Alta ( Norwegian ; pronounced [ˈɑ̂ɫtɑ] ), Áltá ( Northern Sami ) , or Alattio ( Kven ) is a town in Alta Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway . The town is the administrative centre of the municipality and the major commercial centre in the western part of the county. The town is located on the southern end of Altafjorden at the mouth of the river Altaelva . There are several suburbs around the town: Kåfjord , Kvenvik , and Jiepmaluokta lie to the west; Øvre Alta and Tverrelvdalen lie to the south; and Rafsbotn lies to the east. The famous rock carvings at Alta lie just to the west of the town.
42-574: Mehamn ( Northern Sami : Donjevuotna ; Kven : Meehamina ) is the administrative centre of Gamvik Municipality in Finnmark county, Norway . The village is located on the small Vedvik peninsula, itself part of the greater Nordkinn Peninsula , at the southern end of the Mehamnfjorden , a bay off of the Barents Sea . The village of Gamvik lies about 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) to
84-673: A royal resolution changed the spelling of the name of the municipality to Alta . Alta is a centre of transportation in Finnmark county. The town has port facilities along Altafjorden , just alongside Alta Airport in Elvebakken . The airport has direct flights to Oslo and certain other big cities in Norway like Tromsø . The European route E6 highway also runs through the town and the European route E45 has its northern terminus in
126-598: A town by the municipal council. The town (originally the village) is named after the local Altafjorden . The name possibly comes from the Old Norse words ǫlpt or alpt which refer to a swan . It could also be the Norwegianization of the Finnish word ( alaattia ) which refers to a "lowland". Historically, the name of the municipality (and the village) was spelled Alten . On 3 November 1917,
168-533: 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
210-797: 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
252-628: A population (2023) of 15,931 and a population density of 1,624 inhabitants per square kilometre (4,210/sq mi). The town of Alta has three churches: the historic Alta Church in Bossekop, the relatively new Elvebakken Church in Elvebakken, and the Northern Lights Cathedral (the new "main" church for the municipality that was completed in 2013). Alta is also an educational centre in Finnmark county. The Alta campus of
294-405: 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
336-627: 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,
378-405: 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
420-406: 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
462-588: A whale’s back." In December, a law was passed ensuring the preservation of the whales in Norwegian waters off the coast of Nordland, Troms and Finnmark. On 11 March 1982, a Widerøe Twin Otter crashed into the sea on approach to Mehamn Airport during the flight from Berlevåg Airport , killing all on board. Despite controversies regarding the cause of the crash, clear-air turbulence over the Mehamnfjorden
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#1732771994024504-403: 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
546-646: 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,
588-513: 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
630-808: The European route E6 highway at the base of the Nordkinn Peninsula, and from there on to the towns of Kirkenes in the east and Alta in the west. Mehamn is a port of call for the Hurtigruten coastal ship. Mehamn is also connected by air via Mehamn Airport , with services by Widerøe to the nearby city of Tromsø . 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 )
672-541: The University of Tromsø is located in the town as well as the local primary and secondary schools, including Alta Upper Secondary School . The Vestre Finnmark District Court has one of its two courthouses in the town, serving Loppa Municipality and Alta Municipality . Alta IF is the main sports team for the town. The town of Alta was established in 2000 when the three neighboring villages of Bossekop , Elvebakken , and Alta were joined together and declared to be
714-739: 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
756-488: 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
798-505: 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,
840-439: 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: Alta (town) Alta is considered the northernmost city in the world with a population surpassing 10,000. The 9.81-square-kilometre (2,420-acre) town has
882-580: 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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#1732771994024924-542: The east and the village of Kjøllefjord (in Lebesby Municipality ) lies about 30 kilometres (19 mi) to the southwest. Mehamn Chapel is located in this village. The 0.59-square-kilometre (150-acre) village has a population (2023) of 703 which gives the village a population density of 1,198 inhabitants per square kilometre (3,100/sq mi). Svend Foyn established the whaling station in Mehamn that
966-527: The factory was completely destroyed and the situation was calm again. Some of the vandals were caught and convicted. They received very light sentences in jail and then the following autumn, general elections were held, and the Labour Party , which had fought for the protection of the whales, entered parliament for the first time with four MPs . They all represented the three northernmost counties of Norway. They were said to have "ridden to Parliament on
1008-416: 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
1050-455: 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
1092-513: 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
1134-461: 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
1176-436: 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
1218-459: 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
1260-575: 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
1302-418: The local whaling. They believed that the whales chased the fish towards the shore. With few whales left, the fish stayed out of reach. Frustrations were growing by the day during the spring of 1903. By Whitsunday , about 2000 angry fishermen were in the harbor in Mehamn. At the time, the village had 123 permanent residents. When the new manager of the whaling station denied help to a fishing boat that came from
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1344-413: 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
1386-543: 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
1428-487: 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
1470-468: 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
1512-405: The sea with a broken helm, the fishermen had had enough. On 2 June 1903, a large number of them gathered outside the factory. During the following two days, machinery was destroyed, chimneys were torn down, and the large steam boilers were sunk. The guard and the single police officer could do nothing but watch. Military forces from Vardø and Harstad were mobilized, but did not reach Mehamn before
1554-479: 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
1596-609: 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
1638-548: Was built in 1884-1885. It was put into use starting in the spring of 1885, and it became the largest of its kind in Finnmark County. After Foyn’s death in 1894, the whaling station was run by Foyn’s whaling company. Svend Foyn also established the Svend Foyn Chapel, in Mehamn starting in 1887. The background for the Mehamn rebellion was a period of miserable cod and capelin fishing. The fishermen blamed
1680-453: Was determined as the official cause. Mehamn has a boreal (subarctic) climate ( Köppen : Dsc ), with short and cool summers. The winters are long and sometimes windy, but winter temperatures are moderated by the nearby open sea and mild for the latitude. Mehamn is also sometimes affected by heat waves , the heat waves in 2018 and 2022 both saw high temperatures above 30 °C (86 °F). Norwegian County Road 888 connects Mehamn to
1722-415: 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
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1764-485: 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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