The Ludza Estonians (in the

Ludza dialect The Ludza dialect or Lutsi () is a dialect of South Estonian that was spoken in Latvia by the Ludza Estonians near the town of Ludza in Latvia. Ludza is the most similar to the Seto dialect of South Estonian. The Ludza dialect has historically b ...

: ''Lutsi maarahvas'' – ‘Lutsi Estonians’, in Latvian: ''Ludzas igauņi'') are a group of ethnic

Estonians Estonians or Estonian people () are a Finnic ethnic group native to the Baltic Sea region in Northern Europe, primarily their nation state of Estonia. Estonians primarily speak the Estonian language, a language closely related to other Finni ...

living in and around

Ludza Ludza (; , , , , ''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 of Ludza Municipality that is located near ...

, south-eastern

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

History

Most of the Ludza Estonians probably moved into the area in the 17th century before the

Great Northern War In the Great Northern War (1700–1721) a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern Europe, Northern, Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the ant ...

, but the settlement may have originated earlier. Throughout the era of

feudalism Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...

, when life was mostly confined to one's near environment, this ethnic group retained its Estonian identity and ethnographic features. Ludza Estonians were originally

Lutherans Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched the Reformation in 15 ...

, but became Catholics and had close contacts with neighbouring

Latgalians Latgalians (, , modern ; variant translations also include Latgallians, Lettigalls or Lettigallians) were an ancient Baltic tribe. They likely spoke a variant of Latvian language, which probably became the ''lingua franca'' in present-day Latvia ...

and

Belarusians Belarusians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Belarus. They natively speak Belarusian language, Belarusian, an East Slavic language. More than 9 million people proclaim Belarusian ethnicity worldwide. Nearly 7.99&n ...

. As long as the church ceremonies and confessions were held in Estonian, the people had little need to speak Latvian or

Belarusian Belarusian may refer to: * Something of, or related to Belarus * Belarusians, people from Belarus, or of Belarusian descent * A citizen of Belarus, see Demographics of Belarus * Belarusian language * Belarusian culture * Belarusian cuisine * Byelor ...

. Nevertheless, the local Latgalian dialect of Latvian, Belarusian, and Russian were spoken to a certain extent in the areas where those people were their neighbours. In manors,

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

was heard (in

Latgale Latgale (; ; ; ; ; ; Belarusian Latin alphabet, Belarusian Latin: ''Łathalija''; ), also known as Latgalia or Latgallia, is one of the Historical Latvian Lands. It is the easternmost region of the country and lies north of the Daugava River. Wh ...

, it was the administrative language at the time).

Language

Ludza Estonians spoke the

(Ludzī kīļ), which is closely related to

Seto Seto may refer to: Places *Seto, Aichi, production place of Japanese pottery and venue of Expo 2005 * Seto, Ehime, facing the Seto Inland Sea * Seto, Okayama, adjacent to Okayama, in Okayama Prefecture *Seto Inland Sea of Japan *Setomaa (''Seto ...

. By the 19th century, the church had become Latvianised and Russian had become the official language and

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...

. According to

Oskar Kallas Oskar Kallas (also Oskar Philipp Kallas; in Kirikuküla, Saaremaa – 26 January 1946 in Stockholm) was an Estonian diplomat, linguist and folklorist.Toivo Miljan, ''Historical Dictionary of Estonia'', Scarecrow Press 2004 He was the husband o ...

, who made a studying trip to area in 1893, there were 4,387 Ludza Estonians, of whom some 800 could speak Estonian. In the 1970s and 1980s, there were some 20 people left in the area still using the language. The last native speaker of the Ludza dialect was Nikolājs Nikonovs, who was from the village of

Lielie Tjapši Lielie Tjapši (Ludza: Jānikülä or Sūreq Tsäpsiq) is a small village in the extreme eastern part of the Pilda Parish of Ludza Municipality in the Latgale region of Latvia. The last native speakers of Ludza lived in Lielie Tjapši; the dialect ...

. He died in 2006, but some people still have limited knowledge of the dialect. The last knowledgeable language user with passive knowledge, Antonīna Nikonova, died later in 2014. The dialect spoken by Ludza Estonians, was closely related to eastern

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 * Õil ...

-dialects. It contained about 180 loanwords from Latvian and some from Russian. Ludza Estonians reportedly had some difficulty understanding standardised Estonian.

References

Sources and external links

Paul Ariste Paul Ariste (3 February 1905 – 2 February 1990) was an Estonian linguist renowned for his studies of the Finno-Ugric languages (especially Estonian and Votic), Yiddish and Baltic Romani language. He was born as Paul Berg, in Rääbise, V ...

''Keelekontaktid''. Tallinn: Valgus 1981.
''Eestlased Lätis'' Retrieved May 8, 2007.
* Väinö Klau
''Läti eestlased'' Retrieved May 8, 2007.
* Hannes Korju

* Marjo Mela ''Latvian virolaiset'' Helsinki: Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden seura 2001, {{in lang, fi * Uldis Balodis http://www.lutsimaa.lv/Lutsimaa__Land_of_the_Ludza_Estonians/Home.html Social history of Estonia Latvian people of Estonian descent Ludza Social history of Latvia Ethnic groups in Latvia