Gå til hovedinnhold

Translate

Sámi loanwords in Norwegian

 6th of february is the national day of the Sámi, and on this occasion I'm looking at Sámi words that have been loaned into Norwegian.

Sami people
Sami people. Karasjok. Eckersberg 1852 (from Wikipedia)

There has been contact between Sámi and Norwegians for thousands of years. Being the minority language, there are many loanwords in Sámi from Norwegian. But what about the other way round? There are a few words that have been taken up in Norwegian. There is also influence from Sámi on the Northern dialects of Norwegian, something I don't go into here.

Sámi loanwords

Språkrådet (the Norwegian Language Council) has an article listing loanwords from Sámi. Here are known words loaned from Sámi into Norwegian:

  • joik - a traditional form of song in Sámi culture. In Northern Sámi the song is actually called luohti, and the act of singing is juoigat
  • kommag - shoes made from reindeer leather, from gáma, plural gápmagat
  • lavvo - the tent used by nomadic Sámi, from lávvu
  • tundra - also used in English, a type of arctic landscape, it comes to us through Russian from a Sami language on the Kola peninsula in Russia, from tūndar in Kildin Sámi
  • pulk - in Norwegian this means "an enclosed sled pulled by a skier", while originally in Sámi this meant a sled pulled by reindeer
  • pesk - a fur coat, from Sámi beaska
  • noaide - a shaman who could come in contact with the spirits
  • stallo - an evil spirit, in Sámi stállu

Sámi cuisine

In addition to these loanwords that are mentioned in many Norwegian articles, there is one more that is in regular use in Norwegian:
  • Bidos - a dish with reindeer meat, vegetables and potatoes.

Something foxy

This article mentions that the word for fox in Norwegian, "rev", could have come from Sámi. The argument is that Norwegians would buy fox pelt from the Sámi. In that case it must have been loaned already into Old Norse. In Old Norse it was refr. In Finnish (a related language) it's repo, and in Sámi rieban.

It seems likely as the word doesn't appear in other Germanic languages: the English fox, German Fuchs, and Dutch Vos, all similar to each other, is clearly another word. This article discusses the etymologi of refr and fox at length. It mentions that there was also the word fóa in Old Norse, and that the Gothic for fox was fauho - both similar to fox.

So I put the word "rev" on the list:

  • rev - rieban in Northern Sámi

Sámi names on the map

In addition, there are a lot of Sámi toponyms, place names, in Northern Norway. Some examples:
  • The town Karasjok, after Sámi Kárášjohka, where johka means river.
  • The village Skáidi, which is a Sámi word for "land between two rivers that are merging"
  • The place Hjemmeluft, a Norwegian variant of the original Sámi Jiemmaluovta (Northern Sámi Jiepmaluokta) where luokta means bay). This one is funny as luft means "air" in Norwegian.
  • Many place names ending with -várri (mountain) and -jávri (lake)

Sources

Kommentarer

Populære innlegg fra denne bloggen

Selvsentrering: Hvordan si "jeg"

På norsk har vi veldig mange dialektvarianter av pronomenet "jeg". Har andre språk i Europa slike variasjoner? Ja. For eksempel har svensk ja, jag, jau, og jå . Tysk har i ch, ech, aich, äich, Isch, I, og Ik , så det er hele 7 varianter. Men jeg tror ikke det er noen som har så mange som norsk.  Det morsomme er jo at ingen uttaler "jeg" slik som det skrives.  Jeg har klart å finne 13 ulike varianter, basert på ulike kilder:  æ, æg, æi, æig, eig, eg, e, i, ei, jæi, jæ, je, og jei. Nord-Norge I følge UiT sin  webside  om nordnorske dialekter så har vi 6 varianter bare i Nord-Norge: e -  Vefsn, Brønnøy, Salten, Værøy, Røst eg -  Ranamål, dialektar i Lofoten, Sør-Troms unntatt kysten, Nord-Troms æ, æg -  Vesterålen, Ofoten, kysten av Sør-Troms (sørsnippen av Tranøy kommune, Bjarkøy, Dyrøy, Ibestad, Harstad, Kvæfjord, Skånland). Forma æg blir oftast brukt emfatisk. æ -  Nord-Senja, mesteparten av Tromsø kommune og Balsfjord, Finnmark og alle bymål nord for Saltfjellet

Øl, alu, og bjórr (og noen flere ord)

 Øl har vært brygget siden de første sivilisasjonene. Men visste du at man på norrønt hadde fire ord som er relatert til øl? Øl ble spredt i Europa av germanske og keltiske stammer allerede 3000 år før Kristus. Den romerske historikeren Tacitus skriver at de germanske stammene brygget godt øl, og hadde en tendens til å feste og drikke seg fulle. Altså akkurat som i dag. Ølet ble brygget på bygg eller hvete, men kunne også inneholde frukt, krydder, og narkotiske urter. Humle ble ikke brukt på denne tiden, men einer og andre urter kunne bli brukt. Øl på gamlemåten, Lapin voiman på et marked i Turku Foto: Sami Brodkin 2016 Romerne kalte øl cervesia , et ord som kom fra det keltiske ordet *kurmi . Det vil si at de lærte om øl fra gallerne. Moderne irsk (som er et keltisk språk) har ordet coirm , som betyr "fest" eller "øl", men de har også ordet beoir , som kommer fra norrønt  bjórr . Engelske beer  har samme opphav: Det proto-germanske ordet var  *beuzą . Men bjórr  va

Talk about yourself: How to say "I" in Norwegian

 Norwegian has a lot of dialectal variation, and one way this is particulary apparent is in the many variants that exist for the pronoun "I". This word has 13 variants in Norwegian:  æ, æg, æi, æig, eig, eg, e, i, ei, jæi, jæ, je, and jei. And yes, you'll hear (most) of these variants when you travel around Norway! Why so many variants So what's the reason for all these variants? I think there are two reasons: Dialects are cool in Norway! We don't speak a national standard variety, but are proud of speaking our dialects Norwegian dialects originate from both Old West Norse and Old East Norse, or to say it another way: the boundary between those Old Norse variants divides present-day Norway. The mountain range dividing Norway in east and west has also divided the dialects into two main varieties. Other languages in Europe Other languages in Europe also have dialectal variants for the word "I", notably German, sporting about 7 variants: ich, ech, aich, ä