Samisk stedsnavnarkiv i Norge. På tide å dokumentere samisk navnetradisjon for fremtidige generasjoner

Sammendrag

The article discusses the archive history of Sami place names in Norway and gives examples of the collecting and cataloguing of Sami place names. Possible future plans for a Sami name archive in Norway are also discussed. As a consequence of a strict policy of assimilation, the so-called Norwegianization policy, the collect­ing and cataloguing of Sami place names was not defined as a national responsibility when Norway’s Place Name Archive was established in the 1920s. This has remained the case right up to the present day.

The article shows the need for the establishment of a Sami place name archive in Norway. The question is whether it would be relevant to build up a Sami department as part of the language collections at the University Library in Bergen, or rather, whether it is time for a Sami name archive in collaboration with existing Sami institutions.