At the frontier: Sámi linguistics gets a boost from outside

Abstract

The question of the origins of the Sámi people of Northern Scandinavia and Russia has long been contentious. How did they come to speak a Finno-Ugric language? A promising explanation has recently been put forth by Ante Aikio, viz. that speakers of Proto-Sámi merged with and assimilated ancient hunter-gatherers who had long inhabited the interior of the Scandinavian peninsula and whom Aikio calls Palaeo-Europeans. The present paper finds anthropological, archaeological and genetic evidence that helps corroborate Aikio's theory. There are numerous examples of mutually beneficial contacts between Sámi ancestors and other dwellers on the Scandinavian peninsula; for example, the Sámi produced commodities that were in demand among Germanic (Norwegians, Swedes) peoples living in Scandinavia. The Sámi siida system of relatively small groups opened them to outside influence from Proto-Sámi speakers. Finally, phylogenetic evidence confirms the widespread contacts between the Sámi and others as well as the mutual influence between groups.