Livonians are an ethnic group in Latvia, that predate Latvians by several centuries. Livonians speak Liv, a Finno-Uralic language, whereas Latvians speak Lettish, a Baltic language of Indo-European heritage.
Liv is nearly extinct, with only a handful of fluent native speakers left.
Deutsche Welle (the German international broadcasting service) recently reported about an attempt to revive Liv:
Today, a Livonian youth group meets regularly in the Latvian capital, Riga. Their language skills vary. Some have only been learning it for a few months, others started speaking it as children with their grandparents.
The group organizes trips to Mazirbe, a town on the Latvian coast where there's a Livonian cultural center, or to camps where they only speak Livonian to each other.
"If you learn Livonian and not Spanish, the Livonians won't die," said 17-year-old Beate, who started learning Livonian two years ago.
"I will know it and teach it to my children," she said. "Everybody wants to learn Spanish, but why would you need to go after the fashion? I think it's a question of mentality."
According to Valts Ernstreits, an expert on Livonians in Latvia, learning an endangered language has a lot to do with people embarking on a quest for their identity.
"Latvian identity is very complicated," Ernstreits said. "It is basically young. It has maybe a 500-year-long history. So it's pretty unstable. If you can say you're Livonian, you have identified yourself back to the 12th century."
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I wonder why Spanish is so popular in Latvia? Is there an influx of Mexicans? :-)