Livonians of Professor Viitso (Q4249)

A 2011 documentary directed by Vahur Laiapea. Every person and every language have their lifespan - birth, life, and possible vanishing. The Livonian language, one of the closest relatives to the Estonian language, is about to disappear as a living language of communication. In 2009-2019, the Professor Emeritus of the University of Tartu, linguist Tiit-Rein Viitso, met factually the last people for whom the Livonian language has been their mother tongue: Viktor Berthold from Liepājast, Erna Vanaga from Ventspils, and Grizelda Kristiņ from the Toronto area in Canada. In Helsinki, professor Viitso also met Seppo Suhonen, a meritorious researcher of Livonian language. This documentary in the Livonian language became a farewell with the bearers of the cultural memory of Livonians – by the time when the film was completed in spring 2011, only 101-year-old Grizelda Kristin was alive among those who were visited during the filmmaking process.