Knud Leem was a Norwegian priest and linguist. Knud Leem started the linguistic study of Sámi when he published a grammar book of it in 1748. Between 1756 and 1768, he also published two dictionaries.

Leem also headed the Seminarium Lapponicum for some time and worked together with Anders Porsanger

Anders Porsanger

Anders Porsanger was a Sami linguist from Olderfjorden in Porsanger. He is known for having worked with János Sajnovics in order to establish both the Sami and Hungarian languages when Sajnovics was in Vardø observing the Venus transit in 1769. Anders Porsanger went to a cathedral school in...

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Leem's grammar book shows an insight into Sámi that was not present in many other grammar books of the same era. Leem uses an inflection classification quite similar to the one being used nowadays. He also commented on consonant gradation

Consonant gradation

Consonant gradation is a type of consonant mutation, in which consonants alternate between various "grades". It is found in some Uralic languages such as Finnish, Estonian, Northern Sámi, and the Samoyed language Nganasan. In addition, it has been reconstructed for Proto-Germanic, the parent...

, but more as a tendency than as a rule.

Topographic work

Knud Leem’s most important book is his topographic work, Beskrivelse over Finmarkens Lapper deres Tungemaal, Levemaade og forrige Afgudsdyrkelse, (1767), supplied with comments from bishop J.E. Gunnerus and a large historic-religious study written by E.J. Jessen-Schardeböll. Here Leem describes in both Danish and Latin the life and livings amongst the contemporary Lapp population, their garments, clothing and dress, food and cooking, hunting, fishing and sport equipments, shamanism and folk belief. A rich, but in many cases distorted, illustrated material, enlarges the value of the documentation about elderly Lappish culture, at the same time as the book is among the foremost topographic work published in the Nordic countries during the 18th Century.

Selected works

• En lappisk Grammatica efter den Dialect, som bruges af Field-Lapperne udi Porsanger-Fiorden : samt et Register over de udi samme Grammatica anførte Observationers Indhold, hvorhos er føyet et Blad af den berømmelige Historie-Skriveres Hr. Baron Ludvig Holbergs Kirke-Historie oversat i det Lappiske Tungemaal med en Analyse over hvert Ord. (1748)
• En Lappesk Nomenclator efter Den Dialect, som bruges af Fjeld-Lapperne i Porsanger-Fjorden. (1756)
• Om Lappernes Afgudiske Ofringer (1760)
• Knud Leems Beskrivelse over Finmarkens Lapper, deres Tungemaal, Levemaade og forrige Afgudsdyrkelse, oplyst ved mange Kaabberstykker = Canuti Leemii De Lapponibus Finmarchiae, eorumqve lingva, vita et religione pristina commentatio, multis tabulis aeneis illustrata / med J.E. Gunneri Anmærkninger. Og E.J. Jessen-S Afhandling om de norske Finners og Lappers hedenske Religion. (with Erich Johan Gunnerus and Johan Ernst; 1767)
• Lapponico - Danico - Latina. (1768)