Proto-Samic

Proto-Samic is the reconstructed last common ancestor of the Samic languages. It was spoken in the 1st millennium CE in the area of modern-day northern Finland. (If extinct southern languages are included, this dating will likely become both older and more southern. Stem-group para-Samic languages have from toponymic evidence once been spoken as far south as the Baltic coast)

Sound changes from Proto-Uralic

Possibly original:

• e → ɪ / _Ci (see *ê)
• e → e / _{j w x} (ie. does not become *ɪ → *ɤ)
• Vx → Və → Vː / _C

Proto-Uralic to Pre-Samic (≈ "Finno-Volgaic")

Shared with Finnic & Mordvinic

• ë → a
• ðʲ → ð (also lʲ → l, if it exists separately; note that other palatals remain)
  • NB: Sammallahti posits ðʲ → θ / V_C (*käðʲwa "weasel" → *káθwé → NS gádfe - but can this be ruled out for ð? Cf. *kotwa > IS kuáđfi)

Shared with Mordvinic

• ü → i (feeds the next changes)
• i → iː / _{j x}
• u → uː / _{w x}
• i u → ɪ ʊ (*iː *uː remain) (also shared with Ugric, Nenets!)

Pre-Samic to Proto-Samic

• V → Vː / [-HIGH] (also shared with Nenets!)

a-umlaut

• eː äː oː → ea aː oa / _C{aː, oː} (note that this *aː is distinct from *ɑː!)

• x, ŋ → w / _t (*xt only occurring in newer derivativs/loans)

Spirant fortition

• ś x → ć k / _V
• PS *ć (written also *č) is probably best described as a palatal stop, so we may be dealing with a process [sʲ ~ ɕ] → [ç] → [c]. Note that original *s *š remain sibilants!
• PS *ś (likewise also written *š) remains elsewhere
  • śj, sj → śś
  • ðj → ðś

Fronting of postalveolars

• tʃ ʃ <č š> → ts s <c s>

Popular areal changes

• w → ∅ / _{y u o} (shared with Finnic, Mordvinic, Mari)
• j → ∅ / _{i e} (not sure about the distribution of this)
• w → v (even syllable-finally)

Raising & epenthesis (first two shared with North Finnic but obviously non-genetic)

• äː ɑː → eː oː / [+STR]
• ∅ → v / #_oː
• ∅ → j / #_eː
• aː → eː / [-STR]
       except remains / [-STR]_ɪ
        → iː / [-STR]_j
• oː → uː / [-STR]_ɪ

Gradation could be described around here.

Cluster stuff

• k → v / _j (*róvjé *vóvjé, possibly *távjé if not from Fi. *taɣja; South S. has -kś-)
       _l (*keavlé *kóvlé- *návlé *tóvlé; *ćivlé with *ük > *iv > *ív ?!)
       _ń (*ćóvné)
• t → r / _n (*vórné-)

Centralization (a late change - consider eg the northern Lappland toponym *ɤnárɤš → Finnish Inari)

• ɪ ʊ → ɤ o

There may have also been a high lax unrounded back vowel (see ô_a). A merger into that might provide the motivation for the unusual back reflex of PU *i.

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This results in the following inventory:

• long vowels */iː eː ea aː oa oː uː/ <í é ea á oa ó ú>
• short vowels */ɤ o/ <ë o>

/ea oa/ are traditionally analyzed as [ɛː ɔː] rather than [ea oa], however I'm at a loss to explain how would *ɑː end up as *oː in that case.

The shortening of iː uː → i u and the diphthongization eː oː → ie uo (when stress'd) may postdate Proto-Samic; the former have bimoraic reflexes /ij uv/ in South Samic. At any rate, as eg. *a *e in Scandinavian loans ends up as *á *é, the "long" vowels must've been the unmarked series.

Later in North Sami:

• ɤ → ɑ (also Inari, Lule, Pite)
• ie ea oa uo → iː eː oː uː / _C*V[+hi], further → i e o u / _hC etc.
• eː oː → i u / [-STR]