The Leivu dialect is an extinct dialect of South Estonian that was spoken in North Latvia around the Gauja river by the Gauja Estonians. It became extinct in the year 1988 when the last speaker Anton Bok died. However there are many recordings of the dialect. The Leivu dialect most closely resembles the Hargla sub-dialect of Võro but was influenced by the Latvian language and possibly even Livonian.Dahl, Östen & Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Maria: The Circum-Baltic Languages: Grammar and typology In the year 1782, the dialect was spoken by thousands of people, in 1849 around 2600 knew the dialect and in 1935 only about 131 knew or spoke it.Marjo Mela. "Läti eestlased. Ajalugu, keel ja kultuur". Eesti Keele Sihtasutus. Tallinn 2007 lk 33-34 In 1911, Finnish linguist Heikki Ojansuu went to document the Leivu dialect along with the Ludza and Kraasna dialects.
