Akkala Sámi, also referred to, particularly in Russia, as Babin Sámi (Russian: Бабинский саа́мский), was a Sámi language spoken in the Sámi villages of Aʼkkel (Russian: Бабинский; Finnish: Akkala), Čuʼkksuâl (Russian: Экостровский) and Sââʼrvesjäuʼrr (Russian: Гирвасозеро; Finnish: Hirvasjärvi), in the inland parts of the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Formerly erroneously regarded as a dialect of Kildin Sámi, it has recently become recognized as an independent Sámi language that is most closely related to its western neighbor Skolt Sámi, although the two are somewhat mutually intelligible.
Akkala Sámi was noted as extinct in the 2010 UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. Previously, it had been considered the most endangered Eastern Sámi language. On 29 December 2003 Maria Sergina – the last fluent native speaker of Akkala Sámi – died. However, as of 2011 there were at least two people, both aged 70, with some knowledge of Akkala Sámi. Remaining ethnic Akkala Sámi live in the village Yona, where there is a cultural office.
Although there exists a description of Akkala Sámi phonology and morphology, a few published texts, and archived audio recordings, as well as a grammar of the language, the Akkala Sámi language remains among the most poorly documented Sámi languages. One of the few items in the language are chapters 23–28 of the Gospel of Matthew published in 1897. It was translated by Arvid Genetz and published by the Finnish Literature Society, with costs paid by the British and Foreign Bible Society.
In the Russian 2020 census, 1 person still claimed knowledge of Akkala.
The following overview is based on Pekka (Pyotr) M. Zaykov's volume. Zaykov's Uralic phonetic transcription is retained here. The middle dot ˑ denotes palatalization of the preceding consonant, analyzed by Zaykov as semisoft pronunciation.
Akkala Sámi has eight cases, singular and plural: nominative, genitive-accusative, partitive, dative-illative, locative, essive, comitative and abessive. Case and number are expressed by a combination of endings and consonant gradation:
Nominative: no marker in the singular, weak grade in the plural.
Genitive-accusative: weak grade in the singular, weak grade + -i in the plural.
Partitive: this case exists only in the singular, and has the ending -tti͔.
Dative-illative: strong grade + -a, -a͕ or -ɛ in the singular, weak grade + -i in the plural.
Locative: weak grade + -st, -śtˑ in the singular, weak grade + -nˑ in the plural.
Essive: this case exists only in the singular: strong grade + -nˑ.
Comitative: weak grade + -nˑ in the singular, strong grade + -guim, -vuim or -vi̮i̭m in the plural.
Abessive: weak grade + -ta in the singular.
The table below gives the declension of the personal pronouns monn ‘I’ and mij ‘we’. The pronouns tonn ‘you (sg.)’ and sonn ‘(s)he’ are declined like monn, the pronouns tij ‘you (pl.)’ and sij ‘they’ are declined like mij.
The interrogative pronouns mī ‘what?’ and tˑī, kī ‘who?’ are declined as follows:
The demonstratives are declined as follows:
Akkala Sámi verbs have three persons and two numbers, singular and plural. There are three moods: indicative, imperative and conditional; the potential mood has disappeared.