1. Family: Uralic
  2. Subfamily: Finno-Ugric
  3. Genus: Finnic

Saami (Northern)

WALS coordinates: 69° N, 24° E

spoken in Norway, Finland, Sweden

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Saami (Northern)
Routledge:
    Other:
    • Saami (North),
    • Northern Saami,
    • Lappish,
    • Ruija,
    • N Saami
    ISO 639-3:

    Features

    Feature Value References
    Phonology
    Fixed Stress Locations Initial
    Weight-Sensitive Stress Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity)
    Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems No weight
    Rhythm Types Trochaic
    Morphology
    Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Strongly suffixing
    Nominal Categories
    Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural suffix
    Occurrence of Nominal Plurality All nouns, always obligatory
    The Associative Plural Unique affixal associative plural
    Definite Articles No definite or indefinite article
    Indefinite Articles No definite or indefinite article
    Indefinite Pronouns Interrogative-based
    Number of Cases 6-7 cases
    Asymmetrical Case-Marking Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical
    Position of Case Affixes Case suffixes
    Comitatives and Instrumentals Identity
    Ordinal Numerals First, second, three-th
    Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes Possessive suffixes
    Nominal Syntax
    Nominal and Verbal Conjunction Identity
    Verbal Categories
    Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Tense-aspect suffixes
    The Morphological Imperative Second singular and second plural
    The Prohibitive Normal imperative + normal negative
    Imperative-Hortative Systems Maximal system
    Situational Possibility Verbal constructions
    Epistemic Possibility Verbal constructions
    Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking No overlap
    Word Order
    Order of Subject, Object and Verb SVO
    Order of Subject and Verb SV
    Order of Object and Verb VO
    Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase Postpositions
    Order of Genitive and Noun Genitive-Noun
    Order of Adjective and Noun Adjective-Noun
    Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase VO and Postpositions
    Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun VO and AdjN
    Simple Clauses
    Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' Indirect-object construction
    Negative Morphemes Negative auxiliary verb
    Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation Predicate negation also present
    Polar Questions Question particle
    Complex Sentences
    'Want' Complement Subjects Subject is left implicit
    Lexicon
    Hand and Arm Identical
    Finger and Hand Different
    Tea Others