Verb inflections in Jukkasjärvi-Finnish

This work deals with verb inflections in a Finnish dialect spoken by descedants of Finnish-speaking settlers in northern Sweden. The dialect has been given the name Jukkasjärvi Finnish, as the main area where it is spoken lies within the parish of Jukkasjärvi. Jukkasjärvi Finnish belongs to the Vittangi Finnish dialect group within the principal Torne-Finnish dialect, the use of which extends along both sides of the Swedish-Finnish border. The documentation of the dialect is based on the language spoken by older people, as younger people are with increasing frequency using Swedish for their spoken language. The linguistic material has been collected by means of direct questioning, tape recordings and questionnaires. In the documentation, the principles for Keruuopas by Terho Itkonen and others have been used. In this study the dialect is compared with standard Finnish. The result of the investigation shows that Jukkasjärvi Finnish has the following characteristics: short vowels in endings, low frequency of gemination, syllable contraction, roots as the infinitive forms of contracted verbs, and to a certain extent analogical formations. An earlier influence from Saamish (Lappish) can also be discerned. Recently the dialect has also been influenced by those Finland-Finnish dialects that scarcely deviate from standard Finnish.digitalisering@um