Vowels
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COMPLETE TRANSLATION OF THIS SITE IS IN THE WORKS.
The section Alphabet presents a list of all Skolt Sámi letters. Here the pronunciation of Skolt Sámi vowels is explained by comparing the sounds to English and in some cases to other languages.
The chart below shows Skolt Sámi example words. In the columns on the right side you can click on links and listen to how these words are pronounced by different dialect speakers from the old siidas Paaččjokk (PAS) 'Pasvik/Patsjoki' (which is closest to the old Neiden dialect), Peäc'cam (PET) 'Petsamo/Pechenga', Mueˊtǩǩ (MUO) 'Muotka', Njuõˊttjäuˊrr (NOT) 'Notozero' (which corresponds to the pronunciation of most Skolt Sámi speakers in Russia today) and Suõˊnn'jel (SUO) 'Suonikylä' (which corresponds to the pronunciation of most Skolt Sámi speakers in Sevettijärvi today). Not all words have a complete set of audio files. This is either because a word is not found in all dialects or we have not yet recorded a good pronunciation example for that word.
Remember that all vowels can be long or short. Long vowels are written as a double character.
A a
We call this letter 'common а'. It is pronounced like in the following examples:
| Aanar 'Inari' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
| aˊŋǧǧel 'angel' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
| taarbšed 'to need' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
| vacc 'mitten' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
| ceerkav 'church' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
 â
We call this letter 'а-circumflex'. It is pronounced like in the following examples:
| ââˊlda 'close' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
| âˊbrr 'rain' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
| âˊlmm 'sky' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
| âskkeed 'to want' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
| Âˊvvel 'Ivalo' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
| kââmted 'crash' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
E e
Эта буква произносится как русский /э/.
I i
Эта буква произносится как русский /и/.
O o
Называем эту букву 'обычный о'. Она произносится как русский /о/.
Õ õ
We call this letter 'о-tilde'. It is pronounced like in the following examples:
| õhtt 'one' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
| õhttu 'alone' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
| õpss 'smell' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
| jõnn 'big' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
| õsttâd 'to tackle' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
| põõssâd 'to wash' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
| kõõskâs 'juniper' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
U u
Эта буква произносится как русский /у/
Å å
We call this latter 'а-ring'. It is pronounced like in the following examples:
| ååˊres 'male reindeer' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
| åskk 'believe' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
| årsted 'to stop' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
| kååvas 'teepee' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
| lååi 'ten' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
| sååbbar 'assembly' | PAS | PET | MUO | NOT | SUO |
Ä ä
This letter is called 'a with diaeresis'.