4.2. Gramatik / Grammar

Adjective comparison

The comparative ending in Livonian is -imi or –īmi, e.g., sūr ’big’ : sūrimi ’bigger’, piški ’small’ : piškīmi ’smaller’, kuordõ ’high’ : kuordimi ’higher’. Often, however, comparatives are formed using the preposition jo instead, in which case the adjective typically remains in its basic form, e.g., kīlma ’cool’ : jo kīlma ’cooler’, lem ’warm’, jo lem ’warmer’. The comparative of jõvā ’good’ is formed using a different stem – paŗīmi ’better’.

The superlative is formed using amā ’all’, which is attached to the basic or comparative form, e.g., amā sūrimi ’biggest’, amā piškīmi ’smallest’, amā kuordimi ’highest’, amā kīlma ’coolest’, amā lem ’warmest’.

When comparing something, the adjective is generally connected to the object of comparison with ku ’as’, äbku ’than’ (literally ‘not as’), and sometimes also with Latvian nekā ‘as, than’, e.g., vāldim ku amād puŗŗõd īlma pǟl ‘whiter than all the sails in the world’, tämpõ u’m jo lem äbku e’gļõ ‘today is warmer than yesterday’. It is also possible to mark the object of comparison with the elative in Livonian (Jǭn u’m mi’nstõ jo nūor ‘Jǭn is younger than me’), but examples of this are extremely rare. The elative can be used to indicate prominence among the members of a group, e.g., vaņīmi nēšti ‘the oldest of them’.