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

A joik, or vuolle, the sung poetry of the Sámi, in the Pite Sámi of Arjeplog parish in Swedish Lapland. It was taken down at Saltdalen in Norway in 1891 by the Hungarian linguist Ignácz Halász from Sámi of Arjeplog living there; Sulitjelma is the great mountain on the Swedish–Norwegian border near Saltdalen. In it a young girl joiks of mountains that were to shine with silver and of little stones she carried in her pocket and called silver, dreams of riches, gifts and a bridal crown, and is left weeping when no suitor stays.

Translation

A young girl sat down
and began to joik
these kīʼikijit of the joik:

The mountains were to shine with silver,
and she was to get garments.
She hewed axes in spring, she šėpmarī;
at the year's end she found silver for her father.

Once, when she was watching the goats,
the rocks alone held her up.
Little stones she carried in her pocket,
and she said: "That was silver."

Then she was to grow rich
and then give gifts to the wedding.
And then the suitors were to come,
and she herself to sit in the crown and sleep.

When I sit down in the crown,
then I will turn the suitors away.
But luck did not follow,
then she gets to weep.

Then she waits for the suitors,
but not a single one comes to her.
Then she stays in sorrow
and says: "Where is my friend?"

One suitor went last year,
but he had to go back home.
The girl's luck did not carry her
to embrace that kōvūs boy.

The boy left, and then the girl
was left to weep, and to ähhcit as well.
Then she waits
whether one boy might come.

"Wait, wait, my friend,
the heart would surely be glad then.
Come, come, my brother, then,
and gladden my heart."

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), song no. 13, pp. 276–277, in the section of verse narratives and songs. 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; headwords cited here in simple spelling), Halász's own South Sámi dictionary (Svéd-lapp nyelv IV, 1891, which also gives Lule forms), Lindahl and Öhrling's Lexicon Lapponicum (1780), J. A. Friis's Ordbog over det lappiske Sprog (1887) and Joshua Wilbur's A Grammar of Pite Saami (2014). Vūllē is the joik (Wiklund s.v. vuole- "Gesang, Lied"; Wilbur p. 9, Pite vuolle); vûllū in the first stanza is not the genitive that the title's vūllē would lead one to expect, so "of the joik" there is a reading of its form, not a certainty. Sulitälma is taken as the mountain Sulitjelma, an identification of the place-name that no dictionary makes. Vārē are the mountains (Wiklund s.v. vare- "Berg; die Hochgebirge"); siʼlĕpan, siʼlĕpa, silhpap̣ are silver (Wiklund s.v. silapa-; Friis 1887 s.v. Silbba), and paʼihtēt is to shine (Wiklund s.v. paite- "leuchten"). Kārvuit are garments (Wiklund s.v. karvu- "Kleid, Gewand"). Akšuit is the accusative plural of "axe" (Wiklund s.v. akšu-) and čûlai is "hewed, cut" (Wiklund s.v. čuola- "hauen, schneiden"): the axes are the object of the verb, not its instrument, so the English says "hewed axes", though what is meant is not clear. Kitā is taken as "in spring" (Halász IV s.v. kire, Lule kitä "Frühjahr"). Jǟhkī käč is "the year's end" (Halász IV s.v. jäpie "Jahr", Lule jähkie, and s.v. kiecie "Ende"). Ačai is taken as "for father" (Halász IV s.v. ähcie "Vater"); the case is uncertain. Kaunalī is "found" (Halász IV s.v. kaunat "finden", Lule kauänat). The ending of silhpap̣ and vaimup̣ is read as the accusative (compare the accusatives in -p in Halász IV s.v. cekki'; Wilbur §5.2.3 has -v in modern Pite).

Kaʼihca are goats (Halász IV s.v. käihca "Ziege", Lule käjähca); the word has no plural ending and is taken as a collective. Kọ̄cai is "watched" (Halász IV s.v. kuhcet "wachen, bewachen"). Paktē are the rocks or cliffs (Wiklund s.v. pakte- "Felsen"; Friis 1887 s.v. Bakte); val is "only, but" (Wiklund s.v. val "nur, bloss", valla "aber"); turjun is read as the past plural of Wiklund's torju- "stützen", with the same ending as kilhkin "were to", so "the rocks alone held her up". Kēϑkāčīt are little stones (Halász IV s.v. kierkie "Stein", which gives ḳerḳač as its diminutive; Wilbur p. 52 for Pite gäððke "stone"), lumman is "in the pocket" (Halász IV s.v. loamma "Tasche"), kûttī "carried" (Wiklund s.v. kuode- "tragen"), and jihtī, jahhta "said, says" (Wiklund s.v. jate- "sagen"). In tahta siʼlĕpa lī the verb is the past tense (Wilbur, Pite lij "was").

Ponnṭān šaddat is "to grow rich": the stem in -ā answers to Wiklund's ponta- "reich" (with pontu- "reich werden") and to Halász IV's poántā "reich", the same in Lule, more closely than to the word for the master of a house (Wiklund s.v. ponti- "Hausherr"; Halász IV s.v. poánta "Hausherr, Zelteigentümer, Wirt"), which would give "become mistress of a house" and cannot be ruled out; the ending -n marks the complement of "become" (Wilbur §5.2.9). Skēnkait are gifts (Wiklund s.v. skenka- "Geschenk"); hēďďui is "to the wedding" (Halász IV s.v. hieja "Hochzeit", Lule heäďďa). Friďďār is the suitor, a Scandinavian loanword (Swedish friare) that none of the dictionaries lists. Ēhč is "herself" (Wilbur, Pite etj); čohkohėt is "to sit" (Wiklund s.v. kovohe-, where čohkoha is "sitzen"); čuhkėṭī, čuhkeṭaw are "sat down" and "I sit down" (Halász IV s.v. čihketit "sich setzen", Lule čohkketit); kruvvu is the crown (Friis 1887 s.v. Kruvdno; Halász IV s.v. krauna), here the bride's crown; and oððēt is "to sleep" (Wilbur p. 52, Pite åððet "sleep" beside åððå "new"; Wiklund s.v. ode- "schlafen"). Nēkaṭaw is "I refuse" (Halász IV s.v. nööihkut "verweigern", after Swedish neka). Vɵʼrĕp̣ē is luck (Wiklund s.v. vuorpe- "Glück, Loos"; Friis 1887 s.v. Vuorbbe); iččī is the past of the negative verb (Wilbur, Pite ittjij); čērrut, čīrrut is to weep (Halász IV s.v. cierot "weinen", Lule cierrut). Ọǯǯū is the verb "get" (oǯǯut in the second stanza), which with an infinitive means "may, be allowed to" (Wilbur §13.1.5.1, Pite ådtjot), so čērrut ọǯǯū is "gets to weep". Ọǯǯū and ọrrū "stays" (Wiklund s.v. oru-) are read as present tense: both have the strong-grade consonant that Wilbur's paradigm for this class of verb gives the present third person, while the past has the weak grade and -j (Tables 8.13–8.14), and the negative form čûvū beside ọǯǯū has the weak grade, as the paradigm has it; the song moves between past and present. Vɵʼrĕṭā, vurhtē are "waits" and "wait!" (Wiklund s.v. vuorte- "warten").

Aktak is "not a single one" (Wiklund s.v. -ke, an enclitic after a negative); sū kuk is "to her" (Wilbur §11.5, Pite gugu "to"); hoinūs ọrrū is "stays in sorrow" (Wiklund s.v. hoje- "betrübt", with hojen orvi "betrübt sein"); konnes is "where" (Halász IV s.v. kusnie, Lule konnä; Wilbur, Pite gånne); vēna’k, vēna’kam are "friend, my friend" (Wiklund s.v. venake- "Freund", from Swedish vän). Tībma is "last year" (Wiklund s.v. tima "vor einem Jahre"; Halász IV s.v. täiman "voriges Jahr", Lule tijema); virhtij is "had to" (Wiklund s.v. verotije- "müssen"); rɵptūt is "back, home" (Wiklund s.v. ruoptu-); fāϑmastėt is "to embrace" (Wiklund s.v. farmaste- "umarmen"); parᵉdnē, parhtnēw is the boy (Halász IV s.v. parnie "Sohn, Bursch; Freier"). Nījṭan vɵʼrĕp̣ē is taken as "the girl's luck": nījṭan is näʼiṭa "girl" with the ending -n, read as a genitive from context; in Wilbur's Pite the genitive has no -n, which marks the inessive and the essive (Table 5.1), so its case is not certain. Vūlhkī is "left" (Wiklund s.v. vuolke- "weggehen"), pǟcī "was left behind" (Wiklund s.v. paoce- "zurückbleiben"). Kale is "surely" (Wilbur, Pite gal); ham is an enclitic "indeed, then" (Wiklund s.v. -ham "ja, nun, wohl"); ǟvuhič and ǟvuhtalā are "would be glad" and "gladden" (Wiklund s.v. avuhe- "sich freuen" and avuhate- "freuen"), the mood of ǟvuhič being uncertain; väʼlĕjam is "my brother" (Wiklund s.v. vielja- "Bruder"), perhaps a word of endearment here; vaʼibmū, vaimup̣ is the heart (Wilbur, Pite vájbmo).

Kept in Sámi, because no dictionary consulted gives them: kīʼikijit, the plural object of the girl's joiking (perhaps its verses or words; Lindahl–Öhrling has KIKET "splendere, micare; skina, lysa", to shine, and KIKEJE "nitens; skinande", shining, pp. 144–145, which would give "the shining ones", but the long vowel and the checked tone of kīʼikijit are not matched there, and that reading is not adopted); šėpmarī, at the end of the third line of the second stanza, which ends in -ī like the song's past-tense verbs (čuhkėṭī, kûttī, vūlhkī) and is taken as a second verb, hence "she" before it in the English, though its sense is unknown and a noun cannot be ruled out; ähhcit, something the girl is left to do besides weeping; and kōvūs, a word for the boy, which may be built on the word for "form, picture" (Wiklund s.v. kovo- "Bild"; Lindahl–Öhrling s.v. KÅW, kåwe "imago" and "ratio, modus"; Wilbur §12.2, Pite gåvå "picture"), though no dictionary lists the form and no sense is adopted. Read from context: jäbd, rendered "once"; the particle pē before "said" and "says" is left untranslated (Wiklund lists pe only as a particle). The pronoun son is "he" or "she"; it is taken as the girl throughout, except for the suitor of the seventh stanza. In the eighth stanza Halász gives akt in brackets after ak, "one".

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: Sulitälma vūllē

The Pite Sámi text as printed by Halász (1893), song no. 13, transcribed from the page images in his phonetic spelling.

akta nûrra näʼiṭa čuhkėṭī
ja ǟlhkī jūikaṭėt
tait vûllū kīʼikijit:

vārē kilhkin siʼlĕpan paʼihtēt
ja son kalhkai kārvuit oǯǯut.
akšuit čûlai son kitā šėpmarī;
jǟhkī käč, ačai silhpap̣ kaunalī.

jäbd ku kaʼihca kọ̄cai son,
val paktē turjun sū.
kēϑkāčīt son lumman kûttī
ja pē jihtī: «tahta siʼlĕpa lī.»

tē son kalhkai ponnṭān šaddat
jah talle skēnkait hēďďui vaddēt.
ja tē kilhkin friďďāra pōhtēt
jah ēhč čohkohėt kruvvūn oððēt.

ku mon kruvvui čuhkeṭaw,
tē mon friďďarit nēkaṭaw.
valla vɵʼrĕp̣ē iččī čûvū,
te son talle čērrut ọǯǯū.

friďďarit son talle vɵʼrĕṭā,
vall ī aktak sū kuk pōtē.
tē son talle hoinūs ọrrū
ja pē jahhta: «konnes vēna’k mū?»

akta friďďar tībma manāi
val son virhtij rɵptūt mannat.
iččī nījṭan vɵʼrĕp̣ē kûttē
fāϑmastėt tau kōvūs parhtnēw.

parᵉdnē vūlhkī ja tē pǟcī
näʼiṭa čīrrut ja ai ähhcit.
te son talle vɵʼrĕṭā,
jus ak (akt) parᵉdnē pōtalī.

«vurhtē, vurhtē vēna’kam,
kale sa vaʼibmū ǟvuhič ham.
pōtē, pōtē väʼlĕjam talle
ja mū vaimup̣ ǟvuhtalā.»

Source Colophon

Ignácz Halász, Svéd-lapp nyelv V: Népköltési gyűjtemény a Pite-lappmark arjepluogi egyházkerületéből (Budapest: Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, 1893), song no. 13, pp. 276–277. 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, with his vowel-length marks, dots above and below, the raised tick of the checked tone (ʼ), raised vowels, ð, ϑ and ɵ, and his bracketed variant, without the Hungarian abbreviation that introduces it. His Hungarian translation and his notes are not reproduced.

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