Boska (Saami word to a plant species)

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There are corresponding forms to the North Saami word boska ~ boská in South, Ume, Pite and Lule Saami. It belongs to the ancient original Proto-Uralic vocabulary, and the corresponding word in Finnish is putki tube, pipe , which appears as the second element in numerous compound words referring to plants with tubular stalks. Apart from the Baltic-Finnic languages, the word has cognates in Mordvin and Mari, as well as Yurak, Selkup and Kamas, which belong to the Samoyedic language family. Almost all the cognates in the Uralic languages refer to tubular plants or the stalks of plants or to hollow objects. The reference to a plant or a part thereof is probably the older meaning, and it is a relic of the old gathering culture. From Finnish the word was borrowed into Skolt Saami, in which the meaning is stalk of a garden angelica , and into Inari Saami, where it means shaft of a spade, spear.

The garden angelica was an important plant for the Saami. It was used bothfresh and dried as a medicinal herb, a spice and a vegetable. Its importance is also indicated by the fact that the plant may have a different name depending on whether it is a first or a second-year growth. A plant without a flower stem, that is a garden angelica in its first year of growth, was called fádnu in North Saami. This is a loan word from the Scandinavian languages (cf. Swedish kvanne Angelica archangelica ). The Scandinavian word has also been borrowed into South, Lule and Skolt Saami. The North Saami verb fádnet to gather garden angelicas is derived from it. This verb has a related form in Lule Saami, in which the word båsskå, which corresponds to the North Saami boska, is also the stem for a derived verb båsskit to gather garden angelica .

The former importance of garden angelica is further evidenced by the fact that in some Saami languages the word whose main meaning is grass, flower, herb can also mean garden angelica. This is a Scandinavian loan word, which in North Saami has the form rássi (cf. Swedish gräs grass, hay ). There are related forms in varieties extending from South Saami to eastern varieties. It means garden angelica at least in North, Skolt, Kildin and Ter Saami. It is also found in compound words referring to this plant in North, Inari, Skolt and Ter Saami (e.g. Inari: puurrậmrääsi, which literally means grass for eating ).

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