Sami Language Centre opened in Murmansk

The Sami Language Support Centre has been opened at the Institute of Linguistics of the Murmansk Arctic State University (MAGU). The centre will start working on the revival of the language by training specialists.

Traditional language teaching methods are used in the teaching. Also new methods will be developed and used, such as language immersion and the “master-student” method. In addition, teaching tools are tested that have been developed by students of the Sami master’s programme, the only programme in Russia to teach Sami languages.

Viktoria Bakula, Professor of Language and Media Communication at the university, noted that almost all of the master’s students studying at the programme are Sami. They are primarily involved in the revitalisation of the Skolt Sami language, didactic developments of Sami for mobile applications, teaching the language to preschoolers and even translating the Bible.

Bakula emphasised that such a diversity of areas of work will allow a multifaceted approach to future methodological developments in order to create a professional community capable of transmitting knowledge about the language and defending the status of the Sami language.

The Sami languages are a branch of Uralic languages spoken in four countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia) from Central Scandinavia and Lapland to the Kola Peninsula. Around 200 Sami in Russia speak Kildin Sami, about 20 speak Skolt Sami and c. 10 speak Ter Sami. According to the latest census, 1,530 Sami lived in the Russian Federation. Only 247 Sami, or 16.2% of Russian Sami, considered the Sami language their mother tongue.