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<P align="justify"> Proto-Germanic i … <P align="justify"> Proto-Germanic is the name given to the common ancestor language of the modern Germanic languages (German, Dutch, English and the [[Scandinavian languages|Scandinavian languages]]). Some of the Indo-European influence on the Saami languages comes from Proto-Germanic. Most of the vocabulary that was taken from Proto-Germanic was borrowed into the common proto-language of Finnish and Saami, known as [[Early proto-finnic|Early Proto-Finnic]], and these words are thus found in both the Saami and the Baltic-Finnic languages. There are several dozen such words: for example,
* <i>bargat</i> 'to work' (cf. Finnish pyrkiä 'to strive'),
* <i>borjjas</i> 'sail (Finnish purje),
* <i>luoikat</i> 'to borrow',
* <i>moðði</i> 'mud',
* <i>ruovdi</i> 'iron',
* <i>sadji</i> 'place, room',
* <i>vuorbi</i> 'lot, destiny',
* <i>vuordit</i> 'to wait'.
There is also a whole group of words with no cognates in the Baltic-Finnic languages which may thus have been borrowed into Early Proto-Saami. These contacts may have taken place in the west, in central Scandinavia, before the Christian era, perhaps in the first millennium B.C. Examples of Proto-Germanic loan words that are only found in the Saami languages are:
* <i>arvi</i> 'rain',
* <i>fiertu</i> 'good weather',
* <i>gáma</i> 'shoe',
* <i>lieðði</i> 'side, edge'.
Some Indo-European loan words have also been considered to be Proto-Germanic borrowings because, while their phonetic characteristics point to a Proto-Indo-European doner stage, the distribution of their cognates is limited to western Indo-European languages, either Germanic or possibly also Baltic. Such Saami words which reflect very archaic Indo-European phonetic forms include
* <i>èuonjá</i> 'goose',
* <i>geahèi</i> 'end, point' and possibly
* <i>lasta</i> 'leaf' (which on the basis of its Indo-European distribution may also be Proto-Baltic in origin).</P>also be Proto-Baltic in origin).</P> +
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