Gauja Estonians
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| 250px
Southern Estonian language area, Gauja Estonians in north eastern corner of Latvia
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| Total population | |
|---|---|
| none | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Latvia |
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| Languages | |
| Estonian, Latvian | |
| Religion | |
| Lutheran | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| other Finnic peoples |
Gauja Estonians (in Estonian Koiva maarahvas) were Estonians who lived along Gauja river in Latvia.
History
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.[1]
Language
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.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Seppo Zerterberg: Viro, Historia, kansa, kulttuuri Helsinki: Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden seura 1995 (Finnish)
- ↑ Östen Dahl,Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm: The Circum-Baltic Languages: Grammar and typology, Google Books
