Livonian Stories (1991) 

I absolutely love the Estonian narrator's voice. What a beautiful language Estonian (and Livonian) is.

The Livonians in Latvia remind me a lot of the Setos in Estonia.

I literally started to cry at 6:30, when the old woman started to sing. I can hear the pain in her song, a pain about her culture dying and to be unable to make their history to live again. I don't really know about this culture, but it is interesting.

Thank goodness for the revival. The native speakers of Livonian may be gone, but their language must not remain dead. Those who learn what's left of it should speak it as proudly as any of their Finn, Estonian or Magyar cousins would speak their own languages.

What a beautiful language, I speak basic Estonian and can recognize many words.

Wonderful, respectfull, moving documentary. Long live the Livonian People, Julgi, Davis,.....all of them. May they be happy and blessed!

Huh... I'm a Lithuanian but I don't know from where is the love and interest to Livonians, I feel that I might have been a Livonian before this life. Currently I'm 16. Huh, I would love to learn Livonian if I had an opportunity...

wow, their language is quite similar to estonian, i can understand half of what they are saying.

The Finnic languages are the most beautiful languages in the world, especially livonian, when you look the words.

This is probably one of the saddest documentaries I've seen. An entire ethnic group and its language, nearly gone. I wish all the best to the last Livonians and that one day, their culture will make a rebound.

They are so beautiful and must have preserved many shamanic practices and folktales. Please don´t let this precious language die!! Thank you so much for this precious documentary about the Livonian people and culture!

There were different tribes and people living in today's area of Latvia. Latgalians, Selonians, Semigallians, Curonians (all four Indo-European Baltic tribes) and Livonians (Uralic Balto-Finnic tribe). More than 1/3 of this area was inhabited by Livonians. These people never really "died" away all together or something. Instead all of the five mentioned tribes melted together while (even nowadays) shifting their language to Latvian making up the modern people of theLatvians and leaving behind tons of Finnic features in the Latvian culture and language (both vocabulary- and especially pronunciation-wise). Today approximately 30 and up to 50% of all Latvians have Livonian descent. That is the reason why the genetically closest relatives of Latvians aren't only Lithuanians but Estonians as well. That's why I (as a Latvian) think Latvians are somewhat and should bee seen as a Baltic-Balto-Finnic nation/ethnicity. I hope we as a nation will revive this beautiful language and thereby enrich our outstanding culture even more.

Liivinmaa as we say in Finland

Ethnologue lists the last speaker of Livonian as having died in 2013, an ethnic population of 200, yet the language is not classified as "extinct", just "dormant" which means that there is a revival movement or something like that taking place.

I can't express in words how precious this documentary is. I'd also like to thank the person who added the English subtitles and a special appreciation for the size of the letters, as this helps a lot people with eyesight issues as myself, and they get more problematic as we age!🙏🙏🙏

as a finnish speaker i can understand some words of the language.

TEACH ME LIVONIAN!

Livonians are the true natives. There should be no shame speaking it in public.

As a Latvian, I had no idea that "Pūt, vējiņi" and "Velc, pelīte, saldu miegu" are Livonian songs... my mom used to sing them in Latvian when I was little... the people are gone now and the memory of them is fading...

I'm karelian and when I hear this narrator speaks, feels like home. Many my aunties and uncles spoke this livi dialect. Like fork in finnish is haarukka but in our spoken word is kahveli. Then we've cucumber is kurkku but in livi dialect its akursti.

«Ливы являлись одним из самых древних прибалтийско-финских племён, и район их расселения располагался южнее поселения эстонцев. Х. фон Яннау считал ливов прежними эстонцами. В Chronica der Prouintz Lyffland, Росток, 1578, отмечается: «Ливония получила название от ливов, которые являются древним народом, заселявшим её всегда и поныне.» Однако уже в Ливонской хронике Томаса Хярне (1638-1678) повествуется, что в Ливонии ливов осталось лишь немного, они перешли на латышский язык, и богослужение у них ведется на латышском языке. Летом 1852 года А.Шёгрен попытался выяснить численность оставшихся ливов в Курляндии. В районе западного диалекта их было 724 человека, и в районе восточного диалекта - 1600 человек - всего 2324 человека, владевших ливским языком. С точки зрения судьбы ливов решающим событием была, несомненно, 2 Мировая война, изгнавшая их из родных домов. Вторым ударом в 50-е годы ХХ века было полное закрытие побережья и прекращение рыбной ловли в прибрежных деревнях Балтийского моря. Все трудоспособные были вынуждены оставить свои дома и бежать в города, где они слились с латышами. Ныне во всей Латвии ливов, владеющих ливским языком, 13-15 человек.» Эдуард Вяари, «Ливы и ливский язык», сборник под редакцией Мауно Йокипии, «Прибалтийско-финские народы. История и судьбы родственных народов», Ювяскюля, Атена Кустаннус Оу, 1995

Their language could have been saved, but the villages where Livonians and where language was still alive along the Livoniano coast were destroyed by Soviets when they declared the area Soviet border,, outside that area livonian had no chance.

Thank you for uploading this, it’s a shame they were assimilated. At least there’s a revival going on now, I hope it turns out well.

clear and beautiful livonian.

I cried, starting 21:50

Skaisti, man patika

Does anyone by any chance know the background music by the composer?

Irma Fridrihson's story was profoundly tragic. Huge numbers of ethnic minorities in the USSR were forcibly deported by Stalin to other parts of the vast country in an attempt to culturally dilute so many of their ancestral homelands with ethnic Russians. Stalin and his men called the policy "population transfer" just to make it sound politically correct and pleasant to their die-hard followers.

Another language that has gone extinct due to Russian persecution: Russia talks about being the land of "brotherly people" - when they persecuted non-Russian peoples and forcibly wanted to Russify them.

Honestly, as a Latvian, I wish the majority language in Latvian territory was still Livonian. Although, as the yanks say, what's done is done. I guess Livonian will have to live through it's influence on Latvian and Estonian.

I am doing a research project about uralic minorities and I wish to speak about livonian. Do you know much about their history?

Tienu!

Livonian is Suomi! Beautiful! It's easy to understand with modern Suomi - Not only the Estonian narrator but especially the Livonian people who are speaking. I can understand almost all - only few words strange, probably loans from Russian? It is sad and wrong and illegal and irreprehensible that the synagogue of satan, the pedovore communists genocided them all! They must be held fully accountable for all the wrongs that they did to our humanity, to our Suomi people. INRI X

They should have similar rights to their language and culture as every indigenous people have. They should be treated as crown jewels of Latvia.

Английские субтитры мешают!

And why they died? Why estonians killed king Kaupo and he´s sons? Because of betray. Livs betrayed own blood.. I am sorry about this, but it is the truth. Remember Lembitu!