page_title: Northern Sami orthography
hierarchical_section_title: Northern Sami orthography
caption_attribution_description: English: Rasmus Rask’s Saami alphabet in Ræsonneret Lappisk sproglære [1]
context_page_description: The orthography used to write Northern Sámi has experienced numerous changes since the first writing systems for the language were developed. Traditionally, Norway, Sweden, and Finland — the three countries where Northern Sámi is spoken — used separate orthographies for teaching the Sámi within their borders. This changed in 1979 when a Saami Council-led effort to standardize a pan-Scandinavian orthography for Northern Sámi.
  The roots of the current orthography for Northern Sámi were laid by Danish linguist Rasmus Rask, who, after discussions with Norwegian cleric Nils Vibe Stockfleth, published in 1832 Ræsonneret lappisk sproglære efter den sprogart, som bruges af fjældlapperne i Porsangerfjorden i Finmarken: En omarbejdelse af Prof. Knud Leems Lappiske grammatica. Rask established an orthography based on the principle of a single grapheme for each sound, i.e., it should be a phonemic orthography. All the Northern Sámi orthographies developed since 1832 trace their roots back to Rask's system. This means diacritics are used with some consonants, which caused data-processing problems before Unicode was introduced.
context_section_description: The orthography used to write Northern Sámi has experienced numerous changes since the first writing systems for the language were developed. Traditionally, Norway, Sweden, and Finland — the three countries where Northern Sámi is spoken — used separate orthographies for teaching the Sámi within their borders. This changed in 1979 when a Saami Council-led effort to standardize a pan-Scandinavian orthography for Northern Sámi.
  The roots of the current orthography for Northern Sámi were laid by Danish linguist Rasmus Rask, who, after discussions with Norwegian cleric Nils Vibe Stockfleth, published in 1832 Ræsonneret lappisk sproglære efter den sprogart, som bruges af fjældlapperne i Porsangerfjorden i Finmarken: En omarbejdelse af Prof. Knud Leems Lappiske grammatica (Reasonable Lappish Language Learning According to the Language Used by the Mountain Lapps in the Porsangerfjord in Finnmark: A recast of Prof. Knud Leem's Lappian Grammar). Rask established an orthography based on the principle of a single grapheme for each sound, i.e., it should be a phonemic orthography. All the Northern Sámi orthographies developed since 1832 trace their roots back to Rask's system. This means diacritics are used with some consonants (č, đ, ŋ, š, ŧ and ž), which caused data-processing problems before Unicode was introduced.
  In 2006, Norwegian seventh grade students began to be taught the Northern Sámi alphabet as part of their lessons.
caption: Alphabet used by Rask in Ræsonneret lappisk sproglære in 1832 with the special letters đ, ᵹ, ʒ, g̃, ŧ and letters borrowed from North Germanic languages, additional letters with diacritics not depicted in this table are used in the book : c̓, s̓, z̓, ʒ̓.
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