Basic HTML Version
T
HE
E
ARLIEST
C
ONTACTS BETWEEN
S
CANDINAVIANS AND
S
OUTH
S
AAMI
169
have an explicitly southern distribution in the Saami language area: apart
from
hovreskodtje
‘thunder’ that is found also in central South Saami all of
them are restricted to southern South Saami, i.e. southern Jämtland and Här-
jedalen in Sweden and Røros in Norway. The usual words for ‘thunder’
further to the north are, e.g.,
raejrie
and
aatja
(Rydving 2012: 165). The
word
hovre
(
n
)
-
, is borrowed from the Scandinavian name for the thunder
god, Thor, runic Sw.
þor
,
þur
, ON.
Þórr
(SAOB T2021; Qvigstad 1893: 195;
SLW s.v.
Huvre;
Sköld 1985: 65 f.; Rydving 2012). So, the continuative
h-
in southern South Saami derives from a Scandinavian
þ
.
In the – admittedly few – examples above an older Saami *
θ
has devel-
oped into
f-
before a labial vowel. Bergsland (1946:22) reckons with a devel-
opment *
huo-
>
fuo-
in South Saami, which can be observed both in inher-
ited words and loanwords. Such a change is known also from some Finnish
loanwords in Saami languages further to the north, e.g. SaaN.
fuomašit
‘no-
tice’ < fi.
huomata
(Korhonen 1981: 134), but in contrast to South and Ume
Saami the change there seems to be spontaneous. In general, northern forms
in
huo-
correspond to southern forms in
fuo-
, e.g.: Lule Saami
huovva
‘Schar,
Haufen, Rudel’ ~ Ume Saami M.
fuovva
, ST.
fùowə
(Moosberg ST), Msk.
fuovvə
(Calleberg) ~ SaaS.
fuove
(SLW s.v.); SaaU. Mlm.
fuöhppē
‘rush
(noun)’ ~ SaaN.
hoahppu
‘id.’; SaaN.
fuotni
~ SaaU. Msk.
fuotnū
‘bad’ < Fi.
huono
‘id.’; but SaaL.
fuonōs
and
huonōs
~ SaaU. SoF.
fuonūs
‘the evil one,
the devil’. So, the regular development of South and Ume Saami is repre-
sented in SaaS.
fuome
‘bird cherry’, SaaU. (Msk.)
füεhpət
‘to felt’, whereas
the initial
h-
is irregular in SaaS.
hâvva
‘the protuberant upper part […]’ and
Hovre-
,
hovren-åarja
‘thunder’ and so forth. SaaS.
hâvva
could – if it be-
longs here – be explained as the result of a dissimilation, whereas the
hovre(n)-
forms need another
explanation.
There is obviously no reason to search for any quality differences in the
loan-giving Scandinavian languages; both the name of the thunder god and
the verb ‘to felt’ started with the same
thō-
in Old Swedish (Lennart Elme-
vik, personal communication, 20. 11. 2013). The explanation for the irregu-
larity should be found in Saami.
In Finno-Ugric studies, not least in Finland, it is not uncommon to explain
irregularities in phonological development by pointing to the risk that a
regular development would cause homonymy. Even though such a possibility
must be reckoned with, this explanation seems to exaggerate the disturbances
homonyms would bring into the system. Language can bear homonymy,
since words are always used in a context. The Swedish word
vad
has five dif-