Similar Rock carvings at Alta, World Heritage Rock Art, Alta Church, Tirpitz Museum, Elvebakken Church | ||
Jiepmaluokta (Northern Sami) or Hjemmeluft (Norwegian) is a bay in the municipality of Alta in Norway. It is the main site for the rock carvings at Alta with about 3000 individual carvings (petroglyphs).
Map of Jiepmaluokta, 9512 Alta, Norway
Hjemmeluft is an often used example for how the Norwegenization of the indigenous Sami language names in Northern Norway have often created meaningless names. In Sami language the name Jiepmaluokta is "bay of seals" while the Norwegian name Hjemmeluft is an adaption of the Sami name and is translated to "home air".
The ending -luft (air) comes from the accusative and genitive form of the Sámi noun luokta (bay) : "luovtta" which is pronounced "luofta". The Norwegian version's hjemme- (home) may indicate that at an earlier stage the toponym was Jiemmaluokta - the difference being that jiepma is rendered in genitive, making the name mean "seal's bay".
There is also another place in Finnmark County called Jiemmaluokta. In Norwegian, that place is called Saraby and lies in Kvalsund.