Ščekoldinin vuoden 1894 koltansaamenkielisen Matteuksen evankeliumin kielestä

Abstract

The Skolt Saami Gospel of Matthew was published in 1894 and translated by priest K. P. Ščekoldin who was a native speaker of Russian. Ščekoldin has been regarded as an expert of Skolt Saami. This article shows, however, that his translation suffers from various errors. Some of the mistakes, such as those found in the marking of consonant gradation, diphthongs, verbal agreement and negation, must be the result of his insufficient language skills. Other mistakes can be attributed to certain linguistic structures found in the source language, Russian. These include mistakes in verbal agreement, in the case marking of nominal arguments and complements and in the expression of possession and of questions. The influence of the source language can, of course, itself be a result of insufficient language skills. Despite the weaknesses in Ščekoldin’s translation, it still is an important document of Skolt Saami: it was only in 1970s when the next written works of Skolt Saami were published.