The Saami Substrate in Finnish and Karelian

At present, Saami languages are spoken in an oblong area stretching from central Scandinavia in the southwest to the Kola peninsula in the east. However, historical documents, Finnic oral tradition, and place-name evidence indicate that in the late Iron Age much of central and southern Finland and Karelia was still inhabited by speakers of now extinct Saami languages. Later these Saami cultures disappeared under the wave of Finnic colonization.

The purpose of my research project The Saami Substrate in Finnish and Karelian is to provide the first extensive account of loanwords and place-names of Saami origin in the Finnish and Karelian dialects, and to use these results to reconstruct the linguistic and ethnic situation in Finland and Karelia prior to the Finnic expansion.

My plan is to publish the results as two separate monographs, The Saami loanwords in Finnish and Karelian and The Saami substrate toponyms in Finland and Karelia. The first volume, which will form my PhD dissertation, was submitted for examination in April 2008.

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