About the translator

Uldis Balodis is a Research Fellow of Southern Finnic Languages and Language Typology ​​at the University of Tartu and a Researcher at the University of Latvia Livonian Institute. He received his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of California, Santa Barbara for his grammar of Yuki, an indigenous language of Northern California. He was a Kone Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the University of Helsinki in Finland during which time he documented the South Estonian Lutsi community of Latgale, Latvia and wrote a Lutsi language, culture, and history primer.

Uldis’s Livonian path began long ago and far away during his teenage years growing up in Arizona when he first began learning Livonian. Uldis is a descendant of Latvian WWII refugees and the first Livonians he knew (Erna Aizkalns (née Belte) of Pomona, California and Silvija Rudzītis (née Bertholds) of Hyde Park, Massachusetts) were also part of this community. Over the years, Livonian has always remained a part of Uldis’s life both in professional and personal contexts. He is the author of the English translation of the Livonian dictionary and has also studied the history of the Livonian community abroad.