Endangered-language dictionaries from the perspective of the dictionary maker and speech community

The article discusses issues related to making a dictionary of an endangered language, specifically the case of Kildin Saami, the language of the ethnos that inhabits only the Kola peninsula in Russia. The article considers three oppositions: “dictionary versus language”, “dictionary versus user”, and “dictionary versus dictionary maker”, which lead to a conclusion regarding the peculiarities of the work of a lexicographer making such a dictionary. The article describes issues related to the variety of language and orthography selected and the scope of the speaker’s background knowledge, which has a tendency to shrink or transform under conditions where speakers are aging, traditional folk culture is being lost, and there are global changes in the sociocultural environment of the ethnos.