Wiktionary:About Livvi

Livvi (ISO 639-3 language code olo) is a dialect group of the Finnic languages intermediate to Karelian and Ludian, also known as Olonetsian or Olonets Karelian. Attempts at creating a standardized Livvi literary language have been ongoing since the early 1990s.

Orthography

The Livvi orthography, as endorsed by the Karjalan da vepsän kielien sanasto-da oigiehkirjutuskomissie (Lexical and Orthographic Committee of the Karelian and Veps Languages) of the Republic of Karelia includes the letters:

Aa

Bb

Cc

Čč

Dd

Ee

Ff

Gg

Hh

Ii

Jj

Kk

Ll

Mm

Nn

Oo

Pp

Rr

Ss

Šš

Zz

Žž

Tt

Uu

Vv

Yy

Ää

Öö

ʹ

The modifier letter prime ʹ indicates palatalization. Long vowels and geminate consonants are written doubled.

The letter Üü for /y/ is considered nonstandard since 2007, and the digraphs TS/Ts/ts, TŠ/Tš/tš for the voiceless affricates /t͡s/, /t͡ʃ/ are considered nonstandard since 2012. The digraphs DZ/Dz/dz, DŽ/Dž/dž remain in use for the voiced affricates /d͡z/, /d͡ʒ/.

Identifying Livvi

Livvi is often referred to as simply "Karelian", which causes difficulties in distinguishing it from Southern Karelian and Northern Karelian (which on Wiktionary are, following ISO 639-3, considered to constitute Karelian proper, under language code krl). As of April 2015, numerous Livvi entries on Wiktionary are still found under Category:Karelian lemmas.

The clearest distinctions between Livvi and the other Finnic language varieties of Karelia are found in phonology and morphology.

Characteristic features of Livvi, distinguishing it from its neighbors, include:

• the raising of word-final *a, *ä to u, y in words with two syllables but more than two moras
  • Contrast e.g. aigu (“time”), meččy (“forest”) versus Karelian proper aiga, meččä; Veps aig, mec.
• the development of earlier *-eda, *-edä to -ei
  • Contrast e.g. valgei (“white”), kibei (“sore”) versus Karelian proper valgie, kibie; Veps vauged, kibed.
• the consonant gradation patterns lg : ll and rg : rr
  • Contrast e.g. jalgu (“foot”) : genitive jallan, versus Karelian proper jalga : jalan; Veps jalg : jalgan.

Features connecting Livvi to Karelian and Finnish include:

• consonant gradation of stop consonants in voiced environments: b : v; d : zero or length; g : zero or length

Features connecting Livvi to Ludic and Veps include:

• the loss of word-final vowels in words with more than two syllables
• the voiced consonants b, d, g, dz, dž, z, ž (also in southern Karelian)
• absense of the consonant gradation patterns st : ss, sk : s and tk : t (also mostly in Finnish)
• the elative and ablative cases are t-less, and may end in -päi