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The Bible in Sámi

The Sámi language as such does not exist. In fact, Sámi is a language group consisting of 9 closely related but different languages. People from neighbouring language groups understand eachother, just like Swedes and Norwegians understand eachother. For e.g. Sámi from the South Sámi region (Jämtland in Sweden ) and from Finland , understanding is virtually impossible. Isolation in mountainous areas and few contacts with other groups has led to many geographically rather restricted languages. The Sámi languages belong to the Finn-Ugric group, which includes Finnish, Estonian, Karelian and a number of other languages from western Siberia . Certain characters in the language indicate that Sámi is rather old. Influences from the Uralic languages can be seen.

Within Sámi, a large number of dialects exist, but in general 7 "main dialects", nowadays generally regarded upon as separate languages, are distinguished:
1. South Sámi (Jämtland, southern Lappland)
2. LuleSámi (Jokkmokk and Arvidsjaur/Arjeplog area, Tysfjord)
3. North Sámi (Gällivare-Kiruna in Sweden and Finnmark in Norway)
4. InariSámi (around Lake Inari, Finland)
5. SkoltSámi ( NE Finland and adjacent Norway/Russia)
6. Kildin Sámi (Kola in Russia)
7. Ter Sámi (East Kola)
Some of the languages are small. The number of South Sámi speakers for example is very small and some fear that the language will become extinct. The largest language is North Sámi . The Sámi languages have long been spoken languages only. Attempts to develop an orthography have been undertaken only this century and an official orthography for the largest of the Sámi languages, North Sámi , was established as recently as 1980! (South Sámi 1978, Lule Sámi 1983) Ume Sámi is often regarded as a form of South Sámi but is rather different and may be regarded as a language of its own.
Early Bible translations
Early attempts to translate the Bible into Sámi were of course not made easier by the fact that no written language existed and by the differences in dialects and languages. The translators, who in many cases had only a restricted knowledge of Sámi, had to develop their own ortography. The first books in Sámi came 1619: a Church Book and an ABC-book. In 1633, a Catechism was publihed. The "translator" probably wrote down what a Sámi dictated, without himself having any knowledge of Sámi. Also this was in South Sámi . In 1648, the Swedish Church Handbook was translated by Tornaeus. The Bible came much later. In 1715, an attempt to translate the New Testament by Rangius was printed. This translation did not become generally accepted. Pehr Fjellström was the one to start working on an Ume Sámi orthography. School books and church handbooks for the clergy were produced by a team under his direction. At last, the New Testament came 1755 and the whole Bible 1811.The work was completed by others, because Fjellström died 1764. This Ume Sámi translation, was rather well. This 1811 Bible is still in use today.
In North Sámi, the NT came 1840, translated by missionary Stockfleth. This was revised by Lars Heatta and others and the revised edition came 1874. The whole Bible with revised NT came 1895. It uses an orthography which is out of use since many years. In Lule Sámi the New Testament came 1913.
Where are we today?
There is a growing interest in Sámi language. In North Sámi, the New Testament with the new orthography was published 1998. Now work with the Old Testament is on its way, headed by the Norwegian Bible Society together with the Finnish and Swedish Bible Societies. This will take some more years.
In Lule Sámi, a thorough revision of the 1913 NT was published in the new orthography 2000.
In South Sámi, the Gospel of Marc is available in a modern translation. Now, the Swedish and Norwegian Bible Societies work on the translation of selected texts for use in the church.
The other Sámi languages have at best some isolated Bible part, often in a very old translation. Many years will pass by before all Sámi can read the Bible in their own language.