Negation in Livonian

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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.

Section: Writings On Livonian Culture Folklore and Peoplementioning

confidence: 99%

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

Tuisk

Pajusalu

2018

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“…section 4). These sentence types have not received separate attention in the case of Livonian, but some information can still be found, e.g., the rules for word order were discussed in connection with sentence types by Sjögren and Wiedemann (1861a) (see section 4), Metslang et al (2015) also analyse polar questions in an article on negation, Kehayov et al (2011) compare the use of the imperative in Estonian (Kihnu), Latvian, and Livonian interrogatives (see subsection 2.1.2). Therefore, the various sentence types require a study of their own.…”

Section: Pragmatic Meanings Of Sentencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The expression of evidentiality and modality were also dealt with by B. Wälchli in a paper published in 2000. H. Metslang et al (2015) recently published a paper on negation, and M. Norvik (2015a) published a doctoral dissertation on the expression of future time reference.…”

Section: Research Into Livonian Syntax: the Past And Presentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A recent study by Metslang et al (2015) gives a thorough overview of negation in Livonian with a typological background and provides an analysis of various negation strategies in Livonian concerning both clausal negation and non-clausal negation as well as several other aspects of negation (e.g., how negation can be reinforced). The main markers that are discussed in the article are (i) the negative auxiliaries that differ in mood and tense (e.g., the 3Sg present indicative form is äb, whereas the corresponding past form is iz), (ii) the negation particle äp, which occurs alone as an answer to a question (example 31), (iii) the particle mittõ, which reinforces negation if it occurs before a negative particle (example 32) and has been shown to mark constituent negation if it occurs elsewhere.…”

Section: Pragmatic Meanings Of Sentencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Research into Livonian syntax: the results of previous studies and the tasks ahead

Norvik

2016

Abstract. The objective of this article is to present the main findings of research into Livonian syntax. As is typical of the Finnic languages other than Estonian and Finnish, in the past, syntax-related issues have received little attention. For instance, the only scientific grammar of Livonian, which was written in German and published in the 19th century, remains the most comprehensive overview of Livonian syntax. In recent times, however, interest in syntax-related issues has grown and there are several separate studies on specific issues of Livonian syntax. Furthermore, a contemporary Livonian reference grammar will be published in a few years and it will also contain a chapter on syntax. The present article is meant to give a research overview of the main topics discussed previously and point out the main challenges for future research. Research into Livonian syntax: the past and presentScientific study of Livonian began in the middle of the 19th century, when as a result of field work by A. J. Sjögren and F. J. Wiedemann, a Livonian grammar (1861a) and dictionary (1861b) were published. Although traditional descriptions of Finnic languages other than Estonian and Finnish tended to concentrate on phonetics, morphology, and derivation, this particular grammar also contains a chapter on syntax. In fact, it remains the most comprehensive scientific grammar of Livonian up to the present day, including with respect to syntax. The grammar overview written by L. Kettunen and published as part of the Livonian-German dictionary (1938) did not include a separate section on syntax. The grammar overview by T.-R. Viitso (2008) contains only a 5 page long overview of syntax (additionally, however, information on syntax-related matters can also be found in sections on morphology).

“…Oblique mood forms resembling the nomen agentis forms are also found in the Hääde-meeste variety of Estonian, geographically a close neighbor of Salaca Livonian. However, more significant differences can be seen in negative forms, in which Salaca Livonian employs the same negation particles throughout the entire verbal paradigm: in the present indicative ab: ab uo 'am/are/is not', ab uoti 'you (Pl) are not'; in the past indicative iz: iz uo 'was/were not'; in the imperative ala: ala jäe 'don't stay (Sg)', ala jäegi 'don't stay (Pl)' (see Metslang et al 2014).…”

Section: Salaca and Courland Livonian Inflectional Morphologymentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between Salaca Livonian and Courland Livonian dialects

Pajusalu

2014

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Abstract. The article examines the relationship between the two prominent forms of Livonian: Salaca Livonian, spoken on the territory of historical Livonia, and Courland Livonian. Salaca Livonian is compared to the two main dialects of Courland Livonian -the eastern and western dialects. Based on the Salaca Livonian data, the article focuses on the comparison of phonological and grammatical features, also presenting a brief comparison of core vocabulary. The form of Livonian spoken in the Salaca River region of northern Latvia differed in several respects from Courland Livonian. Some Salaca Livonian phonological features, grammatical forms and vocabulary differ from all Courland Livonian dialects, while other features are shared between Salaca Livonian and one of the Courland Livonian dialects. Despite the greater geographical distance between them, Salaca Livonian shares more features with the western Courland Livonian dialect. The article attempts to explain these similarities. First, Latvian influence was stronger in the Salaca and western Courland Livonian dialect regions. Second, the peripheral location of these regions favored the preservation of archaic features. Third, the eastern dialect of Courland Livonian has been more innovative in several ways.