Almost thirty years ago, some forward looking people interested in +metal work and Northern Sámi, decided to create a list of words used +in Northern Sámi metal work. After almost ten years this resulted in +a dictionary database, published as the book +"Mekanihkkársánit : +Mekanikerord = Mekaanisen alan sanasto = Mechanic's words" in +1999. The +story of this +work is available from the pen of Svein Lund, one of the leading +actors behind this effort. They even got the dictionary approved by +the Sámi Parliament of Norway as the recommended metal work words to +use.
+ +Fast forward twenty years, I came across this work when I recently +became interested in metal work, and started watching educational and +funny videos on the topic, like the ones from +mrpete222 +and This +Old Tony. But they all talk English, but I wanted to know what +the tools and techniques they used were called in Norwegian. Trying +to track down a good dictionary from English to Norwegian, after much +searching, I came across the database of words created +almost thirty years ago, with translations into English, Norwegian, +Northern Sámi, Swedish and Finnish. This gave me a lot of the +Norwegian phrases I had been looking for. To make it easier for the +next person trying to track down a good Norwegian dictionary for the +metal worker, and because I knew the person behind the database from +my Skolelinux / Debian Edu days, I decided to ask if the database +could be released to the public without any usage limitations, in +other words as a Creative Commons licensed data set. And happily, +after consulting with the Sámi Parliament of Norway, the database is +now available with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International +license from +my gitlab +repository.
+ +The dictionary entries look slightly different, depending on the +language in focus. This is the same entry in the different editions. + +
English
+ +++ ++
+- lathe
+ +- + +
dreiebenk (nb) várve, várvenbeaŋka, jorahanbeaŋka, vátnanbeaŋka (se) svarv (sv) sorvi (fi)
Norwegian
+ +++ ++
+- dreiebenk
+ +- + +
lathe (en) várve, várvenbeaŋka, jorahanbeaŋka, + vátnanbeaŋka (se) svarv (sv) sorvi (fi)
- + +
(nb): sponskjærande bearbeidingsmaskin der ein med + skjæreverktøy lausgjør spon frå eit roterande + arbetsstykke
Northern Sámi
+ +++ ++
- várve, várvenbeaŋka, jorahanbeaŋka, vátnanbeaŋka
+ +- + +
dreiebenk (nb) lathe (en) svarv (sv) sorvi (fi)
- + +
(se): mašiidna mainna čuohppá vuolahasaid jorri + bargoávdnasis
- + +
(nb): sponskjærande bearbeidingsmaskin der ein med + skjæreverktøy lausgjør spon frå eit roterande + arbetsstykke
+
The database included term description in both Norwegian and +Northern Sámi, but not English. Because of this, the Northern Sámi +edition include both descriptions, the Norwegian edition include the +Norwegian description and the English edition lack a descripiton.
+ +Once the database was available without any usage restrictions, and +armed with my experience in publishing books, I decided to publish a +Norwegian/English dictionary as a book using the database, to make the +data set available also on paper and as an ebook. Further into the +project, it occurred to me that I could just as easily make an English +dictionary, and talking to Svein and concluding that it was within +reach, I decided to make a Northern Sámi dictionary too.
+ +Thus I suddenly find myself publishing a Northern Sámi dictionary, +even though I do not understand the language myself. I hope it will +be well received, and can help revive the impressive work done almost +thirty years ago to document the vocabulary of metal workers. If I +get some help, I might even extend it with some of the words I find +missing, like collet, rotary broach, carbide, knurler, arbor press and +others. But the first edition build from a lightly edited version of +the original database, with no new entries added. If you would like +to check it out, visit +my list of published +books and consider +buying +a paper or ebook copy from lulu.com. The paper edition is only +available in hardcover to increase its durability in the workshop.
+ +I am very happy to report that in the process, and thanks to help +from both Svein Lund and Børre Gaup who understand the language, the +docbook tools I use to create books, dblatex and docbook-xsl, now +include support for Northern Sámi. Before I started, these lacked the +needed locale settings for this language, but now the patches are +included upstream.
+