A journey of discovery through the Livonian world: the scholarly work of Tiit-Rein Viitso

Abstract

This article presents a survey of Tiit-Rein Viitso's studies on Livonian. Viitso has studied a variety of aspects of this southernmost Finnic language. In the current article, Viitso's studies on Livonian are grouped into six parts: studies on (1) Livonian pronunciation and word prosody; (2) grammar; (3) vocabulary; overviews of the (4) Livonian language; the (5) Livonian language in the Finnic context; and (6) Livonian folklore, culture, and people. The most important part of Viitso's Livonian studies concerns gradation in Livonian and its complicated system of morphophonological alternations. His research activities have been crowned with remarkable monumental works including the largest Livonian dictionary to date with an extensive grammatical survey (2012). Being deeply interested in the Finnic languages, Viitso has studied the historical contacts of the Livonian language and its broader Finnic context.

A century of Livonian studies at the University of Tartu

“…Tiit-Rein Viitso's (born in 1938) interest in the Livonians began already as a schoolboy (Tuisk & Pajusalu 2018). He wrote his first study on Livonian as a student -a course paper about derivative affixes in Joh.…”

“…In his doctoral thesis (1981), he focused on Livonian phonology. Viitso studied the specifics of Livonian language pronunciation, Livonian inflectional morphology and syntax, the historical contacts of Livonian and Livonian dialects (Viitso's complete Livonian bibliography is available in Tuisk & Pajusalu 2018). Viitso's research on Livonian is summarised in his book about the Livonian language and Finnic linguistic landscapes (Viitso 2008).…”