{"id":1246,"date":"2024-04-04T08:57:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T05:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/liivikeel\/taustaks\/"},"modified":"2025-03-20T15:19:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-20T13:19:51","slug":"taustaks","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/liivikeel\/en\/taustaks\/","title":{"rendered":"Livonian and its speech area"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"height:19px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Livonian belongs to the Southern Finnic group of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family. It was spoken primarily in the area of \u200b\u200bpresent-day Latvia on both sides of the Gulf of R\u012bga, though Livonian settlement also extended to the southwestern corner of present-day Estonia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The variety of Livonian, which, despite the twists and turns of history, still has speakers in the 21st century, is the <strong>Courland Livonian language<\/strong>. This textbook is about this form of the language. It is customary to divide Courland Livonian into the East Livonian and West Livonian dialects. The<strong> Livonian villages of Courland<\/strong>, starting from the westernmost, are Pa\u0163ikm\u01ed (Latvian: Ovi\u0161i), L\u016b\u017e (L\u016b\u017e\u0146a), Piz\u0101 (Mi\u0137e\u013ctornis), \u012ara (Lielirbe) \u2013 the West Livonian dialect was spoken in these. The language spoken in the village of \u012ara, located on the banks of the \u012ara River, has sometimes also been considered a central dialect or a transitional zone between West and East Livonian. The East Livonian dialect area included \u016a\u017ekil\u0101 (Jaunciems), S\u012bkr\u00f5g (S\u012bkrags), Ir\u0113 (Mazirbe), Kuo\u0161tr\u00f5g (Ko\u0161rags), Pitr\u00f5g (Pitrags), S\u01dfnag (Saunags), Vaid (Vaide), K\u016bolka (Kolka), M\u00e4gkil\u0101 (U\u0161i), Must\u0101num (Melnsils), Gipk (\u0122ipka).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Livonian Coast and northern Courland (map: Tiit-Rein Viitso)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"629\" src=\"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/649\/sissejuhatus_liivi_rand.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-945\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/649\/sissejuhatus_liivi_rand.jpg 819w, https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/649\/sissejuhatus_liivi_rand-300x230.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/649\/sissejuhatus_liivi_rand-768x590.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 819px) 100vw, 819px\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<!--nextpage-->\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:18px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>Vidzeme Livonian language<\/strong> is represented by <strong>Salaca Livonian<\/strong>, the last records of which date to the second half of the 19th century. This historical form of Livonian has \u2013 especially in recent times \u2013 been extensively studied and described (the most recent overview is Karl Pajusalu and Eberhard Winkler\u2019s \u201cSalatsi liivi keele teejuht\u201d (Salaca Livonian Language Guide), 2023).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The region historically inhabited by the Livonians (map: University of Latvia Livonian Institute)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"909\" height=\"416\" src=\"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/649\/sissejuhatus_liivlaste_alad.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-951\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/649\/sissejuhatus_liivlaste_alad.png 909w, https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/649\/sissejuhatus_liivlaste_alad-300x137.png 300w, https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/649\/sissejuhatus_liivlaste_alad-768x351.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 909px) 100vw, 909px\"><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Livonian belongs to the Southern Finnic group of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family. It was spoken primarily in the area of \u200b\u200bpresent-day Latvia on both sides of the Gulf of R\u012bga, though Livonian settlement also extended to &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":320,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1246","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/liivikeel\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/liivikeel\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/liivikeel\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/liivikeel\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/liivikeel\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1246"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/liivikeel\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2706,"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/liivikeel\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1246\/revisions\/2706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sisu.ut.ee\/liivikeel\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}