a Pite Sámi legend from Arjeplog, from Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V (1893)

A short legend of why the fox and the Arctic fox are lean, told in Pite Sámi by Sámi of Arjeplog parish and taken down by Ignácz Halász at Saltdalen in Norway in 1891. The animals of the forest hold a feast of fat in winter, on the day still called Fat Tuesday; the fox and the Arctic fox are missing from it, and so they are gaunt to this day, while the others are fat.

Translation

When all the animals of the forest held a fat-drinking, and that fat-drinking day was in winter, and that day is called Fat Tuesday, all the animals had agreed then that they should gather on that appointed day and eat of the fat.

But when they had all gathered, the fox and the Arctic fox were missing from that fat-drinking; and so the two of them became as gaunt as they are now. And the other animals were fat, and so they have stayed, up to this present day, with that fat of theirs.

Colophon

Translated from the Pite Sámi of Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V: Népköltési gyűjtemény a Pite-lappmark arjepluogi egyházkerületéből (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893), no. 8, p. 6, in the section of primeval legends. Halász took these texts down in 1891 at Saltdalen from Sámi of Arjeplog parish, and printed a Hungarian translation after each, which was not consulted: it was masked out of the page images before translation.

The words that decide the reading were checked in K. B. Wiklund's Lule-lappisches Wörterbuch (1890), in Lindahl and Öhrling's Lexicon Lapponicum (1780), in Halász's South Sámi dictionary (Svéd-lapp nyelv IV, 1891) and in Joshua Wilbur's A Grammar of Pite Saami (2014). Tiwrī is "of the animals", from Swedish djur; pɵʼiṭē, puiṭēst, puiṭēn, puiṭīnese are forms of "fat" (Wiklund p. 98 s.v. puᵉitte-, "fett"); jūhkū, jūkūp̣, jûhkim-, jûkūst are forms of "drinking", from the verb "drink". Mēhcī is "of the forest" (Wiklund p. 67, "Wald"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. METSE, "silva, skog"); juhtusa are "animals" (Wiklund p. 28 s.v. juotuse-, nom. jutus, "vierfüssiges Tier"); tālvēn is "in winter" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. TALWE, "hiems, vinter"); kohčūtuwwā is "is called" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. KOTTJOT, "vocare, nominare"); tīstak is "Tuesday" (Wiklund p. 145, "Dienstag", from Old Norse týsdagr), so that pɵʼiṭē-tīstak is "Fat Tuesday", Shrove Tuesday. Rāðēstam is "agreed, taken counsel", from the word for counsel (Wiklund p. 103 s.v. rąđe-, "Rat"); čōhkonet, čōhkonījen are "gather", "had gathered" (Halász IV s.v. coákket, "sammeln"); vihtēs is "appointed, certain" (Halász IV s.v. vihtie, "gewiss"). Rēpē is the fox (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. REPE, "vulpes, räf"); svālla is the Arctic fox (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. SWAL, swala, "vulpes alpina, aestate subnigra, hieme alba, hvit räf, fjällräcka"); kātuiḳan is "the two were missing" (Wiklund p. 35 s.v. kaɔtu-, "abwesend sein; verschwinden"); livahken is "gaunt" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. LIWAK, "defatigatus, uttröttad", said of draught animals whose strength fails); kukte is "as, how" (Wilbur Table 6.10, gukte); läpā is "the two are" (Wilbur Table 8.25, lähpa). Ēčā is "other" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. ÅTJA, "alius, en annan"); jis is "and, also" (Halász IV p. 89 s.v. jis, "auch, und, wieder, dann"). Lī is "was", the past of lē (Wilbur Table 8.25). Aċin is the auxiliary of purpose with the infinitive, "that they should" (Halász IV p. 4 s.v. ača-, third person plural ačin, aččin).

Read from context, or not settled by the dictionaries, and named here: Ičin, in "and eat of the fat", is read as the same auxiliary again, a second purpose clause beside aċin; Halász IV p. 4 prints that auxiliary with a- and e- (ačin, ečie'), not with i-. A form of the negative verb ("they did not") does not suit the sentence. Kita utnāč päʼivai, "up to this present day", is read from context (kita as "up to"; utnāč as "of today"). Urrun and orrūmen are forms of "be, stay". Pite Sámi is close to Lule and South Sámi; where no dictionary of those languages decides a word, the reading is named here.

No English translation of this text is known to us.

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Source Text: Tiwrī pɵʼiṭē-jūhkū

The Pite Sámi text as printed by Halász (1893), no. 8, transcribed from the page images in his phonetic spelling. Line-end hyphens are joined; Halász's single paragraph is divided here at the same place as the English.

tē kossə kaik mēhcī juhtusa itnin pɵʼiṭē-jūkūp̣ ja tat pɵʼiṭē-jûhkim-päʼivē lī tālvēn ja tat päʼivē kohčūtuwwā pɵʼiṭē-tīstak, tē tallë lījėn rāðēstam kāihka juhtusa, aċin čōhkonet tān vihtēs päʼivai, ičin puiṭēst porrot.

vala ku tē čōhkonījen kāihka, rēpē ja svālla kātuiḳan tahte pɵʼiṭē jûkūst ja tē sōi šattaiḳan nau livahken, kukte läpā talle. tu ēčā juhtusa jis puiṭēn urrun ja tē orrūmen kita utnāč päʼivai taina puiṭīnese.

Source Colophon

Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V: Népköltési gyűjtemény a Pite-lappmark arjepluogi egyházkerületéből (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893), no. 8, p. 6. Public domain. Transcribed from the page images of the scan of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (REAL-EOD 4154). Halász's spelling is kept letter for letter, with his length marks, dots above and below, ɵ, ə, ð, and the raised stroke of the checked syllable (written here ʼ). His Hungarian translation and his notes are not reproduced.

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