'the Eastern Sámi language') is a Sámi language that is spoken by the Skolts, with approximately 300[2] speakers in Finland, mainly in Sevettijärvi and approximately 20–30 speakers of the Njuõʹttjäuʹrr (Notozero) dialect[3] in an area surrounding Lake Notozero in Russia.

In Norway, there are fewer than 15 that can speak Skolt Sámi (as of 2023);[4] furthermore, the language is[4] largely spoken in the Neiden area.

[6] On Finnish territory Skolt Sámi was spoken in four villages before the Second World War.

In Norwegian territory, Skolt Sámi was spoken in the Sør-Varanger area with a cultural centre in the village of Neiden.

[11] The Finnish news program Yle Ođđasat featured a Skolt Sámi speaking newsreader for the first time on August 26, 2016.

Otherwise Yle Ođđasat presents individual news stories in Skolt Sámi every now and then.

Translation of the Gospel of John was published (Evvan evaŋǧeʹlium) in 1988 and Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom (Pââʹss Eʹččen Evvan Krysostomoozz Liturgia, Liturgy of our Holy Father John Chrysostom) was published in 2002 [13] Skolt Sámi is used together with Finnish in worship of the Lappi Orthodox Parish (Lappi ortodookslaž sieʹbrrkåʹdd) at churches of Ivalo, Sevettijärvi and Nellim.

For quite some time these programs received intermittent funding, resulting in some children being taught Skolt Sámi, while others were not.

In spite of all the issues these programs faced, they were crucial in creating the youngest generations of Skolt Sámi speakers.

In addition, 2005 was the first time that it was possible to use Skolt Sámi in a Finnish matriculation exam, albeit as a foreign language.

[15] In 1973, an official, standardized orthography for Skolt Sámi was introduced based on the Suõʹnnʼjel dialect.

[16] The Skolt Sámi orthography uses the ISO basic Latin alphabet with the addition of a few special characters: Notes: Additional marks are used in writing Skolt Sámi words: Special features of this Sámi language include a highly complex vowel system and a suprasegmental contrast of palatalized vs. non-palatalized stress groups; palatalized stress groups are indicated by a "softener mark", represented by the modifier letter prime (′).

Certain inflectional forms, including the addition of the palatalizing suprasegmental, also trigger a change in diphthong quality.

A short period of voicelessness or h, known as preaspiration, before geminate consonants is observed, much as in Icelandic, but this is not marked orthographically, e.g. joʹǩǩe 'to the river' is pronounced [jo̟ʰcc͡çe].

In written language the palatalizing suprasegmental is indicated with a free-standing acute accent between a stressed vowel and the following consonant, as follows: The suprasegmental palatalization has three distinct phonetic effects: Skolt Sámi has four different levels of stress for words: The first syllable of any word is always the primary stressed syllable in Skolt Sámi as Skolt is a fixed-stress language.

Many of the suffixes in Skolt Sámi are portmanteau morphemes that express several grammatical features at a time.

Where they survive in Skolt Sámi, both appear as e, so only the umlaut effect can distinguish them.

Skolt Sámi has 9 cases in the singular (7 of which also have a plural form), although the genitive and accusative are often the same.

The following table shows the inflection of čuäcc ('rotten snag') with the single morphemes marking noun stem, number, and case separated by hyphens for better readability.

[19] Like the other Uralic languages, the nominative singular is unmarked and indicates the subject or a predicate.

A full inflection table of all person-marked forms of the verb kuullâd ('to hear') is given below.

Instead, verbs occurring with the dual personal pronouns appear in the corresponding plural form.

In Skolt Sámi, the negative verb conjugates according to mood (indicative, imperative and optative), person (1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th) and number (singular and plural).

The most frequent word order in simple, declarative sentences in Skolt Sámi is subject–verb–object (SVO).

This has been related to the verb-second (V2) phenomenon which binds the finite verb to at most the second position of the respective clause.

However, in Skolt Sámi, this effect seems to be restricted to clauses with an auxiliary verb.

If an auxiliary verb is used, this is the one which is moved to the initial sentence position and also takes the interrogative affix.

Imperatives in the first person form, which only exist as plurals, are typically used for hortative constructions, that is for encouraging the listener (not) to do something.

Finally, imperatives in the third person are used in jussive constructions, the mood used for orders and commands.

Kinship terms in Skolt Sámi mostly descend from proto-Uralic or proto-Samic.