Livonian (līvõ kēļ or rāndakēļ) belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages. It is a moribund language, with its last native speaker having died in 2013. It is closely related to Estonian. The native land of the Livonian people is the Livonian Coast, located in Latvia, in the north of the Kurzeme peninsula.
Some ethnic Livonians are learning or have learned the language in an attempt to revive it, but as ethnic Livonians are a small minority, opportunities to use Livonian are limited. The Estonian newspaper Eesti Päevaleht erroneously announced that Viktors Bertholds, who died on 28 February 2009, was the last native speaker who started the Latvian-language school as a monolingual. Some other Livonians argued, however, that there are some native speakers left, including Viktors Bertholds' cousin, Grizelda Kristiņa. Kristiņa died in 2013. An article published by the Foundation for Endangered Languages in 2007 stated that there were only 182 registered Livonians and a mere six native speakers. In a 2009 conference proceeding, it was mentioned that there could be "at best 10 living native" speakers of the language.
Je t'aime
Te amo
Aishiteru
Ani ohevet othka, I love you
The sounds are all as different
As the lands from which they came
And though our words are all unique
Our hearts are still the same
Love in any language, straight from the heart
Pulls us all together, never apart
And once we learn to speak it, all the world will hear
Love in any language, fluently spoken here
We teach the young our differences
Yet look how we're the same
We love to laugh, to dream our dreams
We know the sting of pain
From Leningrad to Lexington
The farmer loves his land
And daddies all get misty-eyed
To give their daughter's hand
Oh, maybe when we realize
How much there is to share
We'll find too much in common
To pretend it isn't there
Love in any language, straight from the heart
Pulls us all together, never apart
And once we learn to speak it, all the world will hear
Love in any language, fluently spoken here
Though the rhetoric of government
May keep us worlds apart
There's no misinterpreting
The language of the heart
Love in any language, straight from the heart
Pulls us all together, never apart
And once we learn to speak it, all the world will hear
Love in any language, fluently spoken here
Love in any language, straight from the heart
Pulls us all together, never apart
And once we learn to speak it, all the world will hear
Love in any language, fluently spoken here
Love in any language, straight from the heart
Pulls us all together, never apart
And once we learn to speak it, all the world will hear
Love in any language, fluently spoken here
Love in any language, fluently spoken here