On Germanic-Saami contacts and Saami prehistory

Abstract

The purposes of this paper are to examine the strata of old Germanic borrowings in Saami and to discuss the prehistory and formation of the Saami language branch in the light of what is known of its contacts with Germanic as well as other language groups. The next section summarises the present knowledge of the stratification of Germanic borrowings in Saami. In the third section 27 Saami words are etymologised as early Germanic loans. The concluding section discusses the main lines of Saami ethnic history on the basis of the results of the present study as well as other recent linguistic research.