54-535: Alta ( Norwegian: [ˈɑ̂ɫtɑ] ; Northern Sami : Áltá [ˈaːlːtaː] ; Kven : Alattio ; Finnish : Alattio ) is the most populated municipality in Finnmark county , Norway . The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Alta . Some of the main villages in the municipality include Kåfjord , Komagfjord , Kvenvik , Langfjordbotn , Leirbotn , Rafsbotn , Talvik , and Tverrelvdalen . The town of Alta and most of
108-568: A swan . It could also be the Norwegianization of the Finnish word ( alaattia ) which refers to a "lowland". Historically, the name of the municiaplity was spelled Alten . On 3 November 1917, a royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Alta . The coat of arms was granted on 9 July 1976. The official blazon is " Azure , a spearhead argent " ( Norwegian : I blått en hvit spydspiss ). This means
162-539: A variegated pattern . In rare modern cases, the field or a subdivision thereof is not a tincture but is shown as a scene from a landscape , or, in the case of the 329th Fighter Group of the United States Air Force , blazoned as the sky proper . Landscape fields are regarded by many heralds as unheraldic and debased , as they defy the heraldic ideal of simple, boldly-coloured images, and they cannot be consistently drawn from blazon . The arms of
216-533: A consonant can occur in all three quantities, quantity 3 is termed "overlong". In quantity 3, if the syllable coda consists of only /ð/ , /l/ or /r/ , the additional length of this consonant is realised phonetically as an epenthetic vowel. This vowel assimilates to the quality of the surrounding vowels: This does not occur if the second consonant is a dental/alveolar stop, e.g. gielda /ˈkie̯lː.ta/ , phonetically [ˈkĭĕ̯lː.ta] , or sálti /ˈsaːlː.htiː/ , phonetically [ˈsaːlː.ʰtiː] . Northern Sámi possesses
270-797: A default length can be assumed for these two letters. For the remaining vowels, vowel length is not indicated in the standard orthography. In reference works, macrons can be placed above long vowels that occur in a position where they can be short. Length of ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩ in a post-stressed syllable is assumed, and not indicated, except in the combinations ⟨ii⟩ and ⟨ui⟩ , where these letters can also indicate short vowels. The Eastern Finnmark dialects possess additional contrasts that other dialects of Northern Sámi do not: Some Torne dialects have /ie̯/ and /uo̯/ instead of stressed /eː/ and /oː/ (from diphthong simplification) as well as unstressed /iː/ and /uː/ . Diphthongs can undergo simplification when
324-485: A landslide destroyed 8 houses. Most people live in the town of Alta, stretching along the inner part of the fjord. Alta has a sheltered boreal climate ( Dfc ) with long and dark winters, but still much less cold than expected for latitude 70 North. Daytime mid-summer temperatures are often fairly similar to coastal southern Norway, and lowland areas in Alta are mostly sheltered from the winter storms , which can be strong on
378-405: A quantity 3 consonant. This is phonemic due to the loss of length in quantity 3 in these dialects. Outside Eastern Finnmark, long /aː/ is only shortened before a long preaspirate, not before any other consonants. The shortening of diphthongs remains allophonic due to the preservation of quantity 3 length, but the shortening of long vowels that result from diphthong simplification is phonemic. In
432-435: A sightseeing helicopter crashed in the mountains of Skoddevarre south of Alta. Alta Municipality is responsible for primary education (through 10th grade), outpatient health services , senior citizen services, welfare and other social services , zoning , economic development , and municipal roads and utilities. The municipality is governed by a municipal council of directly elected representatives. The mayor
486-627: A stressed one) is more restricted: In a second unstressed syllable (one that follows another unstressed syllable), no long vowels occur and /a/ , /i/ and /u/ are the only vowels that occur frequently. The standard orthography of Northern Sámi distinguishes vowel length in the case of ⟨a⟩ /a/ versus ⟨á⟩ /aː/ , although this is primarily on an etymological basis. Not all instances of ⟨á⟩ are phonemically long, due to both stressed and unstressed vowel shortening. Some dialects also have lengthening of ⟨a⟩ under certain circumstances. Nonetheless,
540-405: A stressed one, which does not occur in non-compound words. In some cases, the first element of a compound has only one syllable, resulting in two adjacent stressed syllables. Hence, stress is lexically significant in that it can distinguish compounds from non-compounds. Recent loanwords generally keep the stress of the language they were borrowed from, assigning secondary stress to the syllable that
594-406: A stressed syllable can occur in multiple distinctive length types, or quantities. These are conventionally labelled quantity 1, 2 and 3 or Q1, Q2 and Q3 for short. The consonants of a word alternate in a process known as consonant gradation , where consonants appear in different quantities depending on the specific grammatical form. Normally, one of the possibilities is named the strong grade , while
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#1732773361816648-403: A word is never stressed, unless the word has only one syllable. Consequently, words can follow three possible patterns: This gives the following pattern, which can be extended indefinitely in theory. S indicates stress, _ indicates no stress: The number of syllables, and the resulting stress pattern, is important for grammatical reasons. Words with stems having an even number of syllables from
702-646: Is Swenske och Lappeske ABC Book ("Swedish and Lappish ABC book"), written in Swedish and what is likely a form of Northern Sámi. It was published in two editions in 1638 and 1640 and includes 30 pages of prayers and confessions of Protestant faith. It has been described as the first book "with a regular Sámi language form". Northern Sámi was first described by Knud Leem ( En lappisk Grammatica efter den Dialect, som bruges af Field-Lapperne udi Porsanger-Fiorden ) in 1748 and in dictionaries in 1752 and 1768. One of Leem's fellow grammaticians, who had also assisted him,
756-720: Is indirectly elected by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality is under the jurisdiction of the Vestre Finnmark District Court and the Hålogaland Court of Appeal . The municipal council (Kommunestyre) of Alta is made up of 35 representatives that are elected to four year terms. The tables below show the current and historical composition of the council by political party . The mayors ( Norwegian : ordfører ) of Alta: Alta Municipality covers 3,845 square kilometres (1,485 square miles), in western Finnmark, mostly situated along
810-653: Is above the horizon from 18 May to 27 July, lasting a bit longer than the polar night from 26 November to 16 January. The average date for the last overnight freeze (low below 0 °C (32.0 °F)) in spring is 14 May and average date for first freeze in autumn is 25 September at Alta Airport (1981–2010 average) giving a frost-free season of 133 days. Alta is a transportation center in Finnmark. Alta Airport served 334,132 passengers in 2009. There are direct flights to Oslo , Tromsø , Vadsø , Kirkenes , Båtsfjord and Mehamn . The town of Alta also has port facilities in
864-472: Is also a research institution (Norut NIBR Finnmark). The town has the northernmost ice hotel in Europe. Alta is home to the football club Alta IF . Cross-country skiing is very popular. Alta also has clubs for handball, track and field, alpine skiing, ice skating, taekwondo, and judo. The bicycle race Finnmark Offroad , with 700- and 300-kilometer long courses, starts and ends in Alta (as of 2014). Alta
918-637: Is based on the mainland of Norway, but it also includes parts of the islands of Stjernøya and Seiland . Seiland is the home of Seiland National Park where the Seilandsjøkelen glacier and the mountain Seilandstuva are located. The highest point in the municipality is the 1,149-metre (3,770 ft) tall mountain Store Haldi . Several of the notable lakes in Alta include Iešjávri , Juovvajávri , Kovvatnet , and Stuorajávri . In 2020,
972-536: Is the 7th largest municipality by area out of the 357 municipalities in Norway. Alta is the 59th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 21,708. The municipality's population density is 5.6 inhabitants per square kilometre (15/sq mi) and its population has increased by 9.5% over the previous 10-year period. The old Alten-Talvig Municipality was established on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt law). Not long afterwards, on 1 January 1863, it
1026-513: Is the most widely spoken of all Sámi languages . The area where Northern Sámi is spoken covers the northern parts of Norway , Sweden and Finland . The number of Northern Sámi speakers is estimated to be somewhere between 15,000 and 25,000. About 2,000 of these live in Finland and between 5,000 and 6,000 in Sweden, with the remaining portions being in Norway. Among the first printed Sámi texts
1080-567: Is the starting point for the Finnmarksløpet , a 500- and 1000- kilometer sled dog race—The longest sled dog race in Europe. Alta is twinned with: Northern Sami language Northern Sámi or North Sámi ( English: / ˈ s ɑː m i / SAH -mee ; Northern Sami : davvisámegiella [ˈtavːiːˌsaːmeˌkie̯lːa] ; Finnish : pohjoissaame [ˈpohjoi̯ˌsːɑːme] ; Norwegian : nordsamisk ; Swedish : nordsamiska ; disapproved exonym Lappish or Lapp )
1134-650: The Altafjord , including large tracts of woodlands , as well as parts of the Finnmarksvidda plateau. On its way from the plateau down to the fjord , the river Altaelva has carved out the Sautso canyon, one of the largest canyons in Europe . The large Altafjorden has several notable bays and fjord arms that branch off from it including Langfjorden , Jiepmaluokta , Kåfjorden , and Lille Kufjorden . Alta
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#17327733618161188-739: The 1980s, a Northern Sámi Braille alphabet was developed, based on the Scandinavian Braille alphabet but with seven additional letters (á, č, đ, ŋ, š, ŧ, ž) required for writing in Northern Sámi. The consonant inventory of Northern Sámi is large, contrasting voicing for many consonants. Some analyses of Northern Sámi phonology may include preaspirated stops and affricates ( /hp/ , /ht/ , /ht͡s/ , /ht͡ʃ/ , /hk/ ) and pre-stopped or pre-glottalised nasals (voiceless /pm/ , /tn/ , /tɲ/ , /kŋ/ and voiced /bːm/ , /dːn/ , /dːɲ/ , /ɡːŋ/ ). However, these can be treated as clusters for
1242-488: The Eastern Finnmark dialects, short vowels are lengthened when they occur before a quantity 1 or 2 consonant. Combined with the preceding change, vowel length in stressed syllables becomes conditioned entirely by the following consonant quantity. Moreover, because the coda lengthening in quantity 3 is lost in these dialects, vowel length becomes the only means for distinguishing quantities 3 and 2 in many cases. In
1296-532: The Inveraray and District Community Council in Scotland have as a field In waves of the sea . The correct language of heraldry is very flexible and virtually any image may be blazoned in a correct manner; for example "sky proper" might be blazoned simply Azure or bleu celeste , whilst "waves of the sea" might be blazoned correctly as Azure, 3 bars undee argent which would provide 3 wavy thick white lines on
1350-505: The Western Finnmark dialects, a short /a/ in a post-stressed syllable is lengthened to /aː/ if the preceding consonants are quantity 1 or 2, and the preceding syllable contains a short vowel. Compare the Eastern Finnmark pronunciations of these words under "stressed vowel lengthening". A long /aː/ that originates from this process does not trigger consonant lengthening. In dialects outside Eastern Finnmark, in quantity 2,
1404-513: The above rules. Sammallahti divides Northern Sámi dialects into certain regions as follows: The written language is primarily based on the western Finnmark dialects, with some elements from the eastern Finnmark dialects. Features of the western Finnmark dialects are: Field (heraldry) In heraldry , the background of the shield is called the field . The field is usually composed of one or more tinctures ( colours or metals ) or furs . The field may be divided or may consist of
1458-674: The area. The quartzite was quarried in the municipality and tools made from it were used all over Northern Norway . The Church of Norway has two parishes ( sokn ) within the municipality of Alta. It is part of the Alta prosti ( deanery ) in the Diocese of Nord-Hålogaland . The rock carvings at Alta , located near the Jiepmaluokta bay, dating from c. 4200 BC to 500 BC, are on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites . The Komsa culture
1512-412: The arms have a blue field (background) and the charge is a spear head . The spear head has a tincture of argent which means it is commonly colored white, but if it is made out of metal, then silver is used. The blue color in the field symbolizes the local river, sea, and mountains. The spear head is derived from the findings of quartzite spear heads dating back to the late Stone Age and found in
1566-462: The building of a dam on the river Altaelva in order to produce hydropower . The dam was built, however, and the river still offers good salmon fishing. The King of Norway usually visits the river once in the summer to fish. The urban area made up of Bossekop , Elvebakken , and Bukta, also known collectively now as the town of Alta , became a town on 1 January 2000. The population has been growing steadily for many years. On 31 August 2019,
1620-437: The coast north of Alta. The mean annual temperature is 2 °C (35.6 °F) and the Alta valley does not have permafrost but is dominated by closed-canopy forest of birch and pine . Precipitation is low, with a yearly average precipitation of only 420 millimetres (16.5 in). The frequent clear skies are the reason why Alta early was chosen as an excellent location for studying the aurora borealis . The " midnight sun "
1674-580: The distribution of speakers by municipality or county in Norway have been done. A 2000 survey by the Sami Language Council showed Kautokeino Municipality and Karasjok Municipality as 96% and 94% Sami-speaking respectively; should those percentages still be true as of the 2022 national population survey, this would result in 2,761 and 2,428 speakers respectively, virtually all of which being speakers of Northern Sámi. Tromsø Municipality has no speaker statistics despite having (as of June 2019)
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1728-416: The first element of a compound word, in a fourth syllable, and in various other unpredictable circumstances. When shortened, /iː/ and /uː/ are lowered to /e/ and /o/ , except before /j/ . Shortened vowels are denoted here, and in other reference works, with an underdot: ạ , ẹ , ọ , to distinguish them from originally-short vowels. When a long vowel or diphthong occurs in the stressed syllable before
1782-455: The following syllable contains short e , short o , ii /ij/ , or ui /uj/ . This means that only the first vowel of the diphthong remains, which also undergoes lengthening before grade 1 and 2 consonant clusters and geminates. Note that some instances of e , o , and ui (specifically /uːj/) do not cause simplification. Below are some examples: Shortening of long vowels in unstressed syllables occurs irregularly. It commonly occurs in
1836-513: The following vowels: Closing diphthongs such as ⟨ái⟩ also exist, but these are phonologically composed of a vowel plus one of the semivowels /v/ or /j/ . The semivowels still behave as consonants in clusters. Not all of these vowel phonemes are equally prevalent; some occur generally while others occur only in specific contexts as the result of sound changes. The following rules apply for stressed syllables: The distribution in post-stressed syllables (unstressed syllables following
1890-468: The largest voter roll in the 2021 Norwegian Sámi parliamentary election . A common urban myth is that Oslo has the largest Sámi population despite being nowhere near the core Sápmi area, but it had only the 5th largest voter roll in 2019. The mass mobilization during the Alta controversy as well as a more tolerant political environment caused a change to the Norwegian policy of assimilation during
1944-436: The last inflect differently from words with stems having an odd number of syllables. This is detailed further in the grammar section. In compound words, which consist of several distinct word roots, each word retains its own stress pattern, potentially breaking from the normal trochaic pattern. If the first element of a compound has an odd number of syllables, then there will be a sequence of two unstressed syllables followed by
1998-459: The last coda consonant is lengthened if the following vowel is long, and the preceding vowel is a short monophthong. Since the coda now contains a long consonant, it is considered as quantity 3, but the lengthening is mostly allophonic and is not indicated orthographically. It is phonemic in the Western Finnmark dialects when the following vowel is /aː/ , because lengthening is triggered by an original long /aː/ but not by an original short /a/ that
2052-575: The last decades of the twentieth century. In Norway, Northern Sámi is currently an official language in Troms and Finnmark counties along with eight municipalities ( Guovdageaidnu , Kárášjohka , Unjárga , Deatnu , Porsáŋgu , Gáivuotna , Loabák and Dielddanuorri ). Sámi born before 1977 have never learned to write Sámi according to the currently used orthography in school, so it is only in recent years that there have been Sámi capable of writing their own language for various administrative positions. In
2106-617: The municipality is located just below the 70th latitude and is closer to the North Pole than it is to much of Central Europe and the British Isles . The town is the northernmost settlement of urban significance in the European Economic Area , with municipalities north of Alta being sparsely populated. In spite of its high latitude the local climate is seldom severely cold thanks to Gulf Stream moderation in
2160-463: The newly formed Troms og Finnmark county. Previously, it had been part of the old Finnmark county. On 1 January 2024, the Troms og Finnmark county was divided and the municipality once again became part of Finnmark county. The municipality (originally the parish ) is named after the local Altafjorden . The name possibly comes from the Old Norse words ǫlpt or alpt which refer to
2214-413: The original word has final stress, an extra dummy syllable (generally a ) is added in Northern Sámi to avoid this. As a result of retaining the original stress pattern, some loanwords have sequences of three unstressed syllables, which do not occur in any other environment: Conjunctions , postpositions , particles , and monosyllabic pronouns tend to be unstressed altogether, and therefore fall outside
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2268-543: The other is named weak grade . The consonants of a weak grade are normally quantity 1 or 2, while the consonants of a strong grade are normally quantity 2 or 3. Throughout this article and related articles, consonants that are part of different syllables are written with two consonant letters in IPA, while the lengthening of consonants in quantity 3 is indicated with an IPA length mark ( ː ). Not all consonants can occur in every quantity type. The following limitations exist: When
2322-487: The preceding vowel is a close diphthong /ie̯/ or /uo̯/ . In this case, the diphthong also shortens before the new quantity 3 consonant. Stress is generally not phonemic in Northern Sámi; the first syllable of a word always carries primary stress. Like most Sámi languages, Northern Sámi follows a pattern of alternating ( trochaic ) stress, in which each odd-numbered syllable after the first is secondarily stressed and even-numbered syllables are unstressed. The last syllable of
2376-411: The prevailing wind, and lower altitudes of the municipality are covered with boreal forests . Due to Norway curving above its Nordic neighbours, Alta is located further east than almost all of Sweden and much of southern Finland . Being at a very high latitude, midnight sun and polar night are present for sizeable parts of the year. The 3,849-square-kilometre (1,486 sq mi) municipality
2430-468: The purpose of phonology, since they are clearly composed of two segments and only the first of these lengthens in quantity 3. The terms "preaspirated" and "pre-stopped" will be used in this article to describe these combinations for convenience. Notes: Not all Northern Sámi dialects have identical consonant inventories. Some consonants are absent from some dialects, while others are distributed differently. Consonants, including clusters , that occur after
2484-701: The same spot as their bodies were buried over 140 years earlier. During World War II , the German battleship Tirpitz used the Kåfjorden , an arm of Altafjorden , as a harbour , and was damaged here by attacking Allied warplanes. The town Alta was seriously destroyed by fire near the end of the World War II. It was rebuilt in subsequent years. The Altasaken in 1979 made headlines for weeks, as many people (especially Sami people and environmentalists ) demonstrated and used civil disobedience to prevent
2538-479: The shortened vowel, it becomes half-long/rising. When the consonant preceding the shortened vowel is quantity 3, any lengthened elements are shortened so that it becomes quantity 2. However, the resulting consonant is not necessarily the weak-grade equivalent of that consonant. If the consonant was previously affected by consonant lengthening (below), this process shortens it again. In the Eastern Finnmark dialects, long vowels as well as diphthongs are shortened before
2592-411: The town center, and European route E6 passes through Alta. The distance to southern Scandinavia is considerably shorter over European route E45 and northern Finland. Main activities in Alta include trading, small industry, education, and public service. The town is also famous for its slate industry. Finnmark University College ( Norwegian : Høgskolen i Finnmark ) is situated in Alta, and there
2646-648: The village of Kåfjord in Alta, but their heads were sent on to the Anatomisk Institute at the University of Oslo , where they were kept for more than a century as part of the university's skull collections. The two skulls were only relinquished by the university in 1985, following a controversy and protests by Sami activists, and were in November 1997 buried at the Kåfjord Church in Alta, at
2700-609: Was Anders Porsanger , himself Sámi and in fact the first Sámi to receive higher education, who studied at the Trondheim Cathedral School and other schools, but who was unable to publish his work on Sámi due to racist attitudes at the time. The majority of his work has disappeared. In 1832, Rasmus Rask published the highly influential Ræsonneret lappisk Sproglære ('Reasoned Sámi Grammar'), Northern Sámi orthography being based on his notation (according to E. N. Setälä ). No major official nationwide surveys on
2754-422: Was divided into two: Talvik Municipality to the north (population: 1,938) and Alta Municipality to the south (population: 2,442). On 1 January 1964, the two neighboring municipalities were merged back together to form a new Alta Municipality. Prior to the merger, Alta had 6,629 residents and Talvik had 3,266 residents. The borders have not changed since that time. On 1 January 2020, the municipality became part of
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#17327733618162808-415: Was lengthened (as described above). The new consonant may coincide with its Q3 consonant gradation counterpart, effectively making a weak grade strong, or it may still differ in other ways. In particular, no change is made to syllable division, so that in case of Q2 consonants with a doubled final consonant, it is actually the first of this pair that lengthens, making it overlong. Lengthening also occurs if
2862-555: Was named after Komsa Mountain in Alta municipality, where the first archeological remains of this culture were discovered. In the aftermath of the Sami Kautokeino rebellion of 1852, rebel leaders Mons Aslaksen Somby and Aslak Jacobsen Hætta were decapitated at Elvebakken in what is now the town of Alta on 14 October 1854. Their bodies were buried in graves just outside the Kåfjord Church graveyard in
2916-485: Was stressed in the original word. The normal trochaic pattern can also be broken in this case, but words will still be made to fit into the even or odd inflection patterns. Words with penultimate stress ending in a consonant will follow the odd inflection: Words with antepenultimate or earlier stress will have the stress modified, as this is not allowed in Northern Sámi: Final stress is not allowed, so if
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