Akkala Saami language
Akkalansaame
Akkala Saami language
Akkala Saami is spoken by very few native speakers in Babinsk area in the Kola Peninsula in Russia. The traditional dwelling places of Akkala saamis have been the former villages Babino and Yokostrov by the lake Imandra near the coast of the White Sea north of Kandalaksha. The neighbouring languages are Skolt Saami in the north and in the west, Kildin Saami in the east and Carelian in the south. Besides Russian also Carelian has had a significant influence on Akkala Saami.
Akkala Saami has earlier been regarded as a subdialect of Kildin Saami but there are in fact more features that it shares with Skolt Saami than with Kildin. Today it is regarded as one of the 10 individual Saami languages. Akkala Saami distinguishes from Skolt Saami in one central point of historical phonology: The easternmost Saami languages, including Akkala Saami, have preserved nasal consonants (m, n, nj, ŋ) in clusters with a stop (p, t, k) or affricate (c, č) while all of the western Saami languages in addition to Inari and Skolt Saami have undergone a phenomenon called denasalization: in nasal+stop/affricate clusters the nasal has disappeared leaving its voiced character to the stop (> b, d, g) or affricate (> ?? z, ž, z, ž). Cf. Akkala låˊndd 'bird' ~ Skolt låˊdd id., Akkala kueˊndde 'to bear' ~ Skolt kueˊddeed id., Akkala soaˊmbb 'stick' ~ Skolt suäˊbb id.
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