The Southern Sami Alphabet

Q: What is Southern Sami?

Southern Sami is an endangered Samic Uralic language [1] spoken by approximately 600 people across central Norway and Sweden. It is the southernmost of the Samic languages and the language of the Southern Sami indigenous people of Sápmi. Despite its small speaker population, Southern Sami has a rich oral literature including joik (traditional Sami songs), traditional storytelling, and cultural knowledge tied to reindeer herding and the landscapes of the Scandinavian interior.

Q: How many speakers does Southern Sami have?

Southern Sami has approximately 600 speakers [1] across Norway and Sweden combined. The speaker population is unevenly distributed — a greater share lives in Norway, particularly in the Trøndelag and Innlandet regions. UNESCO classifies Southern Sami as " severely endangered " with most fluent speakers being older adults. Active language revitalisation programmes in both countries aim to create new speakers through language nests, schools, and Southern Sami-language media.

Q: Where is Southern Sami spoken?

Southern Sami is spoken across central Norway and Sweden [2] , primarily in Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Møre og Romsdal in Norway, and in Jämtland and Härjedalen in Sweden — the traditional Southern Sami homeland. The Røros and Snåsa areas of Norway remain cultural centres for the Southern Sami community. This region represents the southernmost extent of traditional Sami settlement, far south of the more densely Sami-populated Arctic regions.

Q: What does the Southern Sami alphabet look like?

The Southern Sami alphabet has 23 letters [2] in Latin script: A, B, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U, V, Å, Ä, and Ö. The letters C, Q, W, X, Y, and Z of the English alphabet are not used. The three unique letters Å, Ä, Ö represent vowel sounds absent from English — Å is a rounded back vowel, Ä is a front open vowel, and Ö is a front rounded vowel. These are the same letters used in Norwegian and Swedish, adopted into Southern Sami orthography through Scandinavian contact.

Q: How is Southern Sami different from other Sami languages?

Southern Sami is not mutually intelligible with Northern Sami [1] , the largest Samic language, due to centuries of separate development. The two languages differ substantially in phonology, vocabulary, and grammatical structure — a speaker of one cannot readily understand the other. Unlike Northern Sami, which uses a distinctive orthography with letters like Č, Đ, Ŋ, Š, Ŧ, Ž , Southern Sami uses only standard Scandinavian Latin letters . Southern Sami also exhibits different vowel alternation patterns and a simplified consonant gradation system compared to its northern relatives.

Q: What language family is Southern Sami?

Southern Sami belongs to the Samic branch of the Uralic language family [1] . The Uralic family includes Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian, among others. Within Uralic, the Samic branch forms a distinct group of around ten closely related languages spoken across Sápmi. The Samic branch extends from Southern Sami in central Scandinavia northward to Kildin Sami on the Kola Peninsula of Russia. All Samic languages share Uralic features including agglutinative morphology and consonant gradation , distinguishing them fundamentally from the surrounding Germanic and Slavic languages.

Q: What is the role of Southern Sami in Norway and Sweden?

Southern Sami has official recognition in both Norway and Sweden [2] . In Norway it is one of three Sami languages with official status in certain municipalities. The Sámediggi (Sami Parliament) in both countries funds Southern Sami media, education, and cultural programmes. The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) and Sweden's SVT both provide limited content in Southern Sami. Southern Sami is taught in some schools within its traditional territory, and a small body of literature, dictionaries, and educational materials supports ongoing revitalisation.

Q: What preservation efforts exist for Southern Sami?

Norway and Sweden both run Southern Sami language revitalisation programmes [1] including language nests (immersion programmes for young children), university Southern Sami courses, and teacher training. The Sámi University College in Kautokeino produces educational materials. Digitisation and documentation projects have recorded Southern Sami speech, joik songs, and traditional knowledge for future generations. Cultural organisations such as Sijti Jarnge in Norway work actively to strengthen Southern Sami identity and daily language use among younger community members.

Q: What is the ISO code for Southern Sami?

The ISO 639-3 code for Southern Sami is sma [2] . ISO 639-3 is the international standard for identifying individual human languages, maintained by SIL International. The code sma uniquely identifies Southern Sami in linguistic databases and digital resources worldwide. In Glottolog, the comprehensive language catalogue, Southern Sami is classified under the Samic branch of Uralic. The code sma is used in language documentation archives, digital dictionaries, and endangered language preservation databases recording Southern Sami vocabulary, grammar, and oral tradition.

Southern Sami Alphabet at a Glance

Southern Sami uses a 23-letter Latin alphabet — a modified Scandinavian set with three unique letters absent from English: Å (rounded back vowel), Ä (front open vowel), and Ö (front rounded vowel); the letters C, Q, W, X, Y, and Z are not used
An endangered Samic Uralic language spoken by approximately 600 speakers in central Norway and Sweden, making it the southernmost member of the Samic branch of the Uralic language family ^[1]
Southern Sami has ISO 639-3 code sma and is spoken chiefly in Trøndelag and Innlandet in Norway and Jämtland in Sweden — the cultural heartland of the Southern Sami indigenous people ^[2]
The Sami people are the indigenous inhabitants of Sápmi, the traditional territory spanning northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia — Southern Sami represents the southernmost extent of this Uralic language continuum
UNESCO classifies Southern Sami as "severely endangered" — only around 600 speakers remain, but an active language revitalisation movement operates in both Norway and Sweden through language nests, schools, and broadcasting
Southern Sami shares the three letters Å, Ä, Ö with Norwegian and Swedish, reflecting centuries of contact with Scandinavian languages, but its grammar and phonology are entirely Uralic — unrelated to the surrounding Germanic languages

Southern Sami Vowels

Southern Sami has 8 vowel letters including three unique to the Scandinavian Latin tradition: Å (rounded back vowel, like the "aw" in "awe"), Ä (front open vowel, like the "a" in "cat"), and Ö (front rounded vowel, like German schön). These three letters extend the core Latin A–U set.

Southern Sami vowel length is phonemically significant — contrasting pairs of words can differ only in whether a vowel is short or long. The vowel system operates within Uralic phonological principles rather than the vowel harmony found in Finnish, making Southern Sami distinctive within its own language family.

[AH]

[EH]

[EE]

[OH]

[OO]

[AW]

[AE]

[EU]

Southern Sami Consonants

The Southern Sami consonant inventory uses standard Latin letters — B, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, and V — without special diacritics. The digraph Tj represents a palatal affricate sound, and consonant length (gemination) is phonemically significant, distinguishing otherwise identical words.

Southern Sami exhibits consonant gradation — a hallmark Uralic process where consonants alternate between strong and weak grades depending on syllable structure. This pattern, shared with Finnish and Estonian, is entirely absent from the surrounding Scandinavian languages and marks Southern Sami as a fundamentally Uralic language.

[B]

[D]

[F]

[G]

[H]

[Y]

[K]

[L]

[M]

[N]

[P]

[R]

[S]

[T]

[V]

[B]

as in "bat"

[D]

as in "dog"

[F]

as in "fish"

[G]

as in "go"

[H]

as in "hat"

[Y]

as in "yes"

[K]

as in "key"

[L]

as in "lamp"

[M]

as in "man"

[N]

as in "not"

[P]

as in "pen"

[R]

rolled r

[S]

as in "sun"

[T]

as in "top"

[V]

as in "van"

Southern Sami Special Characters

The 3 unique letter pairs of Southern Sami: Å/å (rounded back vowel, as in Norwegian "år"), Ä/ä (front open vowel, as in "cat"), and Ö/ö (front rounded vowel, as in German "schön"). These are the only letters extending the core Latin A–Z set in Southern Sami orthography.

Although Å, Ä, and Ö are shared with Norwegian and Swedish, their roles in Southern Sami are governed by Uralic phonology rather than Germanic. The adoption of these Scandinavian letters when the Southern Sami standardised orthography was developed reflects centuries of close contact between the Sami and Scandinavian linguistic communities.

[AW]

[aw]

[AE]

[ae]

[EU]

[eu]

Southern Sami Digits

Southern Sami uses Arabic numerals (0–9) in modern writing. The native Southern Sami number words: nolla (0), akte (1), göökte (2), golme (3), njielje (4), vïjhte (5), govhte (6), tjïjhtje (7), gaakste (8), uktsie (9).

Southern Sami number words reflect the language's Uralic heritage — forms like akte (one) and golme (three) have cognates across the Samic branch from Northern Sami to Skolt Sami. The unique vowels Å, Ä, and Ö appear throughout everyday vocabulary, illustrating their full integration into Southern Sami phonology.

[zero]

[one]

[two]

[three]

[four]

[five]

[six]

[seven]

[eight]

[nine]

Complete Southern Sami Alphabet

A complete view of all 23 Southern Sami letters in alphabetical order: A B D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V Å Ä Ö. The English letters C, Q, W, X, Y, and Z are absent from the Southern Sami alphabet.

The Southern Sami alphabet places Å, Ä, Ö at the end of the alphabet following V — following the same convention used in Norwegian and Swedish. This ordering was adopted when the standardised Southern Sami orthography was developed in collaboration with Scandinavian linguistic institutions during the twentieth century.

[AH]

[B]

[D]

[EH]

[F]

[G]

[H]

[EE]

[Y]

[K]

[L]

[M]

[N]

[OH]

[P]

[R]

[S]

[T]

[OO]

[V]

[AW]

[AE]

[EU]

[AH]

as in "father"

[B]

as in "bat"

[D]

as in "dog"

[EH]

as in "bed"

[F]

as in "fish"

[G]

as in "go"

[H]

as in "hat"

[EE]

as in "see"

[Y]

as in "yes"

[K]

as in "key"

[L]

as in "lamp"

[M]

as in "man"

[N]

as in "not"

[OH]

as in "more"

[P]

as in "pen"

[R]

rolled r

[S]

as in "sun"

[T]

as in "top"

[OO]

as in "moon"

[V]

as in "van"

[AW]

rounded back vowel

[AE]

front open vowel

[EU]

front rounded vowel

Expand All Collapse All

What is Southern Sami?

How many speakers does Southern Sami have?

Where is Southern Sami spoken?

What does the Southern Sami alphabet look like?

How is Southern Sami different from other Sami languages?

What language family is Southern Sami?

What is the role of Southern Sami in Norway and Sweden?

What preservation efforts exist for Southern Sami?

What is the ISO code for Southern Sami?

References:

[1] Glottolog 5.x. "Southern Sami [sout2288]" — Uralic > Samic classification; the Samic language of the Southern Sami people of Norway and Sweden, with a standardized Latin orthography. Retrieved from Glottolog: Southern Sami
[2] SIL International. "Sami, Southern [sma]" — ISO 639-3 Registration Authority entry for Southern Sami, the Samic Uralic language of central Norway and Sweden, written in Latin script. Retrieved from SIL ISO 639-3: Southern Sami