The Leivu dialect is an extinct South-Estonian dialect that was spoken in North Latvia around the

Gauja The Gauja River ( et, Koiva jõgi, german: Livländische Aa) is a river in the Vidzeme region of Latvia. It is the only large river of Latvia that begins and ends its flow in Latvia. Its length is 460 km, of which 93.5 km (approxim ...

river spoken by the

Gauja Estonians Gauja Estonians ( et, Koiva maarahvas, ''Leivu maarahvas'' or ''leivud''; lv, Vidzemes igauņi – ' Vidzeme Estonians' or ''leivi'') were Estonians who lived along Gauja river in Latvia. History Gauja Estonians are most likely native to their ...

, who became extinct in the year 1988 when the last speaker

Anton Bok Anton may refer to: People *Anton (given name), including a list of people with the given name *Anton (surname) Places *Anton Municipality, Bulgaria **Anton, Sofia Province, a village *Antón District, Panama **Antón, a town and capital of th ...

died. However there are many recordings of the dialect. The Leivu dialect most closely resembles the Hargla sub-dialect of

Võro Võro may refer to: * Võro people, an ethnic group of Estonia * Võro language, a language belonging to the Baltic-Finnic branch of the Finno-Ugric languages of Estonia * Võro Institute, the governing organization of the Võro language Voro ma ...

but was influenced by the

Latvian language Latvian ( ), also known as Lettish, is an Eastern Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family, spoken in the Baltic region. It is the language of Latvians and the official language of Latvia as well a ...

and possibly even Livonian. In the year 1782, the dialect was spoken by thousands of people, in 1849 around 2600 knew the dialect and in 1935 only about 131 knew or spoke it. In 1911, Finnish linguist

Heikki Ojansuu Heikki is a Finnish and Estonian male given name. It derives from a medieval vernacular form of the name Henrik. Notable people with the name include: * Heikki Aho (footballer) (born 1983), Finnish footballer * Heikki A. Alikoski (1912–1997), ...

went to document the Leivu dialect along with the

Ludza Ludza (; pl, Lucyn, german: Ludsen, russian: Лудза, ''Ludza'') is a town in the Latgale region of eastern Latvia. Ludza is the oldest town in Latvia and this is commemorated by a key in its coat of arms. Ludza is the administrative centre o ...

and

Kraasna Krasnogorodsk (russian: Красногородск; et, Kraasna) is an urban locality (a work settlement) and the administrative center of Krasnogorodsky District of Pskov Oblast, Russia, located on the Sinyaya River south of Pskov. Municipa ...

dialects.

Characteristics

Due to Latvian influence, the sounds s and z have changed into š and ž. For example: ‘wolf’, ‘gun’. There has also been a loss of the letter H in many words and it is usually replaced by a

stød Stød (, also occasionally spelled stod in English) is a suprasegmental unit of Danish phonology (represented in non-standard IPA as ), which in its most common form is a kind of creaky voice (laryngealization), but it may also be realized as a ...

such as in: ‘money’, ‘less’. The first syllable was pronounced longer than in other South-Estonian dialects, for example ‘egg’.

Example of words in Leivu

* = rake * = Sunday * = maple * = chilly * = skin * = head * = mother * = father * = seed, grain * = room

References

{{Reflist Estonian dialects South Estonian language Finnic languages Languages of Latvia

Characteristics

Example of words in Leivu

See also

References