As global warming continues at an unprecedented rate, its consequences are particularly visible in
“Sápmi”
(
“Lapland”
in the Sámi language), the traditional Arctic homeland of the Sami, whose region is warming four times faster than the rest of the earth.
With rising temperatures, Arctic ecosystems such as reindeer herding and fishing, on which the Sámi depend, have been altered.
And with them, a number of words from their language, reports a BBC article.
In fact, the Sámi language has more than 300 words to describe snow, eight words to describe the different seasons and six different words to describe reindeer wandering alone.
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The Sami languages are closely linked to the way of life of the indigenous Sami people of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.
The Sami, who have faced the extreme environment of the Arctic for thousands of years, today number between 50,000 and 100,000 people.
They have a visceral connection to their languages, which
are “highly specialized”
for their traditional activities, such as fishing and reindeer herding, as well as for observing and describing weather conditions in the Arctic.
Their languages range from Northern Sami, widely spoken with more than 20,000 speakers, to Ume Sami, rarer and spoken by only 25 people, through
“ter Sami”
which has almost disappeared in Russia today.
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More than 300 words to describe snow
“The Sami talk a lot about climate change, especially reindeer herders
,” Klemetti Näkkäläjärvi, president of the Sami Climate Council and researcher at the University of Helsinki and Oulu, in Finland, told the BBC.
For the latter, the state of the snow is a crucial indicator in order to know the feeding conditions of the reindeer.
“All the terminology referring to good nutritional conditions for reindeer in winter is rarely used these days
,” the researcher continues.
The Northern Sámi word
"ealát"
, which refers to
"loose snow"
allowing reindeer
"to dig for nutritious lichen without a layer of ice in the way"
, is now endangered.
“[The word] refers to snow, ice and nutritional status
,” explains Klemetti Näkkäläjärvi.
However, the conditions for identifying the good nutritional conditions of reindeer have become more difficult in recent years with the advent of warmer temperatures which have led to more episodes of rain on snow, often followed by a spell of freezing cold.
As a result, it creates hard snow with ice on top and layers of ice on the inside.
This prevents reindeer from accessing the lichen on which they feed because they cannot dig through the ice.
The term
“ealát”
illustrates
“the link between culture and language quite well: you need one word in Sámi to describe the conditions, but three or more sentences in English
,” he says.
Researchers studied Sami reindeer herders' knowledge of snow and ice: they found more than 300 words in the Sami languages that describe different types of snow, ice and snow conditions.
With the advent of milder winters and fluctuating temperatures in recent years, some of these words are increasingly used such as
"suttádat"
,
"njáhcu"
or even
"sievlladat"
which refer to a warm winter when the snow begins to melt.
Snow words, describing colder weather, tend to disappear.
“Jassa means “persistent snow” in the hills or highlands in summer,
explains the researcher.
In Finnish “Sápmi”, there are only a few places left where there is jassa.”
As snow conditions change, the footprints of animals such as reindeer are fading in some areas.
Without this valuable knowledge provided by tracks in the snow, it is now more difficult for reindeer herders to identify reindeer who have fled the herd (“
ruvggaldat”
), frightened reindeer (
“hiras”
) or reindeer who tend to wander alone (
“duoddil”
,
“jadas”
,
“linka”
,
“hilbesboazu”
,
“meahcehas”
or
“loavsku”
).
There are also several words for
"scared reindeer"
, depending on their gender or age.
“If the need to use certain terms disappears, or if people stop using them because they can no longer identify the traces, the words can disappear without them realizing it
,” notes Klemetti Näkkäläjärvi.
Change of seasons
Another word is also endangered, according to translator and tourism entrepreneur from Utsjoki (in the far north of Finland), Pentti Pieski, who is passionate about fishing.
This is the term
"jieknaguolli"
for salmon in spring, which appears immediately after the ice breaks up on the river.
Due to the decline of salmon - again linked to climate change - the official fishing season has been shortened to begin, only, on June 1st.
The ice has already disappeared for a long time and the Sami fishermen have no chance of seeing the famous
“early spring”
salmon appear .
Furthermore, notes Pentti Pieski, entire seasons are beginning to disappear from language.
“In northern Lapland, twenty years ago, we talked about eight seasons,”
he says.
One of them, 'spring-summer' doesn't happen every year anymore, so people might stop mentioning it and the term will probably disappear in the future."
And, as the landscape changes under the influence of climate change, places no longer correspond to traditional Sámi names.
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Most of these words derive from nature and reflect for example the shape of the land or the predominant vegetation.
This gave, until now, a crucial advantage for indigenous peoples to evolve in the landscape by relying on the knowledge of previous generations.
The latter transmitted important information about these places through their names.
Now forests and shrubs are moving further north and higher into mountainous regions.
“I fear losing the traditional knowledge of the Sámi about salmon fishing. We have already lost a large part of the language
,” laments Pentti Pieski.
New words have been added.
“Climate change is a new word in Northern Sami: it is 'dálkkádatrievdan,'”
says Klemetti Näkkäläjärvi.
It is commonly used today.”