Partitive or genitive plural? Use and formation of the partitive case in Kildin Saami

The paper presents research results on the partitive case in the Kildin Saami language. For this purpose, modern standardized and non-standardized literary texts and example sentences in dictionaries written by authors who are native Kildin Saami speakers have been analysed. With the help of abundant examples, the use and functions of the partitive case in Kildin Saami are described. The large number of partitive forms found in the analysed material, as well as partitive generation within new loanwords, show that the partitive is still a living and productive case in Kildin Saami. The present analysis confirms the hypothesis about two different suffixes that generate the Kildin Saami partitive depending on the word stem. In contrast to the opinion of other researchers, who assume that the partitive appears as a single form used to express both singular and plural referents, the present analysis shows that a certain group of nouns and pronouns has different partitive forms for singular and plural referents. Thereafter follows argumentation against the hypothesis about the replacement of the partitive with the genitive plural due to Russian interference. Instead, examples are presented showing the replacement of the partitive with the genitive and other cases due to semantic and syntactic reasons.