SRP “Latvian Studies for the Development of a Latvian and European Society”
“Multifunctional dictionary of Livonian”
No. VPP-LETONIKA-2021/2-0002
(2021.–2024.)
The goal of the project is to create a free access multifunctional dictionary based on the existing digital collections of Livonian in order to promote and improve the possibilities to use, learn, and research Livonian. The goal of the project is to create a free access multifunctional dictionary based on the existing digital collections of Livonian in order to promote and improve the possibilities to use, learn, and research Livonian.
During the project we plan to expand the existing digital collections – lexicography database, morphology database and Livonian corpus to significantly expand and standardise the vocabulary of Livonian and grammatical information about the lexical units. During the project we also plan to add new functions including new types of information – pronunciation examples in audio format and English translations, which will open new possibilities to use the collections.
While carrying out the project an international team of researchers and students will be formed, which will ensure closer cooperation within the field as well as facilitate emergence of young researchers. The project team will also include Livonian speakers. Their tasks will ensure daily contact with Livonian and will help sustain and improve their linguistic skills.
Using the data accumulated during the project we also plan to develop new digital tools, like a morphological analyser, speech synthesizer, and an automatic translation tool, as well as integrate these with the existing resources. Furthermore, we plan to make the data available for future research and developers of new tools in free access data repositories as well as available for the public as an online dictionary and other products.
RESULTS ACHIEVED:
Participation in conferences, seminars
Conference “Livonica 3 + Minor Finnic Languages 2 = 5”. A joint conference jointly organized by the Livonian Institute of the University of Latvia and the University of Tartu, dedicated to Livonian research (Livonica) and research on minor Baltic Sea Finnic languages (MFL). https://www.livonian.lv/en/implemented-projects/livonica-3-minor-finnic-languages-2-5/
Ernštreits, Valts, Kļava Gunta. Jaunu vārdu darināšana mūsdienu lībiešu valodā. Liepāja University’s 27th international conference “Vārds un tā pētīšanas aspekti”. Liepāja, Latvia. 24.–25.11.2022.
Dailidėnaitė, Milda. Livonian commands in Estonian and Baltic context. Presentation at Congressus XIII Internationalis Fenno-Ugristarum. Abstract available here. Vienna, Austria. 21.–26.08.2022.
Balodis, Uldis, Pajusalu, Karl, Norvik, Miina & Eva Saar. Southern Finnic languages in the Baltic context. Referāts Congressus XIII Internationalis Fenno-Ugristarum. Abstract available here. Vienna, Austria. 21.–26.08.2022.
Ernštreits, Valts. A century of Livonian revitalization efforts. Presentation at the conference “Minor Finnic Languages“. Uppsala, Sweden. 2.–3.06.2022.
Dailidėnaitė, Milda. The Livonian jussive as a marker of concession. Presentation at the conference “Minor Finnic Languages“. Uppsala, Sweden. 2.–3.06.2022.
Balodis, Uldis, Pajusalu Karl. Literature and language development in the dormant languages of the Baltic countries. The 28th Biennial AABS Conference “Baltic Studies at a Crossroads”. Amplifying Language at Home and Abroad. More details here. Seattle, USA. 28.05.2022
Dailidėnaitė, Milda. Indirect imperatives in the Baltic Sea region. The 28th Biennial AABS Conference
“Baltic Studies at a Crossroads”, New Perspectives on Morphology and Syntax in the Baltic Sea Region (Hybrid Panel). More details here. Seattle, USA. 27.05.2022
Balodis, Uldis. Perspectives on language materials for dormant and endangered language communities. Plenary presentation., The 28th Biennial AABS Conference “Baltic Studies at a Crossroads”. Amplifying Language at Home and Abroad. Seattle, USA. 26.05.2022.
Balodis, Uldis, Pajusalu Karl. The South Estonian heritage of Latvia and neighboring areas. Presentation about the ESUKA-JEFUL special issue Eesti ja soome-ugri keeleteaduse ajakiri = Journal of Estonian and Finno-Ugric Linguistics 12(2) for the University of Tartu Transdisciplinary Research College of Archaeology, Genetics and Linguistics. Zoom. 17.01.2022
Ernštreits, Valts. Path to the resilience and sustainability in the digital world: Livonian. Online event “Translation, an art worth protecting: Moral and Material rights for Indigenous Languages” organized by the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (IDIL, 2022–2032) and Translation Commons. September 30th, 2024. Schedule here.
Ernštreits, Valts. Livonian current and future challenges –how to ensure sustainability of the critically endangered language and culture. Paper presented at the Kindred Peoples’ Day conference, Tallinn, 19.10.2023. https://fennougria.ee/sundmus/soome-ugri-rahvad-latis-kadumine-pusimine-voi-edasiminek/
Ernštreits, Valts. Liivi keel põliskeelte aastakümnel. Paper presented at the conference of the Academic Mother Tongue Society (Tartu), 27.06.2023. https://www.emakeeleselts.ee/koik-teated/lvi-j-v-veski-paev-27-06-2023/
Ernštreits, Valts. Lībiešu valodas areāla marķieri Latvijas vietvārdos. Presentation at the conference “Aktuāli Baltu valodu pētniecības jautājumi” (Rīga), 15.11.2024. https://www.hzf.lu.lv/fileadmin/user_upload/LU.LV/Apaksvietnes/Fakultates/www.hzf.lu.lv/zinas/zinas2024/M.Rudzites_starpt.konference_PROGRAMMA.pdf
Ernštreits, Valts. Collection, research and use of indigenous Livonian place names in Latvia. Paper presented at the meeting of the Baltic Section of the UN Geographical Names Experts (Vilnius), 02.11.2024. https://vlkk.lt/terminu-bankas?view=article&id=14293%3A23-iasis-ungegn-baltijos-skyriaus-susirinkimas-vilniuje&catid=28&lang=en
Balodis, Uldis. Kui se līb engliškīelkõks? Creating the first major Livonian-English dictionary translation. Presentation at the conference “Livonica 3 + Minor Finnic Languages 2 = 5” (Rīga), 26-28.06.2024. https://www.livonian.lv/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/programme-1.pdf
Tuisk, Tuuli. Nē, tā ir zaļa zāle! The broken tone in the pronunciation of Latvian and Livonian speakers. Presentation at the conference “Livonica 3 + Minor Finnic Languages 2 = 5” (Rīga), 26-28.06.2024. https://www.livonian.lv/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/programme-1.pdf
Tuisk, Tuuli. Analysis of intonation patterns in Livonian controlled speech. Presentation at the conference “Nordic Prosody” 17.-19.08.2022. Sønderborg (Denmark). https://pure.au.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/291566506/PPDK22_Book_of_Abstracts.pdf
Tuisk, Tuuli. Time-series f0 analysis of contrastive tones: the case of Livonian natural speech. Presentation at the conference “Speech Prosody 2024” 02.-06.07.2024. Leiden (Netherlands). https://researchprofiles.ku.dk/da/publications/tidsserieanalyse-af-f0-for-kontrasterende-toner-naturlig-tale-i-l
Balodis, Uldis. Language Education and Learning Materials in Latvia’s Finnic Languages — Livonian and Lutsi. Presentation at the international seminar Documentation for Education of Lesser Used Languages. (Rēzekne, Latvia, 04.05.2023). https://coling.al.uw.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Uldis-Balodis-R%C4%93zekne-04MAY23.pdf
Balodis, Uldis. Lutsi and the Finnic communities of Latvia. Presentation at the seminar “Decolonizing approaches to studying history and linguistic-cultural heritage. Methods, tools, results and challenges”, 25.01.2023., The Center for Research and Practice in Cultural Continuity, located in the University of Warsaw. https://culturalcontinuity.al.uw.edu.pl/seminar-series-of-the-center-for-research-and-practice-in-cultural-continuity-uldis-balodis-january-25-2023/?fbclid=IwAR03X7sBqKcbeJRo8oN_AzEvLTvjZP8Mz3ZB1pgQ4vnwuleteFtLj259xGw
Balodis, Uldis, Pajusalu Karl. Linguistic traces of Finnic people in Latvia. Presentation at the seminar “Methodological perspectives on research into Proto-Uralic and West Uralic”, 15.06.2022, University of Tartu. https://keel.ut.ee/en/content/methodological-perspectives-research-proto-uralic-and-west-uralic
Balodis, Uldis. Latvijas somugru seja: Ludzas igauņi un to radinieki / The Finnic face of Latvia: The Lutsis and their relations. Presentation at the seminar ”Ludzas igauņi un Soikānu dzimtas paralēles”, 16.08.2024., Ludza. https://www.ludzasnovads.lv/lv/notikums/soikanu-dienas-ludza?utm_source=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
Publications
Ernštreits, Valts, Rikters, Matīss, Tomingas, Marili, Tuisk, Tuuli & Mark Fišel. 2022. Machine Translation for Livonian: Catering to 20 Speakers. Proceedings of the 60th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 2: Short Papers) Association for Computational Linguistics, 508–514. Dublin, Ireland. DOI: 10.18653/v1/2022.acl-short.55
Ernštreits, Valts, Fišel, Mark, Rikters, Matīss, Tomingas, Marili & Tuuli Tuisk. 2022. Language resources and tools for Livonian. Eesti Ja Soome-Ugri Keeleteaduse Ajakiri. Journal of Estonian and Finno-Ugric Linguistics, 13(1), 13–36. https://doi.org/10.12697/jeful.2022.13.1.01
Dailidėnaitė, Milda. 2022. The Livonian jussive: person and function. Eesti Ja Soome-Ugri Keeleteaduse Ajakiri. Journal of Estonian and Finno-Ugric Linguistics, 13(1), 65–90. https://doi.org/10.12697/jeful.2022.13.1.03
Ernštreits, Valts. 2023. Liivi pärandi äratamine Lätis // Keel ja Kirjandus Vol. 66, N 5 (2023), 541.-546. lpp., URL: https://keeljakirjandus.ee/ee/archives/35354 ISSN 0131-1441.
Tuisk, Tuuli, Pharao, Nicolai. 2024. Time-series f0 analysis of contrastive tones: the case of Livonian natural speech. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2024: Speech Prosody 2024, Leiden, Netherlands, 2-5 July 2024. ISCA, 617−621. DOI: 10.21437/SpeechProsody.2024-125. https://www.isca-archive.org/speechprosody_2024/tuisk24_speechprosody.pdf
Publicity
More than 80 posts about the project’s progress have been published on the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/livodinstitut) of the Livonian Institute of the University of Latvia. The posts can be found by searching for the hashtag #VPP. In total, more than 40 publicity events have taken place in the project (interviews, talks, lessons in educational institutions and many others), which can be found in detail on the institute’s profile on the social network Facebook. Some of the most significant examples of publicity are listed below.
Balodis, Uldis. On the “Latvijas Radio 1” show “Zināmais Nezināmajā” on the 14.12.2022. Uldis speaks about small languages in the age of globalization. The recording can be found here.
Ernštreits, Valts. Speech on the UN International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022–2032) and the situation of the Livonian language at the symposium “Hebrew as a treasure of the heritage of humanity: past, present and future” at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. 15.11.2022.
Ernštreits, Valts. Interview with “Vikerradio” (Estonia) about the Livonian language, poetry and its role today, projects carried out and language preservation. 18.09.2022.
Ernštreits, Valts. “Taps daudzfunkcionāla lībiešu valodas vārdnīca. Iepazīstina Valts Ernštreits“. LR1 “Kultūras Rondo”. V. Ernštreits talks about the idea to create a multifunctional Livonian language dictionary. Recording in Latvian. 04.01.2022.
Ernštreits Valts. About the projects implemented by the Livonian Institute of the University of Latvia. Ventspils Livonian Culture Days, 13.10.2024.
Ernštreits, Valts. On the Latvijas Radio 1 show “Zināmais nezināmajā” he discusses the Livonian language, the challenges of endangered languages in the digital age, and approaches to reducing digital inequality. Recording available here.
Ernštreits, Valts. Experiences of Latvia’s Indigenous People – Livonians – Entering the Digital Age. Recording on the LU Livonian Institute blog. 25.11.2024.
Livonian tent at the discussion festival “Lampa” 05-06.07.2024. https://festivalslampa.lv/lv/programma/pasakumi/2498
Livonian Heritage Year (2023) – an initiative jointly announced by the Livonian Institute of the University of Latvia, the Latvian National Commission for UNESCO and the Latvian National Cultural Centre, within the framework of which a set of events and initiatives were held throughout 2023 in all territories historically inhabited by Livonians, and outside Latvia, to popularize the Livonian heritage and its living expressions, including the language. The total number of participants involved in the events and initiatives was around 10,000. The participants of the events were state institutions, municipalities, NGOs, entrepreneurs, and all interested parties. www.libiesugads.lv
Databases
Matīss Rikters, Marili Tomingas, Tuuli Tuisk, Valts Ernštreits, Mark Fishel. liv4ever v1. A dataset based on the DB created in the project, developed for the purposes of machine translation experiments. https://opus.nlpl.eu/liv4ever/liv&en/v1/liv4ever
Ernštreits, Valts (ed. in chief), Viitso, Tiit-Rein, Vāvere, Signis, Damberg, Pētõr, Kurpniece, Milda, Balodis, Uldis, Tuisk, Tuuli, Kūla, Gita, Tomingas, Marili, Soosaar Sven-Erik, Sedláčková, Anna & Jurgenovskis, Toms. 2024. Livonian lexicographic database. Riga: University of Latvia Livonian Institute. A dataset was created within the project (English equivalents in the Livonian lexicon database); 15,000 common words and examples. https://livonian.tech/
Ernštreits, Valts (ed. in chief), Viitso, Tiit-Rein, Vāvere, Signis, Damberg, Pētõr, Kurpniece, Milda, Balodis, Uldis, Tuisk, Tuuli, Kūla, Gita, Tomingas, Marili, Soosaar Sven-Erik, Sedláčková, Anna & Jurgenovskis, Toms. 2024. Livonian lexicographic database. Riga: University of Latvia Livonian Institute. A dataset was created within the project (pronunciation samples in the Livonian lexicon database); 15,000 common words and examples. https://livonian.tech/
Ernštreits, Valts (ed. in chief), Viitso, Tiit-Rein, Kurpniece, Milda & Vāvere, Signis. 2024. Livonian morphology database. Riga: University of Latvia Livonian Institute. The project has expanded the dataset (morphological data in the Livonian morphology database); data on 5,000 new common nouns. https://livonian.tech/
Bouton, Jules, Tuisk, Tuuli & Ernštreits, Valts (2024). ParaLiv: Livonian Paradigms in Phonemic Notation (1.0.0) [Data set]. Morphological dataset at Paris-Cité University. https://zenodo.org/records/11391421
New products and technology
Using the data and morphological analyzer created in the project, an open-access Livonian language spell checker tool has been created (2024). https://livonian.tech/ka-lietot-libiesu-valodu-sava-viedierice/
To ensure the use of the Livonian language on smart devices, a Livonian keyboard have been created for iOS and Android systems (2024). https://livonian.tech/ka-lietot-libiesu-valodu-sava-viedierice/
The Livonian morphological analyzer planned in the project has been developed (2024).
Impact on policy making
Proposals of the Livonian Institute of the University of Latvia for the Development Plan of Latvian Historical Lands and Cultural Spaces. Included in the tasks of the plan related to the Livonian language. https://tapportals.mk.gov.lv/public_participation/148819ca-f9f6-434e-afde-e1c559edbf9a
Proposals of the Livonian Institute of the University of Latvia for clarifications to the implementation plan of the State Language Policy Guidelines for 2021-2027. On the implementation of the guidelines in 2024-2027. https://tapportals.mk.gov.lv/legal_acts/89b5324e-cbe1-4e46-bfbd-365c38a4319b
Proposals of the Livonian Institute of the University of Latvia for supplementing the “Media Policy Guidelines” to ensure the use of the Livonian language. https://tapportals.mk.gov.lv/reviews/resolutions/1cf4e878-3033-4f12-9d24-02f1fa38e1bf
Proposals of the Livonian Institute of the University of Latvia for the establishment of Ad-Hoc groups of the Global Coordination Group for the UN International Decade of Indigenous Languages, thematic planning of the groups. AdHoc groups have been established and have begun work. https://www.unesco.org/en/decades/indigenous-languages/community/adhocgroups
Project leader Valts Ernštreits starts work (13.09.2024) and has been elected as one of the two co-chairs of the Ad-Hoc Group on Digital Equality and Digital Uses of Indigenous Languages established by the Global Coordination Group for the UN Decade of Indigenous Languages (under the auspices of UNESCO). The Ad-Hoc Group is currently developing a large-scale international survey to clarify the global situation regarding the presence of indigenous languages in the digital world and in technologies.
A draft document has been prepared for the Global Coordination Group Ad-Hoc Group on Digital Equality and Language Domains of the UN International Decade of Indigenous Languages for a global survey on the situation of indigenous languages in digital domains; the survey will be launched on 13 March 2025.
Submitted project applications
In 2024, the project “Improving the accessibility of critically under-resourced languages: AI-based approaches to Livonian language data synthesis and acquisition” was submitted and approved (LU-BA-PA-2024/1-0056; Latvian Recovery and Resilience Mechanism Plan 5.2. reform and investment direction “Ensuring change in the management model of higher education institutions” 5.2.1.r. reform “Higher education and science excellence and governance reform” 5.2.1.1.i. investment “Research, development and consolidation grants” second round “Consolidation and management change implementation grants” project No. 5.2.1.1.i.0/2/24/I/CFLA/007 “Internal and external consolidation of the University of Latvia”). Implementation started in September 2024. https://www.lu.lv/zinatne/programmas-un-projekti/atveselosanas-un-noturibas-mehanisma-projekti/atbalsts-petniekiem-projektiem/; https://www.livonian.lv/lv/aktualie-projekti/kritiski-mazu-resursu-valodas-pieejamibas-uzlabosana-mi-balstitas-pieejas-libiesu-valodas-datu-sintezei-un-iegusanai/
Defended doctoral dissertations
Milda Kurpniece. The Livonian jussive in the context of the Central Baltic area. “Dissertationes philologiae uralicae Universitatis Tartuensis; 24 (2023). https://hdl.handle.net/10062/94542
Other project results
A Livonian Language Expert Commission has been established at the State Language Centre. https://www.vvc.gov.lv/lv/libiesu-valodas-ekspertu-komisija?utm_source=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
The only website providing information only in the Livonian language has been created – the social network profile #līvõkīelkõks. The website is intended to popularize the use and learning of the Livonian language. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557734921891
The Livonian Summer University. The Institute developed and implemented a Livonian language course for 30 MA and PhD students from various European countries, including work with project-generated datasets. There were seminars to develop skills in working with project-generated datasets and to explore the issues involved in creating such datasets. https://www.livonian.lv/en/activities/livonian-summer-university-2024-lsu-2024/
