At the end of the 1800s, about 450 Ter Sámi lived in six villages on the eastern part of the Kola Peninsula. Sovjet-led forced relocation, starting in the 1930s, had a negative effect on the Ter Sámi people. Today, the population counts no more than 100 people, spread across the Kola Peninsula and in and around the city of St. Petersburg.Theil & Knutsen Duolljá, 2022.
In 2013, the German linguist Elisabeth Scheller listed two native speakers, both above 70 years of age, and “at least ten people who have enough knowledge […] to count as potential language users”.Scheller, 2013.
History of written Ter Sámi
There was never an official Ter Sámi orthography. A common Kola Sámi orthography – the Unified Northern Alphabet – was developed by the Institute of the Peoples of the North in Leningrad in the mid-1920s, and a school primer was initiated in 1933 following this norm.Chernjakov, 1933. It proved unusable for education and never developed further than a few pages.Knutsen Duolljá, 2022. Soviet Russification policy outlawed the Ter Sámi alphabet in 1937.Theil & Knutsen Duolljá, 2022.
The Finnish linguist Toivo Immanuel Itkonen edited a collection of fairy talesItkonenm 1931. in Skolt and Kola Sámi in 1931.Rießler, 2019. In 1948 and 1958, he published a two-volume dictionary of the Skolt and Kola Sámi languages, Koltan- ja kuolanlapin sanakirja.Itkonen, 1958.
In 1961, Georgiĭ Martynovich Kert published a descriptive grammar of Kildin Sámi and ethnographic description of the Sámi peoples in Sovjet.Kert, 1961. This is relevant, because, in the Soviet tradition, Ter Sámi is considered a dialect of Kildin Sámi. The book is directed at a scholarly audience.Yuryev, n.d.
Modern developments
A slightly modified variant of the 1982 Kildin Sami spelling, which was developed by “a working group of Sámi teachers and language activists led by the non-Sámi educationalist and linguist Rimma Kuruch”,Rießler, 2013, pp. 198–199. is found in Oktyabrina Voronova’s, Я̄лла (Жизнь) – the first poetry book published in the Ter Sámi language.Voronova, 1989.
Of later developments, the Giellatekno institute in Tromsø hosts an online dictionary of Ter Sámi and a new grammar, entitled Jokan'gskij dialekt Saamskogo Jazyka, was published by Sergej Tereškin in 2002.Tereškin, 2002.
Literature
Chernjakov, Z.E. (1933). Саамский букварь [Sami ABC Book (Unpublished manuscript)]. Moscow.
Itkonen, T. I. (Ed.) (1931). Koltan- ja kuolanlappalaisia satuja [Skolt and Kola Sámi Fairy Tales]. The Finno-Ugric Society.
Itkonen, T.I. (1958). Koltan- ja kuolanlapin sanakirja [The Skolt and Kola Sámi Dictionary] (Vols. I–II). The Finno-Ugric Society.
Institute for the languages of Finland. (2002–08). Álgu [Data set].
Kert, G.M. (1961). Образцы саамской речи : материалы по языкы и фольклоры саамов Кольского полуострова, кильдинский и иоканьгский диалекты [Samples of Sami speech: materials on the languages and folklore of the Sami of the Kola Peninsula, Kildin and Yokanga dialects]. USSR Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 23 September 2026 from kolanord.ru
Knutsen Duolljá, S-E., Gaski, H. (21 May 2024). Samisk [Sámi language]. In Store norske leksikon. Retrieved 23 September 2026 from snl.no
Rießler, M. (2019). Skolt Sámi literature. In J. Domokos (Ed.), A writing hand reaches further “Čálli giehta olla guhkás” : Recommendations for the improvement in the Sámi literary field, pp. 67–71. Yhdenvertaisen kulttuurin puolesta ry.
Rießler, M. (2013). Towards a digital infrastructure for Kildin Saami. In E. Kasten & T. de Graaf (Eds.), Sustaining Indigenous Knowledge: Learning Tools and Community Initiatives for Preserving Endangered Languages and Local Cultural Heritage, pp. 195–218. Kulturstiftung Sibirien. Retrieved 23 September 2026 from dh-north.org
Scheller, E. (2013) Kola Sami language revitalization – opportunities and challenges. In L’Image du Sápmi II: études comparées / textes réunis par Kajsa Andersson. Humanistica Oerebroensia. Artes et linguae, 16. Örebro University.
Tereškin, S.N. (2002). Jokan'gskij dialekt Saamskogo Jazyka [Yokanga dialect of the Sámi language. Dissertation]. St. Petersburg.
Theil, R., Knutsen Duolljá, S-E. (29 May 2022). Tersamisk [Ter Sámi language]. In Store norske leksikon. Retrieved 23 September 2026 from snl.no
UNESCO. (May 2023). Ter Saami. In World Atlas of Languages. Retrieved 23 September 2026 from en.wal.unesco.org
Voronova, O.V. (1989). Я̄лла (Жизнь) [Jalla (Life)]. Murmansk. Retrieved 23 September 2026 from saami.su
Ƶuļov, P.N. (1934). Kniga logkɘm guejka: vɘsmus pieļ vɘsmus egest opnuvmus [Reading book: Part 1: 1st Grade]. Rațkmus Uꞓpedgizɘst.
