Livonian

Livonian (Līvõ kēļ or Rānda kēļ) is a Balto-Finnic language that is spoken along the Livonian Coast of the Gulf of Livonia (native land of Livonian people), located in Latvia in the north of the Kurzeme peninsula. Livonian is closely related to Estonian and Finnish and its orthography combines elements from Estonian and Latvian spelling. The last speaker of this language was Grizelda Kristina, who died in 2013 (in Canada when she was 103 years old). The Livonian Cultural Centre (Līvõ Kultūr Sidām) promotes Livonian as a living language, and it is recognised as a minority language in Latvia. In 2011 several hundred people were learning Livonian. The language is also taught at universities in Latvia, Estonia and Finland, which constantly increases the pool of second-language speakers who do not constantly reside in Latvia.