Sámi languages at risk of extinction over cuts to funding, say speakers

The Indigenous parliaments of Sweden, Finland and Norway have warned that some Sámi languages could disappear if Stockholm and Helsinki press ahead with plans to withdraw funding that could hit a critical preservation body.

- Miranda Bryant

Sámi Giellagáldu was created to safeguard and strengthen the use of the nine Sámi languages across the Nordics, including North Sámi, which is spoken by an estimated 20,000 people across Norway, Sweden and Finland and classified by Unesco as endangered, and the much smaller Pite Sámi and Ute Sámi, which have fewer than 50 speakers each. There are 80,000 to 100,000 Sámi people in northern Europe

But just two years after Sámi Giellagáldu was made a permanent institution, the Swedish and Finnish governments have announced cuts.

Mika Saijets, the director general of Sámi Giellagáldu, described it as a regressive step that would take the region "50 years backward" and accused the governments of "cutting the heart out of the language".

He added: "It's a big risk that some of these languages will disappear. All Sámi languages are defined as threatened or critically threatened according to Unesco."