Prästen och ordet. Ur den samiska lexikografins historia

Abstract

The first attempts at writing Saami were made by Swedish and Norwegian missiona-ries. Their work also resulted in the first descriptions of the grammar and vocabulary of the Saami dialects. In fact, priests and missionaries have played a very important rôle in Saami lexicography from the middle of the 18th century, when the first dictionaries were published. In Sweden the written Saami was founded on southern dialects, codified in the dictionary by Fiellström 1738, whereas written Saami in Norway were based on Northern Finnmark dialects already in the dictionary by Leem 1768. In the first dictionaries the vocabulary of the Bible dominates over inherent words. During the 19th century the lexicographic works of linguists became increasingly important. In the 20th century priests have still accomplished important linguistic work in the field. Out of the five great dictionaries of different Saami dia-lects two were written by priests, two by sons of a Lappland priest and one by a pure linguist.