User:Sajpat95/sandbox

Language Name: Kildin Saami

Other Names: Kildin Sámi, Eastern Saami, Kola Saami, кильдинский саамский язык, Кӣллт са̄мь кӣлл, Kiillt saam' kiill, Kildin Sami, "Kildin Lappish"

My Name: Sajan A. Patel

Country/Countries: Russia

ISO: 639-3: Language Code: sjd

http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/3565

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kildin_Sami_language

LEAD Section Written Component:

I have chosen to draft my article on the Kildin Saami language spoken in Russia. My article will provide a historical framework to contextualize and frame the changes in culture, lifestyle, traditions, and policy initiatives put forth during the Russian Stalinist regime that directly affected these people and led to the endangerment of their spoken language. My article will delineate on the current conditions of this community through the contributions they have made to civilization and the benefits in understanding the Kildin Saami community much more closely. The grave challenges Kilden Saami speakers both face now and can face in the near future will also be examined. In addition, I will outline the measures that have been taken to document and archive the lives of these people and the changes in the language—dialects, how the Kildin Saami interact and have been influenced by other indigenous Saami groups of the Kola peninsula, and will provide a brief background on linguistical phenomenon—codeswitching and a Latin-script Kola Saami writing system between 1933-1935 (Ivanisceva, 289)(Pineda, 47). I will be finding new and additional peer-reviewed sources at a later time on the causes and effects of Russian political policy on the Kildin Saami and the Saami people in general. I would like to note in my Wikipedia article the very real and direct ways the Kola Saami were impacted by policy measures put in by the more powerful Russian government. In this way, my Wikipedia article will be detailed, substantive, and provide nuanced frameworks on the language from a present day, historical, political, and future standpoint.

Starter Article APA Citations: 

Rutgers Library Website: Online Academic Journal: Blokland, Rogier, & RIEßLER, Michael (2011). Komi-Saami-Russian contacts on the Kola peninsula. Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics. Amsterdam- New York: Rodolfi, 2011. 5-26.

Rutgers Library Website: Online Academic Journal: IVANIŠČEVA, O. (2016). LANGUAGE POLICY EXPERIMENTS: CREATION OF A KOLA SAAMI WRITING SYSTEM IN THE 1930s. Linguistica Uralica: Teaduste Akadeemia Kirjastus. 52(4). 289-303. http://dx.doi.org/10.3176/lu.2016.4.06

Rutgers Library Website: Online Academic Journal: Ivanishcheva, O. (2016). Saami Dictionary-Making: Preserving Indigenous Finno-Ugric languages Of The Kola peninsula. Linguistica Uralica: Teaduste Akadeemia Kirjastus. 52(1), 54-64. http://dx.doi.org/10.3176/lu.2016.1.05

Google Search: Kotljarchuk, Andrej. (2012). Kola Sami in the Stalinist Terror: A Quantitative Analysis. Journal of Northern Studies, 6(2), 59-82. http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:606912/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Google Search: Pineda, David. (2008). “Куэссь не получается сāмас, рyшас полегче”–codeswitching on the Kola Peninsula. Poljarnyj vestnik, 11, 47-62. http://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/vestnik/article/viewFile/1301/1239

Google Search: Rießler, Michael. (2013). Towards a digital infrastructure for Kildin Saami. In ''Sustainingindigenousknowledge. Learningtools and community initiatives on preserving endangered languages and local cultural heritage, in SEC Publications. Exhibitions & Symposia series'' (pp. 195-218). http://www.siberian-studies.org/publications/PDF/sikriessler.pdf

Google Search: Scheller, Elisabeth. (2013). Kola Sami language revitalisation-opportunities and challenges. Andersson, Kajsa (ed.) 2013. L’Image du Sápmi II: études comparées / textes réunis par Kajsa Andersson. Humanistica Oerebroensia. Artes et linguae 16. Örebro: Örebro University, pp. 392-421.

Rutgers Library Website: JSTOR: Toivonen, I., & Nelson, D. C. (2007). ''Saami linguistics. [electronic resource]''. Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : John Benjamins Pub., c2007.

Rutgers Library Website: JSTOR: Wheelersburg, Robert. P., & Gutsol, Natalia. (2008). Babinski and Ekostrovski: Saami pogosty on the western Kola Peninsula, Russia from 1880 to 1940. Arctic Anthropology, 45(1), 79-96. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40316703

Google Search: Wilbur, Joshua., & Rießler, Michael. (2013). Språk og språkforhold i Sápmi: Documenting the endangered Kola Saami languages. Band, 11. http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/skandinavistik/11/riessler-michael-39/PDF/riessler.pdf

Building/Construction Of Sections To Wikipedia Page: 

Introductory Section:

Kildin Sami (also spelled Sámi or Saami; Kola Saami, or Eastern Saami; formerly Lappish) is a Sami language spoken by approximately 600 people on the Kola Peninsula in northwestern Russia (Kildin Saami Wikipedia Page). Kildin Saami is the a vital and very developed Saami language in Russia today (Riebler, 196). Kildin Saami is also currently critically endangered as the result of an intense language shift to Russian (Riebler, 197). The reasons for this are the loss of traditional Saami trades and ways of life, the dispersion of the Saami, the lack of education, and there being no demand for Saamis to use the Kola Saami languages among themselves (Ivanisceva, 54). Kildin Saami speakers are bilingual in Russian (Riebler, 198). In fact, Russian is the dominant language in all domains of Kildin Saami society, and Kildin Saami is hardly ever heard in public life (Riebler, 198). Currently, there are hardly any children acquiring Kildin Saami as their first language (Riebler, 198). The youngest first language speakers belong to their parents’ generation (Riebler, 198). However, there are a few young adult Kildin Saami who are trying to learn and use the language again (Riebler, 198).

Geographic Distribution Section:

The original Kildin Saami dialect areas have fragmented chiefly as the result of forced centralization (Blokland and Riebler, 8). Originally, Kildin Saami was spoken all over the central inland parts and the central coastal parts of the Kola Peninsula (Riebler, 196). The area around Lovozero has the highest concentration of speakers with 700–800 ethnic Kildin Saami among a total village population of approximately 3,000 (Riebler, 196). Today, the language has only about 100 active and perhaps 600 passive speakers (Scheller 2011: 88, 89, 91) (Riebler, 197). Other Kildin speakers live spread over all parts of the Kola Peninsula, both in rural and urban settlements, one of them being the administrative center of the Murmansk area (Riebler, 197). From a strictly geographical point of view, only Kildin and Ter, spoken on the Peninsula, should be regarded as ‘Kola Saami’ (Blokland and Riebler, 7). Today, more or less compact Kildin Saami settlements in or close to their original villages are found only in Lovozero, Revda, Kola, Loparskaja and Teriberka, but small Kildin Saami speech communities are also found today in all larger settlements, such as in Murmansk, Olenegorsk, Apatity (Blokland and Riebler, 8). As a result of the forced resettlement of most of the Kola Saami population to Lovozero, this village is nowadays usually regarded as the ‘Saami capital’ of Russia, and in fact Lovozero has by far the densest Saami population today (Blokland and Riebler, 8).

History of the Kildin Saami People Section:

The first, though sporadic, contacts between Kola Saami and Russians date as far back as the 12th century, when Pomor traders from the empire of Novgorod landed on the southern shores of the Kola Peninsula (Blokland and Riebler, 12). Although Russian settlement of Kola Peninsula began as early as the 13th-14th century, it was mostly confined to the town of Kola and the so-called Ter Coast on the White Sea (Pineda, 47). More intensive contacts with speakers of Russian, however, did not start before the permanent settlement of Russian colonists in northern Karelia and on the Kola Peninsula from the 15th–16th century onwards (Kert 1994a: 101–102; Ruotsala 2005: 161) (Blokland and Riebler, 12). In the Russian empire, the Sami had no native-language schools and administrative autonomy (Kotljarchuk, 60). After the 1917 Russian revolution, there was a short period when the Soviet state implemented certain practical measures to develop and protect the Sami languages and Sami culture (Scheller, 393). But, at the end of the 1930s, this positive period for the Kola Sami languages ended and almost 20 years of repression and russification followed (Rantala 2006: 5), which had a quite negative influence on the Kola Sami languages and culture (Scheller, 393). As Stalins’ reign went on in Soviet Russia, his paranoia, frustrations, anger, and delusions grew, emotions he would act on as leader. His first arrest in the Kola tundra took place in 1930 and was connected to the forced collectivization of reindeer husbandry (Kotljarchuk, 68). The arrests involved those Sami who resisted collectivization (Kotljarchuk, 68). The Second World War contributed to the mitigation of repressions against the Sami (Kotljarchuk, 69). For the first time in history, Sami youth were called upon to the Red Army (Kotljarchuk, 69). The Sami were recruited into the special reindeer brigades (Gorter & Suprun 2007: 163–182) (Kotljarchuk, 69). Although the repression ended after the death of Stalin in 1953, russification policies continued and the work with the Sami languages started again only in the beginning of the 1980s when new teaching materials and dictionaries were published (Scheller, 393).

Opportunities and Challenges For The Kildin Saami:

Opportunities: There are a number of factors that point towards a revitalization of Kildin Sami and could constitute the basis for an effective language revitalization, even the reintroduction of Kildin Sami as an everyday language of communication, at least within the Sami community in Lovozero (Scheller, 397). The growing interest for learning Kildin Sami among the younger generation can be seen as a positive factor for the language revitalization (Scheller, 397). In March 2009, a group of Kildin Sami language activists from Lovozero created “Kīl Kjājjn”, an unofficial newspaper in Kildin Sami where people are encouraged to use the language actively by writing articles in the newspaper (KK 2009) (Scheller, 398). This can be helpful in preserving the language and educating the general population about the importance of sustaining the Kildin Saami community. Since 1989 the Kola Sami community has been politically and culturally organized (Berg-Nordlie 2011a, Berg-Nordlie 2011b) (Scheller, 399). Most of the political and cultural Kola Sami organizations express their interest to pursue a policy to promote the Kildin Sami language (Scheller, 399). The federal Russian legislation guarantees the Sami several legal rights giving them language sovereignty and rights to use and develop their languages (Krjažkov, 2007: 164-172, 428) (Scheller, 399). But for the practical realization of these rights the Kola Sami community needs to hold a constant constructive dialogue with the municipal and regional authorities, which have expressed their willingness to cooperate with the Sami in the development of the Sami language and culture (Scheller, 399). Conversations with members of the Sami community in Russia and an extensive questionnaire investigation of the Kola Sami language situation that the author carried out during 2007 indicate that a major part of the Sami population in Russia show a pronounced interest in learning and revitalizing their ancestors’ language (Scheller, 400).

Challenges: Today a majority of the children and youth have not been transferred the Sami language and need teaching in Kildin Sami as a foreign language (Scheller, 408). The same outdated materials and teaching methods are also used in optional courses for youth and adults and there are hardly any opportunities to train in active oral language use or to learn Kildin Sami at a higher level (Scheller, 408). Although the authorities express their support and interest for Sami language revitalization, the language community seems not always to use this resource or to grasp the opportunity to affect the language policy (Scheller 2011 b): s. 103) (Scheller, 409). Today there is no extensive inter-generational cooperation between language activists, language experts and language users at the grass root level and no coordinated Kildin Sami language planning and revitalization work is going on (Scheller, 409). A language center or another initiative to carry out a more coordinated and well-planned language work could solve that problem (Scheller, 409).