Gietkka (Saami craddle)

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The Saami cradle resembles a small boat. One end of the wooden frame is high and curved to protect the baby s head. Children were kept in the cradle until they were about a year or a year and a half old. Wrapped in warm clothes and reindeer hides and strapped into the cradle, they were protected from the freezing cold and the wind. The cradle was also used as a means of transporting the baby over longer distances.

The word gietkka, which is found in diverse forms in all the Saami languages, is derived from the verb gietkat to swaddle and put in a cradle, hide (a child) in a cradle . There is a corresponding verb form in Baltic-Finnic (cf. Finnish kätkeä to hide, cover, store ), and in the Baltic-Finnic languages there are noun derivatives meaning cradle (cf. Finnish kätkyt, Estonian kätki, and so on).

It has also been suggested that this Early Proto-Finnic verb has a related form in the Erzyä dialect of Mordvin: ḱek ems. With regard to its meaning to hide , this would be a suitable candidate. Phonetically, however, the Mordvin verb differs from the Finnic-Saami form and its relationship is therefore very uncertain.

The north Finnish dialect word kietka cradle is a borrowing from Saami.

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