Keywords

4.1 Introduction

In this chapter, I examine how the beginning of university studies has affected the language revitalisation efforts of Skolt Saami from the perspective of both students and the language community. Skolt Saami is one of the three Saami languages spoken in Finland, along with Aanaar Saami and North Saami; for a general introduction to the Saami languages and their relation to Finnish, see the introductory chapter of this volume. Today, the majority of Skolt Saami native speakers (ca. 300) live in Finland, some 20–30 speakers in Russia, and only a few in Norway (Kolttakulttuurikeskus, n.d.; Koponen et al., 2022, p. 196). In addition to North Saami and Aanaar Saami, Skolt Saami is one of the official Saami languages in the municipality of Inari in Finland. After World War II, speakers of Skolt Saami were resettled from the Soviet Union to Finland from an area which was a part of Finland for 24 years (1920–1944) but was lost to the Soviet Union in the war. The Skolt Saami have maintained their traditional Orthodox religion with close ties to Russian Orthodox traditions, whereas the other Saami groups in Finland are mainly Lutheran (Koponen et al., 2022, p. 196).

Since the year 2020, the status of the language has been equal to that of North Saami and Aanaar Saami, if measured by the availability of university-level education. At the University of Oulu, it has been possible to study North Saami as a major subject since 1980, Aanaar Saami since 2011, and Skolt Saami since 2020.

I approach the research topic from the perspective of reversing language shift, which refers to a situation in which, due to various active measures, a language shift from a minority language to a majority language is successfully halted or decelerated. This process has been conceptualised, for example, as a positive language shift or as language revitalisation. My primary focus will be on a situation in which a minority language acquires the status of a language taught as a major subject at university. In addition, I aim to find out whether and how the rise in the prestige of the Skolt Saami language is seen in the everyday life of students after their studies.

The research data consists of semi-structured interviews with students of Skolt Saami at the University of Oulu. The interviews are based on a questionnaire (see Appendix 4.1). Although Skolt Saami acquired the status of a major subject in 2020, it has already been possible to study the language with a non-degree study right since January 2015. Basic studies were offered at first, and intermediate studies followed a year later. The purpose of this study is to first review the current situation of the Skolt Saami language and then to answer the following questions based on the student interviews:

  • Has the students’ own language background influenced their decision to begin the studies?

  • What kinds of expectations did students of Skolt Saami have about studying the language?

  • How have these expectations been met?

  • How and where do students of Skolt Saami use the language after their studies?

Plans to start the Skolt Saami studies at the University of Oulu were long in preparation. For the purposes of language revitalisation, it is important to increase the number of speakers and to conduct timely research on Skolt Saami. The Saami languages spoken in Finland involve a great deal of legislation and rights that are different in a certain restricted area in Lapland than elsewhere in the country. Because of this, I will start by discussing some relevant background information in the first subsection, including some laws and regulations that affect the status of the Saami languages in Finland.

The topics of this study and their order of presentation are as follows: At first, in Sect. 4.2, I explain the linguistic rights associated with the Saami languages in Finland. Linguistic rights are also linked to the question of who is considered to be a Saami. In Sect. 4.3, I discuss the legal definition of a Saami. In the next sections, I focus on the Skolt Saami language, at first by discussing how it became a visible language (Sect. 4.4) and then by examining the language path of Skolt Saami in terms of opportunities for learning the language (Sect. 4.5). In Sect. 4.6, I discuss the terms reversing language shift and ideological clarification. The next two Sects. 4.7 and 4.8 focus on the university studies of Skolt Saami and the student interviews. The final Sect. 4.9 presents a summary and discussion of the findings of this study.

4.1.1 Position of the Researcher

I have been following the beginning of the university studies of Skolt Saami through my work. I am a university lecturer in North Saami at the University of Oulu. In addition, I have acted as a contact person and tutor teacher for the students of Skolt Saami. Like some of the informants of this study, I began school in Lapland during a time when the Saami languages were not taught at school. I have learnt North Saami, the native language of my father and his family, as an adult at the University of Oulu.

4.2 Linguistic Rights of the Saami Languages in Finland

In Finland, the status and prestige of the Saami languages have been influenced, in addition to the government’s assimilation policy, by, for example, the church, the evacuation period during the Lapland War, the school, and the dormitory system. While some of the bishops and ministers serving in the Saami-speaking regions valued the Saami language, others were indifferent to it. During the Lapland War of 1944–1945, the Saami were evacuated mostly to the Ostrobothnia region, to a Finnish-speaking environment (Lehtola, 2012, pp. 370–380). When elementary schools with in-school dormitories were built in the Saami region (from 1921 onwards), the schoolchildren were placed in a Finnish-speaking environment and had to change their language from Saami to Finnish, because most teachers could not speak Saami. In some cases, it was even forbidden to speak Saami (Lehtola, 2012, pp. 280–297).

Early childhood education and comprehensive education in the Saami languages offered in the Saami homeland are governed by many laws and regulations. The status of the Saami languages is more secure in the Saami homeland than elsewhere in Finland. The Saami homeland covers the municipalities of Inari (Aanaar), Utsjoki (Ohcejohka), and Enontekiö (Eanodat) as well as the northern areas of the municipality of Sodankylä (Soađegilli), effectively the village of Vuotso (Vuohčču) (Fig. 4.1). However, a large and constantly growing number of Saami live outside the homeland: 38% in 1992 and 65%—already more than half—in 2011 (Saamelaiskäräjät/Sámediggi, n.d.a). Approximately 70% of Saami children live outside the homeland (Suurpää, 2010, p. 116).

Fig. 4.1
A map of the Saami region highlights the municipalities covered under the Saami homeland. The legend is specified in a foreign language at the top left corner.

(Source Saamelaiskäräjät/Sámediggi, n.d.b)

A map of the Saami homeland, depicting the Saami region (Saamelaisalue) and the Skolt region (Koltta-alue) within it, and the municipal borders of the area (Kuntaraja)

Full size image

The laws and regulations concerning Saami languages are closely connected to a Saami ethnic background when it comes to early childhood education and the teaching of Saami languages in schools outside the Saami homeland. In Finland, the linguistic rights of the Saami as an indigenous people are divided in nature, because they are realised differently depending on whether one lives in the Saami homeland or outside of it. This is the case, even though the United Nation’s declaration, article 14, clearly states:

States shall, in conjunction with indigenous peoples, take effective measures, in order for indigenous individuals, particularly children, including those living outside their communities, to have access, when possible, to an education in their own culture and provided in their own language. (The UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples and the outcome document of the high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly known as the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples)

With respect to Finnish legislation concerning education, the Act on Early Childhood Education and Care (Varhaiskasvatuslaki, 13.7.2018/540) is the only one that is the same for all children. This act ensures the right of a child whose native language is Saami to daycare services both in the Saami homeland and outside of it (Varhaiskasvatuslaki, 13.7.2018/540 § 8). This means that if Saami has been registered as a child’s native language, the child is entitled to daycare in the Saami language in any part of Finland. It has been possible since 1994 to officially declare Saami as one’s native language (Arola, 2014, p. 3). However, when a child reaches school age and wants to be taught in Saami or learn Saami at school, the situation changes dramatically. In the Saami homeland, the Saami have constitutional self-government in matters pertaining to their language and culture (Laki saamelaiskäräjistä, 974/1995 § 1). This means that, in accordance with the Basic Education Act, Saami-speaking pupils are entitled to have most of their compulsory education in the Saami language. In practice, Saami can be the language of instruction at a school, or it can be taught as a separate subject, either as a mother tongue or as an optional foreign language. But when a school-age child lives outside the Saami homeland, they are entitled to Saami language education only for two hours per week, similar to a child with an immigrant background. However, the Saami language cannot be considered to be in an equal position with immigrant languages, because only very few languages are endangered in their native countries in the same way the Saami languages are (Aikio-Puoskari, 2009, p. 38).

Because most Saami children live outside the Saami homeland, it was suggested that teaching Saami languages remotely could be one solution for reaching these children and getting them involved in learning Saami. In 2015, the Ministry of Education and Culture started looking into this possibility (Aikio-Puoskari, 2016, p. 69). This work resulted in a distance learning project that offers distance education in Aanaar Saami, Skolt Saami, and North Saami for those pupils in comprehensive and general upper secondary schools who are Saami but live outside the homeland. The distance learning project runs from 1 August 2018 to 31 August 2023. In 2018, 53 pupils started in the project, and 16 of them began learning Skolt Saami (Saamen kielten etäopetushanke, n.d.).

4.3 Who Is a Saami?

As discussed above, certain linguistic rights are closely connected to a person’s Saami ethnic background. This is reflected in the current, legal definition of a Saami. In Finland, the criteria for defining who is a Saami are stated in the Act on the Sámi Parliament (Laki saamelaiskäräjistä, 17.7.1995/974 § 3), and they are as follows:

Section 3—Definition of a Sámi

For the purpose of this Act, a Sámi means a person who considers himself a Sámi, provided:

  1. (1)

    That he himself or at least one of his parents or grandparents has learnt Sámi as his first language;

  2. (2)

    That he is a descendent of a person who has been entered in a land, taxation, or population register as a mountain, forest, or fishing Lapp; or

  3. (3)

    That at least one of his parents has or could have been registered as an elector for an election to the Sámi Delegation or the Sámi Parliament.

This definition is broad and has caused disputes over, for example, who has the right to be listed in the electoral register of the Sámi Parliament. Only the Saami have the right to vote in the Sámi Parliament elections. The Sámi Parliament (Sámediggi), legislated in 1996, is the representative self-government body of the Saami (Saamelaiskäräjät/Sámediggi, n.d.b). Researchers maintain that the broad definition of a Saami violates people’s legal safety and causes disputes. In cases of dispute, the Supreme Administrative Court has had to settle in the end who is a Saami and who is not. Researchers have also observed that the judicial decisions made by the court do not appear to be based on any consistent principles (Heikkinen, 2017). It has been proposed that the definition of a Saami should be modified, and a committee has been preparing an amendment to the Act on the Sámi Parliament to this effect. The progress of the amendment to the Act on the Sámi Parliament can be followed on the webpages of the Ministry of Justice (Oikeusministeriö, n.d.a).

Outside the Saami homeland, the availability of Saami language education at the comprehensive level is closely connected to ethnicity. This is another reason why it would be desirable to reach a common agreement on the definition of who is a Saami.

4.4 How Skolt Saami Became a Visible Language

The majority of Skolt Saami speakers live in the eastern regions of the municipality of Inari, on the shores of Lake Inari (Fig. 4.1). Together with Aanaar Saami, Kildin Saami, and Ter Saami, Skolt Saami belongs to the eastern group of the Saami branch of the Finno-Ugric (Uralic) languages. After World War II, during 1949–1952, most of the Skolt Saami community was resettled from the Soviet Union (present-day Russia) to northern parts of Finland, to the villages of Nellim, Keväjärvi, and Sevettijärvi. Some were also resettled in Norway and Russia (Lehtola, 1994, pp. 170–188).

The year 1972 was significant for the Skolt Saami language. The regional radio in Lapland made a decision to start regular broadcasts in Skolt Saami, and the language began to be taught at school in Sevettijärvi. Moreover, systematic work began for developing a literary language of Skolt Saami. For a long time, it had existed only as a spoken language. It was decided that the literary language would be based on a dialect spoken in Suonikylä, because the majority of the Skolt Saami who were resettled in Finland had lived in that area. In 1973, a guide on Skolt Saami orthography was published. Sevettijärvi has remained the centre for teaching Skolt Saami from the year 1972 to this day. The school has been in danger of being closed down like many small village schools in Finland. Two other schools that offered teaching in Skolt Saami were closed down in the villages of Nellim and Akujärvi. The Sevettijärvi school was saved, because without it, the nearest cluster of schools in Inari would have been too far away, at a distance of more than 100 km. It would not have been possible for the school pupils to travel such a distance on a daily basis or to have them live in dormitories, as was the case only a few decades ago because of poor road connections. A road to Sevettijärvi was built in the 1970s (Kolttakulttuurikeskus, n.d.; Lehtola, 1997, p. 44; Moshnikoff, 2006; Pasanen, 2015, p. 148; Sarjas, 2010; Semenoja, 1995, p. 83).

In 1992, Skolt Saami acquired an official language status in the Saami homeland together with North Saami and Aanaar Saami. A law was enacted on the use of the Saami languages before the authorities (Pasanen, 2015, p. 148). This was later followed by the Sámi Language Act of 2003, which contains provisions on the right of the Saami to use their own language before the courts and other public authorities, as well as on the duty of the authorities to enforce and promote the linguistic rights of the Saami (Saamen kielilaki, 2003). The Skolt Saami are traditionally Orthodox Christians, which is why the Orthodox Church of Finland wants Skolt Saami to be the working language of its most northern parish. Founded at the beginning of 2022, the new parish, the Orthodox Parish of North Finland, expects its officials (the priest and cantor) to know Skolt Saami. If a person applying to these positions lacks the necessary skills in Skolt Saami, they are offered an opportunity to study the language (Gauriloff, 2021).

4.5 The Language Path of Skolt Saami

In 1993, a language nest was opened in Sevettijärvi. A language nest is a daycare service for children under school age who have no opportunity to learn Saami at home. The language nest operates on the basic principle that the children learn a language through a language immersion method while receiving care, which means learning a language through everyday activities and communication. The language to be learnt is a minority language and is spoken to the children right from the beginning. The staff of the language nest can also speak the children’s first language, which the children themselves are allowed to speak freely. The main goal of the language nest is to pass on an endangered minority language to the next generation because it cannot be passed on sufficiently or at all in the home. This is why a child should spend as much time as possible in the language nest, at least seven hours a day each weekday (Pasanen, 2015, pp. 204–205). More information on early childhood education in the Saami languages and on language nest pedagogy can be found in the doctoral dissertation by Äärelä (2016).

In 2020, there were two Skolt Saami language nests in Finland. One of them, Kuuskõõzz, operates in Sevettijärvi in the Skolt Saami homeland area and the other, Peʹsser, in Ivalo, the largest village in the municipality of Inari. In June 2018, the language nest in Ivalo celebrated its 10th anniversary. During these years, the language nest has brought up 30 new Skolt Saami speakers (Wesslin, 2018). More information on the language nest in Ivalo can be found in the master’s thesis by Laihi (2017). The language nest in Sevettijärvi accepts children whose parents (both or one of them) belong to a language minority or an indigenous people. At least one of them must speak Saami as a native language or have a Saami ethnic background. The language nest in Ivalo offers municipal, early childhood education and care in the Skolt Saami language. Their webpage does not mention specific application criteria (Inarin kunta, n.d.).

In the school year 2020–2021, the Sevettijärvi school had altogether 23 pupils in preschool and in lower and upper levels of comprehensive school (J. Nieminen, personal communication, 7 October 2020). In the Sevettijärvi school, Skolt Saami is taught as a mother tongue subject, while other subjects are taught in Finnish. In addition, the school provides distance education in Skolt Saami on the comprehensive level to the Inari and Ivalo schools (M. Porsanger, personal communication, 14 October 2020). It can be observed that the situation of the Skolt Saami language has taken a radical turn for the better during the last ten years or so. In 2006, the youngest native speaker of Skolt Saami was over 30 years old. In that same year, there were only a few children under school age in Sevettijärvi (Moshnikoff & Moshnikoff, 2006).

In addition to the comprehensive level, Skolt Saami can also be studied in the general upper secondary school (in Finnish lukio). In the matriculation examination, the candidate can take a test in Skolt Saami either as a foreign language exam or as a mother tongue exam. In 2005, three candidates took the foreign language exam in Skolt Saami for the first time (T. Sanila-Aikio, personal communication, 9 February 2021). Since the spring of 2012, it has been possible to take a mother tongue exam in Skolt Saami, and in the first year, one student took this exam (Saijets, 2012).

Skolt Saami can also be studied in the municipality of Inari in the Sámi Education Institute (Saamelaisalueen koulutuskeskus, SAKK), which is a post-secondary-level college that provides vocational education. The educational programmes centre around Saami handicrafts, reindeer herding, and Saami languages spoken in Finland. A study programme on Skolt Saami language and culture, which takes one academic year to complete, started in 2012. Since then, the programme has been organised every academic year, with the exception of 2015–2016 and 2019–2020. (R. Jomppanen, personal communication, 23 March 2021.)

4.6 Reversing Language Shift

I approach the research topic from the perspective of reversing language shift (RLS), through the theoretical concept of ideological clarification. In his monograph, Joshua A. Fishman (1991) examines reversing language shift from the point of view of national and minority languages. An example of a national language is Irish in Ireland, which is, in addition to English, an official language in the country (Fishman, 1991). Reversing language shift, however, is most typically referred to in connection with a minority language of a country and often also with the language of an indigenous people. Reversing language shift requires active measures in order for the shift from a minority language to a majority language to end or decelerate. Ideological clarification requires that the attitudes of a language community towards the language being revived are positive. Moreover, the language users need to acknowledge their own responsibility for the language and take an active role in the process of language revitalisation (Pasanen, 2015, p. 46).

Ideological clarification is part of the larger theoretical concept of linguistic culture. It involves, among other things, the social and regional-historical circumstances in which the language has been and is being used, the language community’s own attitudes towards the language, and the stereotypes, customs, values, beliefs, and myths associated with it. The concept of linguistic culture also contains language ideologies, such as the values, beliefs, and feelings towards the language (Pasanen et al., 2022, p. 78; Pasanen, 2015, pp. 43–46). Language ideologies are not permanent but, rather, change and transform at different times (see, e.g., Mäntynen et al., 2012, p. 337; Pietikäinen, 2012, p. 412).

Paul V. Kroskrity (2009) emphasises the fact that in language revitalisation efforts, ideological clarification is just as important as linguistic documentation such as grammar books, dictionaries, and the pedagogics of language revitalisation. One must identify and solve any ideological conflicts that may hinder local efforts at language revitalisation. Revitalisation is connected not only with the language community but also with the authorities. In order for ideological clarification to succeed, it is important to be aware of possible challenges beforehand rather than only after the fact. Kroskrity’s team ran into a conflict with the Western Mono language community while preparing a dictionary of the language. The Mono language is spoken in a few towns in Central California. The Western Mono community has 1,500 members, with approximately 200 members who have some knowledge of the language and 40 members who speak the language fluently. While the oldest speakers were of the opinion that the language cannot be written at all, middle-aged speakers disagreed with the dictionary writers on how the language should be written. Eventually, a solution was found through a series of compromises (Kroskrity, 2009, pp. 71–73, 77–78, 80).

Mastering a language enhances positive feelings towards that language. Torkel Rasmussen (2014) has studied the language situation of North Saami in the river valley of Deatnu (Tenojoki) in Norway and Finland. In the interviews, the young interviewees reported that the better the command they had of the language, the more they liked listening to it. They supposed that they would speak Saami also in the future. However, it is possible to value a language even without knowing that language, as was shown by the interviews of the young people’s parents. They all wanted their children to learn North Saami, regardless of whether or not they knew the language themselves (Rasmussen, 2014, pp. 271, 277).

A completely opposite view was expressed in a Kven-speaking community. The Kvens are people who emigrated from Finland to northern Norway in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The parents reported that they wanted what was best for their children and, for this reason, did not speak Kven, their own native language, to the children. They felt that it was in their child’s best interest in school and later in life to master the majority language well. The parents spoke Kven as their native language and lived in northern Norway in a small community in which Kven is a minority language and Norwegian is the majority language (Räisänen, 2014, pp. 97, 105). The situation was the same in Finland among parents of North Saami and Aanaar Saami speakers (Pasanen et al., 2022, p. 72).

The revitalisation of Aanaar Saami is a good examples of successful measures taken for reviving a language. The number of speakers has kept increasing since the 1990 because of active language revitalisation efforts (Pasanen, 2015; Olthuis et al., 2013). An Aanaar Saami language nest was opened in 1997, at which time there were no children under school age who would have spoken Aanaar Saami as their mother tongue. This was later followed by a situation in which there were children who spoke Aanaar Saami but no adults who could speak the language, so that it was difficult, for example, to find teachers. To help the situation, a one-year-long complementary education programme in Aanaar Saami was developed for the 2009–2010 academic year. The programme was organised by the Giellagas Institute of the University of Oulu and the Sámi Education Institute in Inari, and it targeted adults in working life, who were not required to have a Saami ethnic background. The students came from heterogeneous backgrounds: Many had no previous knowledge of Aanaar Saami, but there were a few students who had learnt Saami as their first language in their childhood home but had since forgotten it. Almost all of the 17 students who participated in the study programme (two students excepted) were using Aanaar Saami in their work in 2014 (Pasanen, 2015, pp. 119, 133, 137; Olthuis et al., 2013). It can be said that the goals set for the course were accomplished extremely well. The positive attitude of the native speakers towards new language learners has further contributed to the revitalisation of Aanaar Saami. Matti Morottaja has a long history of engaging in active language work, such as teaching and writing textbooks. His motto is: It is better to speak a language poorly than to be silent (Morottaja, 2007). More information on the revitalisation of the Saami languages spoken in Finland can be found, for example, in Sarivaara et al. (2019), Pasanen (2015), Rasmussen (2014), Olthuis et al. (2013), Olthuis (2017), Lindgren (2000), Aikio-Puoskari (2007), Aikio-Puoskari and Skutnabb-Kangas (2007), Äärelä (2016), Huss (1999), and Aikio (1988, 1994).

4.7 Skolt Saami Studies at the University of Oulu

At the University of Oulu, basic studies of Skolt Saami started at the beginning of 2015 for the first time. This was also reported on the Saami radio news (Holopainen, 2014). A criterion for applying to the studies was that the applicant should have Skolt Saami language skills. They should either have mastered the basics of written Skolt Saami (reading and writing) or have native-like skills in spoken Skolt Saami (speaking and understanding the spoken language). There were 12 applicants, all of whom were accepted. They began their studies with a separate, non-degree study right. The lessons were planned in a way that also allowed students who were working to attend them on weeknights. The studies were organised online and therefore not tied to a specific location. The responsible teacher was Eino Koponen, acting professor of Saami languages, and Miika Lehtinen, a North Saami major, acted as an assistant teacher. Koponen has no family history in the use of Skolt Saami but has studied the language at the University of Helsinki. Lehtinen is also a native speaker of Finnish but has studied Skolt Saami at the Sámi Education Institute in Inari. In 2018, Lehtinen wrote the very first master’s thesis in history in the Skolt Saami language.

In 2016, it was possible to continue after basic studies to intermediate studies of Skolt Saami. Eight students continued their studies. In 2017 and 2019, it was still only possible to apply to study Skolt Saami with a separate, non-degree study right. In 2020, however, Skolt Saami finally acquired the status of a major subject, that is, of studies that lead to an academic degree. The beginning of the major subject studies was reported on the national news of the Finnish Broadcasting Company, Yle (Wesslin, 2019). Thus, Skolt Saami complemented the Saami language degree studies at the University of Oulu, as the studies opened up the possibility to complete a degree in all three Saami languages spoken in Finland, namely, in Aanaar Saami, Skolt Saami, and North Saami. In 2020, in the first application of all time for major subject studies of Skolt Saami, four applicants applied, three of whom started their studies in the Skolt Saami bachelor’s degree programme and one in the master’s degree programme.

4.8 Interviews with Students of Skolt Saami

I sent an interview request via email to all of those 28 students who had applied to Skolt Saami studies during 2015–2020, and 15 of them agreed to be interviewed. It should be noted that not all applicants have started their studies. In addition to basic information such as date of birth, first language learnt, and so forth, I wanted to collect information on the students’ reasons for applying to the Skolt Saami studies, on their time during their studies, and on their use of Skolt Saami after their studies. Based on the date of birth, I was able to conclude whether the student had had a possibility to study Skolt Saami at school. With the question What language did your grandparents speak to each other?, I wanted to ascertain whether Skolt Saami was the language of the extended family, and, thus, I was able to map out the language background of the students.

Because the number of students (informants) is small, I refrain from profiling them in order to preserve anonymity. I make only one exception to this when I use numbers to identify the informants as I describe the language background of their grandparents. I do not give out specific details about the languages spoken by the grandparents on the father’s or mother’s side. If either one of the grandparents is a native speaker of Skolt Saami, I have reported this but without specifying which one is the native speaker. I have also left out information on the individual language backgrounds of the informants’ parents and only report the language they speak to each other.

4.8.1 Basic Information on the Students

The informants are in many ways a heterogeneous group. Because university studies of Skolt Saami were offered for the first time, it is only natural that many people interested in the language seized the opportunity. They are of very different ages. I have divided the informants into age groups based on different decades: Five of them were born in the 1970s or earlier, six were born in the 1980s, and four in the 1990s. For some, Skolt Saami is the language of the extended family (Table 4.1). In four cases, one of the informant’s grandparents on the mother’s side was a native speaker of Skolt Saami, and in seven cases, one of the grandparents on the father’s side. Five informants had grandparents with no language background in Skolt Saami. In two cases, the grandparents both on the mother’s and father’s side were native speakers of Skolt Saami, and Skolt Saami was also the language spoken in their homes. One of the informants also reported that their grandmother had not learnt Finnish. The grandmother had moved from the Soviet Union (present-day Russia) to Finland after World War II. Out of the cases in which the parents’ common language at home was Finnish, five informants had still learnt Skolt Saami as their first language, four of them alongside Finnish. In these cases, Skolt Saami had been passed on to the informants over one generation, from their grandparents. In the case of informant number three, Skolt Saami was the native language of three consecutive generations, from grandparents to the informant. In sum, it can be observed that for over half of the informants (9/15), Skolt Saami is the native language of the extended family, while for less than half of them (6/15), it is not.

Table 4.1 Language background of Skolt Saami students and their families
Full size table

Skolt Saami was not taught in schools until the 1970s, so only some of the informants had had the opportunity to learn the language at school. It was taught in the schools of Sevettijärvi, Akujärvi, and Nellim, of which the two latter ones have since been closed down (Semenoja, 1995, p. 83; Moshnikoff, 2006; Sarjas, 2010). According to an informant who went to school in Sevettijärvi, the language of instruction was mostly Finnish, with only some occasional subjects being taught in Skolt Saami. Fortunately, school is not the only place to learn a language. Five of the informants had studied Skolt Saami at school, seven had learnt the language at home or from their family, and three had learnt it from the village community. In practice, however, learning the language had not been tied to any one specific location but had taken place in many different, overlapping domains. As related by one informant, an interest in the language may develop, for example, through one’s spouse. At first the informant had studied the language at home and, from there, their territory for language use had expanded outside the home to the village community. Four informants had studied the language at the Sámi Education Institute in Inari and one at the University of Helsinki. All informants who had started their Skolt Saami studies at the University of Oulu had known the language already before their studies.

When asked whether they knew other Saami languages, the informants’ answers were very similar. Nearly all of them (13/15) knew, or at least understood, some North Saami. One informant said that North Saami was still their stronger language. For some, North Saami had been, or still was, the language spoken at home alongside Finnish. Three informants said that they had studied North Saami at school. A considerable number (10/15) of the informants knew or understood Aanaar Saami. One informant had learnt to understand Aanaar Saami because, in their village community, Skolt Saami, Aanaar Saami, and Finnish were all spoken and mixed together. One interviewee also knew the Kildin Saami language spoken in Russia. In the interviews it further came up that studying Skolt Saami had awakened an interest in the students also for other Saami languages spoken in Finland.

Understandably, North Saami is the language cited as the most widely spoken of all the Saami languages. For a long time, it was the only Saami language that could be heard on Finnish radio—for the first time already in 1947 (Lehtola, 1997). Traditionally, the Saami region has been a multilingual area in which people speak more than one Saami language (Lindgren, 2000, pp. 23–24; Olthuis & Seurujärvi-Kari, 2017). The inhabitants are used to moving across state borders to visit family and to engage in trading. The common language was usually North Saami. Earlier, trading was largely based on a barter economy, in which language skills were an asset. Trade items, for example, from Finland to Norway included reindeer meat, preserves, and handicrafts. These were traded for flour, salt, margarine, and sealskins.

4.8.2 Studying Skolt Saami

News on the beginning of the basic studies of Skolt Saami (in 2015) and of the major subject studies (in 2020) were reported in the local newspapers in northern Finland, on the website of Yle Sápmi news (https://yle.fi/sapmi), and on television and the radio. Moreover, the author of the present study went to Inari and gave an information session to the Skolt Saami students at the Sámi Education Institute (SAKK). Seven informants had in fact received information about the studies through SAKK, in the information session, via email, or from the teachers of the institute. Other information channels were the local newspaper and seminars. The role of SAKK in Skolt Saami education has been, and still is, important. Eleven of the informants had studied the language in SAKK, either by completing the one-year programme or by taking individual courses.

To the question What were your thoughts when you found out about the university studies of Skolt Saami?, the answers were divided. If the informants did not have a Saami ethnic background, their answers were brief and matter-of-fact. However, if the informants had a Saami ethnic background, their answers conveyed a feeling that it was high time to have the studies because they allowed Skolt Saami to have an equal status with North Saami and Aanaar Saami. The news about the beginning of the studies also evoked some feelings that are nicely exemplified by the following answers.

Se oli onnellinen, lämmin tunne. Oli mahdollisuus syventää oppia ja syntyi toive, että kielenelvytys etenee.

‘It was a happy, warm feeling. It gave an opportunity to deepen my learning and raised a hope for the progress of language revitalisation.’

Totta kai on hieno asia, että nämä kaikki Suomen saamenkielet on niinku samalla viivalla. Ja sitten sekin että omaa äidinkieltä, mitä en äidinkielisenä puhu. Sitä jos pystyy opiskelemaan korkeimmalla asteella, antaa positiivista kuvaa siitä asiasta. On tarve selkeästi.

‘It’s of course wonderful that all these Saami languages in Finland are, like, on an equal footing. And then the fact that [it is] my own native language which I don’t speak as my first language. If it can be studied at the highest level, this contributes to a positive image about it. There’s clearly a need for it.’

The opportunity to learn one’s own native language as an adult was welcomed. The fact that the studies were organised as online lessons in the afternoons made it possible to attend them. One family had contemplated the continuity of Skolt Saami studies with respect to their children. Now that it was possible to even write a master’s thesis in the language if one so wished, parents felt confident in having their children attend Skolt Saami language classes at school. This decision resulted in the family’s mother wanting to learn the language to be able to support the children in their language studies. From the point of view of language revitalisation, knowledge about the Skolt Saami university studies caused a chain reaction that touched more than one generation all at once. The students were motivated by the knowledge that Skolt Saami could be used within the family circle. In Rasmussen’s (2014, pp. 271, 277) study, all parents wanted their children to learn Saami, even in those cases where the parents did not know the language themselves.

Aattelin että halusin nuihin hakkee, mulla oli aluksi se, että voisin olla siinä lasten kielen oppimisen tukena. Ajatus oli myös, että oppisin sen kielen niin hyvin että voitais vaihtaa kotikieli pikkuhiljaa saameksi.

‘My thought was that I wanted to apply to those [Skolt Saami university studies]. At first, it was so that I could be there to support the children in their learning [of Skolt Saami]. The idea was also that I would learn the language so well that we could, by and by, start speaking Saami instead of Finnish at home.’

Nyt kun ite on oppinut ja sisko on oppinut ja siskon poika jonkun verran, niin kyllä se isä sitä kannustaa puhumaan siskon pojalle ja keskenään. Sitä pidetään tärkeänä myös.

‘Now that I myself have learnt and my sister has learnt [Skolt Saami] and my nephew has learnt some, too, our father [whose first language is Skolt Saami] does encourage us to speak it to my nephew and between ourselves. It’s also felt to be important.’

However, in addition to enthusiasm and positive feelings, the news about the studies also evoked some mixed feelings in the students. One informant living in the Saami homeland said that even the word university made them question whether they had what it takes to be a university student. This concern is very understandable, because the university has been a very distant institution, both mentally and physically, when looked at from the perspective of the Saami homeland. Few families have academically educated members, and the nearest university is many hundreds of kilometres away in the city of Rovaniemi. Another concern was who would teach Skolt Saami. It was known that no native Skolt Saami who knew the language was working as a university teacher in any of the universities in Finland. In other words, the teacher would be Finnish-speaking. On the one hand, students who were native speakers of Skolt Saami had misgivings about a Finnish-speaking teacher, and on the other hand, students who were native speakers of Finnish had doubts about their ability to cope with the students who were native speakers of Skolt Saami. As mentioned earlier, the teacher was in fact Eino Koponen, a Finnish native speaker from Helsinki, because there were no teachers who would have spoken Skolt Saami as their native language. The informants’ answers revealed that the students had doubts at the beginning of their studies.

Ajattelin vain ettei minusta ole yliopisto-opiskelijaksi.

Sitten minä mietin, mitenhän siellä opettaja, mitenhän tää nyt menee kun ihan vaan suomalaissyntyisiä jotka siellä opettaa. Miten se kaikki tämmöinen tulisi toimimaan.

‘I just thought that I don’t have what it takes to be a university student.

Then I thought, how about the teacher there [at the university], how is this going to go when only native Finns teach there. How is all this going to work.’

Olisi ollut välillä opettaja, joka olisi ollut siinä. Mutta koltan kielessä ei ollut sellaisia. Oli siinä monta ongelmaa. Itkosen kirjasta alotettiin ja oli mielenkiintoista, että oppi lukemaan Itkosen kirjan.

‘If only there had been a [native-speaking] teacher there from time to time. But there were none in the Skolt Saami language. There were many problems there [at first]. We started from the book by Itkonen, and it was interesting to learn to read the book.’

4.8.3 Expectations About the University Studies and How These Were Met

I asked the informants about their expectations before starting their Skolt Saami studies and, also, whether the studies had been what they expected. The expectations were clearly different between those students for whom Skolt Saami was their native language or the family language (9/15) and those students who had no Skolt Saami background in their family (6/15). Some of the native-speaking students needed Skolt Saami in their work, so they expected the studies to give them more confidence in their language use. Some of the things that were specifically mentioned were the wish to learn to write and to derive words. One answer also conveyed a sense of frustration because of exercises that were too easy: In the words of the informant, they bored me. Native-speaking students found their Skolt Saami studies to be necessary and found it useful to learn the language through theory. One informant mentioned that they finally started to understand grammar. In school, they had been compelled to learn things by heart, whereas now they were learning through understanding. Informants who had a family background in Skolt Saami had positive expectations, even though they lacked knowledge about the demands of university studies. In general, the students were happy to be able to strengthen their language skills and gain confidence in their language use. Several informants noted that it was challenging to study after work. The majority of the informants (11/15) were studying while working full- or part-time. One informant answered the question of whether studying Skolt Saami was what they expected with: Se ylitti odotukseni ‘It exceeded my expectations’. In particular, those informants who were using Skolt Saami in their work during their studies found them highly necessary.

Ajattelin että tarvitsen sitä. On minulle hyvin tarpeellista, helpottaa minun elämää. Teoreettinen kielen opiskelu. Halusin kovasti olla mukana ja oppia. Oli elämäni tilaisuus. Toi sellaista turvallisuuden tunnetta… Pidin sitä elämäni tilaisuutena. Vihdoin! Ja koin opinnot hyvin tarpeelliseksi.

‘I felt I need it. It’s highly necessary to me, makes my life easier. Theoretical language studies. I wanted very much to be involved and to learn. It was the opportunity of my life. It brought a sense of security... I regarded it as the opportunity of my life. Finally! And I found the studies highly necessary.’

It is noteworthy that those students for whom Skolt Saami was not the family language (6/15) had different expectations than the others. Studying the language turned out to be more challenging than they thought it would be. Pronunciation, word inflection, and speaking were felt to be particularly challenging. Several students had expected to learn to use the language in everyday situations, but this turned out to not be the case, because there were no separate classes for conversational Skolt Saami in the curriculum. The students did, however, enjoy the opportunity to learn about the Skolt Saami culture in addition to the language.

Oletus oli että 60 op:n jälkeen osaisi jo sujuvasti puhua ja kirjoittaa koltansaame. Mutta ei se ihan niin mennyt. Teoriassa kyllä mutta käytännössä kielitaito ei ole niin hyvä että osaisi heti taivuttaa muodot oikein. Oli toivonut enemmän käytännön harjoittelua erilaisista äänteistä. Teoriaa oli kyllä, mutta olisi kaivannut enemmän ääntämisharjoituksia ja puhumisen kursseja.

‘I assumed that after 60 study credits I would already be able to speak and write Skolt Saami fluently. But that’s not quite how it went. In theory, yes, but in practice my language skills were not so good that I would have immediately known the correct inflection forms of words. I had hoped for more practical exercises on different speech sounds. There was theory, but I would have wanted more pronunciation exercises and conversation courses.’

Positiivisesti, yllätti iloisesti. Olikin paljon jotenkin, kovaa työtä, mutta kun opinnoissa oli paljon kulttuuria myös. Se kevensi, siivitti ja helpotti opiskelua. Hyvin vastasi ennakko-odotuksia.

‘Positively; they were a pleasant surprise. They did turn out to involve, like, hard work, but then the studies included a lot of culture as well. This made the studies less heavy and easier to manage and helped them along. My expectations were met well.’

To sum up, the questions about the students’ expectations and how these expectations were met clearly divided the students into two groups: Those for whom Skolt Saami was the language of the extended family expected the studies to strengthen their language skills. Additionally, they specifically named those areas of language in which they wanted to develop their skills, such as writing. This group also contained those students who needed to use Skolt Saami in their work. They had very positive expectations about studying the language, and these expectations were also met well. The students who had a family background in the use of Skolt Saami expressed strong emotion when discussing their expectations. They truly appreciated the opportunity to study Skolt Saami at a university level. The students who had no family background in the language, however, mostly answered these questions briefly, some with only one or two words. Understandably, for these students, Skolt Saami was simply one language to be learnt among other languages.

4.8.4 Reasons for Studying Skolt Saami

All informants had already previously studied the Skolt Saami language, because it was a prerequisite for beginning the studies. Everyone therefore knew what they were embarking on. The reasons for beginning or continuing the studies were manifold. One informant wanted to become a Skolt Saami teacher. Their comment reflected a strong desire to learn Skolt Saami so well that, after the studies, they would be able to teach others. Another motivator was learning to write. The informant already mastered the spoken language and also wanted to learn how to write. The teacher was a Finnish native speaker, and so the informant found themselves teaching pronunciation to the other students.

Halusin opintoihin mukaan jo ennen kuin tiesin niiden olevan olemassa.

‘I wanted to take part in the studies even before I knew they existed.’

Välillä tuntui niin että minäkö se oon joka opetan. Se oli myös raivostuttavaa ku minä olin ite tullu oppimaan. Siis välillä.

‘[The student helped the teacher to teach pronunciation.] Sometimes I felt like, am I really the one doing the teaching. It was also infuriating because I myself had come there to learn. Sometimes [it was infuriating], that is.’

One informant wanted to learn the native language of their father. Already earlier, they had taken a year’s leave from work to study Skolt Saami in Inari, in the Sámi Education Institute. Now the informant wanted to continue the studies at university, so that they could develop their language skills. In prior research, it has come up that Saami language skills are considered important for a Saami identity. It has been questioned whether one can even call oneself a Saami without knowing the language. One can also feel left out of the Saami community when one is ‘languageless’ (Jomppanen, 2019, p. 20; Mustonen, 2017, pp. 47, 52). For two informants, Skolt Saami was the native language of their spouse and therefore important to learn. One of the answers conveyed the informant’s sense of wanting to get to know their spouse better. Another informant also wanted to support their children’s learning of Skolt Saami and to learn the language so well themselves that the family could change the language they spoke at home from Finnish to Saami. Both informants therefore had a practical need to learn the language. According to Korpilähde (2015, pp. 143–169), Saami language skills play an important role in the Saami family community. A practical need to learn the language motivates one to study it.

Halusin oppia tuntemaan hänet ja kyllä niin kuin huomaan, että innostun edelleen hänestä kun saan tutustua häneen paremmin kielen kautta ja jopa kielen rakenteen kautta…mutta sillä tavalla näkee siitä ihmisestä uusia puolia.

‘I wanted to learn to know them [my spouse], and I do notice that I still get excited about them as I get to know them better through language and even through the structure of the language... but in that way, I get to see new sides of this person.’

One informant’s language awareness of Skolt Saami had been raised when they noticed differences in the stories told by their father and grandmother. Even though both had learnt Skolt Saami as their first language, the same story was told by the father in Finnish and by the grandmother in Skolt Saami. The grandmother’s story had been more precise and detailed than the father’s story. Language ideologies change and transform in different times (see, e.g., Mäntynen et al., 2012, p. 337; Pietikäinen, 2012, p. 412; Pasanen, 2015, pp. 43–36). The grandmother and the father represented different generations, and, moreover, the grandmother had grown up in the Soviet Union (present-day Russia) and the father in Finland. After the war, circumstances had compelled the grandmother to move to Finland, which also meant that the majority language of her state of residence changed from Russian to Finnish. Skolt Saami and the old story remained an important link to her past life and feelings experienced therein.

For those informants for whom Skolt Saami was not the language of the extended family or the spouse, learning the language was motivated by a general interest in languages and, moreover, by an interest in Saami languages in general and in a smaller Saami language in particular. One informant had become interested in the language after taking a beginners’ course and wanted to continue further with Skolt Saami studies. Five informants were using Skolt Saami in their work and wanted to deepen their knowledge of the language. One informant was motivated by the desire to be employed in language work after the studies. All these six informants wanted to learn more Skolt Saami and, in that way, gain more confidence in their work. That is why this opportunity was worth seizing, now that university studies of Skolt Saami were finally available. It is noteworthy that most of the informants (11/15) were born in the 1970s or 1980s. Only now were they able to learn the language at university. For one informant, the most important thing was to learn to write Skolt Saami. When the university studies became available, the status of the language was elevated. This affected the Skolt Saami language community positively. An example of this was one informant’s need to build their own Skolt Saami identity. They received support from their immediate and extended family, who encouraged the informant to study Skolt Saami. In the end, the studies affected the whole family, as the family members started to speak Skolt Saami to each other. The university studies of Skolt Saami and the elevated status of the language resulted in the reactivation of Skolt Saami. Two informants mentioned in the interview that the prestige of the language rose the moment it began to be taught at university. The prestige of the Saami languages spoken in Finland has risen during the last few decades (Aikio-Puoskari, 2016, p. 15; Rahko-Ravantti, 2016, p. 115). However, Skolt Saami has not been on the same level hierarchically with Aanaar Saami and North Saami until the university studies began.

4.8.5 Passing on Skolt Saami from One Generation to the Next

Four informants had children who could speak Skolt Saami. Skolt Saami had been spoken to some of them from birth. In one family, the children had been bilingual when they were small, but at some point, their language had changed exclusively to Finnish. The children would reply in Finnish when Skolt Saami was spoken to them. This illustrates the impact of a Finnish-speaking environment. One informant gave an explanation as to why they did not speak Skolt Saami to their child. To them, it would have felt strange, because the family lived in an entirely Finnish-speaking environment and had no contacts with the Skolt Saami language community. Then again, another informant who did not yet have children said that they would want their children to learn Skolt Saami—provided, however, that they would live in the Saami homeland, where the children would have access to activities in Skolt Saami, such as to a language nest or other daycare service in Skolt Saami. Use of the language appears to be strongly connected to the environment: If one lives outside the Skolt Saami language communities, there is no practical need to use the language.

As discussed earlier, reversing language shift requires active measures, and ideological clarification requires the language community to have a positive attitude towards the language being revived. Language users need to be aware of their own responsibility for the language and take an active role in the language revitalisation process (Pasanen, 2015, p. 46). The beginning of Skolt Saami studies at the University of Oulu elevated the status of the language and gave hope for its future. One informant stated that, now that it was possible to study the language at university, they felt confident in having their children attend Skolt Saami classes at school. Everyone who began to study Skolt Saami at the university already had a positive attitude towards the language. For some, Skolt Saami was the language of their extended family, while for others, it was not. Those for whom Skolt Saami was not the language of the extended or immediate family nevertheless valued it as a small minority language and wanted to learn it.

4.8.6 Using Skolt Saami at the Time of the Interview and Maintaining the Language After Studies

Nearly every informant (13/15) reported that they would be using Skolt Saami in their work or were already, at the time of the interview, doing work in which Skolt Saami language skills were needed. This indicates that there are plenty of work opportunities for those who know the language. Ten informants spoke Skolt Saami at home or with acquaintances. One informant, when asked where they would be using the language in the future, replied with one word: ‘everywhere’. Some informants lived in a Skolt Saami-speaking environment, and Skolt Saami was also the language they spoke at home. One informant living in the Helsinki metropolitan area lamented the fact that they knew the language in theory but had no opportunities to speak it. At the time of the interview, all informants were already, or wanted to be in the future, active users of Skolt Saami. As Rasmussen (2014) observes, mastering the Saami language enhances positive feelings towards it. The better the young informants in his study knew Skolt Saami, the more they liked listening to it, and they supposed that they would be speaking Saami also in the future. This could be called a positive cycle: The attitudes of the language community towards the revived language were positive, which is also a necessity for ideological clarification.

All informants believed that active and diverse use of language is important for maintaining language skills. In addition to writing, reading, and speaking, one can also think in Skolt Saami, listen to spoken language, or follow radio or TV shows. One informant reported listening to audio recordings of past radio programmes in Skolt Saami, published in the Jie’lli arkiiv (‘Living archive’) on Yle Sámi Radio (accessible at: https://yle.fi/aihe/jielli-arkiiv).

Every informant’s answer revealed an active use of language through various means. One informant had made a pact with their Skolt Saami-speaking friends that they would always speak Skolt Saami when they met each other or talked to each other on the phone. Informants also brought up the fact that when teaching others or translating texts into Skolt Saami, they also ended up learning themselves. Other ways to learn include playing with language in different ways, trying out new materials, audio picture books and games, and, in addition to these, following and participating in discussions in Skolt Saami on social media. An informant who wrote Skolt Saami translations felt that developing the language was important—in their own words, koska koltansaamen kehityspaineet ovat valtavat ‘because there is enormous pressure to develop the Skolt Saami language’.

At the end of the interview, the informants answered a question about how actively they were using Skolt Saami, that is, how often, where, and with whom. While some were studying the language at the time of the interview, others were working in jobs in which Skolt Saami was needed (e.g. in translation work) or spoke the language with their spouse and children. These different domains of language use overlap and are not mutually exclusive. The majority of the informants (11/15) used Skolt Saami on a daily basis (Table 4.2), with ten of them using it at work. As observed earlier, many informants felt that the studies gave them confidence in their own language use and helped them to strengthen their language skills needed in working life. Skolt Saami skills also brought employment opportunities such as translation work for those who had not previously done work involving the language.

Table 4.2 Skolt Saami language use at the time of the interview
Full size table

Skolt Saami was least used when dealing with the authorities (Table 4.2). If one wants to use Skolt Saami, for example, when visiting the tax office, this is possible anywhere in Finland by using an interpretation service (Yle Lappi, 2009). The Sámi Language Act (1086/2003) contains a section that entitles the Saami to use their own language before the authorities (Oikeusministeriö, n.d.b). Despite this, Saami language use can be limited only to certain situations, as was revealed to be the case in the interviews with North Saami speakers (Sara, 2016). The informants reported using the language only in connection with their private lives, such as within the immediate and extended family and with acquaintances, while in the public sphere, the used language was Finnish (Sara, 2016, pp. 57, 64).

When examining Skolt Saami language use in general, the emphasis appears to be greatly on usage on a daily basis or at least a couple of times a week. The language is used when there is an opportunity to do so, such as at work or with friends and family. All informants followed the media in Skolt Saami either daily or a couple of times a week. This is possible because Yle Sápmi, a regional indigenous radio channel in Finland, publishes news online in three Saami languages, namely in Skolt Saami, Aanaar Saami, and North Saami (https://yle.fi/sapmi). Thus, current, local news of the Saami-speaking regions can be followed anywhere at any time.

4.9 Summary

This chapter has examined the language revitalisation of Skolt Saami in the context of university education. Skolt Saami is a severely endangered language. Out of the three Saami languages spoken in Finland, it has the smallest number of speakers. The beginning of major subject studies of Skolt Saami has had an impact on the entire language community and beyond.

The linguistic rights of Saami children are realised differently in the Saami homeland than elsewhere in the country. In the homeland, a child has the right to receive an education in Skolt Saami, whereas in areas outside the homeland, Skolt Saami cannot be studied for more than two hours a week. The situation is the same as with immigrant children. The situation of the Skolt Saami language has improved gradually since the beginning of the 1970s. It was only then that a literary language began to be developed for Skolt Saami. Until then, it had only existed as a spoken language. In 2006, there were only a few children under school age in Sevettijärvi, and the youngest native speaker was over 30 years old (Moshnikoff & Moshnikoff, 2006). At present, the Sevettijärvi school operates as the centre of Skolt Saami education. During the last 50 years, many things have taken place as part of the language revitalisation process. In addition to the measures mentioned above, Skolt Saami can be studied after comprehensive school also on the general upper secondary level (in Finnish lukio). In the matriculation examination, it is possible to take a test in Skolt Saami either as a foreign language exam or as a mother tongue exam. Skolt Saami can also be studied via adult education in the Sámi Education Institute (SAKK) in Inari during a one-year programme that has been available since 2012. Many informants in my data had studied Skolt Saami in SAKK prior to their university studies.

It is important for the Skolt Saami studies offered by the University of Oulu that, also in the years to come, there will continue to be students interested in learning the language. One must have some prior knowledge of Skolt Saami to know about the studies and apply to them. At present, Skolt Saami can be studied, regardless of one’s place of residence, in a distance learning project that organises online classes in Skolt Saami, as well as in Aanaar Saami and North Saami, for pupils of comprehensive and general upper secondary schools. In the academic year 2020–2021, there were 81 pupils, out of whom 16 were studying Skolt Saami. Children who participate in the distance learning project must have a Saami ethnic background.

The research material for this study consisted of interviews with students who have studied, or have been accepted to study, Skolt Saami at the University of Oulu. There were altogether 15 informants, for most of whom (11/15) Skolt Saami was the language spoken in the extended or immediate family, while for some, it was simply a foreign language to be learnt. Five informants had been born in the 1970s or before, six in the 1980s, and four in the 1990s. Because Skolt Saami began to be taught at school in the 1970s, not everyone had had the opportunity to study the language when they were in comprehensive school. One informant said that they would have wanted to have this opportunity. When it became possible to study the language at university, they seized the opportunity. The informants’ answers clearly showed that the prestige of the Skolt Saami language rose when it began to be taught at the university. In one informant’s case, the rise in prestige was manifested by them changing the language they spoke at home to Skolt Saami. The immediate family and grandparents started to speak Skolt Saami with the informant. Another indication of the rise in prestige is the willingness to reclaim a lost language back into use (Aikio-Puoskari, 2016, p. 15; Rahko-Ravantti, 2016, p. 115; Rasmussen, 2014, pp. 271, 277). One family wanted their children to attend Skolt Saami language classes after the news about the university studies of Skolt Saami came out. Now, the children’s language studies would not have to come to an end after comprehensive school or general upper secondary school but could continue at university as major subject studies. Skolt Saami skills also led to some positive surprises. One informant had discovered new sides in their spouse as their language skills grew. The spouse had learnt Skolt Saami as their first language.

Ideological clarification requires for the language community to have a positive attitude towards the revived language. Mastering the language increases positive feelings towards it. The informants’ answers conveyed an appreciation of, and positive feeling towards, Skolt Saami. This positive attitude was also realised through actions, as the majority of the informants reported using the language on a daily basis. This result differs from those of Räisänen (2014) regarding a Kven-speaking community. In the study by Räisänen, the parents did not speak Kven to their children because they only wanted their children to learn the majority language (Norwegian).

The revitalisation of Aanaar Saami is a good example of successful actions taken for language revival. Due to active measures, the number of speakers has increased, but the work is still ongoing. As for Skolt Saami speakers, even though similar opportunities for complementary education as for Aanaar Saami speakers have not been organised for them, they use the language actively, and the number of Skolt Saami speakers will continue to increase in the future because of this. This study shows that the different domains of language use overlap and do not mutually exclude each other. Through their studies, many informants had gained more confidence in their own language use and were able to strengthen their language skills needed in working life. Mastering the language also brought employment opportunities for those who had not been previously employed in work involving the language.

The beginning of Skolt Saami studies at the University of Oulu has made a difference on many levels. The studies provide a basis for a revitalisation process, in which those who have lost the language of their family can reclaim it, and those who speak it can strengthen their language skills. The university studies have elevated the status of Skolt Saami to the same level with other Saami languages spoken in Finland. Attitudes towards the language have become more positive also in the language community. Skolt Saami will have more speakers now that also those for whom it is a new, foreign language to be learnt are interested in studying it. The studies are organised as online classes in the afternoons, which makes it possible for those who are interested to attend, regardless of their work or place of residence. In addition, an institution, namely the Orthodox Church, has started to require Skolt Saami language skills from their employees in their most northern parish in Finland. The university studies of Skolt Saami have been the catalyst for a positive change, the significance of which will be seen, at the latest, after the next couple of decades.

In the future, this research could be continued further by tracing in more detail the students’ use of the Skolt Saami language in different domains. It would also be worthwhile to investigate in more detail how the university studies have influenced the Skolt Saami language community and the domain of working life. Another interesting issue is what will happen when, starting from the year 2023, the university studies of Skolt Saami can be started from an elementary level. Perhaps this will lead to new speakers of the language in the future.

Research Data

  • Informant interviews on Zoom.

  • The recordings are in possession of the author.