The activities of the Language Council include, among other things, maintaining and developing the Sámi languages used in Finland; giving instructions and recommendations on the issues concerning the correct use of language, names, and terminology; advancing language research; providing information on Sámi languages, and participating in the Nordic co-operation of linguistic issues.  In addition, the Sámi Language Council, together with the Language Office, gives a report to the Sámi Parliament every electoral period. The report concerns the appliance of Sámi language legislation and the realisation of language rights, as well as the development of linguistic conditions.  

The members of the Sámi Language Council for the years 2012-2015 are:

Members:

Morottaja Anna, chair

Magga Ulla, vice-chair

Morottaja Petter

Lumisalmi Erkki

Fofonoff Merja

Vuolab-Lohi Kaarina 

Valle Ailu 

Deputies:

Mattus Ilmari

Pautamo Ellen

Marja-Liisa Olthuis

Feodoroff Vladimir

Sanila-Aikio Tiina

Magga Bigga-Helena

Anna-Liisa Väyrynen

Together with the Sámi Language Office, which functions in the Sámi Parliament Secretariat, the Language Council has an important political role as a supervisor of the rights of the Sámi-speaking population and as a promoter of Sámi languages.

An important part of the Language Council work is co-operation with the Sámi Language Committee and other institutes working with the Sámi and other minority languages and in the field of language research, such as Kotus (Research Institute for the Languages of Finland). The Language Council also has representatives on the executive board of the Finnish department (FIBLUL) in the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages (EBLUL).

The Language Council has also advanced certain lexicon projects in Sámi.

Sámi Language Committee

The Nordic Sámi language co-operation belonged to the Sámi Language Committee, appointed by the Sámi Council, from 1971-1996. All forms of Sámi in the Nordic countries and Russia were represented on the committee. The Language Committee was discontinued in 1996 and the Sámi parliaments in Finland, Sweden and Norway agreed on reorganising the language co-operation in 1997. In 1997, the treaty on the Nordic language co-operation was signed on the Sámi National Day, 6 February, in Trondheim, when the treaty on founding a Sámi Parliamentarian Council was also made.

The Sámi Language Committee, functioning under the Sámi Parliamentarian Council, is today actively working on protecting the position of language and its correct use in society, because these issues are regarded to be more important than ever before in maintaining and developing the Sámi language and culture.

The Sámi Language Committee has its own language sections for all of the six Sámi languages which have received standardisation. In a meeting of the Sámi Language Committee and the administrations of the language bodies in the Sámi parliaments in 2002, the issue of founding term groups whose members are from different countries was discussed. Term groups for North, Lule, and South Sámi were founded. These Sámi speakers live in different countries, and the work of the term groups focuses mainly on maintaining consistency of the Sámi language in terms of terminology, standardisation, and lexicon, regardless of national borders. Skolt, Inari, and Kildin Sámi do not have their own term groups, because they are mainly languages that are spoken in one country only.

According to a treaty, the Nordic Sámi parliaments also ensure that the Russian Sámi and their languages are included in the co-operation. The Sámi Language Committee has an established funding and secretariat. 

The representatives for the Sámi Language Committee, appointed by the Sámi Parliament in Finland, are:

North Sámi

Vesa Guttorm; deputies Petra Magga-Vars and Päivikki Nillukka-Rauhala

Inari Sámi

Petter Morottaja; deputies Ilmari Mattus and Heli Aikio

Skolt Sámi

Erkki Lumisalmi; deputies Jouni Moshnikoff and Katri Fofonoff