Salaca Livonian

Salaca Livonian
Salaca Livonian
Extinct	1868
Language family	Finno-Ugric Finnic Southern Finnic Livonian Salaca Livonian; ; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

Salaca Livonian is an extinct dialect of Livonian. It was first attested from 1665 but it went extinct in 1868, though not before being extensively studied by Anders Johan Sjögren. It contained 6 moods and 6 tenses and its phonology was different then that of the other two Livonian dialects.

History

In the 12th century it is estimated that there were 15,000-28,000 Livonians, but over time the language drastically declined. As of the 19th century there were only 22 Salaca Livonians left who were concentrated around the Salaca River. The last speaker of Salaca Livonian died in 1868.^[1]

The first attestation of Salaca Livonian is from a 1665 chronicle written by Thomas Hiärn which collected place names, greetings, and random words. According to the text Livonian at the time was not only spoken around the Salaca River but also in Limbaži and elsewhere across northern Latvia. Though the dialect is definitely older than this chronicle and speakers had probably already began to assimilate into the larger Latvian population. More attestations of Salaca Livonian appear throughout the 1600 and 1700's but a very large increase in the amount of the studies occurs during the first half of the 19th century. The important Livonian linguist was Anders Johan Sjögren who unlike others systematically investigated and recorded the dialect.^[2]

Phonology

While Curonian and Salaca Livonian share many phonologic changes from other Southern Finnic languages there are some changes that happened in Salaca Livonian but not Curonian Livonian. In Curonian Livonian the second syllable a vowel has been preserved with examples being the words like ilma (weather) and poika (son).^[2]

But in Salaca Livonian the second syllable a has been removed after a geminate with speakers instead saying ilm~īlm and puog ~ puok. Salaca Livonian also pronounced and ü where West Curonian Livonian had an i and East Curonian Livonian had an õ. The Curonian dialects have made many changes to the o vowel but Salaca Livonian has been far more conservative with it.^[2]

ü vs i vs õ in Livonian dialects^[2]
Salaca Livonian	East Curonian Livonian	West Curonian Livonian	English
mütsa	mõtsā	mitsā	forest
tüla	tȭla/tõllõ	tīla	club
ülg ~ vülg ~ vǖlga	vȭlga	vīlga	debt

Morphology

Salaca Livonian had 6 moods and 6 tenses.^[3]

Moods and Tenses^[3]
	Present	Preterite	Perfect	Pluperfect	Future	Future Perfect
Indicative	om	oļ	om ollen	oļ ollen	līb	līb ollen
Conditional	oks		oks ollen
Imperative	ol		ol ollen		li	li ollen
Debitive	om olmist	oļ olmist	ollen olmist	oļ ollen olmist	li olmist	li ollen olmist
Quotative	ollij		ollij/ollen
Jussive	(las) olg		olg ollen

Sample Text

Salaca Livonian^[3]	English^[3]
Sinnel vajag min-d opat lībi-ski pagat	You have to teach me to speak Livonian
Minne-l om niema-d lüpsa-mi-st.	I have to milk cows
S`ie räk om āk´i, ku ǖd tois tag läe-mis-t.	This path is so narrow that people have to go in single file

References

^ "Livonians". Fenno-Ugria. Retrieved 2024-12-08.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Pajusalu, Karl (2014). THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SALACA LIVONIAN AND COURLAND LIVONIAN DIALECTS. pp. 150–152, 160.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Pajusalu, Karl. Verbal categories in Salaca Livonian grammar. pp. 130–131.

[1] "Livonians". Fenno-Ugria. Retrieved 2024-12-08.

[:0-2] Pajusalu, Karl (2014). THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SALACA LIVONIAN AND COURLAND LIVONIAN DIALECTS. pp. 150–152, 160.

[:1-3] Pajusalu, Karl. Verbal categories in Salaca Livonian grammar. pp. 130–131.

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