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Livonian language |
| Livonian Līvõ kēļ |
||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Latvia | |
| Region: | Livonia | |
| Total speakers: | Less than 150 | |
| Language family: | Uralic Finno-Ugric Finno-Lappic Baltic-Finnic Livonian |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | fiu (Other Finno-Ugric languages) | |
| ISO 639-3: | liv | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Livonian (Līvõ kēļ) belongs to the Baltic Finnic branch of the Uralic languages. It is a moribund language now spoken by some 35 people, of whom only 10 are fluent.1 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 learnt the language in an attempt to revive it, but, as ethnic Livonians are a small minority, opportunities to use Livonian are limited.
The Livonian alphabet is a hybrid which mixes Latvian and Estonian orthography.
Livonian alphabet:
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
Contents |
Livonian has 8 vowels:
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i /i/ | õ /ɨ/ | u /u/ |
| Near-close | ȯ /ʊ/ | ||
| Mid | e /ɛ/ | [ə]1 | o /o/ |
| Open | ä /æ/ | a /ɑ/ |
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.
Livonian has 23 consonants:
| Labial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m /m/ | n /n/ | ņ /ɲ/ | [ŋ]1 | ||
| Plosive | voiceless | p /p/ | t /t̪/ | ț /c/ | k /k/ | |
| voiced | b /b/ | d /d̪/ | ḑ /ɟ/ | g /ɡ/ | ||
| Fricative | voiceless | f /f/ | s /s/ | š /ʃ/ | h /h/ | |
| voiced | v /v/ | z /z/ | ž /ʒ/ | |||
| Trill | r /r/ | ŗ /rʲ/ | ||||
| Approximant | Central | j /j/ | ||||
| Lateral | l /l/ | ļ /ʎ/ | ||||
/n/ becomes [ŋ] preceding /k/ or /ɡ/.
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:
Livonian has been - for centuries - thoroughly influenced by Latvian in terms of grammar, phonology and word derivation etc. 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)
Mustā plagā valsõ
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