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Livonian Language
Livonian ( or ) is a Finnic language whose native land is the Livonian Coast of the Gulf of Riga, located in the north of the Kurzeme peninsula in Latvia but also used to be spoken in the Salaca River valley. Although its last known native speaker died in 2013, a child, Kuldi Medne, born in 2020, is reported to be a native speaker of Livonian. Her parents are Livonian language revival activists Jānis Mednis and Renāte Medne. Also, there are about 40 reported L2 speakers and 210 having reported some knowledge of the language. Possibly uniquely among the Uralic languages but similarly to Latvian and Lithuanian, Livonian has been described as a pitch-accent language (or ''restricted tone language'', see below). Some ethnic Livonians are learning or have learned Livonian in an attempt to revive it, but because ethnic Livonians are a small minority, opportunities to use Livonian are limited. The Estonian newspaper erroneously announced that Viktors Bertholds, who died o ...
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Latvia
Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to the southeast, and shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Sweden to the west. Latvia covers an area of , with a population of 1.9million. The country has a Temperate climate, temperate seasonal climate. Its capital and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city is Riga. Latvians, who are the titular nation and comprise 65.5% of the country's population, belong to the ethnolinguistic group of the Balts and speak Latvian language, Latvian. Russians in Latvia, Russians are the most prominent minority in the country, at almost a quarter of the population; 37.7% of the population speak Russian language, Russian as their native tongue. After centuries of State of the Teutonic Order, Teutonic, Swedish Livonia, Swedish, Inflanty Voi ...
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Gulf Of Riga
The Gulf of Riga, Bay of Riga, or Gulf of Livonia (, , ) is a bay of the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Estonia. The island of Saaremaa (Estonia) partially separates it from the rest of the Baltic Sea. The main connection between the gulf and the Baltic Sea is the Irbe Strait. The Gulf of Riga, as a sub-basin of the Baltic, also includes the Väinameri Sea in the West Estonian archipelago. Geography Extent The International Hydrographic Organization defines the Gulf of Riga's western limit as "A line running from Lyser Ort (57°34'N), in Latvia, to the South extreme of Saaremaa, through this island to Pammana (22°34'E), thence to Emmaste Point, the S extreme of Hiiumaa, through Hiiumaa to Tahkuna Point, the North extreme thereof, and on to Spithamn Point in Estonia". Islands Major islands in the gulf include Saaremaa, Kihnu, and Ruhnu, which are all in Estonian territory. Kihnu covers an area of . Saaremaa island is responsible for the brackish water of the ...
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Lesser Used Language
A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities. With a total number of 196 sovereign states recognized internationally (as of 2019) and an estimated number of roughly 5,000 to 7,000 languages spoken worldwide, the vast majority of languages are minority languages in every country in which they are spoken. Some minority languages are simultaneously also official languages, such as Irish in Ireland or the numerous indigenous languages of Bolivia. Likewise, some national languages are often considered minority languages, insofar as they are the national language of a stateless nation. Definitions There is no scholarly consensus on what a "minority language" is, because various different standards have been applied in order to classify languages as "minority language" or not. According to Owens (2013), attempts to define minority languages generally fall into several cate ...
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York University
York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, and over 375,000 alumni worldwide. It has 11 faculties, including the Lassonde School of Engineering, Schulich School of Business, Osgoode Hall Law School, Glendon College, and 32 research centres. York University was established in 1959 as a non-denominational institution by the ''York University Act'', which received royal assent in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario on 26 March of that year. Its first class was held in September 1960 in Falconer Hall on the University of Toronto campus with a total of 76 students. In the fall of 1961, York moved to its first campus at Glendon Hall (now part of Glendon College), which was leased from U of T, and began to emphasize liberal arts and part-time adult education. In 1965, the university opene ...
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Foundation For Endangered Languages
Foundation(s) or The Foundation(s) may refer to: Common uses * Foundation (cosmetics), a skin-coloured makeup cream applied to the face * Foundation (engineering), the element of a structure which connects it to the ground, and transfers loads from the structure to the ground * Foundation (evidence), a legal term * Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization ** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S. ** Private foundation, a charitable organization that might not qualify as a public charity by government standards Arts, entertainment, and media Film and TV * ''The Foundation'', a film about 1960s-1970s Aboriginal history in Sydney, featuring Gary Foley * ''The Foundation'' (1984 TV series), a Hong Kong series * ''The Foundation'' (Canadian TV series), a 2009–2010 Canadian sitcom * "The Foundation" (''Seinfeld''), an episode * ''Foundation'' (TV series), an Apple TV+ series adapted from Isaac Asimov's novels Games ...
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Native Speaker
Native Speaker may refer to: * ''Native Speaker'' (novel), a 1995 novel by Chang-Rae Lee * ''Native Speaker'' (album), a 2011 album by Canadian band Braids * Native speaker, a person using their first language or mother tongue * Native speaker (by proficiency), a person who has achieved the highest level of proficiency in a language, meeting all linguistic, grammatical, and cultural benchmarks of a native speaker, regardless of age of acquisition {{disambiguation ...
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Viktors Bertholds
Viktors Bertholds (16 January 1921 – 28 February 2009) was a Livonian and one of the last native speakers of the Livonian language. He was born in the village of Vaide () in 1921. Formerly believed to be the last native speaker of Livonian, this title actually belonged to Grizelda Kristiņa Grizelda Kristiņa (, née Bertholde; 19 March 1910 – 2 June 2013) was a Livonian and the last speaker of the Livonian language Livonian ( or ) is a Finnic language whose native land is the Livonian Coast of the Gulf of Riga, located ..., a relative of Bertholds who died in 2013. References {{DEFAULTSORT:Bertholds, Viktors 1921 births 2009 deaths Ethnic Livonians ...
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Eesti Päevaleht
(Estonia Daily) is a major daily Estonian newspaper, from the same publishers as the weekly '' Eesti Ekspress''. Another newspaper under the same name is published weekly in Stockholm, Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count .... History and profile was founded on 5 June 1995, when the newspapers '' Hommikuleht'', '' Päevaleht'' (previously '' Noorte Hääl''), and '' Rahva Hääl'' were merged into a single publication. On 29 September 1995, merged with ''Eesti Sõnumid''. In May 2011, the newspaper joined the Eesti Ajalehed group. References External links * 1995 establishments in Estonia Estonian-language newspapers Mass media in Tallinn Newspapers published in Estonia Newspapers established in 1995 {{Estonia-newspaper-stub ...
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Livonian Language Revival
The Livonian language, spoken for centuries in Latvia, gradually declined until the death of its last fluent native speaker, Grizelda Kristiņa, on 2 June 2013. Nevertheless, today there are several ethnic Livonians that are striving for the revival of the language, with about 210 people with some knowledge of it in the world. Background The Livonian language is a Finnic language, similar to Estonian and Finnish, spoken in Latvia. Its gradual decline, which had already been occurring for centuries earlier, was accelerated after the Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940. The Soviet Army took control of the Livonian Coast, the place where a few hundred Livonian speakers still remained, and restricted access to the area. The Livonian language became extinct on 2 June 2013 when Grizelda Kristiņa, its last fluent native speaker, died at age 103. She had left Latvia in 1944 due to its occupation by the Soviets and settled in Canada, where she lived until her death. She helped resear ...
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Vowels
A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (length). They are usually voiced and are closely involved in prosodic variation such as tone, intonation and stress. The word ''vowel'' comes from the Latin word , meaning "vocal" (i.e. relating to the voice). In English, the word ''vowel'' is commonly used to refer both to vowel sounds and to the written symbols that represent them (, , , , , and sometimes and ). Definition There are two complementary definitions of vowel, one phonetic and the other phonological. *In the phonetic definition, a vowel is a sound, such as the English "ah" or "oh" , produced with an open vocal tract; it is median (the air escapes along the middle of the tongue), oral (at least some of the airflow must escape through the mouth), ...
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Pitch-accent Language
A pitch-accent language is a type of language that, when spoken, has certain syllables in words or morphemes that are prominent, as indicated by a distinct contrasting pitch ( linguistic tone) rather than by volume or length, as in some other languages like English. Pitch-accent languages also contrast with fully tonal languages like Vietnamese, Thai and Standard Chinese, in which practically every syllable can have an independent tone. Some scholars have claimed that the term "pitch accent" is not coherently defined and that pitch-accent languages are just a sub-category of tonal languages in general. Languages that have been described as pitch-accent languages include: most dialects of Serbo-Croatian, Slovene, Baltic languages, Ancient Greek, Vedic Sanskrit, Tlingit, Turkish, Japanese, Limburgish, Norwegian, Swedish of Sweden, Western Basque,Hualde, J.I. (1986)"Tone and Stress in Basque: A Preliminary Survey"(PDF). ''Anuario del Seminario Julio de Urquijo'' XX-3, 198 ...
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Lithuanian Language
Lithuanian (, ) is an East Baltic languages, East Baltic language belonging to the Baltic languages, Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the language of Lithuanians and the official language of Lithuania as well as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are approximately 2.8 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 1 million speakers elsewhere. Around half a million inhabitants of Lithuania of non-Lithuanian background speak Lithuanian daily as a second language. Lithuanian is closely related to neighbouring Latvian language, Latvian, though the two languages are not mutually intelligible. It is written in a Latin script. In some respects, some linguists consider it to be the most conservative (language), conservative of the existing Indo-European languages, retaining features of the Proto-Indo-European language that had disappeared through development from other descendant languages. History Among Indo-European languag ...
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