World Language Map

Where is North Saami spoken?

North Saami (sámegiella) is an Uralic language, spoken in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia. It is marked on the map by a ringed point.

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Where North Saami is spoken

North Saami is spoken in 4 countries: Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia. The table gives the share of each country’s people who speak it, from Unicode CLDR, where CLDR has a figure.

CountryShare of populationEstimated speakers
Sweden0.3%34,946
Norway0.3%15,978
FinlandNot givenNot given
RussiaNot givenNot given

Estimated speakers are the CLDR percentage applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country, so they are rough. A country without a figure may still have speakers: it is listed because the language area, or Glottolog’s record, reaches it.

North Saami has no area on the map because no open area map covers it. The ringed point is the position Glottolog gives for the language.

How many people speak North Saami?

Wikidata gives about 26,000 speakers (Ethnologue, 2009). These figures are approximate: they come from different sources, years and definitions of a speaker.

Status: Shifting. Glottolog lists it as shifting: the youngest speakers are adults, and children are growing up speaking another language.

Where North Saami sits in the language family tree

Glottolog classifies North Saami as follows, from the largest family down to the language itself.

  1. Uralic
  2. Saami
  3. Western Saami
  4. Central Western Saami
  5. North Saami

More about North Saami

Codes: ISO 639-3 sme, Glottolog nort2671. Glottolog macroarea: Eurasia.

Questions about North Saami

Where is North Saami spoken?

North Saami is spoken in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia. Unicode CLDR puts it at 0.3% of the population of Sweden, which is about 34,946 people. On the map it is shown as a single point, because no open area map covers it.

How many people speak North Saami?

Wikidata gives about 26,000 speakers (Ethnologue, 2009). Speaker numbers are approximate and differ between sources: counting who is a speaker, and whether to include second-language speakers, is not settled.

Which language family is North Saami in?

Glottolog places North Saami in the Uralic family, in the branch Saami, Western Saami and Central Western Saami.

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