Lokatiivva gehčosat Gáivuona suopmanis

Čoahkkáigeasut

In Sami the locative singular s-suffix is the most common one, but in some dialects -n is used in bisyllabic stems and -s in trisyllabic stems. In the dialect of Gáivuotna it is typical for the older generations that the same informants use both n and s, but n is now losing ground, especially in the younger generations. The written standard supports the choice of s-suffix in the spoken language, but it looks like there is another trigger too. Gáivuotna is on the coast. The neighbouring inland dialects are the Gárasavvon dialect with sg.loc. -n, and the Guovdageaidnu dialect with sg.loc. -s in bisyllabic stems. In the latter dialect there is assimilation ii>i in unstressed syllables. This assimilation together with the -n suffix causes in the Gáivuotna dialect a homonymic clash between locative singular and plural in nouns with i-stem. The speakers evidently prefer using s-suffix in nouns with i-stem that are not place names. This could have been the impetus for the takeover of the s-suffix in bisyllabic stems.