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<P align=justify> The Baltic-Finn … <P align=justify> The Baltic-Finnic languages include Finnish and Estonian as well as a number of languages spoken in the vicinity of Russia, Finland and Estonia: Karelian, Lydian, Vepsian, Ingrian and Votic. There is also Livonian, which is spoken on the Courland coast of Latvia. The Baltic-Finnic languages are descended from a proto-language called Late Proto-Finnic, which was probably spoken in the last millennium B.C. However, like proto-languages generally, Late Proto-Finnic was not homogeneous; rather it consisted of three main dialects called Southern, Northern and Eastern Proto-Finnic.</P>
<P align=justify> Late Proto-Finnic and [[Proto-Saami|Proto-Saami]] are both descended from this common proto-language ([[Early proto-finnic|Early Proto-Finnic]]). Thus in terms of both vocabulary and grammar the Saami and Baltic-Finnic languages share an extensive common heritage. In addition to this, the Saami languages contain several hundred loan words of Baltic-Finnic origin. And there also have been other influences from the Baltic-Finnic languages on Saami during the period after their common proto-language stage.</P>
<P align=justify> The Baltic-Finnic loan words in Saami were adopted at different stages in the development of the languages. Some of the words were borrowed from Late Proto-Finnic, or from its Northern or Eastern dialects, some from later separate Baltic-Finnic languages. It is not possible to differentiate the different strata of borrowings on the basis of phonetic criteria, and the present distribution of the words in the Baltic-Finnic languages offer clearer distinguishing criteria. Words with wide distributions which were probably adopted from Proto-Finnic into Proto-Saami, which had not yet completely separated from it, include
* <I>beastit </I>'to release',
* <I>diehtit </I>'to know',
* <I>easka </I>'first (then)',
* <I>geargat </I>'to be done',
* <I>girji </I>'book',
* <I>láiki </I>'lazy',
* <I>mahttit </I>'to know how to',
* <I>neavvu </I>'instruction',
* <I>oahppat 'to learn',
* rátkit </I>'to separate',
* <I>sáhttit </I>'to be able to',
* <I>sorbmi </I>'death',
* <I>urbi </I>'bud',
* <I>vástidit </I>'to answer',
* <I>vieris </I>'strange'.
Words of Indo-European origin have also been borrowed into Saami by way of Prot-Finnic and the Baltic-Finnic languages. Those of Germanic origin include
* <I>árga </I>'weekday',
* <I>árgi </I>'timid',
* <I>ášši </I>'thing, matter',
* <I>hávdi </I>'tomb',
* <I>máidnut </I>'to praise',
* <I>váivi </I>'trouble'.
Saami words of Baltic origin (in Baltic-Finnic) are
* <I>beargalat </I>'devil',
* <I>gáibmi </I>'namesake',
* <I>liigi </I>'surplus' and
* <I>moarsi </I>'bride'.
Borrowings from Russian (which are clearly more recent that the Baltic stratum) include
* <I>barta </I>'cottage' and
* <I>dárru </I>'Norwegian'.</P>
<P align=justify> Words borrowed more recently from Finnish are found particularly in North, Inari and Lule Saami, while in Skolt and Kildin Saami there are clearly more loan words from Karelian.</P>y more loan words from Karelian.</P> +
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