The Lutsis and their Linguistic Relatives

The Finnic-speaking communities of Latvia

Finno-Ugric languages have been spoken in the Baltic area for several thousand years. Perhaps the most well-known Finnic speakers in Latvia are the Livonians. Their community once stretched along the Gulf of Rīga and into Vidzeme, retreating over the course of the centuries with the last known speakers of Vidzeme Livonian recorded in the village of Svētciems near Salacgrīva in the 1860s and the Kurzeme Livonians remaining in a string of villages in extreme northern Kurzeme until World War II, after which they were scattered to other parts of Latvia and among the members of the Latvian refugee community abroad.

Still, other Finnic nations are to be found in modern times in Latvia. The Krevins (from Latvian krieviņi ‘Russians [diminutive]’) were speakers of Vote and lived near Bauska from about 1445 when they were moved as prisoners of war from western Ingria to this area by the Duchy of Novgorod. The language of the Krevins was still spoken sufficiently to be recorded by Johan Andreas Sjögren in the mid-19th Century before becoming extinct soon thereafter.

The Estonian Language Islands

In Latgale, eastern Latvia, there are the so-called Estonian or South Estonian language islands. There are three communities that are generally grouped under this term. These are called: Lutsi, Leivu, and Kraasna. All three communities spoke dialects of South Estonian and the South Estonian varieties of all three communities are no longer spoken.

While language shift was ongoing in the twentieth century, the complete shift to other local languages is a relatively recent development. The last speaker of Leivu died in 1988, the last speaker of Kraasna most likely died before World War II. Lutsi was the last to lose its final speaker, Nikolajs Nikonovs, who died in 2006. In the course of my work, I have visited around 40 of the 53 villages noted by Oskar Kallas as having Estonian (i.e., Lutsi) speakers in 1893. Even in villages where residents have no memory or knowledge of their Lutsi roots, their last names will be indicative of a connection with the Lutsis. Some knowledge of these languages remains among descendants. In my experience meeting with Lutsi descendants, I have found that the majority of language knowledge today is in the form of numerals and other individual words (e.g., suzi ‘wolf’, hopen ‘horse’), greetings (tere! ‘hello’), and very rarely short phrases (ole-eiq! ‘there isn’t/aren’t any!’).  As of 2019, there are no people remaining who could be termed full or partial speakers of Lutsi.

In conversing with non-Lutsi-speaking Lutsi descendants presently, it appears that there is genuine awareness among descendants of their Lutsi-speaking ancestors. For middle-aged Lutsi descendants in 2014, their last Lutsi-speaking relative is usually in their grandparents’ or great-grandparents’ generation. The exceptions to this arise in the village of Lielie Tjapši (Jānikülä or Sūre Tsäpsiq, in Lutsi) near Pilda south of Ludza. (Lielie Tjapši is identified on the above map and is located in the extreme eastern part of the Pilda village group.) This is the last spot where Lutsi was actively spoken by descendants of the community documented by researchers in the 19th and 20th centuries. Antoņina Nikonova, the grandmother of the final speaker of Lutsi, Nikolajs Nikonovs, is remembered by researchers and laypeople alike as being a vibrant and enthusiastic speaker of Lutsi. She died in the 1980s; however, until her passing, she would continue to actively speak Lutsi with her grandson regardless of the absence of speakers elsewhere.

Abbreviations:
EKM = Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum (Estonian Literary Museum)
ERM = Eesti Rahva Muuseum (Estonian National Museum)