Livonian (līvõ kēļ or rāndakēļ) belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages. It is a nearly extinct language, with one of its last native speakers having died in February 2009.^[2] It is closely related to Estonian. The native land of the Livonian people is Livonia, located in Latvia, in the north of the Kurzeme peninsula.

Some ethnic Livonians are learning or have learned the language in an attempt to revive it, but, as ethnic Livonians are a small minority, opportunities to use Livonian are limited. The Estonian newspaper Eesti Päevaleht erroneously announced that Viktors Bertholds, who died on 28 February 2009, was the last native speaker who started the Latvian-language school as a monolingual.^[3] Some other Livonians recently argued, though, that there are some native speakers left,^[4] including Viktors Bertholds' cousin, Grizelda Kristiņa. An article published by the Foundation for Endangered Languages in 2007 stated that there were only 182 registered Livonians and a mere six native speakers. In a 2009 conference proceeding, it was mentioned that there could be "at best 10 living native" speakers of the language.^[5]

The promotion of the Livonian language as a living language has been advanced mostly by Livonian Cultural Centre (Līvõ Kultūr Sidām), an organisation of mostly young Livonians. Livonian as a lesser used language in Latvia – along with Latgalian – is represented by the Latvian Bureau of Lesser Used Languages (LatBLUL), a national branch of the European Bureau of Lesser Used Languages (EBLUL).

As a second language, Livonian has about 20 speakers in Latvia.^[6][7] However, the language is taught in universities in Latvia, Estonia and Finland, which constantly increases the pool of second-language speakers who do not constantly reside in Latvia.

Speakers of Livonian in the 21st century [edit]

It has been suggested that this article be merged with Viktors Bertholds. (Discuss) Proposed since July 2010.

Viktors Bertholds, one of the last Livonian speakers of the generation who learnt Livonian as first language in a Livonian-speaking family and community, died on February 28, 2009.

As reported in the Estonian newspaper "Eesti Päevaleht", Viktors Bertholds was born in 1921 and probably belonged to the last generation of children who started their (Latvian-medium) primary school as Livonian monolinguals; only a few years later it was noted that Livonian parents had begun to speak Latvian with their children. During World War II, Bertholds, unlike most Livonian men, managed to avoid being mobilized in the armies of either occupation force by hiding in the woods. After the war, Bertholds worked in various professions and shared his knowledge of Livonian language with many field linguists; in the 1990s, he also taught Livonian in children’s summer camps.

Bertholds' Livonian-speaking brother and wife died in the 1990s. In the early 2000s, many other prominent "last Livonians" also died, such as Poulin Klavin (1918–2001), keeper of many Livonian traditions and the last Livonian to reside permanently on the Courland coast, and Edgar Vaalgamaa (1912–2003), clergyman in Finland, translator of the New Testament and author of a book on the history and culture of the Livonians ("Valkoisen hiekan kansa", Jyväskylä 2001).

One of the surviving native speakers of Livonian is Grizelda Kristiņa (née Bertholds, born 1910, since 1947 a resident of Canada). According to Valts Ernštreits, she speaks Livonian as well "as if she had stepped out of her home farm in a Livonian coastal village just yesterday".^[8] She is also a member of the Bertholds family^[9] and qualifies as the last living native speaker of Livonian language of her generation.

The survival of the Livonian language now depends on young Livonians who learned Livonian in their childhood from grandparents or great-grandparents of the pre-war generations. There are not very many of them, but all in all, there are a few hundred ethnic Livonians in Latvia now who are interested in their Livonian roots. Some young Livonians not only sing folk-songs in Livonian but even strive at actively using Livonian in everyday communication. One such younger generation Livonian speaker is Julgī Stalte, who performs with the Livonian-Estonian World Music group Tuļļi Lum.

Phonology [edit]

Vowels [edit]

Livonian has 8 vowels:

1. Unstressed /ɨ/ is realized as [ə].

All vowels can be long or short. Short vowels are written as indicated in the table; long vowels are written with an additional macron ("¯") over the letter, so, for example, [æː] = ǟ. The Livonian vowel system is notable for having a stød similar to Danish. As in other languages with this feature, it is thought to be a vestige of an earlier pitch accent.

Consonants [edit]

Livonian has 23 consonants:

/n/ becomes [ŋ] preceding /k/ or /ɡ/.

Alphabet [edit]

The Livonian alphabet is a hybrid which mixes Latvian and Estonian orthography.

A/a, Ā/ā, Ä/ä, Ǟ/ǟ, B/b, D/d, Ḑ/ḑ, E/e, Ē/ē, F/f, G/g, H/h, I/i, Ī/ī, J/j, K/k, L/l, Ļ/ļ, M/m, N/n, Ņ/ņ, O/o, Ō/ō, Ȯ/ȯ, Ȱ/ȱ, Õ/õ, Ȭ/ȭ, P/p, R/r, Ŗ/ŗ, S/s, Š/š, T/t, Ț/ț, U/u, Ū/ū, V/v, Z/z, Ž/ž

Grammar [edit]

History [edit]

In the 19th century, about 2,000 people still spoke Livonian; in 1852, the number of Livonians was 2394 (Ariste 1981: 78). Various historical events have led to the near total language death of Livonian:

• In the 13th century, speakers of Livonian numbered 30,000 (Schätzung Vääri, 1966).
• The German invasion: around the year 1200, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword and the Teutonic knights conquered Livonia, leading to contention of rule of the area between these orders and the Archbishopric of Riga.
• 1522: The introduction of the Reformation.
• 1557: The Russian invasion.
• 1558-1583: Livonian War. Russians, Swedes, Danes, Lithuanians and Poles fought over the area.
• 1721: The Treaty of Nystad. Livonia and Courland became provinces of Tsarist Russia.
• 1918: The founding of Latvia; the Livonian language re-blossomed.
• World War II and Soviet Union: Marginalization of Livonian.

Language contacts with Latvians and Estonians [edit]

Livonian has been - for centuries - thoroughly influenced by Latvian in terms of grammar, phonology and word derivation etc. The dative case in Livonian e.g. is a very unusual case in a Finnic language.^[10] There are about 2000 Latvian and 200 German loanwords in Livonian and most of the German words were adopted through Latvian.^[11] Latvian, however, was influenced by Livonian as well. Its regular syllabe stress based on Livonian is very unusual in a Baltic language. In both languages the letter h is not pronounced unlike to the other Finnic and Baltic languages. It is worthy of mention, that especially from the end of the 19th century on there were also many contacts with Estonians, namely, between (Kurzeme) Livonian fishers or mariners and the Estonians from Saaremaa or other islands. Many inhabitants of the islands of Western Estonia went to work in summer to the villages of the Kurzeme Livonians. As a result, the knowledge of Estonian spread among those Livonians and words of Estonian origin also came into Livonian. (Ariste 1981: 79) There are about 800 Estonian loanwords in Livonian most of which were borrowed from the Saaremaa dialect.^[12]

Common phrases [edit]

• Hello! – Tēriņtš!
• Bon Appetit - Jõvvõ sīemnaigõ!
• Good morning! - Jõvā ūomõg! / Jõvvõ ūomõgt!
• Good day! - Jõvā pǟva! / Jõvvõ päuvõ!
• Thank you! - Tienū!
• Happy new year! - Vȯndzist Ūdāigastõ!
• die - kȭlmä
• one – ikš
• two – kakš
• three – kuolm
• four – nēļa
• five – vīž
• six – kūž
• seven – seis
• eight – kōdõks
• nine – īdõks
• ten – kim

See also [edit]

• Min izāmō – The national anthem of the Livonians
• Tulli Lum - A music group with a Livonian singer

References [edit]

Bibliography [edit]

• Fanny de Sivers. 2001. Parlons live – Une langue de la Baltique. Paris: L'Harmattan. ISBN 2-7475-1337-8. (French)
• Paul Ariste 1981. Keelekontaktid. Tallinn: Valgus. [pt. 2.6. Kolme läänemere keele hääbumine lk. 76 - 82] (Estonian)
• Lauri Kettunen. 1938. Livisches Wörterbuch : mit grammatischer Einleitung. Helsinki: Finno-Ugrian Society. (German)
• Tooke, William (1799). View of the Russian Empire During the Reign of Catharine the Second, and to the Close of the Present Century.. London: T. N. Longman, O. Rees, and J. Debrett. pp. 523–527. 

External links [edit]

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Livonian Anthem

Livonian language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

• Livones.lv
• Virtual Livonia
• Ethnologue report
• Latvian-Livonian-English Phrase Book