The (really?) last Livonian first-language speaker passed away

[Johanna Laakso]

Dear URA-LIST community,

a few years ago, it was reported in Estonian press and then worldwide that the "last Livonian speaker", i.e. the last speaker who had acquired Livonian as his first language in his childhood family, Alfon Berthold, had passed away. Since then, there have been reports that some old Livonians of those generations of "real first-language speakers" are still alive. Now the news are circulating in the Internet about the death of the last of them (?), Grizelda Kristiņ, who passed away two days ago in Canada (where she had lived for the most of her life, after leaving her homeland in 1944), at the age of 103 years. The Livonian community remembers her as a poet and a living monument to the Livonian language; an obituary (in Latvian) has appeared on the livones.lv website: http://www.livones.net/intro/?raksts=8789 .

With condolences to all who feel the weight of this loss 
Johanna Laakso

Anfang der weitergeleiteten E-Mail:

> Von: rgruntha at mappi.helsinki.fi
> Datum: 03. Juni 2013 22:24:44 MESZ
> An: sarhimaa at uni-mainz.de, johanna.laakso at univie.ac.at
> Betreff: Fwd: [liivi:63] Grizelda KristiX
> 
> 
> Teatame sügava kurbusega, et lahkunud on liivlanna Grizelda Kristiņ
> (19.03.1910, Vaid - 02.06.2013, Kanada).
> 
> …
> 
> Ja oma mõtteis käin ma
> 
> 
> mitu korda sedasama pikka
> 
> teed Vaidi külast
> 
> Irē koolimajja.
> 
> (G.
> Kristiņ)
> 
> ----- Välitetty viesti päättyy -----
> 
> 

--
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Johanna Laakso

Universität Wien, Institut für Europäische und Vergleichende Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft (EVSL), Abteilung Finno-Ugristik
Campus AAKH Spitalgasse 2-4 Hof 7
A-1090 Wien
johanna.laakso at univie.ac.at • http://homepage.univie.ac.at/Johanna.Laakso/
ELDIA: http://www.eldia-project.org/ 



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