Miika Lehtinen taught Skolt Sámi while still learning it

Miika Lehtinen began teaching Skolt Sámi at the University of Oulu while he was still studying the endangered language himself, Yle reports. He is now a university teacher, developing learning materials and teaching a language spoken by about 300 people.

When Lehtinen joined the Sámi Education Institute in Inari to study Skolt Sámi, the University of Oulu had not taught the language for several years. He was asked to teach a third of its basic course.

Lehtinen had first become interested in Sámi languages before finishing upper secondary school. After taking matriculation exams in four languages, he wanted to learn a language related to Finnish. He went to a summer upper secondary school in Utsjoki to study Northern Sámi, then spent a year studying in Inari. Although he had a place to continue at the University of Oulu, he stayed in the Sámi region to study Skolt Sámi.

In his first weeks of study, Lehtinen and fellow student Markus Juutinen began looking for ways to make learning the language easier. They corrected gaps in grammar, checked vocabulary and created tables for vowel and diphthong alternations and consonant gradation, which had not previously been available in Skolt Sámi. Their work earned them the Skolt of the Year award.

Lehtinen and Juutinen continue to work with the language. Lehtinen says the lack of written resources meant students had to create much of the material themselves. When university studies in Skolt Sámi began in 2015, there was no Skolt Sámi grammar material for the courses, and Lehtinen drew heavily on research in English.

He says university study has made it possible for people to learn Skolt Sámi grammar from written materials, rather than relying on knowledge held in people’s heads. Academic research and teaching have also raised the language’s status, he says. In the past 10 to 15 years, Skolt Sámi has been studied more than at any other time in its history.

The University of Oulu’s Giellagas Institute is the only place in the world where Skolt Sámi can be studied as a major, and students can begin regardless of their language skills. This spring, 11 people applied to the programme, seven of them listing it as their first choice. Five students began subject studies in the autumn, a high number for the programme, Lehtinen says.

Lehtinen says the studies bring new speakers into the language community. He is especially pleased when Sámi people themselves want to learn their language.