October 30, 2024

30.10.2024 Michael Rießler (UEF): “On the Pluricentricity of the Saami Language(s)”

Abstract

In language sociology and sociolinguistics pluricentricity describes languages with several centers of standardization, like Standard Swedish used in two Nordic countries. Standard Finnish also has official status in several countries (Finland, Sweden, and Russia), in addition to Meänkieli (Sweden) and Kveeni (Norway), both of which could perhaps be described as variants under the roof of pluricentric Finnish (see Söderholm 1998).

The concept of pluricentricity was developed by Kloss 1967 (see also Clyne 1992) but has been evolving since. A recent theoretical refinement – mostly discussed in relation to the different Standard German languages – resulted in the definition of pluri-“areas” instead of pluri-“centers” because the latter were originally defined by nations and national borders (of Austria, Germany, and Switzerland) which, however, do not seem to fully align with the actual centers of standardization (see Auer 2021). Alternatively, the concept of “multi-standard” has been proposed by Auer (2021).

This paper studies Saami spoken in the Nordic countries and Russia. Saami has also sometimes been described as a pluricentric language because several different Saami standard variants are used in four nation states. Saami linguistics in the Soviet/Russian tradition, from Kert 1971 to today, describes one single “Saami language” – inferring pluricentricity, but without using this term. Kildin Saami, which the same linguists have planned and standardized successfully in their country since the 1980s, is considered a Saami “dialect” in Russia but a Saami “language” elsewhere. Thus, in Muhr’s (2021) list of European languages, ten Saami languages are included (with the only reference being Wikipedia), but it is noted that the status of Saami as a pluricentric language is “doubtful” (Muhr 2021:35).

A discussion of the potential pluricentric status of Skolt Saami, one single Saami language spoken across the national borders of Finland, Norway, and Russia, is promised in the title of a paper by Rueter & Hämäläinen (2019), although it focuses mostly on technical resource development and computational linguistics. Kowalik (2023) mentions the pluricentric status of South Saami in Norway and Sweden en passant, while referring to “variation” rather than standard “variants” (Kowalik 2023:12). The best candidate for a pluricentric Saami language, however, seems to be North Saami, although recent sociolinguistic descriptions do not characterize it explicitly so (see, e.g., Aikio et al. 2015).

This study is the first to systematically typologize Saami and the individual Saami standard variants according to the common classifications of pluricentricity and discussing the possible application of more recent derivations of this theory, like “pluriareality” or “multi-standard”. The paper argues that “Saami” is not one pluricentric language. However, several of the “Saami languages” are indeed pluricentric. There are nevertheless significant differences compared to other pluricentric languages in the Nordic countries, with which Saami languages will be compared.

References

Aikio, A.; Arola, L.; Kunnas, N. 2015 “Variation in North Saami” In: D. Smakman et al. Globalising sociolinguistics. Challenging and expanding theory. London, 243–255

Auer, P. 2021 “Reflections on linguistic pluricentricity“ Sociolinguistica 35:1, 29–47

Clyne, M. 1992 Pluricentric Languages. Differing Norms in Different Nations. Berlin

Kloss, H. 1967 “Abstand languages and Ausbau languages” Anthropological Linguistics 9:7, 29–41

Kert, G. M. 1971. Saamsky jazyk. Moskva

Kowalik, R. 2023 Towards a grammar of spoken South Saami. Stockholm

Muhr, R. 2019 “European pluricentric languages in contact and conflict. An overview” In: R. Muhr et al. European pluricentric languages in contact and conflict. Wien, 11–60

Rueter, J.; Hämäläinen, M. 2019 “Skolt Sami, the makings of a pluricentric language, where does it stand?” In: R. Muhr et al. European pluricentric languages in contact and conflict. Wien, 201–208

Söderholm, E. 1998 “Kieli, murre, varieteetti vai oma kieli? Pohjoiskalotin kielet ja kielimuodot” Virittäjä 4, 571–592