A Quick Look at Paleo-European Substrates in Proto-Saami

Today’s video is a quick one looking at potential palaeo-European substrates in the Saami branch. Many researchers have put forward various proposals over the years, so I have tried to focus on those that have the greatest consensus and the strongest weight of evidence behind them. That said, a lot of the content in today’s video is, by its very nature, speculative; however, I also feel that it represents some of the best deep historical linguistics out there. I do hope you will all enjoy it! Please note – in parts the video is text heavy so unless you’re a really fast reader, the video might need to be paused. However, the video is designed to be enjoyable to those who are just listening so reading every word on screen is never a requirement. Note: All sources are cited on screen. Selected Sources: Aikio, A. (2004). An essay on substrate studies and the origin of Saami. In I. Hyvärinen, P. Kallio, J. Korhonen, & L. Kolehmainen (Eds.), Etymologie, Entlehnungen und Entwicklungen: Festschrift für Jorma Koivulehto zum 70. Geburtstag (Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique de Helsinki 63, pp. 5–34). Société Néophilologique. Aikio, A. (2007). The study of Saami substrate toponyms in Finland. Onomastica Uralica, 4, 159–197. Aikio, A. (2012). An essay on Saami ethnolinguistic prehistory. In R. Grünthal & P. Kallio (Eds.), A linguistic map of prehistoric northern Europe (Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia 266, pp. 63–117). Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura. Aikio, A. (2022). Proto-Uralic. In M. Bakró-Nagy, J. Laakso, & E. Skribnik (Eds.), The Oxford guide to the Uralic languages. Oxford University Press. Kallio, P. (2003). Languages in the prehistoric Baltic Sea region. In A. Bammesberger & T. Vennemann (Eds.), Languages in prehistoric Europe (pp. 227–244). Winter. Kallio, P. (2015). The language contact situation in prehistoric northeastern Europe. In R. Mailhammer, T. Vennemann gen. Nierfeld, & B. A. Olsen (Eds.), The linguistic roots of Europe: Origin and development of European languages (Copenhagen Studies in Indo-European 6, pp. 77–102). Museum Tusculanum Press. Koponen, E. (2022). Saami. In M. Bakró-Nagy, J. Laakso, & E. Skribnik (Eds.), The Oxford guide to the Uralic languages (pp. 103–112). Oxford University Press. Saarikivi, J. (2004a). Is there Palaeo-European substratum interference in the western branches of Uralic? Journal de la Société Finno-Ougrienne, 90, 187–214. Pystynen, J. (2024, November 7). The Great Saami Vowel Shift in an areal Uralic perspective [Conference presentation]. 6th Saami Linguistics Symposium. Wilson, S. (2024). The Palaeo-European substrate in Saami: A critical harvest from the literature. University of Tartu. Zhivlov, M. (2023). Reconstruction of Proto-Uralic. In D. Abondolo & R.-L. Valijärvi (Eds.), The Uralic languages (2nd ed., pp. 117–175). Routledge.