This part of the site offers a few older significant works in and on Livonian for download and also access to several newer important resources. The two newer resources listed below are the Livonian-Estonian-Latvian Dictionary published in 2012 and the Latvian-Livonian-English Phrasebook published in 1999. The Livonian-Estonian-Latvian Dictionary is the most important work on Livonian in recent time. It includes not only an extensive collection of Livonian words but also places them in the context of sentence examples. The full list of Livonian declension and conjugation types is also given in the dictionary. The link below is for the searchable online version of the dictionary; however, the print version contains additional information on Livonian grammar not present in the online version. The Latvian-Livonian-English Phrasebook is one of the few major resources for English-speaking learners of Livonian available online and is a useful resource for learning some practical Livonian and for seeing how Livonian can be used in everyday situations.
Livische Grammatik nebst Sprachproben is the first grammatical description of Livonian and in addition to describing the Livonian spoken in the coast villages of northern Kurzeme, also describes the Salaca Livonian dialect (spoken near the mouth of the Salaca River on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Rīga near the present-day Latvian-Estonian border), which has not been spoken since approximately the 1860s. The Salaca dialect was the last variety of Livonian to be spoken in an area outside of the Livonian Coast.
Jemakīel lugdõbrāntõz skūol ja kuod pierast (Mother Tongue Reading Book for School and Home) is the reader written and published by Livonian speaker, teacher, and cultural activist Pētõr Damberg during the pre-WWII Latvian independence period. Intended for use by children for study of Livonian, this reader remains a wonderful resource for learners and those with some knowledge of other Finnic languages interested in learning some Livonian. Similarly, the Līvõd lugdõbrōntōz (Livonian Reading Book) series serves a similar function. These books, compiled by linguists Lauri Kettunen and Oskar Loorits before WWII, provide a wonderful collection of texts of all sorts contributed by Livonian speakers from this period on a variety of topics often written in the colloquial language of the speakers of the time.
Līvõd tekstõd is a collection of Livonian texts compiled by Livonian native speaker Valda Šuvcāne in the early 1990s. The collection contains texts from a number of different sources including Damberg’s Jemakīel lugdõbrāntõz, Kettunen and Loorits’ Līvõd Lugdõbrōntõz series as well as the pre-WWII newspaper “Līvli”, other pre-WWII Livonian community publications, and later documentation of Livonian by linguists. Šuvcāne’s collection does not alter the orthography of the pre-WWII texts and therefore despite being a more recent publication, does not adhere to more recent Livonian orthographic practice. This version was retyped from the original by me and the Latvian introductory material was also translated by me. The final two entries below link to the full archive of “Līvli” and to a downloadable version of Lauri Kettunen’s extensive Livonian-German dictionary and grammatical summary published in 1938. Both of these resources are located in the online collection of the Finnish National Library.
Līvõkīel-ēstikīel-lețkīel sõnārōntõz (Livonian-Estonian-Latvian Dictionary) Authors: Tiit-Rein Viitso and Valts Ernštreits Click here to search the dictionary online. (Not a download link.) (Image Source.) |
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Latvian-Livonian-English Phrasebook Authors: Valda Šuvcāne and Ieva Ernštreite Click here to read this book. (Image Source.) |
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Livische Grammatik nebst Sprachproben Authors: Andreas Johan Sjögren (1794–1855) and Ferdinand Johann Wiedemann (1805–1887) Click here to read about this book and its authors. Click here to read this book. (Note: The PDF of this book is quite large (~50MB), so it’s probably best to download it directly rather than trying to view it in your browser.) |
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Jemakīel lugdõbrāntõz skūol ja kuod pierast (Mother Tongue Reading Book for School and Home) Author: Pētõr Damberg (1909–1987) Click here to read about this book and its author. Click here to read this book. |
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Līvõd Lugdõbrõntõz Editors: Lauri Kettunen (1885–1963) and Oskar Loorits (1900–1961) Click here to read volumes 1–4. Click here to read volume 5. |
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Līvõd Tekstõd (Livonian Texts) Editor: Valda Šuvcāne (1923–2007) Click here to read this book. |
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The Livonian-language newspaper “Līvli” (The Livonian) Click here to browse and read all pre-WWII issues of “Līvli”. |
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Livisches Wörterbuch mit grammatischer Einleitung Author: Lauri Kettunen Click here to read this book. |