Abstract

This paper deals with the Skolt Saami passive verb suffixes -j- and -õõvvâ- (e.g. mott-j-ed ‘change (intr.)’, rottš-õõvvâ-d ‘be pulled’) cognate with North Saami -o(j)- and -uvva- (e.g. dahkk-o-t ‘be done’, muhttaš-uvva-t ‘change (intr.)’) as well as Finnish -u- ~ -y- (e.g. käänt-y-ä ‘turn (intr)’). The research material has two complementary parts: a dialectal dictionary and a speech corpus. The semantics of the relevant verbs in the material is examined. The main distinction is made between intentional passives (true passives having a volitional agent) and automative passives (actions that happen spontaneously or by accident, anticausatives). The results show that at least the suffix -jed and to a lesser extent -õõvvâd are mainly used to mark automative passives, but some instances of intentional passives are also found as well as some cases that are ambiguous between the two. The suffix -õõvvâd is used in the passive function more rarely than the suffix -jed and it has more functions.