Writing Down Lutsi: Creating an Orthography for a South Estonian variety of Latgale
Writing Down Lutsi: Creating an Orthography for a South Estonian variety of Latgale

Summary/Abstract: Lutsi Estonian is a variety of South Estonian historically spoken in the pre-World War II rural parishes of Pilda, Nirza, Brigi, and Mērdzene near the city of Ludza in Latgale (eastern Latvia). Lutsi developed independently from other South Estonian dialects for at least several centuries and as a result differs in several respects from the South Estonian presently spoken in the Võru and Setu regions of Estonia and adjacent areas in Russia. Since early 2013, I have been documenting the remaining language and culture knowledge among present-day Lutsi descendants and revisiting the villages documented by Oskar Kallas in 1894 as having Estonian (Lutsi) speaking inhabitants. The goal of this research is to write a Lutsi language primer with which Lutsi descendants as well as other interested individuals can reacquaint themselves with one of the historic languages of Latgale. This article presents the Lutsi practical orthography I have designed. I begin by introducing the Lutsi people, their language, and the history of its documentation. In discussing the Lutsi language I address the particular issues involved in writing Lutsi and present Livonian as a a model for writing a Finnic language for a primarily Latvian-speaking population. I then present the current form of the Lutsi practical orthography at the end of this article.

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