Wiktionary:About Ter Sami

This is a Wiktionary policy, guideline or common practices page. Specifically it is a policy think tank, working to develop a formal policy. Policies – Entries: CFI - EL - NORM - NPOV - QUOTE - REDIR - DELETE. Languages: LT - AXX. Others: BLOCK - BOTS - VOTES.

Ter Sami is a near-extinct language spoken in the Kola peninsula of Russia.

Orthography

Ter Sami has no standard orthography. The orthography used within Wiktionary is based on that used in the Yhteissaamelainen sanasto (Common Sami dictionary, YSAS). A few changes have been made to this orthography for use on Wiktionary, to make it less like a linguistic transcription and more like an actual written language. These changes are mostly inspired by the orthographies of other Sami languages. They are:

• YSAS ɐ = Wiktionary â (as in Skolt Sami).
• YSAS i̮ = Wiktionary ï (as in Southern and Ume Sami).
• YSAS ᴉ̑ = Wiktionary ë.
• YSAS χ = Wiktionary h (as in Skolt Sami).
• YSAS ń = Wiktionary nj (as in most Sami languages). Before ǯ or č, it is written as just n (as in Kildin Sami).
• YSAS i̭, i after a vowel = Wiktionary j.
• Long consonants are indicated by doubling the consonant letter, rather than with a macron above.
• Palatalised consonants are indicated with a modifier letter prime (as in Wiktionary's transliteration of Kildin Sami and Russian, and also used in Skolt Sami orthography), rather than a half-ring below the letter.
• Palatalisation is not indicated for letters immediately followed by e, since it is automatic in that position. Any consonants before that do have palatalisation indicated, but double consonants are considered as a single unit. The preaspiration hh is also considered a single unit with the following stop, so palatalisation is not indicated on it.
• Vowel length is not indicated, as it is not phonemic in Ter Sami.

However, some speakers used the Cyrillic script based on the Kildin orthography, and there are also evidences of writing the language in this way. [1], [2]

Dialects

Kert's "Образцы саамской речи" ("Samples of the Sami speech") has texts in two of the Ter Sami dialects:

• Ča’lmny Varre
• Jokanga