7.2. Gramatik / Grammar

Leţkīel mȯ’jjimi / Latvian influence

The influence of Latvian on Livonian is noticeable at all linguistic levels. The easiest to recognize are various loanwords such as bro’utšõ ’to travel’ (Latvian braukt : brauc), dadžā ’thistle’ (Latvian dadzis), etc. Likewise, Latvian function words have been borrowed and become established in Livonian, e.g., un ’and’, bet ’but’, bäs ’without’, pa (translative function word, e.g., pa sūrõks ’large (transl)’). The corresponding Livonian forms ja, agā, ilmõ have also remained in use alongside these.

The use of prefixes with Livonian verbs is also a result of Latvian influence. These include some, which correspond to Livonian compound verbs, e.g., samūoštab’(s/he) understands’ (Latvian saprot ‘(s/he) understands’) (cf. sǭb arū ‘(s/he) understands’), as well as some where the prefix does not add anything to the meaning of the sentence, e.g., cf. piepǭlab ’(s/he) asks’ (Latvian pielūdz ‘(s/he) worships’). However, it has been observed that the use of prefixes varies from speaker to speaker, e.g., one speaker says iegrumānikād ’enemies’ (Latvian ienaidnieki ‘enemies’), but another says grumānikād.

Livonian has also left its mark on Latvian. The most well-known example of this influence in Latvian is stress on the first syllable, which has been attributed to the influence of Livonian or, more broadly, (southern) Finnic languages. The fact that the Latvian locative case can sometimes be used to indicate direction has been attributed to Livonian influence. Likewise, there are also several words in Latvian that are borrowed from Livonian., e.g., sēne (Livonian sēņ ’mushroom’), maksāt (Livonian maksõ ’to pay’).