Johan Turi giella girjjiis Muitalus sámiid birra: Veahkkevearbbaid ortnet ja posišuvdna

Johan Turi’s Muitalus samiid birra (An Account of the Sami) first appeared in 1910. It was the first time in history that a Sami person had written a book about the Sami in Sami language. In this article, I analyze the language of Johan Turi in the newly re-edited text of his book, particularly with regard to the order and position of auxiliaries. There are three kinds of auxiliaries in North Sami language, one of which is used in tense phrases (Aux), i.e. leat ’to be’. The other two are modals (Mod) and negative auxiliaries (Neg). In contrast to the other two types of auxiliaries, the negative does not inflect for tense. The base structure of a declarative North Sami finite clause is a composition of a main verb (V) and one or more auxiliaries in the hierarchy: Neg > Aux > Mod > V. The auxiliary (Aux) selects for a verb phrase (VP) with the category past participle or progressive, while the modal (Mod) selects for a VP with the category infinitive. The negative auxiliary selects for one category in present tense and another (past participle) in the past tense. My study of the language of Muitalus confirms the hierarchy of the base structure of the finite clauses and the selection rules of the complements as well. Turi’s text contains relatively few deviations from this pattern, always with pragmatic motivations.