The South Saami language belong to the so-called Finno-Ugrian branch of the Uralic language family.  South Saami language is part of a larger group of 10 Saami languages. The Saami peoples have inhabited a vast area over long periods of time, and the languages in this group may be very different from each other. Even the neighbouring Saami languages of Norway and Sweden are in many cases quite different. South Saami is quite distinctive from the dominant North Saami language, so distinctive that the two are in fact incomprehensible to each other. Lule and South Saami speakers may understand each other to a certain degree, however.

The difference from the Norwegian and Swedish vernacular languages are of course even greater, and the South Saami culture, of which the language is a fundamental feature, is also quite distinctive from the majority culture that surrounds it. The majority languages Swedish and Norwegian are both from a wholly different group of languages – the Germanic group. And yet they have co-existed on the same territory from time immemmorial! There are a great many examples of the languages influencing each other – in all directions.

Two main groups of Saami language

The Saami language group may be divided into two main groups: the West Saami languages, and East Saami languages. They are all connected, but the farer apart geographically, the greater the differences.

West Saami languages

East Saami languages

Extinct Saami languages