Sami

[Michael Everson]

At 11:02 -0800 2002-02-19, A. Vine wrote:

>I actually have no opinion on, nor publications to support using, Sami vs.
>Saami.  I have only the interesting comment that the 
>country/people/organization of origin in another language specifying 
>the name in "English" does not necessarily hold sway over the 
>English name.

Indeed. And if Oxford says Sami and Encarta says Saami, I will say 
that I must side with the former authority.

>P.S.  Dictionaries are nice to support your example when they agree with yo=
u.
>But they don't always reflect usage, especially not in a timely 
>manner.  Oxford is a dictionary.

Indeed, but I did show evidence of Oxford's transition of Sami as 
part of a note vs. their inclusion of it as a headword, evidence, in 
my mind, of its increased status as a lexical item in English.

>P.P.S. English - Germanic, sort of, but hardly categorically.

English is basically Germanic, and the question is, if one is going 
to choose a spelling for this particular kind of loanword, it seems 
sensible to yield to the practice of the Germanic language 
coterminous with the largest population of speakers than to a 
neighbouring Uralic language. Historically, there are more Norse 
loanwords in English than Finnic loanwords. Why diverge from that 
when the native designation is "S=E1mi"?
-- 
Michael Everson *** Everson Typography *** http://www.evertype.com