[4] In the end of the 19th century, there were six Ter Sámi villages in the eastern part of the Kola Peninsula, with a total population of approximately 450.

[5] The rapid decline in the number of speakers was caused by Soviet collectivisation, in the 1930s, and the largest Ter Sámi village, Yokanga, was declared "perspectiveless" and its inhabitants were forced to move to the Gremikha military base.

The language is incompletely studied and documented, though text specimens and audio recordings as well as dictionaries for linguistic purposes exist.

[11] Ter Sámi has 8 cases, Nominative, Genitive, Accusative, Essive, Inessive-Lative, Dative-Illative, Abessive, and Comitative.

(in the UPA) abre' paл = raining cloud pɛci̮ pal'čemi̮š = slaughter of deer taja oлmi̮j = German inhabitant tara parnɛ = Russian boys In the Nominative case the base word changes when a plural is made.