- Eastern Livonian
- Western Livonian
"The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire." edited by Andrew Humphreys and Krista Mits. Online: http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook.
Speaker Number Trend 5
A small percentage of the community speaks the language, and speaker numbers are decreasing very rapidly.
Speakers
Location and Context
Ancient Livonians lived in Livonia, i.e. in the 60--100 km wide area on the eastern coast of the Livonian Bay from the Väina river (Daugava) to the Estonian territory and in north Courland among the Courlanders. Some researchers are of the opinion that the Livonian habitat in North Latvia could have been wider. According to the chronicle of Henrik the Lett, the Livonians lived at the estuary of the Väina, on the Koiva (Gauya) and in Salatsi (Salaca).
Nowadays, there are only an insignificant number of Livonians, living in the coastal villages of Northwest Courland and dispersed throughout Latvia (Ventspils, Talsi, Riga).