two possible interpretations: as a single quantity 2 consonant, or as a quantity 3 consonant cluster, although the latter is rare. These two cases are distinguished by their behaviour in consonant gradation. In the first case, appears in the strong grade while appears in the weak grade, and these represent overlong and long respectively. In the second case,, alternatively written, appears in the strong grade while appears in the weak grade, representing the clusters and respectively.

Beginning with

Preaspiration is indicated with a preceding. Long preaspiration is indicated by doubling the second letter. This is exactly the opposite of how normal clusters are written.

Letters	Phonemes	Letters	Phonemes
hcc		hc
hčč		hč
hkk		hk
hpp		hp
htt		ht

Voiceless sonorants are also indicated by a preceding, but they have three lengths. Overlong length is indicated by a vertical line in reference works, as with other sonorants.

Letters	Phonemes	Letters	Phonemes	Letters	Phonemes
hjˈj		hjj		hj
hlˈl		hll		hl
hmˈm		hmm		hm
hnˈn		hnn		hn
hrˈr		hrr		hr

Stop-nasal combinations

Pre-stopped nasal consonants are indicated by a preceding letter for a voiceless stop. Voiced pre-stopped nasals are written with a voiced stop in place of the voiceless one.

Letters	Phoneme	Letters	Phoneme
bm		pm
dn		tn
dnj		tnj
gŋ		kŋ

Hyphenation

With just a single consonant between syllables, the hyphen goes before that consonant.

i-ja
de-há-laš

If a word contains a double consonant letter, the hyphen is always placed between those two letters. The combination, when preceded by a vowel, counts as a double consonant and thus gets a hyphen in between.

guol-li
áhk-ká
beaiv-váš
krist-ta-laš
bi-o-lo-gii-ja

With other combinations of two consonants, the hyphen goes between those. Again, if counts as a consonant, it goes between that and the next one.

Sáp-mi
bái-di
kon-sear-ta
duos-tan

There are a few exceptions where the hyphen goes before all consonants.

pro-gram-ma
in-du-strii-ja

In compound words, a hyphen always goes between two parts of a compound.

má-ilm-mi
gas-ka-i-ja-beaiv-váš

Grammar

Northern Sámi is a highly inflected language that shares many grammatical features with the other Uralic languages. Sámi has also developed considerably into the direction from originally an agglutinative morphology, to that of fusional and inflected one, much like Estonian to which it is distantly related. Therefore, morphemes are marked not only by suffixes but also by morphophonological modifications to the root. Of the various morphophonological alterations, the most important and complex is the system of consonant gradation.

Consonant gradation

Consonant gradation is a pattern of alternations between pairs of consonants that appears in the inflection of words. The system of consonant gradation in Northern Sámi is complex, especially compared to that found in the Finnic languages. A word stem can appear in two grades: the strong grade and the weak grade. A given word can alternate either between quantity 3 in the strong grade and quantity 2 in the weak grade, or between quantity 2 in the strong grade and quantity 1 in the weak grade. Historically, the weak grade appeared when the syllable following the consonant was closed, but the loss of certain vowels or consonants have obscured this in Northern Sámi and it is now a more-or-less opaque process.
In verbs, some nouns, and in some processes of word derivation, a Q2 strong grade can become "extra strong" Q3, alternating in all three quantities. This is caused by the historical loss of a consonant between the second and third syllable, which triggered compensatory lengthening on the gradating consonant.

Quantity 3 ~ 2 alternations

Alternations between quantities 3 and 2 are either consonant clusters or sequences of two identical consonants. In the strong grade, the first consonant forms the coda of the preceding syllable, and the remaining consonants form the onset of the following syllable. In the weak grade, only the last consonant belongs to the onset of the next syllable, and the remaining consonants belong to the coda of the preceding syllable. Thus, when there are three or more consonants, the syllable division changes between the grades. In addition, the strong grade by default has a lengthened consonant in the coda, while this lengthening is generally absent in the weak grade. However, this lengthening is subject to the modifying effects of consonant lengthening and unstressed vowel shortening, which can in some occasions level the length distinctions, so that length not an absolute indicator of grade. In Eastern Finnmark, no lengthening is found at all, instead of length the preceding vowel is short, while the vowel becomes long when the length would be absent.
Doubling of the last consonant is another distinguishing feature of the weak grade, although it only occurs if the preceding consonant is voiced. The additional consonant is always assigned to the coda, so that it obligatorily shifts the syllable boundary relative to the strong grade:vl ~ vll id ~ idd
Consonant lengthening can then, in turn, lengthen the first of this pair again. In writing, the last consonant is doubled in the weak grade, even if the preceding consonant is voiceless, simply to distinguish the two grades visually:st ~ stt vst ~ vstt
Sequences of two identical consonants gradate in the same way, with lengthening of the first consonant in the strong grade, but without any doubling of the last consonant in the weak grade. For most pairs of consonants, no difference is made between the grades orthographically, both are written with a double consonant. In reference works, the special mark ˈ is placed between the consonants to indicate the strong grade.
Some cases are indicated specially in the orthography, but behave as expected from a phonological point of view:

Clusters beginning with : the second consonant is written doubled in the strong grade instead of the weak grade. In Eastern Finnmark the length is lost, making both grades identical.
* hpp ~ hp
* htt ~ ht
* hcc ~ hc
* hčč ~ hč
* hkk ~ hk
Clusters of plus pre-stopped nasal: orthographically indicated the same as lone pre-stopped nasals, but both grades have a voiceless stop, and differ only in the length of the first consonant and syllabification. In Eastern Finnmark, the stop is missing from the strong grade.
* rbm ~ rpm
* rdn ~ rtn
* rdnj ~ rtnj
* rgŋ ~ rkŋ
Sequences of two : the strong grade is indicated by a doubled first consonant, the weak grade by only a single one. This is possible because this consonant cannot occur singly.
* llj ~ lj
Sequences of two : both grades are indicated identically. The strong grade can be distinguished with an overlength mark in reference works.
* nˈnj ~ nnj
Sequences of two voiceless sonorants: both grades are indicated identically. The strong grade can be distinguished with an overlength mark in reference works.
* hjˈj ~ hjj
* hlˈl ~ hll
* hmˈm ~ hmm
* hnˈn ~ hnn
* hrˈr ~ hrr

In some clusters, there is an alternation in the quality of the first consonant between the two grades.

Clusters beginning with in the strong grade: becomes in the weak grade. is inserted before a stop or affricate, and in other cases the last consonant phoneme can be doubled in the weak grade.
* kc ~ vcc
* ks ~ vss
* kst ~ vstt
* kt ~ vtt
Clusters of pre-stopped nasals: a voiced stop occurs in the strong grade, and a voiceless stop in the weak grade. The voiceless stop, in turn, blocks doubling of the last consonant. In this case, however, there is no doubling in the orthography. In Eastern Finnmark, the stop is devoiced in the strong grade, making the two grades identical. In Sea Sámi, this alternation is replaced by geminate nasals.
* bm ~ pm
* dn ~ tn
* dnj ~ tnj
* gŋ ~ kŋ
Clusters of a voiced consonant plus pre-stopped nasal: the stop is voiceless and occurs only in the strong grade, the weak grade has doubling of the nasal. In Eastern Finnmark, the stop is missing from the strong grade.
* lbm ~ lmm
* idn ~ inn
* vdnj ~ vnnj
* lgŋ ~ lŋŋ
Sequences of two homorganic plain stops: the first stop is voiced in the strong grade, voiceless in the weak grade. The strong grade is represented orthographically by a pair of voiced consonants.
* bb ~ pp
* dd ~ tt
* gg ~ kk
* zz ~ cc
* žž ~ čč
Sequences of two palatal stops: these are phonetically the same as the previous, but different orthographically.
* ddj ~ ''dj''

Quantity 2 ~ 1 alternations

Alternations between 2 and 1 are less predictable than alternations between quantities 3 and 2. The weak grade is always represented by a single consonant, which forms the onset of the next syllable, and the preceding syllable has no coda. The corresponding strong grade additionally has a single consonant in the coda, which may the same as the following onset consonant or different. The coda consonant in the strong grade may undergo consonant lengthening to receive additional length.
A double consonant in the strong grade always alternates with a single consonant in the weak grade. This occurs with all nasals, sonorants and fricatives. Orthographically, this is represented as a double versus a single consonant letter.hrr ~ hr mm ~ m nnj ~ nj ss ~ s đđ ~ đ
A cluster of short and a voiceless consonant in the strong grade alternates with a single voiced consonant in the weak grade.hp ~ b ht ~ đ hc ~ z hč ~ ž hk ~ g
A cluster of a voiceless pre-stopped nasal in the strong grade drops the stop in the weak grade. In Sea Sámi, the strong grade has a double nasal, without the stop.pm ~ m tn ~ n tnj ~ nj kŋ ~ ŋ
Double alternates with.dj ~ ''j''

Changes to word-final consonants

Only a limited number of consonants are allowed at the end of a word, those being l, n, r, s, š, t, and i. The consonant clusters it and in are also allowed. Therefore, consonants will be modified or deleted when they come to stand word-finally:

Consonant clusters are simplified to the first consonant, e.g. ld and rd become l and r, respectively.
The consonants b, d, g, h, and hk all become t.
The affricates z, ž and žž become fricative s and š.m becomes n. Some recent loanwords such as serum retain /m/.
The consonants g, m, and n can also disappear entirely in certain words.

Post-stressed vowel alternations

Certain inflectional endings and derivational suffixes trigger changes in the first unstressed vowel of the stem. These changes are generally the result of umlaut effects in Proto-Samic. The following changes may be noted. An empty table cell means there is no change, S indicates diphthong simplification.

a	i	u	Cause/trigger	Occurrences
	ẹ	ọ	Unstressed vowel shortening.	Nominal "allegro" forms, verb present connegative, imperative.
	á	o ''S	Proto-Samic ë in the next syllable.*	Odd nominals with gradation, verb past participle, conditional.
	i'' S		Following.	Nominal plural, verb past tense.
i ''S	á''	u ''S	Contraction of plus Proto-Samic ë in the next syllable.*	Nominal illative singular.
e'' S	e ''S	o'' S	Contraction of plus Proto-Samic *ë in the next syllable.	Some verb present and past forms.
	e ''S	o'' S	Contraction, exact mechanism unclear.	Verb potential mood.

There are some vowel alternations that do not have a clear rule or cause. For example, the change of a to á in the present tense third-person singular of verbs is unexpected and must simply be taken as-is. Likewise, the appearance of u or o in some verb imperative forms is not based on any rule, but is an inherent part of the ending.

Inflection types

All inflected words, whether nouns, adjectives or verbs, can be divided into three main inflectional classes. The division is based on whether there is an even or odd number of syllables from the last stressed syllable to the end of the word.

Words with even inflection have an even number of syllables from the last stressed syllable of the stem; usually two, but sometimes also four.
Words with odd inflection have an odd number of syllables from the last stressed syllable of the stem; usually three, but very rarely one or five.
Words with contracted inflection have an even number of syllables from the last stressed syllable of the stem, but have the consonant gradation pattern of odd-inflection words. If the gradation has three levels, the strong grade is always level 3.

For nouns and adjectives, the stem is taken from the accusative/genitive singular rather than the nominative, as the latter often drops the final vowel and sometimes also the preceding consonant. For verbs, the infinitive is used to determine the stem, by removing the infinitive ending -t.
Words with even and contracted inflection can be divided further, based on the final vowel of the stem. For even-inflected words, this vowel is most commonly a, i or u, while for contracted words it is mostly á, e or o. Words with odd inflection are not differentiated by stem-final vowel.

Nouns

Nouns inflect in singular and plural, and also in 7 cases. The following table shows the general endings; the actual forms can differ based on consonant gradation and the inflection type of the word.
The accusative and genitive are usually identical. There is no singular-plural distinction in the essive, so for example mánnán is interpreted as either "as a child" or "as children".

Even nouns

Nouns with even inflection have an inherent stem-final vowel. They also usually have consonant gradation of the last consonant in the stem, where the strong grade appears in the nominative singular, illative singular and essive, while the weak grade appears in the remaining forms.
Some even nouns do not gradate. These can generally be divided into two groups:

Originally non-gradating odd nouns that have undergone contraction. These appear with quantity 3 in all forms. The most notable of these are the agent nouns, which were formed in Proto-Samic with the suffix *-jē, but do not have any visible suffix in Northern Sámi anymore.
Recent loanwords. These may appear with any consonant or cluster permissible in Northern Sámi.

The most common even nouns are the nouns with a stem ending in -a, -i or slightly rarer -u.
Even-syllable nouns with a stem ending in -á, -e or -o also exist, but are much rarer.
Even nouns with four or more syllables sometimes drop the final vowel in the nominative singular. Consequently, simplification of the final consonant occurs. The stem of these nouns always ends in -a.

Odd nouns

Nouns with odd inflection are not distinguished by the stem-final vowel, all use the same set of endings. They can be divided into two types, gradating and non-gradating nouns:Non-gradating odd nouns originate from Proto-Samic nouns ending in a vowel. They have the same stem in all forms, with no gradation, although the last consonant may be modified word-finally in the nominative singular. Gradating odd nouns originate from Proto-Samic nouns ending in a consonant. They have consonant gradation, where the weak grade appears in the nominative and essive singular, and the strong grade appears in the remaining forms. The vowels i and u change to á and o respectively in the last syllable of the strong-grade stem, caused by a former Proto-Samic *ë in the endings. The stem-final consonants -g, -m and -n disappear in the weak-grade forms, so that the essive ending is attached directly to the preceding vowel.
The following table shows three gradating odd nouns.

Contracted nouns

Nouns with contracted inflection are in origin gradating odd nouns, mostly with a stem ending in -j or -s, sometimes also -ž.
In the strong-grade forms, the last-syllable vowel is modified as in gradating odd nouns. However, the stem-final consonant has been lost, causing contraction of the two neighbouring syllables. The preceding consonant cluster receives compensatory lengthening, making them quantity 3 regardless of original length. Consequently, the strong grade forms of such nouns have an even number of syllables and receive the same endings as even nouns, but do not gradate.
In the weak-grade forms, the original uncontracted form is usually preserved. The original final consonant -j has been lost after the vowels u and i, so that it does not appear in any of the forms anymore.

Possessive suffixes

The possessive suffixes are similar in meaning to the English personal possessive determiners my, your, their and so on. There are 9 possessive suffixes: one for each person in singular, dual and plural. Possessive suffixes attach to the end of a noun, after the case ending. Thus, for example, ruovttus "in a house" may become ruovttustan "in my house".
Like noun case endings, the suffixes have different forms depending on whether they are attached to a stem with an even or odd number of syllables, and depending on the last vowel of the stem. The following table shows the suffixes:

	1st sg.	2nd sg.	3rd sg.	1st du.	2nd du.	3rd du.	1st pl.	2nd pl.	3rd pl.
Even in -a	-an	-at	-as	-ame	-ade	-aska	-amet	-adet	-aset
Even in -á	-án	-át	-ás	-áme	-áde	-áska	-ámet	-ádet	-áset
Even in -e	-en	-et	-es	-eme	-ede	-eska	-emet	-edet	-eset
Even in -i	-án	-át	-is	-áme	-áde	-iska	-ámet	-ádet	-iset
Even in -o	-on	-ot	-os	-ome	-ode	-oska	-omet	-odet	-oset
Even in -u	-on	-ot	-us	-ome	-ode	-uska	-omet	-odet	-uset
Odd	-an	-at	-is	-eame	-eatte	-easkka	-eamet	-eattet	-easet

The suffixes attach to a combination of noun plus case ending, so the stem that the suffix is attached to may not be the stem of the noun. Rather, a new "possessive stem" is formed from the noun with its case ending included. This stem is not always identical to the ending of the noun on its own; some case endings undergo modifications or the addition of a final vowel. Thus, certain cases may have possessive stems that inherently end in -a, other cases may have -i, but this is only significant if the combination has an even number of syllables.
The following table shows the possessive stems for each case, for four of the nouns whose inflection was given above. If the stem ends in a vowel, it is even and the suffixes with the matching vowel are used. If the stem ends in a consonant, it is odd and the odd endings are used.
In the comitative plural, the possessive suffix attaches between the possessive stem and the final -guin.
As can be seen in the table, for the nominative, accusative and genitive singular cases, the possessive stem is identical to the noun stem. The stem also undergoes consonant gradation in the accusative and genitive singular forms, and endings beginning with e or o also trigger diphthong simplification. The noun is in the strong grade with the first-person possessive suffixes, and in the weak grade with the second- and third-person possessives.
The possessive forms of ruoktu are:

Case/number	1st sg.	2nd sg.	3rd sg.	1st du.	2nd du.	3rd du.	1st pl.	2nd pl.	3rd pl.
Nominative singular	rūkton	rūktot	ruoktus	rūktome	rūktode	ruoktuska	rūktomet	rūktodet	ruoktuset
Accusative/genitive singular	rūkton	rūvttot	ruovttus	rūktome	rūvttode	ruovttuska	rūktomet	rūvttodet	ruovttuset
Illative singular	rūktosan	rūktosat	rūktosis	rūktoseame	rūktoseatte	rūktoseaskka	rūktoseamet	rūktoseattet	rūktoseaset
Locative singular	ruovttustan	ruovttustat	ruovttustis	ruovttusteame	ruovttusteatte	ruovttusteaskka	ruovttusteamet	ruovttusteattet	ruovttusteaset
Comitative singular	ruovttūinan	ruovttūinat	ruovttūinis	ruovttūineame	ruovttūineatte	ruovttūineaskka	ruovttūineamet	ruovttūineattet	ruovttūineaset
Accusative/genitive plural	ruovttūidan	ruovttūidat	ruovttūidis	ruovttūideame	ruovttūideatte	ruovttūideaskka	ruovttūideamet	ruovttūideattet	ruovttūideaset
Illative plural	ruovttūidasan	ruovttūidasat	ruovttūidasas	ruovttūidasame	ruovttūidasade	ruovttūidasaska	ruovttūidasamet	ruovttūidasadet	ruovttūidasaset
Locative plural	ruovttūinan	ruovttūinat	ruovttūinis	ruovttūineame	ruovttūineatte	ruovttūineaskka	ruovttūineamet	ruovttūineattet	ruovttūineaset
Comitative plural	ruovttūidanguin	ruovttūidatguin	ruovttūidisguin	ruovttūideameguin	ruovttūideatteguin	ruovttūideaskkaguin	ruovttūideametguin	ruovttūideattetguin	ruovttūideasetguin
Essive	ruoktunan	ruoktunat	ruoktunis	ruoktuneame	ruoktuneatte	ruoktuneaskka	ruoktuneamet	ruoktuneattet	ruoktuneaset

Adjectives

Adjectives inflect the same as nouns do, and have the same cases and inflection types.

Attributive form

Adjectives also have an additional form, the attributive form. This form is used when the adjective is used attributively, where it precedes the noun. The attributive does not receive any endings, so it does not have cases or number. Its formation is also unpredictable: for some adjectives, it is formed from the nominative singular by adding an extra ending of some kind to the stem, while for others the attributive is formed by removing part of the stem. It may also be identical to the nominative singular. Some examples:

Nom. singular	Stem	Attributive	Meaning
boaris	boarás-	boares	old
čáppat	čábbá-	čáppa	beautiful
čielggas	čielggas-	čielga	clear, transparent
čieŋal	čieŋal-	čiekŋalis	deep
duohta	duohta-	duohta	true
duolvvas	duolvas-	duolva	dirty
gievra	gievra-	gievrras	strong
guhkki	guhkki-	guhkes	long
mohkkái	mohkká-	mohkkás	complicated
ruoksat	ruoksad-	r	red
šealgat	šealgad-	šealges	shiny
uhcci	uhcci-	uhca	small

A couple of adjectives do not have an attributive form. These are the frequently-used adjective buorre "good", and for some speakers also bahá "angry, evil". When these adjectives are used attributively, the case and number of the adjective matches that of the noun it is an attribute of. As an example, take the sentence "Son lea dahkan munnje buori dagu.". Here, buorre is inflected in the accusative as buori to match dagu.

Pronouns and determiners

Personal pronouns

The personal pronouns inflect irregularly, and also have a third number, the dual. The dual is used to refer to exactly two people. The following table shows the forms.

Case	mun, mon "I"	don "you "	son "he, she"
Nominative	mun, mon	don	son
Accusative	mu	du	su
Genitive	mu	du	su
Illative	munnje	dutnje	sutnje
Locative	mus	dus	sus
Comitative	muinna	duinna	suinna
Essive	munin	dunin	sunin
Case	moai "we two"	doai "you two"	soai "they two"
Nominative	moai	doai	soai
Accusative	mun'no	dudno	sudno
Genitive	mun'no	dudno	sudno
Illative	mun'nuide	dudnuide	sudnuide
Locative	mun'nos	dudnos	sudnos
Comitative	mun'nuin	dudnuin	sudnuin
Essive	mun'non	dudnon	sudnon
Case	mii "we "	dii "you "	sii "they "
Nominative	mii	dii	sii
Accusative	min	din	sin
Genitive	min	din	sin
Illative	midjiide	didjiide	sidjiide
Locative	mis	dis	sis
Comitative	minguin	dinguin	singuin
Essive	minin	dinin	sinin

Demonstratives

The five demonstrative determiners/pronouns inflect somewhat irregularly as well. The nominative singular and nominative plural are identical, and some other cases have endings not found in nouns.
When these words modify a noun rather than standing alone, the demonstrative is in the same case as the noun, with the following exceptions:

A noun in the illative or locative singular is preceded by a demonstrative in the accusative/genitive singular form.
A noun in the comitative plural is preceded by a demonstrative in either the comitative or the accusative/genitive plural form.

Interrogatives

The interrogative/relative pronouns/determiners gii "who" and mii "what" are likewise irregular.
In the accusative singular of mii, there are two possible forms. The "regular" form man is used when there is an implication of a choice from a limited number of options. The form máid has no such implication.
These two pronouns, as well as other interrogatives can act as determiners and modify nouns. The rules for which case to use are the same as for the demonstrative. The form máid is followed by a noun in the accusative plural form.

Reflexive pronoun

The reflexive pronoun is ieš, meaning myself, yourself, himself, herself and so on. In its base form, the pronoun occurs only in the nominative case and is never used on its own; it always occurs next to the subject of the sentence, where it acts as an adverb to strengthen it. Compare for example sentences such as I myself have never seen it..
The other cases can occur by themselves, but only in the singular, and are always used in combination with a possessive suffix that matches the subject of the sentence. These forms are irregular as well as suppletive: the illative and locative forms derive from completely different roots. There are also several alternative stems.

Case	Possessive stem	Notes
Accusative	ieža-	The stem iehča- is only used with first-person possessives.
Genitive	ieža-	The stem iehča- is only used with first-person possessives.
Illative	alcces-, alcce-, allas-	The stem alcca- is only used with first- and second-person possessives.
Locative	alddi-, alddest-	The stems alddiin- and alddán- are only used with dual and plural possessives.
Comitative	iežain-
Essive	iehčan-

Verbs

Finite verbal categories

The conjugation of Northern Sámi verbs resembles that of Finnish. There are three grammatical persons, and three grammatical numbers, singular, dual and plural. There are four or five grammatical moods :

indicative, indicating real events or statements of fact.
imperative, indicating commands.
optative, indicating wishes, things that the speaker would like to see done or realised. The optative is not usually considered a distinct mood, but is generally combined with the imperative.
conditional, indicating conditional or hypothetical statements, like the English subjunctive and the verb "would".
potential, indicating ability or possibility.

Tense is also distinguished, but only in the indicative. There are two tenses :

present, which is also used for future events.
past.

In addition, each mood and tense has a so-called connegative form. This form is used in negative sentences, when combined with the negative verb.

Non-finite verbal categories

Finally, there are several non-finite forms.

Infinitive

The infinitive is the dictionary form of the verb.

Present participle

The present participle is an adjective indicating a current or ongoing action. It is identical in form to the agent noun, and has the same origin. However, the participle has only an attributive form, no case forms.oađˈđi mánná – a sleeping childáhpásmeaddji buohcci – a recovering patient

Past participle

The past participle is an adjective indicating a past or completed action. Like the present participle, it has only an attributive form. It is also used in forming the periphrastic perfect tense, and as the connegative form of the past indicative.oađđán mánná – child who sleptáhpásman buohcci – patient who recovered

Agent participle

The agent participle is an adjective indicating a past or completed action that has been completed by a particular agent. It only exists for transitive verbs. The agent precedes the participle and is in the genitive case, much like its Finnish counterpart:áhči čállin reive – the letter written by the father

Negative participle

The negative participle is an adjective indicating an action that has not been done by or to something. It can be either active or passive in meaning.logakeahtẹs reive – unread letterjugakeahtẹs vuola – undrunk beermuitalkeahtẹs muitalus – untold story

Action noun

The action noun is a noun which indicates the action itself. It is not a verb form as such, but is often used in verbal constructions.

Action inessive

The action inessive indicates "in " or "while". It is used together with the copula leat to express a current, ongoing action, much like the English continuous.mánná lea oađđimin – the child is sleepingmun lean juhkamin vuola – I am drinking beer
The action inessive originates in the inessive case of the action noun, a case which no longer exists for nouns in Northern Sámi.

Action elative

The action elative indicates "from ". It is used to indicate the cessation of an action, but is also required idiomatically by certain verbs.mun vajálduhtin oađđimis – I forgot to sleep
The action elative originates in the elative case of the action noun, a case which became the locative in regular nouns.

Action comitative

The action comitative indicates "through" or "by". It originates in the comitative case of the action noun.

Purposive converb

The purposive converb expresses "in order to".

Simultaneous converb

The simultaneous converb expresses that an action took place "during" or "while " another one. It is always accompanied by a possessive suffix.

Negative converb

The negative converb expresses "without".

Verb genitive

The verb genitive is an adverbial form often used to indicate the way/method, accompanied by a verb of motion. It only exists for some verbs and is not very productive, so it is better considered a derivational form rather than an inflectional form.

Supine

The supine expresses "in order to". It is only used in western Northern Sámi dialects.

Verbs with even inflection

eallit - to live	Present indicative	Past indicative	Imperative/ optative	Conditional	Potential
1st singular	ealán	ēllen	ēllon	ealášin, ealášedjen	ēležan
2nd singular	ealát	ēllet	eale	ealášit, ealášedjet	ēležat
3rd singular	eallá	ēlii	ēllos	ealášii	ēleža, ēleš
1st dual	ēlle	ēliime	eal'lu	ealášeimme	ēležetne
2nd dual	eallibeahtti	ēliide	eal'li	ealášeidde	ēležeahppi
3rd dual	ealliba	ēliiga	ēlloska	ealášeigga	ēležeaba
1st plural	eallit	ēliimet	ēllot, eal'lut	ealášeimmet	ēležit, ēležat
2nd plural	eallibēhtet	ēliidet	ēllet, eal'lit	ealášeiddet	ēležehpet
3rd plural	ēllet	ēlle	ēlloset	ealáše, ealášedje	ēležit
Connegative	eale	eallán	eale	ealáše	ēleš

goarrut - to sew	Present indicative	Past indicative	Imperative/ optative	Conditional	Potential
1st singular	goarun	gōrron	gōrron	gōrošin, gōrošedjen	gōrožan
2nd singular	goarut	gōrrot	goaro	gōrošit, gōrošedjet	gōrožat
3rd singular	goarru	gōrui	gōrros	gōrošii	gōroža, gōroš
1st dual	gōrro	gōruime	goar'ru	gōrošeimme	gōrožetne
2nd dual	goarrubeahtti	gōruide	goar'ru	gōrošeidde	gōrožeahppi
3rd dual	goarruba	gōruiga	gōrroska	gōrošeigga	gōrožeaba
1st plural	goarrut	gōruimet	gōrrot, goar'rut	gōrošeimmet	gōrožit, gōrožat
2nd plural	goarrubēhtet	gōruidet	gōrrot, goar'rut	gōrošeiddet	gōrožehpet
3rd plural	gōrrot	gōrro	gōrroset	gōroše, gōrošedje	gōrožit
Connegative	goaro	gōrron	goaro	gōroše	gōroš

Verbs with contracted inflection

čilget - to explain	Present indicative	Past indicative	Imperative/ optative	Conditional	Potential
1st singular	čilgen	čilgejin, čilgejedjen	čilgejehkon	čilgešin, čilgešedjen, čilgelin, čilgeledjen	čilgežan
2nd singular	čilget	čilgejit, čilgejedjet	čilge	čilgešit, čilgešedjet, čilgelit, čilgeledjet	čilgežat
3rd singular	čilge	čilgii	čilgejus, čilgejehkos	čilgešii, čilgelii	čilgeš, čilgeža
1st dual	čilgejetne	čilgiime	čilgejeadnu, čilgejeahkku	čilgešeimme, čilgeleimme	čilgežetne
2nd dual	čilgebeahtti	čilgiide	čilgejeahkki	čilgešeidde, čilgeleidde	čilgežeahppi
3rd dual	čilgeba	čilgiiga	čilgejehkoska	čilgešeigga, čilgeleigga	čilgežeaba
1st plural	čilget	čilgiimet	čilgejehkot, čilgejednot, čilgejeatnot, čilgejeahkkot	čilgešeimmet, čilgeleimmet	čilgežit, čilgežat
2nd plural	čilgebēhtet	čilgiidet	čilgejehket	čilgešeiddet, čilgeleiddet	čilgežehpet
3rd plural	čilgejit	čilgeje, čilgejedje	čilgejehkoset	čilgeše, čilgešedje, čilgele, čilgeledje	čilgežit
Connegative	čilge	čilgen	čilge	čilgeše, čilgele	čilgeš

Negative verb

Northern Sámi, like other Uralic languages, has a negative verb that conjugates according to mood, person and number. It does not conjugate according to tense.

	Indicative	Imperative/ optative	Supine
1st singular	in	allon	aman
2nd singular	it	ale	amat
3rd singular	ii	allos	amas
1st dual	ean	al'lu	amame
2nd dual	eahppi	al'li	amade
3rd dual	eaba	alloska	amaska
1st plural	eat	allot	amamet
2nd plural	ehpet	allet	amadet
3rd plural	eai	alloset	amaset

Numbers

Northern Sámi uses a decimal numeral system. Cardinal numbers inflect like adjectives, but have no attributive form. Instead, the numeral matches the noun it modifies in case and number. All numerals except for okta use the nominative singular form also for the accusative singular. For čieža, gávcci, ovcci, logi and čuođi, the genitive singular form is used also for the nominative and accusative singular. In the plural, they inflect like all other nominals.

0-10

The numbers from 0 to 10 are:

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
nolˈla, nulˈla	okta	guoktẹ	golbma	njealljẹ	vihtta	guhtta	čieža	gávcci	ovcci	logi

11-19

The numbers 11 to 19 are formed by compounding a number from 1 to 9 with -nuppẹlohkái.

11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
oktanuppẹlohkái	guoktẹnuppelohkái	golbmanuppẹlohkái	njealljẹnuppẹlohkái	vihttanuppẹlohkái	guhttanuppẹlohkái	čiežanuppẹlohkái	gávccinuppẹlohkái	ovccinuppẹlohkái

20-99

The numbers 20 to 90 are formed by simply compounding the multiple with logi.

20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90
guoktẹlogi	golbmalogi	njealljẹlogi	vihttalogi	guhttalogi	čiežalogi	gávccilogi	ovccilogi

Combinations of a decade and a unit are constructed by compounding the decade with the unit directly, as in English. For example:

28 guoktẹlogigávcci
83 gávccilogigolbma
99 ovccilogiovcci

There is also a traditional number system that functions similarly to the numbers 11-19 where the unit comes first, followed by and ordinal number and the word lohkái, i.e. "into the nth ten":

21 oktagoalmmátlohkái "one into the third ten"
31 oktanjealjátlohkái "one into the fourth ten"

Hundreds

100 is čuođi. Multiples of 100 are expressed like multiples of 10, by simple compounding: 200 guoktẹčuođi, 300 golbmačuođi and so on. Combinations of a hundred and a lower number follow the same pattern, again by compounding, with the hundred coming first.

112 čuođiguoktẹnuppelohkái
698 guhttačuođiovccilogigávcci
999 ''ovccičuođiovccilogiovcci''

Thousands

1000 is duhát. The pattern is the same as with the hundreds.

5 203 vihttaduhátguoktẹčuođigolbma
9 001 ovcciduhátokta
32 348 golbmalogiduhátgolbmačuođinjealljẹlogigávcci
123 456 ''čuođiguoktẹlogigolbmaduhátnjealljẹčuođivihttalogiguhtta''

Millions and above

Northern Sámi uses the long scale system.

Combinations with lower numbers are much the same as with the thousands. Multiples use the accusative/genitive forms miljovnna and miljárdda instead.

117 401 067 čuođilogičiežamiljovnnanjealljẹčuođioktaduhátguhttalogičieža
10 987 654 321 ''logimiljárddaovccičuođigávccilogičiežamiljovnnaguhttačuođivihttaloginjealljẹduhátgolbmačuođiguoktẹlogiokta''

Ordinal numbers

Ordinal numbers behave and inflect like regular adjectives. Except for nubbi, they have an attributive form, which is identical to the nominative singular.
For the vast majority of numbers, the ordinal form is created by suffixing -t, and putting the stem in the weak grade. The final vowel of the stem is often altered as well.

1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
vuosttaš	nubbi	goalmmát	njealját	viđat	guđat	čihččet	gávccát	ovccát
10th	11-19th	100th	1 000th	1 000 000th+	1 000 000 000th+	-	-	-
logát	-nuppẹlogát	čuođát	duháhat	-ljovnnat	-ljárddat	-	-	-

When a number is composed of multiple parts, only the last one is converted to an ordinal, the rest stay in their cardinal form. Thus, 13th golbmanuppẹlogát, 22nd guoktẹloginubbi, 409th njealljẹčuođiovccát, 9001st ovcciduhátvuosttaš.

Syntax

Northern Sámi is, like English, an SVO language.