Title: Livonian
Series Title: Languages of the World/Materials 144
Published: 2006
Publisher: Lincom GmbH
http://www.lincom.at
Author: Christopher Moseley
Paperback: ISBN: 3895861588 Pages: 120 Price: Europe EURO 41
Abstract:
The Livonian, or Liv, language (Livonian randa kel 'coast language') is a member of the Baltic-Finnic subgroup within Finno-Ugric. It was until recently spoken in twelve costal villages of Kurzeme province in Latvia. At the beginning of the twentieth century it had over two thousand speakers, but the dispersal of the population during two world wars and subsequently during the Soviet period has meant that the language has not been passed on to younger generations so that at present only about ten elderly first-language speakers remain alive.
However, since the independence of Latvia in 1991, teaching of the language has been resumed and other cultural activities to foster the language have provoded an opportunity for the belated revival of the language. Livonian is a written language, but the orthography has varied somewhat during the period of just over a century since it was first committed to writing.
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