Gielddasámegiela aspektuála suorggádusat ja ruoššagiela aspeakta

Čoahkkáigeasut

This article is a description of the aspectual use of the frequentative, continuative and momentane derivatives in the Kildin Sami language. It also includes a comparison with the use of aspect in Russian, which is a grammatical feature whereby the speaker is required to choose between an imperfective verb, focusing on the internal temporal structure of the situation, and a perfective verb, which regards the situation from the outside. In Sami, the aspectual nuances are lexical, expressing that something happens once (momentaneous), repeatedly (frequentative) or continuously (continuative), and there are also many neutral verbs.

The article shows that, in more recent texts, the frequentative and continuative verb is used in sentences in which a nonderivative verb would be chosen in Northern Sami, and where the Russian parallel is always the imperfective verb. This mainly occurs in sentences with habitual meaning and in sentences where the verb is only used to designate the event, neither giving focus to the internal temporary structure nor to the totality of the situation. On this basis, the tendency seems to be that the Russian aspect is inspiring people to use the frequentative/continuative as a pair with the nonderivative verb, since the imperfective in Russian makes a pair with the perfective verb. For momentane verbs, no such development can be observed.