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

This short legend of origins stands among the primeval legends that open Halász's collection. It was told in Pite Sámi by Sámi of Arjeplog parish and taken down by Ignácz Halász at Saltdalen in Norway in 1891. In the days when all the animals could speak, they send the dog to the people to fetch fire for a meal; the people feed the dog, and when it returns the animals are already eating raw food, so the dog goes back to the people and becomes their helper with the reindeer.

Translation

In the old days, when all the animals had a language, then once they were to gather together, and then they were going to have a meal at some time; but there was not a single fire among them, so they sent the dog, that it should go to the village for fire from the people. And when the dog came to the people, they were just then eating. Then the dog sat down beside the door to beg. And when the people had done eating, they gave that dog some bones, and when the dog had eaten, it went off to those other animals.

But when it came there, they were already eating raw food, and they said: "We need no more fire of any kind; it is tasty to eat meat like this." But the dog answered: "I certainly do not want to eat raw food; I am going back to the people." And then the dog went to the people, and the dog became a help to the people in herding reindeer.

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. 15, p. 15, 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). Tolīn is "in the old days" (Wiklund s.v. tole-); kēlau is "a language" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. FINN, where Suoma-kial is "lingua Finnica"); kilhkėn is the past of the verb "shall", "were to", "were going to" (Wilbur §8.2.1, galgat); čōhkonam čōhkai is "gather together" (Wiklund s.v. čɔɔkane-, "sich versammeln", and čɔɔḳe-, iness. čɔɔḳen, "beisammen"); mallāsau is "a meal" of cooked food (Wiklund s.v. malase-, nom. males, "mahlzeit, mahl (von gekochter speise)"); rǟďďi is "sent" (Wiklund s.v. raʒa-, "schicken, senden"); pētnaḳ-, pēna is the dog (Wiklund s.v. pænaɔke-, nom. pæna); siďďī is "to the village" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. SID, sida, and SITA, "pagus, by; domicilium, hemvist"); čuhkėṭī is "sat down" (Wiklund s.v. čoɔko-, čoɔkoɔte-, "sich setzen"); uksa-kûrrai is "beside the door" (uksa, "door"; Wiklund s.v. kuɔra-, illative "neben"); snolókohet is "to beg" (Wiklund s.v. snol'kohe-, "bettelnd in den zelten umhergehen (von kindern)"); jurā is "just" (Wiklund s.v. jur(a), "just, gerade, eben"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. JURA, with the same construction, Páti juru ko mon lijeb wuolgemen, "he came just as I was about to go"); porromen with lē, lijėn is the progressive, "were eating" (Wilbur §8.2.2.2), and porrom the perfect; viddin is "gave" (Halász IV s.v. wattet, wottet, "geben"), with the vowel change a → i that the key to Halász's script describes; tǟktist is "of the bones" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. TAKTE, "os, ben"); ēčā is "other" (Wiklund s.v. iečate-, nom. ieča, "ander"); ńœsskasau is "raw (food)" (Wiklund s.v. ŋuɔska, "roh"); tārhpahe is "need" (Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. TARBAHET, "indigere"); māp̣ is the accusative of ma, "what" (Wilbur p. 154, mav); ńaʼlĕḳē is "tasty" (Wiklund s.v. ńal'ḳe-, "süss, wohlschmeckend"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. NIALGE, "sapidus, dulcis, välsmakande"); ip̣ kuit is "I certainly do not" (Wilbur Table 8.26, iv; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. KUIT, Ib kuit mon tiete, "I certainly do not know"); vastēt is "answered" (Wiklund s.v. vastete-, "antworten"); roptut is "back" (Wiklund s.v. ruɔptu-, illative ruɔptus, "zurück"); ridnuhem is "herding" (Wiklund s.v. rei'nuhe-, "hüten, weiden"); vähhkēn is "as a help" (Halász IV s.v. viehkietet, "helfen").

Read from context, or not settled by the dictionaries, and named here: kilhkėn … čōhkonam, "were to gather", has a past participle after the verb "shall", a construction the grammar does not show; the English keeps it as a plan, "were to"; in ällam sijān aktak tollo, "there was not a single fire among them", aktak in a negated clause is "not a single" (Wilbur p. 141) and ällam is read from context, as in no. 13; čohkolam porromėst, "had done eating", is read from context; in ep tiss … māp̣ kē tolōu, "no more fire of any kind", tiss, "any more", and kē are read from context; kuku in almačī kuku, "to the people", is read from context; vastēt, "answered", has the form of an infinitive, read as the finite verb the sentence needs; tiwrē, tiwrī, "animals", is read as the Swedish loan djur (compare Halász IV s.v. jūra, "tier — sv. djur"). 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.

© 2026 Tianmu Anglican Church. This English translation is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: you may share and adapt it for non-commercial use with credit to the Good Works Library, tianmu.org. The source text keeps its own terms. For other uses, see Rights and Reuse.

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Source Text: Unna supcas tiwrī ja pētnaḳen pirra

The Pite Sámi text as printed by Halász (1893), no. 15, transcribed from the page images in his phonetic spelling. Line-end hyphens are joined; Halász's paragraph is divided here at the same place as the English.

tolīn kosse kaʼihka tiwrē kēlau itnin ja tē sija kilhkėn āi sōmēs pālēn āi čōhkonam čōhkai ja tē kilhkėn sija āi somēs āikēn mallāsau atnēt, vala tē ällam sijān aktak tollo, tē rǟďďi sija pētnaḳau, ača tāt väǯǯat siďďī tolōu almačī luhte. ja ko pēna pōhta almačī kuku, te lē ta jurā porromen. tē pēna čuhkėṭī uksa-kûrrai snolókohet. ja ku liče almača čohkolam porromėst, te sija viddin tan pētnaḳī tǟktist ja ku pēna lē porrom, tē vūlhkī son tai ēčā tiwrī lusā.

vala ku son tohko pōtī, tē lijėn sija jū porromen ńœsskasau ja tē jihtė: «ep tiss mija tārhpahe māp̣ kē tolōu, ńaʼlĕḳē lē pirhkūw nauhte porrot.» vala pēna vastēt: «ip̣ kuit mon sitā ńœsskasau porrot, vūlhkau mon roptut almačī kuku.» ja tē vūlhkī pēna almačī kuku ja tē šattai pēna almacīṭa pōcuj-ridnuhem vähhkēn.

Source Colophon

Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V: Népköltési gyűjtemény a Pite-lappmark arjepluogi egyházkerületéből (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893), no. 15, p. 15. 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, breves, ǟ, ǯ, œ, the accent over o in snolókohet, and the raised stroke of the checked syllable (written here ʼ). His Hungarian translation and his notes are not reproduced.

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