Uldis Balodis
@uldisbalodis.bsky.social
Researcher: U of Latvia Livonian Institute, U of Tartu
• Linguist (PhD), Photographer, Translator •
#Livonian #Lutsi #Yuki
Personal acct
• Linguist (PhD), Photographer, Translator •
#Livonian #Lutsi #Yuki
Personal acct
I really appreciate your kind words, Saulė! Thanks! Also, you may find my Lutsi primer interesting. I published it a few years ago in Latvian, but it gives an intro to Lutsi and shows what their communities were like historically and now.
tinyurl.com/ludza
tinyurl.com/ludza
Lutsi kiele lementar | Ludzas igauņu valodas ābece
An introduction to the Lutsi (Ludza Estonian) language, which includes a grammatical sketch of Lutsi, example sentences, examples of connected speech, a Latvian-Lutsi-Latgalian topical dictionary (~60...
tinyurl.com
November 27, 2025 at 4:09 AM
I really appreciate your kind words, Saulė! Thanks! Also, you may find my Lutsi primer interesting. I published it a few years ago in Latvian, but it gives an intro to Lutsi and shows what their communities were like historically and now.
tinyurl.com/ludza
tinyurl.com/ludza
Skaisti! Arizonā uzaugu un šādi skati man ir tuvi sirdij. Monument Valley ir tālu no visa un tur pats arī tikai vienu reizi nokļuvu -- un tad vairs Arizonā nedzīvoju.
November 16, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Skaisti! Arizonā uzaugu un šādi skati man ir tuvi sirdij. Monument Valley ir tālu no visa un tur pats arī tikai vienu reizi nokļuvu -- un tad vairs Arizonā nedzīvoju.
Hall Of Inaccurate Presidents
YouTube video by Scott Gairdner
www.youtube.com
November 2, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Definitely a peak Baltic mood.
October 26, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Definitely a peak Baltic mood.
Vārda izcelsme droši vien ir somugru. Mīlenbaha-Endzelīna vārdnīcā "roida" parādās vietās, kurām ir saistība ar lībiešiem (Salaca) un igauņiem (Rūjiena). Vārdnīcā arī ir atbilsme igauņu valodā: roid 'rupjas smiltis, grants, putekļi' (grober Sand, Kies, Staub).
mev.tezaurs.lv/roida
mev.tezaurs.lv/roida
Mīlenbaha un Endzelīna Latviešu valodas vārdnīca.
mev.tezaurs.lv
October 25, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Vārda izcelsme droši vien ir somugru. Mīlenbaha-Endzelīna vārdnīcā "roida" parādās vietās, kurām ir saistība ar lībiešiem (Salaca) un igauņiem (Rūjiena). Vārdnīcā arī ir atbilsme igauņu valodā: roid 'rupjas smiltis, grants, putekļi' (grober Sand, Kies, Staub).
mev.tezaurs.lv/roida
mev.tezaurs.lv/roida
I love this -- this is so interesting! I bought a Tocharian course last year, but haven't used it yet. I did study Sanskrit for a bit, and then I noticed similarities with Latvian in verb and noun inflection. Also some words that in Latvian show up in old lexical layers like folk song lg.
October 4, 2025 at 9:45 AM
I love this -- this is so interesting! I bought a Tocharian course last year, but haven't used it yet. I did study Sanskrit for a bit, and then I noticed similarities with Latvian in verb and noun inflection. Also some words that in Latvian show up in old lexical layers like folk song lg.
Livonian gives another kind of feel. It has had more direct Latvian influence, but still is quite different in its lexicon. One of the dialects of Latvian -- the Livonic or Livonian-like dialect (lībiskais dialekts) -- mostly formed where Livonian was spoken. It has even more Finnic features.
October 3, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Livonian gives another kind of feel. It has had more direct Latvian influence, but still is quite different in its lexicon. One of the dialects of Latvian -- the Livonic or Livonian-like dialect (lībiskais dialekts) -- mostly formed where Livonian was spoken. It has even more Finnic features.
I've spent like a decade and a half talking about these things with one of my close Estonian colleagues and it never stops being kind of crazy amazing for both of us. Like how can these lgs look so different but be so similar?
October 3, 2025 at 5:42 PM
I've spent like a decade and a half talking about these things with one of my close Estonian colleagues and it never stops being kind of crazy amazing for both of us. Like how can these lgs look so different but be so similar?
Discovering that deep similarity was like finding a long lost sibling. While the similarities to Lithuanian are undeniable, they're different. When I studied Estonian, the similarity to Latvian felt more visceral and deep. They also extend beyond lg and into culture, expressions, ways of being.
October 3, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Discovering that deep similarity was like finding a long lost sibling. While the similarities to Lithuanian are undeniable, they're different. When I studied Estonian, the similarity to Latvian felt more visceral and deep. They also extend beyond lg and into culture, expressions, ways of being.
And the similarities are really wide-ranging -- also syntactically. When I first started learning Estonian, it felt like someone had taken Latvian, turned it upside down, given it a good shake so all the words would fall out, and then just refilled the gaps with different-looking words. 😄
October 3, 2025 at 5:42 PM
And the similarities are really wide-ranging -- also syntactically. When I first started learning Estonian, it felt like someone had taken Latvian, turned it upside down, given it a good shake so all the words would fall out, and then just refilled the gaps with different-looking words. 😄
Right now I'm part of a project at the University of that's looking at how deep these similarities go. This article from a few years back sort of lays the groundwork for that work and also talks about the phonological similarities between the lgs of Latvia & Estonia.
ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/je...
ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/je...
The South Estonian language islands in the context of the Central Baltic area
| Eesti ja soome-ugri keeleteaduse ajakiri. Journal of Estonian and Finno-Ugric Linguistics
ojs.utlib.ee
October 3, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Right now I'm part of a project at the University of that's looking at how deep these similarities go. This article from a few years back sort of lays the groundwork for that work and also talks about the phonological similarities between the lgs of Latvia & Estonia.
ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/je...
ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/je...
There's been a lot of mutual influence between Latvian and its Finnic neighbors. Latvian has the 1st-syllable stress of a Finnic lg and Livonian (and other Finnic lgs spoken in Latvia) has broken tone (stød) like Latvian. Latvian also has something a bit like vowel harmony. Latgalian even more.
October 3, 2025 at 3:08 PM
There's been a lot of mutual influence between Latvian and its Finnic neighbors. Latvian has the 1st-syllable stress of a Finnic lg and Livonian (and other Finnic lgs spoken in Latvia) has broken tone (stød) like Latvian. Latvian also has something a bit like vowel harmony. Latgalian even more.
This kind of happened to me once. I was in Italy with my husband and was wearing a shirt with a big Livonian flag on it. The woman working at the front desk of our hostel was actually from Sierra Leone and she was so excited because she thought I was wearing a shirt with her country's flag on it. 🙂
September 30, 2025 at 3:34 PM
This kind of happened to me once. I was in Italy with my husband and was wearing a shirt with a big Livonian flag on it. The woman working at the front desk of our hostel was actually from Sierra Leone and she was so excited because she thought I was wearing a shirt with her country's flag on it. 🙂
Not a perfect method, but just useful shorthand when posting content in several languages at once.
September 30, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Not a perfect method, but just useful shorthand when posting content in several languages at once.
Runeberga vārdā nosauktā kūciņa ir viens no somu kulinārijas augstākajiem sasniegumiem. Tik garda! Iemācījos tās cept, bet kaut kā nekad nesanāk tik garšīgi, kā pērkot no pārdevēja, kas janvārī tās tirgo no galdiņa ārpus K Market pārtikas veikala Helsinku galvenās stacijas pagraba stāvā.
September 28, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Runeberga vārdā nosauktā kūciņa ir viens no somu kulinārijas augstākajiem sasniegumiem. Tik garda! Iemācījos tās cept, bet kaut kā nekad nesanāk tik garšīgi, kā pērkot no pārdevēja, kas janvārī tās tirgo no galdiņa ārpus K Market pārtikas veikala Helsinku galvenās stacijas pagraba stāvā.
I don't remember a specific expression off the top of my head right now, but I remember some words having many idioms connected to them, especially body parts. Like sidām 'heart' had so many. At least Latvian and Livonian often had similar expressions, so it helped figuring them out.
September 1, 2025 at 2:11 PM
I don't remember a specific expression off the top of my head right now, but I remember some words having many idioms connected to them, especially body parts. Like sidām 'heart' had so many. At least Latvian and Livonian often had similar expressions, so it helped figuring them out.
During the last 3 years I translated the dictionary into English. These idioms were fun...but also sometimes a bit tough to get just right in English. 😄
September 1, 2025 at 1:37 PM
During the last 3 years I translated the dictionary into English. These idioms were fun...but also sometimes a bit tough to get just right in English. 😄
And the examples are all from actual documentation of spoken Livonian -- much from speakers who were still born on the coast. So, it's a really rich resource.
September 1, 2025 at 1:36 PM
And the examples are all from actual documentation of spoken Livonian -- much from speakers who were still born on the coast. So, it's a really rich resource.
Yeah, they have some pretty neat stuff! And they'll also add books to their collection that borrowers are interested in. So, there are some unique things there to find.
August 30, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Yeah, they have some pretty neat stuff! And they'll also add books to their collection that borrowers are interested in. So, there are some unique things there to find.
It was amazing what I could get! And it was so great that the library was really invested in getting me obscure stuff. I've been (slowly) writing articles on Native American lgs for the Latvian National Encyclopedia over the last years and the Chicago library got me so many cool books for those.
August 30, 2025 at 11:22 PM
It was amazing what I could get! And it was so great that the library was really invested in getting me obscure stuff. I've been (slowly) writing articles on Native American lgs for the Latvian National Encyclopedia over the last years and the Chicago library got me so many cool books for those.