Grammar competence in Lule Sami L1 and L2 young speakers An investigation of consonant gradation, the grammar of spatial expressions and personal pronouns marked for dual by Sandra Nystø Ráhka Master´s thesis Department of Modern Foreign Languages Faculty of Humanities NTNU November 2013 II Abstract The current master thesis is a study of the grammatical competence of Lulesami speakers. Lule Sami is a minority language in Norway and Sweden that suffers under the dominant languages of the aforementioned nation states. Lule Sami speakers today are bilinguals with varying degrees of proficiency in their mother tongue. Very little research has been done on this endangered language, especially when it comes to the field of language acquisition. Based on a battery of tests, the study is an investigation on the use of three grammatical features, which include grade alternation, the grammar of spatial expressions, and personal pronouns marked for dual. These are all grammar elements that differ significantly from Norwegian, and one of the objectives of this study was to investigate the influence of Norwegian on Lule Sami. Focal points of the study were therefore to compare and explore whether there were any differences between Lule Sami speakers of different proficiencies. Both L1 and L2 speakers of Lule Sami participated in this study. The results show that Lule Sami is subject to cross-linguistic influence when it comes to all of the aforementioned grammatical categories. Furthermore, the differences in performance may be attributed to both quality and quantity of input. III IV Acknowledgements First and foremost I want to thank my supervisors Mila Vulchanova and Anne Dahl for all their help and guidance in writing this thesis. I would also like to thank Bruce Morén-Duolljá for his invaluable help with the Lule Sami grammar part of my thesis. Thank you to friends and family for their support and encouragement and for their comments on the various aspects of my master’s thesis. Last, but not least I want to express my gratitude to all the participants for taking part in my study, and to the educational institutions for letting me borrow of their time to conduct my tests Trondheim, 15.11.13 Sandra Nystø Ráhka V VI Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………………….III Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………………V 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Lule Sami history ...................................................................................................................... 1 1.1.2 The Lule Sami Language in Divtasvuodna ..................................................................... 3 1.1.3 The Lule Sami Language situation today ....................................................................... 5 1.2 The rationale for the study ........................................................................................... 7 1.2.1 The scope of the study ........................................................................................................... 7 1.3 Guide through the thesis ............................................................................................... 8 2 Theoretical background ........................................................................................... 9 2.1 The linguistic aspects of bilingualism ...................................................................... 9 2.1.1 Definition of terms ................................................................................................................... 9 2.1.2 First and second language acquisition ......................................................................... 10 2.1.3 Bilingual language acquisition ........................................................................................ 11 2.1.4 Language competence ......................................................................................................... 13 2.1.5 The role of input in bilingualism .................................................................................... 15 2.1.6 The linguistic system of bilingual first language speakers ................................. 17 2.1.7 The linguistic system of child second language speakers ................................... 20 2.1.8 The linguistic system of heritage language speakers ............................................ 24 2.1.9 Cross-linguistic influences ................................................................................................ 25 2.1.10 Cognitive changes in the bilingual brain .................................................................. 28 2.2 Lule Sami grammar ...................................................................................................... 29 2.2.1 Consonant gradation ........................................................................................................... 31 2.2.2 Grammar of spatial expressions ..................................................................................... 36 2.2.3 Personal pronouns marked for dual ............................................................................. 41 2.2.4 Brief comparison with Norwegian grammar ............................................................ 42 2.3 Hypotheses and expected findings ......................................................................... 43 3 Method ........................................................................................................................ 45 3.1 Research design ............................................................................................................ 45 3.2 Participants .................................................................................................................... 45 3.3 Tests and materials ..................................................................................................... 46 3.4 Procedure ........................................................................................................................ 53 VII 3.5 Data coding and analyses ........................................................................................... 53 4 Results ......................................................................................................................... 56 4.1 Wug test: Consonant gradation ................................................................................ 56 4.2 Cloze test: Spatial expressions ................................................................................. 59 4.3 Cloze test: Dual .............................................................................................................. 63 4.4 Grammaticality Judgment Task: Grammar of spatial expressions .............. 64 4.5 Grammaticality Judgment Task: Dual ................................................................... 65 5 Discussion of the results ....................................................................................... 69 5.1 Consonant gradation ................................................................................................... 69 5.2 Grammar of spatial expressions ............................................................................. 77 5.3 Dual ................................................................................................................................... 80 6 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 84 6.1 Suggestions for further research ............................................................................ 86 7 References .................................................................................................................. 88 Appendices………………………………………………………………………………………………91 VIII 1 Introduction The thesis begins with a brief historical account of the Sami and the Lule Sami language. 1.1 Background 1.1.1 Lule Sami history The Sami are an indigenous people and an ethnic minority living in the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland, as well as on the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Lule Sami is one of 10 different Sami languages and is part of a language family belonging to the Finno-Ugric language group, which traces it’s steps more than 4000 years back (Svonni, 2004). The Sami languages do not follow the borders of the nation states, but go across them making parts of both Norway and Sweden homeland for the Lule Sami language. In Norway, the Lule Sami area stretches from Saltfjellet in the south towards Ballangen in the North, with Divtasvuodna/Tysfjord as the language center. Lule Sami is one of the bigger Sami languages, but throughout time, and with the help of active assimilation policies, the majority languages of Norwegian and Swedish have become the dominant languages even in traditional Lule Sami language centers, and the number of Lule Sami speakers today is low. It is difficult to assess exactly how many speakers there are, as it is equally difficult to assess exactly how many Lule Sami people there are in the world. The approximate number of Lule Sami speakers, however, is estimated to be between 500 and 2000 (St.meld.nr28(2007-2008)). UNESCO (2010) defines Lule Sami as a severely endangered language. It has suffered the fate of so many indigenous languages before it, namely brutal assimilation policies and