A Formal Letter About a Bilingual Place-Name Sign
You must write a formal letter in Skolt Sámi to a municipal council about a proposed place-name sign. The council plans to install a 2.4-metre-wide sign at the village turn-off using only the Finnish official name; the Skolt name is what residents use daily. Your letter will be read by the council chair and copied to the language committee. Constraints: 160-180 words, formal register, one clear request, a deadline of the 14 March council meeting, and one dual reference to 'we two' (you and a neighbour) who measured the sign. You have 40 minutes. A colleague suggests opening with a proverb about names and land; another says a proverb wastes the word limit. You also need to handle the place name, which has a Finnish official form and a Skolt form, and to revise a 42-word draft sentence containing three Finnish loanwords.
1. Should you open with the proverb? Plan the letter's structure within the word limit.
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The proverb is optional, not a structural requirement. A formal council letter should state its purpose in the first two sentences: who is writing, about which sign, and what decision is requested. If the proverb is used, keep it to one short clause and link it immediately to the place-name point; do not let it consume 20 of 180 words. Plan: salutation (5); purpose and sign width (30); local usage and the two-person measurement (40); request for both names on the sign (35); deadline of 14 March (20); closing and contact (25); leave a margin for formal formulae. The colleague who says the proverb wastes words is right if the letter has no room for evidence.
2. How should you present the place name and what evidence should you include, given no external attachments?
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On first mention, use the Skolt name as the primary form and the Finnish official name in parentheses; thereafter use the Skolt form consistently. Do not alternate forms without signalling. Evidence within the letter: daily local usage, the fact that you and your neighbour measured the 2.4-metre sign, and the council's own bilingual practice if known. Avoid inventing historical claims. The request should be specific: the sign should display both forms, with the Skolt form not subordinate in size or position.
3. Revise the 42-word sentence: identify what to cut, split, or replace, and explain the register effect.
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Split the 42-word sentence into at least two sentences: one for the measurement, one for the request and deadline. Remove redundant modifiers and replace the three Finnish loanwords with Skolt terms where they are transparent; if one loanword is the official administrative term, keep it once and gloss it. Put the request in a direct formal verb, not a hope. Register effect: shorter sentences read as confident and respectful, while a long chain of loanwords reads as translated bureaucracy. Check the final word count after splitting, because splitting often adds words.