Language maintenance and loss in an originally trilingual area in North Norway.

After a brief introduction focusing on the linguistic situation in the previously multilingual northern part of Norway in general, the present paper takes as its point of departure the sociolinguistical situation in one particular Village in the coastal region inhabited by so-called "Sea Samis." The linguistic development of the village since the turn of the century is described as a case of language shift, in which the language of the dominating group, Norwegian, has gradually been taken over by the dominated group. The last part of the paper attempts to explain the development described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]