Leivu dialect
Leivu Dialect is an extinct South-Estonian dialect that was spoken in North Latvia around the Gauja river spoken by the Gauja Estonians, who became extinct in the year 1988 when the last speaker Anton Bok died. Though there are many recordings of Leivu. The Leivu dialect most closely resembles Hargla sub-dialect of Võro but it was influenced by the Latvian language[1] and possibly even Livonian.[2] In the year 1782 Leivu was spoken by thousands of people, in 1849 around 2600 knew the language and in 1935 only about 131 knew Leivu or spoke it.[3] In 1911 a Finnish Linguist named Heikki Ojansuu went to document the Leivu dialect along with Ludza and Kraasna.[4]
| Leivu | |
|---|---|
| Region | Gauja |
| Extinct | 1988 by the death of Anton Bok |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | leiv1234 |
 South Estonian, including Leivu | |
Charecteristics[1]
Due to Latvian influence, the sounds s and z have changed into š and ž. For example: suži ‘wolf’, püššü ‘gun’. There has also been a loss of the letter H in many words and it is usually replaced by a stød such as in: ra’a ‘money’, vä’ämb ‘less’.
The first syllable was pronounced longer than in other South-Estonian dialects, for example mùnà ‘egg’.
Example of words in Leivu[1]
- ria = rake
- püäbä = Sunday
- vaijõr = maple
- jaijõ = chilly
- na’a = skin
- pä’ä = head
- jèma = mother
- eza = father
- terä = seed, grain
- tarõ = room
References
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281583873_Quantity_of_Leivu_-_Estonian_language_island_in_contact_situation
- Dahl, Östen & Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Maria: The Circum-Baltic Languages: Grammar and typology
- Marjo Mela. "Läti eestlased. Ajalugu, keel ja kultuur". Eesti Keele Sihtasutus. Tallinn 2007 lk 33-34
- https://deepbaltic.com/2016/11/14/maq-sinnu-sali-the-south-estonian-dialect-spoken-in-deepest-latvia/