Livonian Language - Speakers of Livonian in The 21st Century

Speakers of Livonian in The 21st Century

Viktors Bertholds, one of the last Livonian speakers of the generation who learnt Livonian as first language in a Livonian-speaking family and community, died on February 28, 2009, ironically, the day of Kalevala (day of Finnish culture).

As reported in the Estonian newspaper "Eesti Päevaleht", Viktors Bertholds was born in 1921 and probably belonged to the last generation of children who started their (Latvian-medium) primary school as Livonian monolinguals; only a few years later it was noted that Livonian parents had begun to speak Latvian with their children. During World War II, Bertholds, unlike most Livonian men, managed to avoid being mobilized in the armies of either occupation force by hiding in the woods. After the war, Bertholds worked in various professions and shared his knowledge of Livonian language with many field linguists; in the 1990s, he also taught Livonian in children’s summer camps.

Bertholds' Livonian-speaking brother and wife died in the 1990s. In the early 2000s, many other prominent "last Livonians" also died, such as Poulin Klavin (1918–2001), keeper of many Livonian traditions and the last Livonian to reside permanently on the Courland coast, and Edgar Vaalgamaa (1912–2003), clergyman in Finland, translator of the New Testament and author of a book on the history and culture of the Livonians ("Valkoisen hiekan kansa", Jyväskylä 2001).

One of the surviving native speakers of Livonian is Grizelda Kristiņa (née Bertholds, born 1910, since 1947 a resident of Canada). According to Valts Ernštreits, she speaks Livonian as well "as if she had stepped out of her home farm in a Livonian coastal village just yesterday". She is also a member of the Bertholds family and qualifies as the last living native speaker of Livonian language of her generation.

The survival of the Livonian language now depends on young Livonians who learned Livonian in their childhood from grandparents or great-grandparents of the pre-war generations. There are not very many of them, but all in all, there are a few hundred ethnic Livonians in Latvia now who are interested in their Livonian roots. Some young Livonians not only sing folk-songs in Livonian but even strive at actively using Livonian in everyday communication. One such younger generation Livonian speaker is Julgī Stalte, who performs with the Livonian-Estonian World Music group Tuļļi Lum.