Livonian grammar

Livonian is a Finnic language, and, as such, is closely related to both Estonian and Finnish.

Tones

Livonian is a pitch accent language. It has a broken tone that can appear in words. The broken tone is marked with a '.^[1]

lēḑ ‘sphere’	lē’ḑ ‘leaf’
nīņ ‘bark strip’	nī’ņ ‘wide belt’
mō ‘earth’	mō’ ‘down; earthwards’
ūdõ ‘to fry’	ū’dõ ‘to strain’
pūstõ ‘tree (elat. sg.)’	pū’stõ ‘to clean’

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Singular
	First Person ("I")	Second Person ("You")	Third Person ("He" or "She")
Nominative	minā/ma	sinā/sa	tämā/ta
Genitive	min	sin	täm
Dative	minnõn	sinnõn	tämmõn
Translative	minkõks	sinkõks	tämkõks
Partitive	mīnda	sīnda	tǟnda
Inessive	mins/minšõ	sins/sinšõ	täms/tamšõ
Elative	minst/minstõ	sinst/sinstõ	tämst/tämstõ
Illative	minnõ	sinnõ	tämmõ

Plural
	First Person ("We")	Second Person ("You")	Third Person ("They")
Nominative	mēg	tēg	ne
Genitive	mäd	täd	nänt
Dative	mäddõn	täddõn	näntõn
Translative	mätkõks	tätkõks	näntkõks
Partitive	mēḑi	tēḑi	nēḑi
Inessive	mēšši	tēšši	nēšši
Elative	mēšti	tēšti	nēšti
Illative	mēži	tēži	nēži

Note: the third person pronouns do not possess a gender in the singular or the plural.

Demonstrative Pronouns

	Singular ("this, this one")	Plural ("these, these ones")
Nominative	sīe/se	ne
Genitive	sīe/se	nänt
Dative	sīen	näntõn
Translative	sīeks/sīekõks	näntkõks
Partitive	sīeda	nēḑi
Inessive	sīes/sīessõ	nẽšši
Elative	sīest/sīestõ	nēšti
Illative	sīezõ	nēži

Note: The plural demonstrative pronoun is the same as the third person plural personal pronoun.

Reflexive Pronouns

	Singular ("myself, yourself, oneself")	Plural ("ourselves, yourself/ves, themselves")
Nominative	iž	iž
Genitive	eņtš	eņtš
Dative	eņtšõn	eņtšõn
Translative	eņtšõks	eņtšōdõks
Partitive	eņtšta	eņtšidi
Inessive	eņtšõs	eņtšis
Elative	eņtšõst	eņtšist
Illative	eņtšõ(z)	eņtšiz

Note: The usage of the reflexive pronoun is broad. Of course, it is used as a reflexive pronoun as in "minnõn eņtšõn um vajag...," meaning "I need..." [lit: to myself is necessary...]. However, the pronoun can also express possession; it frequently replaces the genitive forms of the personal pronouns. For example: "ma sīeda kūliz eņtš izast", or "I heard it from my father." Also, reflexive pronouns can be used in adverbial expressions: "täm eņtš ie", "this same night".

Cases

The following are the cases in Livonian:^[1]

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	-∅	-t -d -õd
Genitive	-∅	-t -d -õd
Partitive	-tā -dā -ța -ta -da -tõ -dõ -õ -∅	-ți -ḑi -ti -di -i
Dative	-n -õn	-ddõn -dõn -tõn -õdõn
Instrumental	-kõks -ks -õks	-dkõks -tkõks -dõks -tõks
Translative	-ks
Illative	-zõ -(õ)z	-ži -īž -iž -ž -īz -iz
Inessive	-š(õ) -s(õ) -õs(õ)	-ši -īs -is
Elative	-št(õ) -st(õ) -õst(õ)	-šti -īst -ist
Instructive		-īņ -iņ
Allative	-l(õ) -õl	-il -iļ[2]
Adessive	-l(õ) -õl	-il -iļ[2]
Ablative	-ld(õ(st)) -õld	-iļd[2]
Abessive	-tõ
Lative	-j -jõ
Essive	-nõ -n
Exessive	-ndõ(st)

Examples

līvli "Livonian"

	Singular		Plural
Nominative	līvli	-	līvlizt	-t
Genitive	līvliz	-	līvlizt	-t
Partitive	līvliztõ	-tõ	līvliži	-i
Dative	līvlizõn	-õn	līvliztõn	-tõn
Instrumental	līvlizõks	-õks	līvliztõks	-tõks
Illative	līvlizõ	-õ	līvližiz	-iz
Inessive	līvlizõs	-õs	līvližis	-is
Elative	līvlizõst	-õst	līvližist	-ist

ve’ž "water"

	Singular		Plural
Nominative	ve’ž	-	viedūd	-d
Genitive	vie’d	-	viedūd	-d
Partitive	vietā	-tā	vežži	-i
Dative	vie’ddõn	-õn	viedūdõn	-dõn
Instrumental	vie’dkõks	-kõks	viedūdõks	-dõks
Illative	vie’ddõ	-õ	vežīz	-īz
Inessive	vie’dsõ	-sõ	vežīs	-īs
Elative	vie’dstõ	-stõ	vežīst	-īst

Moods

The following are the moods in Livonian:^[1]

Mood and Tense	Person	Singular	Plural
Indicative (present tense)	1	-b -õb —	-mõ -m -õm
	2	-d -õd	-tõ -t -õt
	3	-b -õb —	-bõd -õbõd -āt(õ)
Indicative (past tense)	1	-, (comma indicates palatalization of final consonant) -i -īz -iz -ž -kš	-,mõ -imõ -īzmõ -izmõ -žmõ -kšmõ
	2	-,d -id -īzt -izt -žt -št	-,t(õ) -it(õ) -īzt(õ) -izt(õ) -žt(õ) -kšt(õ)
	3	-, -id -īz -iz -ž -kš	-,t(õ) -it(õ) -īzt(õ) -izt(õ) -žt(õ) -kšt(õ)
Conditional	1	-ks -õks	-kstõ -õkstõ
	2	-kst -õkst	-kstõ -õkstõ
		-ks -õks	-kstõ -õkstõ
Imperative	1		-gõm -õgõm -kkõm -kõm
	2	–	-gīd -gid -õgid -kkõd -kõd
Quotative	1–3	-i -ji -iji	-id -jid -ijid
Jussive	1–3	-gõ -g |-õg -kkõ -kõ	-gõd -õgõd -kkõd -kõd

References

1. "Sketch of Livonian Sounds and Grammar". Virtual Livonia.
2. Blokland, Rogier; Inaba, Nobufumi (2018). "The l-cases in Courland Livonian". Eesti ja Soome-Ugri Keeleteaduse Ajakiri. 9 (2): 147–164. doi:10.12697/jeful.2018.9.2.07.

Bibliography

• Sivers, Fanny de (2000). Parlons live : une langue de la Baltique (in French). Paris: L'Harmattan. ISBN 2-7475-1337-8.