[blam]

GGG Ping.

The genetics of the Saami people and their language

"Some Para-Saamis could for instance have been kept as slaves by the Uralo-Saamis. (We note that the word orja (oarje, etc.) means 'slave' in Finnish but 'south' and 'west' in various Saami dialects.) "

"Finally, where did the Para-Saamis come from? Like the Basques (also with exceptionally low frequency of gene B) they seem to be remnants of a pre-Indo-European people. During part of the latest glaciation they may have been living on refuges on the oceanic brim of the Scandinavian Peninsula, such as nowadays exist on the coast of Greenland. In any case, they seem to have been isolated from other human groups for thousands of years.

[Viiksitimali]

Proto-Indo-Iranian *arya-, the self designation “Aryan,” was borrowed into Pre-Saami as *orja-, the root of *oarji, meaning “southwest,” and of ārjel, meaning “southerner,” confirming that the Proto-Aryan world lay south of the early Uralic region. The same borrowed *arya- root developed into words with the meaning “slave” in the Finnish and Permic branches (Finnish, Komi, and Udmurt), a hint of ancient hostility between the speakers of Proto-Indo-Iranian and Finno-Ugric.

[SuziQ]

I had a course in the History of the English Language during college, and the text mentioned that there were many similarities between the Scandinavian languages and that of the Basques.