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Language code: sme

Technical information about ISO 639 language code sme

Documentation

The table below provides technical details for the Northern Sami language, designated by the sme code from the ISO 639-2 standard.

Code

sme

Name

Official

Northern Sami

Native

Davvisámegiella

Text direction

Left-to-Right

Language varieties
Western Northern SamiEastern Northern SamiTornedal Northern Sami
Related languages
Lule SamiPite SamiInari SamiSkolt SamiSouthern Sami
Key facts
Has about 20,000 native speakers spread across the far north of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia’s Kola PeninsulaUses a 29-letter Latin-based alphabet that includes the special letters Č, Ŋ, Đ and ŦA cross-national written standard was agreed in 1979, unifying earlier national orthographiesExhibits consonant gradation, causing systematic alternations such as between ‘p’ and ‘b’ in different grammatical formsThe first full Bible translation appeared in 1895 and remains an important historical text for the language.
Sample phrase

Bures, mo manná?

Character encodings

UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32

Supported in Localizely

The Northern Sami language, identified by the code sme, falls under the 'Individual' category in terms of its scope and is classified as 'Living' by its type.

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