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Ludza and Gauja Estonians
I noticed there is no info here about the Estonian ethnic sub groups-Ludza and Gauja Estonians, who were inhabitants of the territory of modern day Latvia and as a Latvian I felt responsibility to make a thread.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludza_EstoniansThe Ludza Estonians (in Ludza dialect of the Estonian: Lutsi maarahvas – ‘Lutsi Estonians’, in Latvian: Ludzas igauņi) were a group of ethnic Estonians living in near Ludza, south-eastern Latvia.
Most of the Ludza Estonians probably moved into the area in the 17th century during the Great Northern War, but the settlement may have originated earlier. Throughout the era of feudalism, when life was mostly confined to one's near environment, this ethnic group retained its Estonian identity and ethnographic features. Ludza Estonians were originally Lutherans, but became Catholics and had close contacts with neighbouring Latgalians and Belarusians. As long as the church ceremonies and confessions were held in Estonian, the people had little need to speak Latvian or Belarusian. Nevertheless, the local Latgalian dialect of Latvian, Belarusian and Russian were spoken to a certain extent in the areas were those people were their neighbours. In manors, Polish was heard (in Latgale, it was the administrative language at the time).
By the 19th century the church had become Latvianised and Russian had become the official language and lingua franca. According to Oskar Kallas, who made a studying trip to area in 1893, there were 4,387 Ludza Estonians of whom some 800 could speak Estonian language. In the 1970s and 1980s, there were some 20 people left in the area still using the Estonian language, but it is now most likely to have perished. The dialect spoken by Ludza Estonians, was closely related to eastern Vőro-dialects. It contained about 180 loanwords from Latvian language and some from Russian. Ludza Estonians had reportedly some difficulties to understand standard Estonian.
Gauja Estonians (in Estonian Koiva maarahvas) were Estonians who lived along Gauja river in Latvia.
Gauja Estonians are most likely native to their homelands. There are mentions of Chudes living in Adzele county from 12th century Russian sources. Later there are mentions of them living in Gauja river area. According to August Wilhelm Hupel's book Topographische Nachrichten von Lief und Ehstland there were about thousand Estonians in 1777. Anders Johan Sjögren claimed that there were 2,600 Gauja Estonians in 1849. Heikki Ojansuu counted only 116 when he made a trip to area in 1911. According to Ojansuu's theory, Gauja Estonians were refugees of Great Northern War from Southern Estonia, but today this theory has been largely abandoned. According to Harri Moora and Paul Ariste Gauja Estonians were original inhabitants of their homelands.
Last known speaker of local dialect, Anton Bok, died on April 20, 1988[1]. The dialect was similar to those spoken in Southern Estonia, more accurately to southern Estonian subdialect of Hargla. It had some grammatical and phonological loans from Latvian language and possibly some from Livonian.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauja_Estonians
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Originally Posted by The Ripper
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