Livonian is “critically endangered” and Latgalian’s status is called “unsafe” in the latest atlas of endangered languages compiled by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, released Feb. 19 as an interactive online tool, reports about 2,500 languages have varying risks of extinction. About 6,700 languages are spoken around the world, according to a UNESCO press release.

In Latvia, Livonian is listed as having just one native speaker with full competence, although numerous individuals study it as a second language. Latgalian, spoken in the Latgale region of eastern Latvia, has about 150,000 speakers.

Livonian was close to extinction already in the 1980s, Valdis Muktupāvels, head of the University of Latvia’s Centre of Letonics, told Latvians Online in an e-mail.

“At present there are efforts to revitalize the Livonian language,” he said. Besides being spoken in a number of families, there are a Livonian newspaper, poets and writers who use Livonian, and music with Livonian lyrics.

Latgalian is in much better shape, Muktupāvels said.

“The Latgalian literary language is clearly defined with its own grammar, lexicon and language norms,” he said. Noteworthy is the number of Latgalian newspapers, magazine, yearbooks, and works of poetry and prose. It is also important that Latgalian dominates in the Catholic church. Discussions also have begun to give Latgalian official status, Muktupāvels said.

The UNESCO atlas also notes Krevin as a language once spoken in the Semigallia region near Bauska, but which now is extinct. According to an online version of The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire, Krevin was a dialect of the Votic language, which is related to Estonian.

“The death of a language leads to the disappearance of many forms of intangible cultural heritage,” UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura said in the press release, “especially the invaluable heritage of traditions and oral expressions of the community that spoke it—from poems and legends to proverbs and jokes. The loss of languages is also detrimental to humanity’s grasp of biodiversity, as they transmit much knowledge about the nature and the universe.”

The atlas groups the endangered languages in one of five risk levels: unsafe, definitely endangered, severely endangered, critically endangered and extinct.

In Estonia, the new atlas reports Võro-Seto as “definitely endangered.” About 50,000 speakers of the language are found in the southeast of Estonia and in the Pskov province of Russia.

In Lithuania, the Karaim language is listed as “severely endangered.” It is spoken by about 50 individuals in the Trakai region. Another six people use the language in Ukraine.

Previous editions of the language atlas were published in 1996 and 2001. A printed version of the 2009 atlas is due out in March, according to UNESCO. The online version may be viewed at www.unesco.org.

A Latvian who in 2006 choked a countryman to death on a fishing trawler in Ireland and then threw his body overboard has been sentenced to time already served, a judge ruled Feb. 16 in Dublin, according to Irish media.

Sergejs Lavrinovics, 36, was sentenced in Central Criminal Court in the death of Igors Bondarenko, 35. Also sentenced were two accomplices, 32-year-old Andrijāns Ūbelis and 36-year-old Freddy Grenzman.

Lavrinovics pleaded guilty to manslaugter for killing Bondarenko sometime in late September or early October 2006 in what has been described as a “fight to the death.” Bondarenko, who had a criminal record in Latvia, had apparently threatened to kill Lavrinovics. He also was suspected in several extortion cases involving Eastern European immigrants.

Ūbelis and Grenzman were charged with aiding Lavrinovics in tossing Bondarenko’s body overboard. Grenzman also was sentenced to time already served, while Ūbelis was given a 12-month suspended sentence.

All three had cooperated with Irish police, according to media reports.

Latvia’s ice hockey team, which in the past few days won all three of its qualification round games in Rīga, will be one of 12 squads competing in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Latvia defeated Hungary, Ukraine and Italy to earn the coveted spot. The Olympics are scheduled to start Feb. 12, 2010. Latvia will face Russia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia in preliminary round games, according to the International Ice Hockey Federation.

The Latvians won 4-1 over Italy on Feb. 8 in a qualification game played in Arēna Rīga, according to a game summary reported by the IIHF.

The Latvians got on the scoreboard first. Ģirts Ankipāns, with an assist from Jānis Sprukts, scored at 8 minutes 48 seconds into the first period. At 10:01, Mārtiņš Cipulis scored on a power play, aided by Kristaps Sotnieks and Aigars Cipruss.

Mārtiņš Karsums made it 3-0 on a short-handed goal at 14:25 into the second period. He was assisted by Sprukts.

Fifteen seconds into the final period, Italy’s Giulio Scandella scored on a power play with help from Christian Borgatello. The Latvians answered the effort at 2:59 when Lauris Dārziņš, helped by Sprukts and Ankipāns, made the final score 4-1.

Latvia’s goalkeeper Sergejs Naumovs stopped 30 of Italy’s 31 shots on goal, while Italy’s Thomas Tragust was kept busy trying to stop 46 Latvian shots, 42 of them successfully.

In a Feb. 5 game in Rīga, Latvia beat Hungary 7-3 and, the following day, skated past Ukraine 4-2.

During the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Latvia’s best showing was a surprise 3-3 tie with the United States. However, the team lost all other games and ended up last in the field of 12. Sweden won the gold medal.