Kotalappi
Kotalappi
Kota Lappish
"Tent Lappish" (Fin. kotalappi, Swe. kåtalapska), the popular designation of the Lule Saami literary language created by Lars Levi Læstadius in the 1830s. During the 19th century, it was officially called "the North Lappish book-language" (Swe. det nord-lapska bokspråket), a concept which has caused and still causes a lot of confusion, since "North Lappish" and later "North Saami" (Fin. pohjoissaame, Swe. nordsamiska) since the 1970s has been used to designate the more northerly varieties of Saami that until then had been called "Norwegian Lappish" or "Finnmark Lappish."
Læstadius, who was of Saami descent, had learned Lule Saami when his family lived in Kvikkjokk (Huhttán) between 1808 and 1816. He himself brought out four publications in Lule Saami, the most important of which is Tåluts suptsasah, Jubmela birra ja almatji birra (1844), a collection of paraphrases of stories from the Old Testament which became very popular. During the second half of the 19th century, Lule Saami literary language created by Læstadius was used in twelve other publications, most of them translations of religious texts, but also a collection of laws for reindeer breeding and an information booklet about savings-banks.
Læstadius' Saami writings were the first in an idiomatic Saami language, with Saami syntax and vocabulary, free of the many unnecessary loanwords that were typical of the earlier publications. The language is very close to the everyday language, as it was spoken in the tents of the Lule Saami area. That is the reason why it was called "tent Lappish".
