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

The kitniha are the underground people of Sámi belief, who live beneath the earth much as people live above it. This legend of their origin was told in Pite Sámi by Sámi of Arjeplog parish and taken down by Ignácz Halász at Saltdalen in Norway in 1891. When the Redeemer, walking the earth, comes to the house of a woman ashamed of her many children, she hides two boys and two girls in the cellar and tells him she has no more; when she goes to fetch them, they have vanished into the earth, and from them the kitniha came.

Translation

In olden times, when the Redeemer himself was walking about upon the earth, he came to a house where there were many children, and the mother of those children was ashamed that she had so many children. When she saw people coming, she would hide them. When this time too she saw that the Redeemer was coming toward her, she took two boys and two girls and hid them in the cellar.

When the Redeemer came in, he asked whether she had any more children. The woman answered that she had no more. So she lied to the Redeemer himself.

When the Redeemer had gone out, the woman went to fetch the children, but she did not find them there. Those children had then vanished into the earth, and so from them the kitniha came to be.

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. 23, p. 28, in the section of kinē (kitniha) 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). Supcas is a tale (Wiklund p. 133 s.v. supcase-, "Erzählung, Märchen"); kokte is "how" (Wiklund p. 43 s.v. ko-, kokte); šiddin and šȧddin are "came to be" (Wiklund p. 135 s.v. šada-, "werden; wachsen"; Lindahl–Öhrling p. 399 s.v. SJADDET, "fieri, blifva"); kitniha are the underground people (Wiklund p. 35 s.v. katnɪhe-, "unterirdischer Mensch, Wicht, Ungeheuer"), kept in Sámi in the English. Tọlūč āiḳēn is "in olden times" (Wiklund p. 147 s.v. toluče-, "ehemalig, einstig"; p. 1 s.v. aɪḳe-, "Zeit"). Lonēstëďďē is "the Redeemer", the one who sets free (Wiklund p. 59 s.v. loneste-, "befreien, erlösen"; Lindahl–Öhrling p. 227 s.v. LÅDNESTEJE, "redemtor, återlösare"); ēhċa is "himself" (Wiklund p. 10 s.v. ęɔča-, "selbst"); vantarṭēmēn is "walking about, wandering", a loan from Swedish vandra (Halász IV p. 210 s.v. vantartet, "wandern"), in the progressive (Wilbur §8.2.2); nalltne is "upon" (Wiklund p. 72 s.v. nalte, "N.G. auf (einem Dinge)", and nane, "auf"). Häʼibmai is "to a house" (Halász IV p. 76 s.v. heima, "Haus, Heim"); kosne is "where" (Wiklund p. 42–43 s.v. ko-, the relative stem, inessive kone); ētna is "many" (Wiklund p. 10 s.v. ætna-, "viel, viele"); mānā are children (Wiklund p. 63 s.v. mana-, "Kind"); ädnē is "mother" (Wiklund p. 8 s.v. ędne-, "Mutter"); skāpmahi is "was ashamed" (Wiklund p. 119 s.v. skapmuhe-, "sich schämen"); nau modde is "so many" (Wiklund p. 73 s.v. nau, = nou, "so"; Lindahl–Öhrling p. 265 s.v. MÅDDE, "plures, multus, många"). Vɵidnā is "sees" (Wiklund p. 172 s.v. vu(ə)ɪᵉne-, "sehen"); čēhkā and ċēhkā are "hides" (Wiklund p. 155 s.v. čekate-, "verbergen, verstecken"); tān pālēn is "this time" (Lindahl–Öhrling, Swedish index p. 621 s.v. Gång: pale, akta palen, "en gång"); vallṭā is "takes" (Wiklund p. 166 s.v. valte-, "nehmen"); kᵘœkte is "two" (Wiklund p. 49 s.v. kuəḳte-, "zwei"); pāhċa are boys (Lindahl–Öhrling p. 317 s.v. PATJA, "puer, puerulus, pilt"); nēhcuča are girls (Wiklund p. 73 s.v. næi'ɔcu-, "Mädchen"); čällāra sisa is "into the cellar" (Lindahl–Öhrling p. 152 s.v. KJÅLLAR, "cella, källare"; Wiklund p. 118 s.v. sɪ-, illative sɪsa, "hinein"). Kahča is "asks" (Wiklund p. 35 s.v. kaɔča-, "fragen"); jus is "whether" (Lindahl–Öhrling p. 99 s.v. Jus, "si, om"); ēnap̣ is "more" (Wiklund p. 10 s.v. ætna-, comparative ænap, "mehr"), and ēnap̣uit is the adverb "more" (the same entry, adverb ænaput); khuidna is "the woman" (Wiklund p. 47 s.v. kuɪᵉna-, "Weib, Frau"); svärruj is "answered", from Swedish svara (Wiklund p. 135 s.v. svaru-, "antworten"); kēlēsti is "lied" (Wiklund p. 37 s.v. ḳeleste-, "lügen, belügen"); tanhka is "that very, himself" (Lindahl–Öhrling p. 458 s.v. TANKA, the genitive of the pronoun tatek: Tanka ålman, "hujus ipsius viri"). Ulhkus is "out" (Halász IV p. 26 s.v. uluksa, "hinaus", Lule olhkus); vœʼlĕḳam is "gone" (Wiklund p. 174 s.v. vuəlᵉḳe-, "weggehen, wegfahren"), with lī, "had gone" (Wilbur Table 8.25 and §8.2.2.1, the perfect with årrot); vaʒʒa is "goes" (Wiklund p. 164 s.v. vaʒe-, "gehen"); ača … väǯǯat is "to fetch", ača being the auxiliary of purpose with the infinitive (Halász IV p. 4 s.v. ača-, "verb. auxiliare cum infinitivo = «ut» finale", 3rd singular ača) and väǯǯat "fetch" (Wiklund p. 170 s.v. vɪeʒa-, "holen"); vala is "but" (Wiklund p. 165 s.v. valla, "aber"); kāuna is "find" after the negative verb (Wiklund p. 35 s.v. kauᵃna-, "finden"); kähtọm is "vanished" (Wiklund p. 35 s.v. kaɔtu-, "abwesend sein; verschwinden"), with lijin, "had vanished"; taiste is "from them" (Wilbur Table 6.3, elative plural dajste).

Read from context, or not settled by the dictionaries, and named here: sū koʼikū is rendered "toward her". Wiklund (p. 42–43 s.v. ko-) prints koɪku (N.G.) as an adverbial prolative plural of the relative stem "which, where", that is "by which way"; its use after the genitive sū, "her", as "toward her" is read from the sentence. Tiss in vala ī tiss taiṭe kāuna is rendered "there"; Halász IV (p. 122 s.v. ṭissä) gives it as "thither, to there" (allative), which English cannot keep after "find". The present tense of vɵidnā … čēhkā ("she sees … she hides") is taken as habitual, "when she saw … she would hide", and the story's other present-tense verbs are given in the past. Halász's two bracketed variants (nīhcuča, šiddin) are kept in the Source Text; the English gives each word once. 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: Supcas, kokte kitniha šiddin

The Pite Sámi text as printed by Halász (1893), no. 23, transcribed from the page images in his phonetic spelling. Line-end hyphens are joined; Halász's single paragraph is divided here at the same places as the English.

tọlūč āiḳēn ku lonēstëďďē ēhċa lī vantarṭēmēn ētnamen nalltne, tē pōhtā son akta häʼibmai, kosne lijjėn ētna mānā ja tāi mānai ädnē skāpmahi ku inī nau modde mānait. ko son vɵidnā almačit pōhtēmen, tē son čēhkā taiṭe. ku son āi tān pālēn vɵidnā, āhte lonēstëďďē pōhtā sū koʼikū, tē vallṭā son kᵘœkte pāhċa ja kᵘœkte nēhcuča (nīhcuča) ja ċēhkā taiṭe čällāra sisa.

ku tē lonēstëďďē pōhta sisa, kahča son, jus ēnap̣ mānait atna. khuidna svärruj, āhte ī son ēnap̣uit anē. tē kēlēsti son tanhka lonēstëďďai.

ko lī lonēstäďďē ulhkus vœʼlĕḳam, tē khuidna vaʒʒa, ača mānait väǯǯat, vala ī tiss taiṭe kāuna. tē lijin tā mānā kähtọm ētnama sisā ja tē taiste kitniha šȧddin (šiddin).

Source Colophon

Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V: Népköltési gyűjtemény a Pite-lappmark arjepluogi egyházkerületéből (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893), no. 23, p. 28. 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, raised vowels, ë, ď, č and ċ as printed, œ, ɵ, ʒ and ǯ, the raised stroke of the checked syllable (written here ʼ), and his two bracketed variants. His Hungarian translation and his notes are not reproduced.

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