Kemi Sámi

Kemi Sámi was a Sámi language that was originally spoken in the southernmost district of Finnish Lapland as far south as the Sámi siidas around Kuusamo.

A complex of local variants which had a distinct identity from other Sámi dialects, but existed in a linguistic continuum between Inari Sámi and Skolt Sámi (some Kemi groups sounded more like Inari, and some more like Skolt, due to geographic proximity).

Extinct now for over 100 years, few written examples of Kemi Sámi survive. Johannes Schefferus's Lapponia from 1673 contains two yoik poems by the Kemi Sámi Olof (Mattsson) Sirma, "Guldnasas" and "Moarsi favrrot". A short vocabulary was written by the Finnish priest Jacob Fellman in 1829 after he visited the villages of Salla (Kuolajärvi until 1936) and Sompio.

Sample texts
The following translation of the Lord's Prayer still survives, recorded in the Sompio dialect:

Lord's Prayer, village of Sompio (Sodankylä)


 * Äätj miin, ki lak täivest.
 * Paisse läos tu nammat.
 * Alda pootos tu väldegodde.
 * Läos tu taattot nou täivest, ku ädnamest.
 * Adde miji täb päiv miin juokpäiv laip.
 * Ja adde miji miin suddoit addagas, nou ku miieg addep miin velvolidäme.
 * Ja ale sääte miin kjäusaussi.
 * Mutto tjouta miin pahast.
 * Tälle tu li väldegodde, vuöjme ja kudne ijankaikisest.
 * Amen.

This is Sirma's first poem, "Guldnasas", a Sámi love story which he sang to spur on his reindeer so that they will run faster:

This is Sirma's second poem, "Moarsi favrrot", the one he sang when he was far away from his love to prize her beauty.