The Sámi (US: SAH-mee, UK: also SAM-ee; also spelled Sami or Saami) are the traditionally Sámi-speaking indigenous people inhabiting the region of Sápmi. Formerly known as Lapland, Sápmi encompasses large northern parts of Norway, Sweden, and Finland, and of the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Historically, the Sámi have been known in English as Lapps or Laplanders; however, these terms are regarded as offensive by the Sámi, who prefer their own endonym. Their traditional languages are the Sámi languages, which are classified as a branch of the Uralic language family. Traditionally, the Sámi have pursued a variety of livelihoods, including coastal fishing, fur trapping, and sheep herding. Their best-known means of livelihood is semi-nomadic reindeer herding. As of 2007, about 10% of Sámi were connected to reindeer herding, which provides them with meat, fur, and transportation; around 2,800 Sámi people were actively involved in reindeer herding on a full-time basis in Norway. For traditional, environmental, cultural, and political reasons, reindeer herding is legally reserved for Sámi only in some regions of the Nordic countries.
Etymologies
Sámi Speakers of Northern Sámi refer to themselves as Sámit "the Sámis" or Sápmelaš "of Sámi kin," the word Sápmi being inflected into various grammatical forms. Other Sámi languages use cognate words. As of approximately 2014, the consensus among specialists was that the word Sámi was borrowed from the Proto-Baltic word *žēmē, "land," cognate with Slavic zemlja (земля), of the same meaning. Both terms ultimately descend from the Proto-Indo-European root *dʰéǵʰōm. The word Sámi has at least one cognate in Finnish: Proto-Baltic *žēmē was also borrowed into Proto-Finnic as *šämä and evolved into modern Finnish Häme, the region of Tavastia. The second ä of *šämä is still found in the adjective hämäläinen. The Finnish word for Finland, Suomi, is also thought probably to derive ultimately from Proto-Baltic *žēmē, though the precise route is debated and proposals usually involve complex processes of borrowing and reborrowing. Suomi and its adjectival form suomalainen must come from *sōme-/sōma-. Finnish linguist Grünthali Riho [fi] proposes that this Finnish root comes from a Proto-Germanic word *sōma-, itself from Proto-Baltic *sāma-, in turn borrowed from Proto-Finnic *šämä, which was borrowed from *žēmē. Sámi institutions—notably the parliaments, radio and TV stations, theatres, etc.—all use the term Sámi, including when addressing outsiders in Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, or English. In Norwegian and Swedish, the Sámi are referred to by the localized form same, plural samer.
Finn
The first probable historical mention of the Sámi, naming them Fenni, was by Tacitus about AD 98. Variants of Finn or Fenni were in wide use in ancient times, judging from the names Fenni and Φίννοι (Phinnoi) in classical Roman and Greek works. Finn (or variants, such as skridfinn, 'skiing Finn') was the name originally used by Norse speakers (and their proto-Norse speaking ancestors) to refer to the Sámi, as attested in the Icelandic Eddas and Norse sagas (11th to 14th centuries). The etymology is somewhat uncertain, but the consensus seems to be that it is related to Old Norse finna, from proto-Germanic *finþanan ('to find'), the logic being that the Sámi, as hunter–gatherers, "found" their food, rather than grew it. This etymology has superseded older speculations that the word might be related to fen. As Old Norse gradually developed into the separate Scandinavian languages, Swedes apparently took to using Finn to refer to inhabitants of what is now Finland, while the Sámi came to be called Lapps. In Norway, however, Sámi were still called Finns at least until the modern era (reflected in toponyms like Finnmark, Finnsnes, Finnfjord and Finnøy), and some northern Norwegians will still occasionally use Finn to refer to Sámi people, although the Sámi themselves now consider this to be an inappropriate term. Finnish immigrants to Northern Norway in the 18th and 19th centuries were referred to as Kvens to distinguish them from the Sámi "Finns." Ethnic Finns (suomalaiset) are a group related to the Sámi, but distinct from them.
Lapp
The word Lapp can be traced to Old Swedish lapper, Icelandic lappir (plural) perhaps of Finnish origin; compare Finnish lappalainen "Lapp," Lappi "Lapland" (possibly meaning "wilderness in the north"), the original meaning being unknown. It is unknown how the word Lapp came into the Norse language, but one of the first written mentions of the term is in the Gesta Danorum by the twelfth-century Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus, who referred to 'the two Lappias', although he still referred to the Sámi as (Skrid-)Finns. In fact, Saxo never explicitly connects the Sámi with the "two Laplands". The term "Lapp" was popularized and became the standard terminology by the work of Johannes Schefferus, Lapponia (1673). The Sámi are often known in other languages by the exonyms Lap, Lapp, or Laplanders, although these are considered derogatory terms by some, while others accept at least the name Lappland. Variants of the name Lapp were originally used in Sweden and Finland and, through Swedish, adopted by many major European languages: English: Lapps; German, Dutch: Lappen; French: Lapons; Greek: Λάπωνες (Lápōnes); Hungarian: lappok; Italian: Lapponi; Polish: Lapończycy; Portuguese: Lapões; Spanish: Lapones; Romanian: laponi; Turkish: Lapon. In Russian the corresponding term is лопари́ (lopari) and in Ukrainian лопарі́ (lopari). In Finland and Sweden, Lapp is common in place names, such as Lappi (Satakunta), Lappeenranta (South Karelia) and Lapinlahti (North Savo) in Finland; and Lapp (Stockholm County), Lappe (Södermanland) and Lappabo (Småland) in Sweden. As already mentioned, Finn is a common element in Norwegian (particularly Northern Norwegian) place names, whereas Lapp is exceedingly rare. Terminological issues in Finnish are somewhat different. Finns living in Finnish Lapland generally call themselves lappilainen, whereas the similar word for the Sámi people is lappalainen. This can be confusing for foreign visitors because of the similar lives Finns and Sámi people live in Lapland. Lappalainen is also a common family name in Finland. In Finnish, saamelainen is the most commonly used word nowadays, especially in official contexts.
History
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