the fate of Akkala Saami

Corcaighist laments the extinction of the Akkala Saami language, generally repeating the propositions put forward by Wikipedia. I know little about the language or the sources but nevertheless some ideas crossed my mind. doubtless these may be erroneous and easily repudiated.

Akkala or Ahkkil Saami used to be considered a dialect of Kildin Saami. ironically, it was just the most recent chunk of Saami to be awarded the honour of a separate language by linguists. and there is quite a lot of documentation of Kildin from the past two centuries. that includes an almost mainstream dictionary of several tens of thousands words.

so: what is documented of Ahkkil Saami could well be found by looking into materials claiming to be either Kildin or Russian Saami or Eastern Saami (respectively Lapp). of course, you would have to know the toponyms, the villages or communities (the Northern Saami equivalent term is siida) and the families to look for.

in any case, even an Ahkkil literature could be constructed, if someone only had the will and the connections and the necessary Kildin proficiency to do so. some differences between Ahkkil and Kildin, moreover, could be traced by means of fieldwork conducted among speakers of neighbouring dialects.

(the blason populaire genre usually documents the peculiarities of a related neigbouring dialect or language, which has distinct differences from that of a native speaker. and, of course, there is the habit of mocking neighbouring accents, which -- according to my experience -- is not uncommon among the Northern Saami.)

the ten Saami languages form a chain or a continuum with one or two distinct boundaries blocking mutual intelligibility.