Sami

[Mark Crispin]

On Tue, 19 Feb 2002, Michael Everson wrote:
> Indeed. And if Oxford says Sami and Encarta says Saami, I will say
> that I must side with the former authority.

Why?  Why is Oxford a superior authority over Encarta; or, for that
matter, any other reference source?

I hope that it is not just because Oxford is produced in England, and
there is some notion that the dialect of English spoken in England is
somehow more authoritative (or "standard") than the dialects spoken in
other English-speaking nations.

A quick search shows "sami", "saami", "same", and "sabme" all listed as
alternative spellings.

For what it's worth, I also found that the three languages spoken by these
people are mutually unintelligible but belong to the Finno-Ugric branch of
the Uralic family.  This leads me to question the wisdom of:
> 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.

-- Mark --

http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.