Photos - Govaid - Kuvia

The northernmost rock paintings in Finland. If you look closely you can see some small human figures and a reindeer.

This type of water-filled holes are called Hiidenkirnu (eng. Hiisi's butter making pot - Hiisi is a little devil or a pixie in the Finnish mythology)

On top of a duoddar / tunturi.

The reindeer weren't very co-operative. They just stood there in front of our car and didn't move.

In Finnish mythology the Hiisi people were better in everything than normal people. When human beings made butter from milk in a wooden pot they could make butter from water.

Unnatural creatures also grew their plants and vegetables from stone.

"Tee siä lehmän maitosista

niin miä teen maan vesisistä."

(You make that from a cow's milk

and I'll make that from Earth's water drops)

Lean boahtán Sámis

Mu muotki Sámis lei hui fantásttalaš ja ohpen olu ođđa sániid sámegillii. Gehčen olu ođđa olbmoid ja luođiidge. Mus lea moadde govage.

I (gen./acc.) trip Lapland (locat.) be (sing. 3rd pers. preterite) very fantastic and learn (sing. 1st pers. preterite) many new (attribute form) word (plural gen./acc.) Sami language (illative). See (sing. 1st pers. preterite) many new (attr. form) person (plural gen./acc.) and place (plural gen./acc.) also. I (locative) be (3rd pers. sing.) couple picture (gen./acc.) also.

My trip in Lapland was fantastic and I learnt many new words in Sami. I also met many new people and saw many new places. I've also got some pictures.

Sápmi was extremely beautiful and very different from what I'm used to. When we weren't sitting in a car we walked in the forests and duottars. (Duottar (=tunturi in Finnish) is some kind of a small mountain. I don't think there is any English equivalent for that word.)

At home again - Ruovttus fas

(North Sami) Ráhkestan Sámi gielaid ja kultuvrra, muhto lea hui stuohtas leat ruovttus fas.

(Finnish) Rakastan Saamenmaan kieliä ja kulttuuria, mutta on todella mukavaa olla kotona taas.

I love Sami land's languages and culture but it's still very nice to be at home again.

~*~

I got home last night after a very long drive. Sápmi was extremely beautiful but after being surrounded by reindeer, pine trees and sun light 24/7 (the sun doesn't set at all in the summer) it was very nice to see some birch forest and big lakes again. I'll add some pictures when I've got more time.

The greatest thing is that I got to speak some davvisámegiella. Some of the native speakers were astonished by the fact that I could speak their language - they were very eager to speak about it and wanted to hear all about my language studies. They also corrected my sentences when I made mistakes and they gave me some useful tips and instructions. 

An old Sami man told me about the diminutive case system which I hadn't heard of before and which my study book doesn't mention at all (thank you very much !). Some adjectives trigger a case system called the diminutive (deminutiivi in Finnish) - usually adjectives like "small" and "tiny". There is a diminutive suffix in Finnish (-nen) but is actually more used in literature.

e.g. tyttönen could be translated as "little girl"

bás prinssaš is "little prince" in English (and is actually the name of Antoine de Saint-Éxupery's book Le Petit Prince) - bás (or unna) is an adjective in an attribute form and is one of the few adjectives that make a noun change its form, and prinssaš is the singular diminutive nominative form of prinsa.

~*~

I enjoyed the trip and will add some pictures sooner or later.

Sápmái

I've been packing today since I'm traveling to Lapland with my parents for one week tomorrow. First we're going to Kuusamo (Guossán) and after couple of days we'll go to Sodankylä (Soađegilli). Then we'll continue to actual Lapland (Lappi / Sápmi) and visit Inari (Ánár), Ivalo (Ávvil) and Utsjoki (Ohcejohka). We'll probably visit Norway's side of Lapland (Norgga Sápmi) where all the bigger Sámi communities are (Kárášjohka, Guovdageaidnu, Johkamohkki). I'll take a lot of pictures and I'll post some of them here. I'm not going to take my lap-top with me so I'm not sure if I'm going to be here before I've come back to Heinola. I hope that I'll get to speak some North Sami (hállat davvisámegiela) with an actual native speaker (sámelaš -> sámelaččat).