Writing System
Kildin Sami is written in an extended version of Cyrillic since the 1980s. The alphabet has three variants with some minor differences in certain letters, mostly in Ҋ vs. Ј and ’ (apostrophe) vs. Һ. Whereas the dictionary of Sammallahti/Xvorostuxina (1991) uses Ҋ and ’ (apostrophe), Kuruč at al. 1985 uses Ј and Һ. The third orthographic variant, used, e.g., by Kert (1986), has neither of these letters.
Note that the letters Ӓ, Ҋ/Ј, Һ/’ (apostrophe), Ӆ, Ӎ, Ӊ, Ӈ, Ҏ, Ъ, Ь, Ҍ and Ӭ do not occur word initially, either because the letters mark features of preceding consonants or the sounds they represent do not occur word initially. So these letters don't normally occur in uppercase, except for all caps text.
The letter Щ occurs only in Russian loanwords.
| А а | Ӓ ӓ | Б б | В в | Г г | Д д | Е е | Ё ё | Ж ж | З з | Һ һ | ' |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /a/ | /ʲa/ | /b/ | /v/ | /ɡ/ | /d/ | /je/ or /ʲe/ | /jo/ or /ʲo/ | /ʒ/ | /z/ | /ʰ/ | |
| И и | Й й | Ҋ ҋ | Ј ј | К к | Л л | Ӆ ӆ | М м | Ӎ ӎ | Н н | Ӊ ӊ | |
| /i/ or /ji/ or /ʲi/ | /j/ | /j̊/ | /k/ | /l/ | /l̥/ | /m/ | /m̥/ | /n/ | /n̥/ | ||
| Ӈ ӈ | О о | П п | Р р | Ҏ ҏ | С с | Т т | У у | Ф ф | Х х | Ц ц | |
| /ŋ/ | /о/ | /p/ | /r/ | /r̥/ | /s/ | /t/ | /u/ | /f/ | /x/ | /ts/ | |
| Ч ч | Ш ш | Щ щ | Ъ ъ | Ыы | Ь ь | Ҍ ҍ | Э э | Ӭ ӭ | Ю ю | Я я | |
| /tʃ/ | /ʃ/ | /ç/ | /ɨ/ | /ʲ/ | /ʲ/ | /e/ | /ʲe/ | /ju/ or /ʲu/ | /ja/ or /ʲa/ | ||
The orthographic principles are more or less similar to Russian, but note the following special features.
Read more about this topic: Kildin Sami Language
Famous quotes containing the words writing and/or system:
“The human head is bigger than the globe. It conceives itself as containing more. It can think and rethink itself and ourselves from any desired point outside the gravitational pull of the earth. It starts by writing one thing and later reads itself as something else. The human head is monstrous.”
—Günther Grass (b. 1927)
“The twentieth-century artist who uses symbols is alienated because the system of symbols is a private one. After you have dealt with the symbols you are still private, you are still lonely, because you are not sure anyone will understand it except yourself. The ransom of privacy is that you are alone.”
—Louise Bourgeois (b. 1911)