The Sámi languages belong to the Uralic language family. They are traditionally separated into two groups, with the Western group comprising Southern, Ume, Pite, Lule and Northern Sámi and the Eastern group comprising Inari, Skolt, Akkala, Kildin and Ter Sámi. Kemi Sámi was previously spoken in the southern parts of Finnish Sápmi until about 1850, and Sea Sámi along the north-western coast of Norway until the late 1800s.Knutsen Duolljá, Gaski & Theil, 2024. The Sámi languages are believed to have shared a common ancestor with the Finnic languages, splitting into Proto-Sámi and Proto-Finnic about 3–3500 years ago. From around 500, Proto-Sámi morphed into Old-Sámi.Gaski, 2022.

The modern Sámi era is generally counted from 1619, when the first Sámi books – a songbookRehn, 1619a. and a primerRehn, 1619b. by the Swedish priest Nicolaus Andreæ Rehn (a latinized version of the Swedish name, Nils Andersson) – were published.Gaski, 2022.

The earliest written materialGenetz, 1895. stems from Stephen Borroughs – an English explorer that sailed around the Kola Peninsula in 1557 and recorded a list of 95 words spoken by the local Sámi people.Abercromby, 1895. They were first published by the English geographer Richard Hakluyt in 1619.Hakluyt, 1619.

The Sámi are the indigenous people of Sápmi, a territory spanning across the Northern part of Scandinavia and the Kola Peninsula in what is now modern Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.Gaski, 2022.

Starting from the 1850s, the indigenous Sámi people, along with the Kven, Yiddish and Romani minorities, of Scandinavia were the target of aggressive and violent nationalization politics. A single national language was strictly enforced, and indigenous customs and culture discouraged. A process of reckoning with the Norwegian mistreatment of the Sámi people started only after the Second World War, with the reestablishment of Sámi organizations. The Norwegian Department of Church and Education’s Sámi committee of 1956 delivered their resolution to the government in 1959, arguing strongly for the indigenous rights of the Sámi people. Several laws were passed in the following years, establishing territorial and cultural rights.Berg-Nordlie, 2023.