Origin of the Latvian language. Latvian language and its style

At present, Latvian is a modern European language used by Latvians from all walks of life; it is the state language of the Republic of Latvia and fully performs the most important sociolinguistic functions in the multi-ethnic community of Latvia.

There are 1.4 million Latvian speakers in Latvia; and about 150,000 abroad. Latvian can even be considered a widely spoken language – there are only about 250 languages in the world with more than one million speakers, and Latvian is one of them.

2. Latvian language and its linguistic features

The Latvian language belongs to the Baltic group of languages belonging to the Indo-European language family. The closest and only existing related language is the Lithuanian language (Latvian is a non-Slavic and non-German language). The Latvian language inherited much from the Indo-European proto-dialects and, like the Lithuanian language, retained many archaic distinctive features of the phonetic system and grammar.

From a typological point of view, the Latvian language is a fusional, inflectional language. Nouns in Latvian have 7 cases, verbs have the category of tense, mood, voice and person. There is also an extensive system of word-building affixes. The word order in a sentence is relatively free. Most speakers recognize two tones or two types of intonation in long syllables. In Latvian, words are pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, and a long vowel may appear in an unstressed syllable.

The Latvian alphabet consists of 33 letters:

a, ā, b, c, č, d, e, ē, f, g, ğ, h, i, ī, j, k, ķ, l, ļ, m, n, ņ, o, p, r, s, š, t, u, ū, v, z, ž.

The first written texts in the Latvian language appeared more than 400 years ago, and since then the Latvian spelling has become one of the most correct among the Latin writing systems in the world: while respecting the morphemic structure, the graphemes of the Latvian language correspond almost exactly to the phonemes. The so-called phonomorphological principle still exists in Latvian spelling.

In the first printed books of the second half of the 16th century, the spelling was based on the principles of writing Middle Low German using the Gothic script.

The Gothic type was used until the beginning of the 20th century, with the exception of books that were printed in the eastern part of Latvia. In 1908, a new orthography was approved, according to which the Gothic letters were replaced by Latin ones, and groups of three or four consonants were replaced by one letter or digraphs, using a system of diacritics. In Latvian, longitude is indicated by a longitude sign above vowels, so a short vowel is not indicated, but a dash is placed above a long vowel.

Since the consolidation of the Latvian people, Latvians have always been in contact with other languages: Liv, Estonian, Lithuanian, Belarusian, Russian as neighboring languages, with Russian, Polish, Swedish and German as languages of cultural exchange and state languages, with Latin as the language of religious services at the Catholics. Language contact was an important factor in the development of the Latvian lexicon and grammar. The languages of the Finno-Ugric group of neighboring peoples, Liv and Estonian, as well as Lithuanian and Russian, also influenced the Latvian language. From the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 20th century, the German language was dominant in the field of education, science and government, the dictionary of the Latvian language includes about 3000 borrowings from the German language. Over the past decades, many borrowings from the English language have been made. However, the influence of other languages is not as strong as it could be. This is mainly due to the activities of Latvian linguists regarding the standardization of the language.

3. History of the Latvian language

The Baltic tribes appeared on the territory that currently exists, in the third millennium BC. The separation of the Latvian and Lithuanian proto-dialects took place in the sixth and seventh centuries AD. The formation of the common Latvian language began in the 10th-12th centuries. In modern times, traces of tribal dialects can be found in the three main dialects and in over 500 colloquial forms of Latvian that exist alongside a highly standardized form of Latvian.

The appearance of the first written documents in the Latvian language occurs in the 16th-17th centuries. The catechism, which appeared in 1585, is considered the first printed book. Then a version of the Lutheran catechism was printed in Latvian. Georg Manselius made a huge contribution to the creation of the first Latvian dictionary in 1638 "Lettus". The founders of the creation of the Latvian writing system were German monks, they are also the creators of religious texts. It was based on the German writing system, but it did not fully reflect the features of the spoken Latvian language. The texts of this period were written in Gothic script.

The creation of the "Chronicle of Livonia" in Latin at the beginning of the 13th century belonged to the Catholic priest Heinrich, presumably written in Latin by Latgalian origin. The book gave a description of the events connected with the conquest of the Estonian and Liv lands.

At the beginning of the 20th century, various ideas for the reform of the Latvian writing system were formed. However, the system developed by J. Endzelin and K. Mühlenbach is considered accepted. The Gothic font in the new alphabet is being replaced by Latin. Further, the alphabet did not change until the inclusion of Latvia in the Soviet Union. In subsequent years, the government of the Latvian SSR made amendments and the letters r and o, as well as the ligature ch, were excluded from the Latvian script. Since that time, there have been two different versions of the Latvian script. Latvians living outside of Latvia continue to use the pre-1940 system, while Latvia uses the system modified by the Soviet government. Therefore, no attempts have been made so far to choose any one system or reform the Latvian script.

Most letters of the Latvian alphabet are taken from the Latin 22 out of 33 letters (Q q, W w, X x, Y y are excluded), and the remaining 11 are formed using diacritics.

17th century is associated with the appearance of the first secular books, the alphabet, etc., written in Latvian (again, it is not clear whether letten is Latgalian, Latgalo-Latvian or Latvian) by German priests (in 1644 the first of them was published, compiled by I. G. . Regehusen, a priest from Aizkraukle), several dictionaries, separate articles on spelling issues.

Thanks to German grammarians, the laws of the Latvian language being created were fixed, relatively correct rules of morphology were described, and spelling was stabilized. In general, a fairly rich lexical material has accumulated. Translated Latvian-German bilingual dictionaries constituted the main part. However, all these linguistic works of the XVII century. they were mostly not used by Latvians, but they were of great importance for foreigners in Latvia, primarily for German priests. At present, this material is valuable and irreplaceable.

One of the brightest and most famous representatives of the Latvian spiritual literature of the 17th century. was the German priest Georg Manzel (1593-1654). For a long time he was a priest in rural parishes, which helped him to master the Latvian language well. For some time he was a professor of theology at the University of Tartu, then became its vice-rector, and finally the rector. In 1638 he spent the rest of his life in his native city, where he was a court priest in Jelgava (Mitava).

Manzel was considered one of the most educated people in Latvia in his time. In addition to theology, he was also interested in linguistics, natural sciences, and poetry.

The main work of Manzel is the long-awaited collection of Latvian sermons dedicated to German priests (1654). He appeals to them with a request to better learn the German language in order to better understand the parishioners.

Christopher Fuhreker (ca. 1615–1685) also made an enormous contribution to the development of spiritual literature in the 17th century. At the University of Tartu, he studied theology, and then began working as a home teacher on the estates of Kurzeme. The basis of his activities were translations from the German language of a large number of Lutheran church psalms. He became the founder of syllabic-tonic versification with various meters and rhythms. He also contributed to the collection of material for the Latvian grammar and for the German-Latvian dictionary. His materials were used in the works of other authors.

He was an example and ideological patron for other priests who composed and translated spiritual hymns, but with less success. Johann Wischmann was one of Führeker's followers. In his book "Not a German Opitz" he gives theoretical and practical advice on writing psalms. The author's opinion is that he considers the art of poetry a craft that everyone can learn through incessant practice. Thus, thanks to this book, the first attempts in the field of the theory of Latvian poetry appear.

All church hymns of Fureker and many of his followers were collected at the end of the 17th century. into a single, so-called "Book of Songs". It was reprinted many times and became a common book that could be found in any peasant home.

Georg Elger is the only known Catholic author in the 17th century (1585–1672). He published Catholic psalms, gospel texts, a catechism, but they did not reflect the life of the Latvian people and did not contain a very good translation. The Polish-Latin-Latvian dictionary (Vilnius, 1683) is considered to be Elger's largest work.

All named authors had a German surname. Representative of Latvians in the field of Latvian spiritual literature of the 17th century. there was only one Latvian (with a German surname) - Johann Reiter (1632-1695). He was educated in theology, medicine and jurisprudence, traveled a lot, lived a stormy life. He translated some texts of the New Testament into Latvian, published the prayer "Our Father" in forty languages. Reiter often had to evade attacks because of his background, and also because he dared to defend the peasants from the arbitrariness of the landlords. Once he was even arrested and removed from the parish.

One of the best translations of the Bible in the 17th century. the translation of the Bible made by the pastor Ernst Gluck (1652-1705) and his assistants was considered. First, the New Testament appeared in Riga in 1685, and the entire edition of the Bible appeared only in 1694. The translation was made from the original (Ancient Greek and Hebrew). This first translation of the Bible was very important, because thanks to it the orthography of the written Latvian language was stabilized.

The founder of the national Latvian grammar and poetics was G. F. Shtender, in the 2nd half. 18th century In 1868 IP Krauklis in Riga published in Russian "Guidelines for the study of the Latvian language. Grammar". In 1872 K. Khr. Ulman published "Latvian-German Dictionary" in Riga. Grammar studies by I. Velma, in Moscow, "On the Latvian participle" (1885) and "On the triple longitude of the Latvian vowels (1893); P. Krumberg, "Aussprache lett. Debuwörter" (1881); K. Mühlenbach, according to L. syntax ("Daži jautajumi par Latw. walodu", 1891); Lautenbach, D. Peltz, made a huge contribution to the development of grammar.

Good dialectological texts are "Latw. tautas dzeesmas" ("L. folk songs"), ed. L. lit. total in 1877, and samples of dialects in the II issue. "Collection of Latvian. Communities." in Mitava (1893). "Latvian-Russian" and "Russian-Latvian" dictionaries were published by Voldemar and I. Sirogis (St. Petersburg, 1873 and 1890).

The Catholic Latvians of the Inflanty counties sought to create a special Latvian dialect. In 1732, a book by Iosif Akielevich was published in Vilna, which reveals the peculiarities of East Latvian and West Latvian dialects. and Courland. Then it was republished by T. Kossovsky in 1853 in Riga.

4. Standardization of the Latvian language

The standardization of the Latvian language spontaneously took place in the period of the pre-literate language, i.e. until the 16th century. When the first Latvian normative acts appeared in the 17th century, it became possible to speak of more or less conscious standardization.

The authors of the first Latvian books were representatives of the Baltic German clergy, who devoted themselves to the methodical work of creating a written language, writing books, compiling grammar and dictionaries of the Latvian language. The first printed text in Latvian appeared in 1525. The first books that have survived to this day are the Catholic Catechism (1585) and the Evangelical Lutheran Catechism (1586). The first dictionary of the Latvian language was published in 1638, the first grammar textbook was published in 1644 by the German clergymen G. Manzelius and J. G. Rehehusen.

In the middle of the 19th century, the rise of the National Revival was observed along with the awakening of interest in their language on the part of the Latvians themselves. At the same time, the status of the Baltic languages changed. Until now, the Latvian language was considered by the Baltic German aristocracy as the "language of the countryside", in which it is impossible to express lofty thoughts.

At the end of the 19th century, Latvians set about researching and standardizing the Latvian language. By the end of the 19th century, Latvian had become a highly standardized language, in which many press and fiction publications were published. With the creation of a linguistic theory developing a typology of the Indo-European group of languages, it gradually became clear that the Baltic languages provide some missing links with which to explain the relationship between Sanskrit and the classical languages (Greek and Latin) and modern languages.

Thus, the Baltic languages (Lithuanian, Latvian and the obsolete Prussian language) became the object of study of the international community of professional linguists. As a result, the studies of the first serious Latvian linguists, Kārlis Mīlenbahs (1853-1916) and Janis Endzelins (1873-1961), began to be viewed with interest in international forums.

Starting from 1918, when the independence of the sovereign state of Latvia was proclaimed, and up to the beginning of the Soviet occupation in 1940, the Latvian language has developed into a well-developed multifunctional language with an established system of styles and developed terminology.

During the period of Soviet rule, for political reasons, Latvian linguists could not influence the process of reducing the sociolinguistic functions of the Latvian language, so that the main tasks were to preserve the quality of the language and even improve it. The Terminology Commission of the Latvian Academy of Sciences has been active since 1946. By 1990, she had published 15 terminological dictionaries and more than 50 bulletins in various fields of science and technology. Studies of the Latvian language were carried out, a two-volume grammar of the modern Latvian language and a standard Latvian language dictionary in eight volumes were compiled. Since 1965, a yearbook devoted to the correct use of the Latvian language and a bulletin for journalists have been published, as well as a number of monographic studies.

Since the restoration of Latvia's independence, Latvian language studies have been carried out by the Latvian Language Institute and departments of the University of Latvia, the Pedagogical Academy in Liepaja and the Pedagogical University in Daugavpils. The main areas of study are: lexicography and compilation of dictionaries, grammar, dialectology and areal linguistics, sociolinguistics and terminology. The Latvian language is taught and studied at various universities around the world. The standardization and systematization of the normative Latvian language is carried out by the Latvian Language Expert Commission at the State Language Centre.

Sociolinguistic language situation and language legislation after World War II

During the period of Soviet occupation (1940-1941; 1945-1991), the Latvian language functioned in the context of the Latvian-Russian social bilingualism - Russian was the language of state power and organs. The Latvian language was gradually being squeezed out of some areas, such as transport, banking, police, and industry. As a result of mass immigration, the percentage of people speaking the Latvian language began to decline. In 1989, only 21% of other nationalities claimed to know Latvian, while the majority of Latvians spoke Russian. Despite the fact that the number of people who speak Latvian and the reduction of the sociolinguistic functions of the Latvian language have never reached a critical level for the inevitable change of the language in Latvia, all the prerequisites for this have already been.

In 1988, the Latvian language again received the status of the state language in Latvia. The 1989 Language Law (as amended in 1992) restored the position of the Latvian language in the national economy and public life. After the restoration of independence in 1991, there were changes in the language situation in Latvia. The main goal of the language policy was the integration of all inhabitants in terms of the official state language while maintaining and developing the languages of Latvia's national minorities. Recognizing the existing problems in society, the government of Latvia has started implementing programs to teach the Latvian language. In 2000, it was recognized that 75% of the inhabitants who speak national minority languages have some knowledge of the Latvian language.

A certain number of representatives of national minorities in Latvia receive bilingual education at the expense of the state. These include those who study in Russian, Jewish, Polish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Estonian and Romani schools, where they teach the basics of Latvian as a second language. This makes it possible to stimulate the further study of the Latvian language and facilitate the integration of each resident into society so that in the future they do not experience difficulties due to insufficient knowledge of the Latvian language.

The law on the state language was adopted on December 9, 1999. Several normative legal acts relating to this Law have been adopted. Control over compliance with the Law is carried out by the State Language Center under the Ministry of Justice.

Thanks to the current political and demographic processes in the region, Latvia and other Baltic countries can be ranked among the countries where the consistent implementation of appropriate language policy principles is crucial for maintaining the language. The purpose of this Law is: the preservation, protection and development of the Latvian language, the integration of national minorities into Latvian society while respecting their rights to use their mother tongue and any other language.

5. Linguistic and stylistic features of the Latvian language

Latvian is a synthetic language. It has a developed system of declension and conjugation. Despite the high level of synthesism, Latvian grammar is simpler than that of the related Lithuanian language, with more simplified declension and conjugation paradigms. For example, the instrumental case is dying out, case control in the plural has been simplified, the verb in the subjunctive mood has only one form for all persons and both numbers on "-tu", while in Lithuanian there is a whole set of endings: "-čiau, -tum, - tų, -tume, -tute, -tų". There is no neuter gender in Latvian. Masculine nouns have the ending s, š, is, us, and feminine - a, e, s (rarely). There are two forms of address in Latvian: official and informal. For example, you (tu) will turn into Jūs (you) when addressed politely. The order of words in sentences is free, that is, it depends on which word the semantic stress falls on. So, for example, the sentence "There is water in a glass" will look like this: Glāzē ir ūdens, and "Water in a glass" will look like this: Ūdens ir glāzē. There are no articles in Latvian (that is, "house" is māja, and "He is at home" is Viņš ir mājās), but adjectives contain the concept of certainty/uncertainty.

The Latvian language has its own stylistic originality. The language has many nuances associated with the construction of sentences and the use of individual words.

There are 3 dialects in the Latvian language:

1. Middle Latvian (in the central part of Latvia, it is the basis of the literary language, which was formed from the second half of the 19th century);

2. Livonian (in the north of Kurzeme and northwest of Vidzeme, where the Lyivs lived or live, under the influence of the language of which this dialect was formed);

3. Upper Latvian (in the east of Latvia; this dialect, also called Latgalian, experienced significant Polish influence; books and newspapers were published in it in 1730-1865 and 1904-59).

There are 2 forms of address in Latvian: official and informal. For example, "you" (tu) becomes jus ("you") when used politely.

In a sentence, the word order is free - it depends on which word the semantic stress falls on. So, the sentence "There is water in a glass" will look like this: Glaze ir udens, and "Water in a glass" - Udens ir glaze. In general, the SVO order prevails. The word being defined comes after the definition.

There is no stylistic restriction in the use of the verb est in Latvian. Mulenbach-Endzelin Dictionary. Latviesu valodas vardnica (vol. VIII, p. 577) gives the following formula for hospitality: lai veseli edusi! (according to Russian, eat (or eat) to your health!), but along with this, the verb est is also used about pigs, horses: sivens labi edas, pamest zirgam est. Wed in Russian: "Give the child to eat!", "I want to eat", "The dog will not eat this!" etc.

findings

So, the Latvian language is one of the two Eastern Baltic languages that have survived to this day. Latvian is the state language of Latvia. In the Latvian language, linguists distinguish three dialects: Middle Latvian, which is also the basis of the Lithuanian language; Livonian and Upper Latvian. The Latgalian language is subject to the strongest influence from the Slavic languages. The Central Latvian dialect is taken as the basis of the modern Latvian literary language. Distribution of dialects in the territory of Latvia (blue - Livonian dialect, green - Middle Latvian, yellow - Upper Latvian).

In the process of its development, the Latvian language absorbed words from the Swedish and German languages, because almost all historical time Latvia was under the rule of the Swedes, then under the Germans. The greatest relief came when the territory of Latvia was under the rule of Russia, but the locals no longer remember this and revere the German language of the former oppressors more than their kindred Russian.

The modern Latvian script arose on the basis of the Latin alphabet with the use of diacritics; spelling is based on the phonemic-morphological principle. Writing based on the Latin Gothic script appeared in the 16th century. (the first book is the Catholic catechism of 1585).

The main fund of vocabulary is originally Baltic. Borrowings from Germanic languages, especially Middle Low German (elle "hell", muris "stone wall", stunda "hour"), from Slavic, mainly Russian (bloda "bowl", sods "punishment", greks "sin"), from Baltic Finnish (kazas "wedding", puika "boy").

A feature of the Latvian language is the fact that there is no neuter gender.

It is important to remember that in Latvian the stress always falls on the first syllable, but such a phonetic phenomenon as long vowels can give the impression that there are two stresses or that the stress falls on some other syllable. In this, Latvian is similar to Finnish. By the way, before the arrival of the Latvians on the shores of the Baltic, in the Riga region, the Finnish-speaking tribes of the Livs lived, completely dissolved in the Latvian population.

Literature

1. Veksler B. Kh., Yurik V. A. Latvian language (self-tutor). – Riga: Zvaigzne, 1978.

2. Daugavet A. D. Minor stress in the Latvian language // V Interuniversity scientific conference of students-philologists. Abstracts of reports. Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, 2001. - p. eight

3. Daugavet A. D. On the category of definiteness of adjectives in Lithuanian and Latvian languages // The first conference on typology and grammar for young researchers. Abstracts of reports. The Russian Academy of Sciences. Institute for Linguistic Research RAS. Petersburg Linguistic Society. St. Petersburg, 2004. - p. 39–41.

4. Daugavet AD State of traditional dialects in Latvia in 20-40s. 20th century (Based on the materials of the journal "Filologu biedrības raksti") // Proceedings of the XXXVI International Philological Conference. Issue 1. Section of Baltic. Baltic languages: psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, computational linguistics. Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University. St. Petersburg, 2007. - p. 22–23.

5. Stelle A., Straume A., Liepinsh P. Learning the Latvian language - Riga: Zvaigzne, 1989

Latvian language, Latvian language for beginners
Latviesu valoda

Countries: official status:

Latvia EU

Regulatory organization:

State Language Center

Total number of speakers:

about 1.8 million

Languages of Eurasia

Indo-European family

Balto-Slavic branch of the Baltic group

Writing:

Latin (Latvian alphabet)

Language codes GOST 7.75–97: ISO 639-1: ISO 639-2: ISO 639-3: See also: Project:Linguistics Percentage of people using Latvian as the main language in the family (translated 2011)

Latvian (Latvian. latviešu valoda) is one of the two Eastern Baltic languages that have survived to this day (along with the Lithuanian language). Latvian is the only official language of Latvia and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. The number of native speakers of Latvian in Latvia according to the 2011 census is about 1.2 million people, which is equal to about 56% of the country's population and 62% of those who indicated their language (including speakers of the Latgalian dialect, which is sometimes considered as a separate language); The majority of Russian-speaking residents living in the country, as well as a small number of Latvian emigrants and their descendants in other countries of the world (Russia, USA, Sweden, Ireland, England, Canada, Germany, Lithuania, Estonia, etc.) also speak Latvian to varying degrees. Thus, the number of people who speak Latvian around the world is over 1.8 million people.

1 Origin
2 History
3 Writing
4 Linguistic characteristic
- 4.1 Phonetics
  - 4.1.1 Vowels
  - 4.1.2 Consonants
  - 4.1.3 Prosody
- 4.2 Morphology
  - 4.2.1 Noun
  - 4.2.2 Adjective
  - 4.2.3 Verb
  - 4.2.4 Prepositions and postpositions
5 See also
6 Notes
7 Literature
8 Links
- 8.1 General information. Linguistics
- 8.2 Dictionaries, teaching aids and didactic material

Origin

Dialects of the Latvian language

It is noteworthy that the modern Baltic languages retain a number of Indo-European archaisms lost in other languages (including Slavic). However, due to the continued geographical proximity, intensive trade and cultural exchange between the Baltic and Slavic peoples, and, accordingly, the language exchange between the Slavic and Baltic languages continues until the 12th century, although it is interrupted for some time due to strong German influence. in the XII-XVIII centuries. The influence of Russian and partly Polish on Latvian resumes after the 18th century. Russian influence is especially noticeable in a number of regions of Latgale, as well as in urban areas where Russian-speaking prevails.

Story

The closest relative of the modern literary Latvian language is the Latgalian language spoken in Eastern Latvia (Latgale), which is also considered as its dialect/variety, although these languages have a rather different history. In addition to the Latgalian language, the Lithuanian language is also closely related to Latvian.

At first, the Eastern Baltic languages separated from the Western Baltic (or, apparently, from the hypothetical Proto-Baltic language) between the 400s and 600s; however, a number of researchers (V.N. Toporov, V.V. Kromer), relying on glottochronology data, believe that the divergence of the East Baltic and West Baltic languages dates back to the same time as the separation of the Baltic and Slavic languages. At the same time, the speakers of the Western Baltic languages (Prussians, Curonians) underwent strong Germanization and by the beginning of the 18th century they were completely assimilated into the German language environment (as were the Polabian Slavs). It is noteworthy that by this time this territory, as well as the vast expanses of the Russian Plain, were already inhabited by Finno-Ugric peoples, who gradually dissolved among the Baltic-speaking tribes. The remains of the Finno-Ugric area until recently existed on the territory of modern Latvia in the form of the so-called Liv language. 13th century The Livonian Order, which ruled the territory of all modern Latvia, chose the name "Livonian". To the north - in the territory of modern Estonia, the ancient Finno-Ugric dialects survived and evolved into modern Estonian.

The occupation by the Livonian Order in the 13th and 14th centuries of the Western Dvina/Daugava River basin also had a significant impact on the independent development of languages. The main distinguishing factors of the Latvian language from Lithuanian, therefore, were the Finno-Ugric substratum in the early Middle Ages and the Germanic and East Slavic superstratum in the Middle Ages and Modern times. The Lithuanian language has experienced less Germanic, but more Western Slavic influence.

Writing

"Our Father" in the old spelling Latvian literature

The path of development of the Baltic languages from the Proto-Indo-European language until the Middle Ages often remains unclear, since the first monuments in the Latvian language proper appear late - in the 16th century, and are mainly translations from German written in the Latin alphabet.

The first information about a book with a Latvian text dates back to the time of the Reformation, when in 1525 the German Mass was printed in Low German, Latvian and Estonian. In 1530, Nikolaus Ramm translated passages from the Bible into Latvian for the first time. The beginning of the written tradition in the Latvian language is connected with his name. The oldest surviving monuments of the Latvian press are the Catholic Catechism of P. Kanizia (Vilnius, 1585) and the Small Catechism of M. Luther (Koenigsberg, 1586). In 1638, Georg Manselius compiled the first Lettus dictionary in Latvia.

The modern Latvian alphabet, based on the Latin alphabet, includes 33 letters:

Letters

A a

Ā ā

c c

Č č

D d

e e

Ē ē

F f

G g

Ģ ģ

H h

I i

Ī ī

Ķ ķ

l l

Ļ ļ

M m

N n

Ņ ņ

O o

R r

S s

Š š

T t

U u

Ū ū

Ž ž

Sound (MFA)

aː

æ, ɛ

æː, ɛː

iː

u͡ɔ, o, oː

uː

Linguistic characteristic

Phonetics

Vowels

Latvian has a distinction between short and long vowel phonemes. In a huge number of cases, the difference between two words is based on the length or shortness of one or another vowel sound. In the modern Latvian alphabet, vowel length is indicated by a bar above the letter: "ā ē ī ū".

The system of vowel phonemes in modern Latvian includes the following monophthongs:

The phonemes and are enclosed in curly brackets, since in modern Latvian they occur only in loanwords. In the original vocabulary, the old sound is pronounced as and denoted by the letter "o". The same letter denotes the one that appeared in place of the old combination "a + nasal".

There are 6 diphthongs in Latvian: ai, ei, ui, o, au, ie, and they are pronounced as one syllable. After vowels, the consonant can become a diphthong /ai/: for example, in the word liepājs.

In writing, the vowel system is indicated rather imperfectly: open and closed ~ do not differ - both sounds are transmitted by the letters "e ē". The letter "o" conveys three sounds: //. The last two are pronounced only in borrowings, but sometimes it is difficult to establish whether the word is Latvian or not, and also, if not, then pronounce the vowel long or short. Reading the letters "e ē o" is the main difficulty for beginners to learn the Latvian language. Different textbooks deal with this issue in different ways. Often, an open "e" is preceded by a dot or an icon below it, for example "t.ēvs", but "spēlēt".

The vowels of the Latvian language are very different from the Russian ones both in terms of the articulation of the main allophones and in terms of their distribution. For example, the vowel is more closed than the Russian "e". The vowel is more back, and the vowel has interesting articulations, which, however, do not coincide with the Russian "y", as it seems to Russian at first glance. In addition, it is very difficult for native Russian speakers to correctly pronounce long vowels not under stress (as well as short ones under it). In general, long vowels of the Latvian language sound about 2.5 times longer than short vowels.

Consonants

The consonants of the Latvian language are voiced and deaf, hard and soft, and also have different characteristics according to the place and type of formation. Below is a table of Latvian consonants:

Thus, there are only a few soft consonants in Latvian: j ķ ģ ļ ņ ŗ. The sound "ŗ (p)" is not used among the native speakers of the younger generation, and the letter for it was also excluded from the official standard alphabet in 1946. The sounds "š" and "ž" are pronounced similar to the English sh and zh, that is, softer than the usual Russian "sh" and "zh", but not as soft as "u" and "zhzh (in the word "yeast")". The sound "č" is harder than the Russian "h". The sound "l" is pronounced on the alveoli (as in Czech or Danish, for example).

Doubled consonants are pronounced for a long time. Any voiceless noisy consonant in a position between two short (!) vowels is also pronounced for a long time: suka.

Hard consonants do not soften before front vowels. That is, the word “liepa” is not pronounced “liepa”, not “liepa”, but approximately like the Russian “ly͡epa” (moreover, this “y͡e” is pronounced as one syllable). in Latvian, as in Russian, voiced consonants are pronounced voiceless before voiceless ones, and voiceless ones are voiced before voiced ones ("labs" as "laps", sākdams as /sagdams/). However, at the end of words, voiced consonants (d, t, z, g, dz, etc.) are not stunned. The sound combinations ts and dz in one syllable are pronounced with one fused sound t͡s and d͡z. at the end of the word, the sound combination zs as a slightly lengthened /s/, šs and žs as a slightly lengthened /ʃ/.

Before the velar consonants (k and g), the consonant "n" becomes velar /ŋ/.

Prosody

The stress in the Latvian language falls on the first syllable of the vast majority of words, which is obviously due to the Finno-Ugric substratum (Liv and Estonian). However, long stressed and, unlike Lithuanian, unstressed syllables in Latvian retain syllabic intonations. The norm of the literary language requires three intonations - even, falling and interrupted (similar in pronunciation to push in Danish). In fact, in most dialects, as in the modern Lithuanian language, two intonations are distinguished - even and falling or even and interrupted (in both cases, falling and intermittent are mixed in the second). For example: loks (bow) ~ lo^gs (window); li~epa (linden) ~ lie^ta (thing).

Morphology

Latvian is a synthetic language. It has a developed system of declension and conjugation. Despite the high level of synthesism, Latvian grammar is simpler than that of the related Lithuanian language, with more simplified declension and conjugation paradigms. For example, the instrumental case is dying out, plural case control is simplified, the verb in the subjunctive mood has only one form for all persons and both numbers on “-tu”, while in Lithuanian there is a whole set of endings: “-čiau, -tum, - tų, -tume, -tute, -tų". Latvian has no neuter gender. Masculine nouns end in s, š, is, us, and feminine ones end in a, e, s (rarely). There are two forms of address in Latvian: official and informal. For example, you (tu) will turn into Jūs (you) when addressed politely. The order of words in sentences is free, that is, it depends on which word the semantic stress falls on. So, for example, the sentence “There is water in a glass” will look like this: Glāzē ir ūdens, and “Water in a glass” will look like this: Ūdens ir glāzē. there are no articles in Latvian (i.e. "house" will be māja, and "He is at home" - Viņš ir mājās), but adjectives contain the concept of certainty/uncertainty.

Noun

Nominativs- nominative: kas? - who? what? (in Latvian there is no separate interrogative-relative pronoun for inanimate objects)

Ģenitīvs- genitive: ka? - whom? what?

Dativs- dative: kam? - to whom? what?

Akuzativs- accusative: ko? - whom? what?

Instrumentalis- creative: ar ko? - with whom? with what?

Lokativs- local: kur? - where? (used without preposition)

Vokativs- vocative: used when addressing

Features of the case system:

in the plural, only the dative case is used with prepositions, while in the singular, the genitive, dative, and accusative are possible.
the instrumental case in the singular, with rare exceptions, coincides with the accusative case, and in the plural with the dative. It is used almost exclusively after the preposition "ar - with". However, in the plural, the preposition can be omitted: "es nomierināšu tevi ar savu dziesmu ~ es nomierināšu tevi ar savām dziesmām::: I will comfort you with my song ~ I will comfort you with my songs." That is, ar dziesmu ~ (ar) dziesmām.
the vocative case is formed only in the singular and in the modern language for many words it coincides with the nominative case.

There are 7 types of declension in Latvian. Below are a few frequency paradigms:

case	"zēns(m.r., boy)"	"brālis (m.r., brother)"	"sieva (female, wife)"	"upe (female, river)"	"zivs (female, fish)"	"ledus (m.r., ice)"
N.	zens	bralis	sieva	upe	zivs	ledus
Ģ	zena	braļa	sievas	upes	zivs	ledus
D	zenam	brālim	sievai	upei	zivij	ledum
A-I	zenu	brali	sievu	upi	zivi	ledu
L	zenā	brālī	sievā	upe	zivī	ledu
V	zens!	brali!	seeva!	up!	zivs!	ledus!
-	-	-	-	-	-	-
N	zeni	braļi	sievas	upes	zivis	ledi
Ģ	zenu	brāļu	sievu	upju	zivju	ledu
D-I	zeniem	brāļiem	sievam	upem	zivim	lediem
A	zenus	braļus	sievas	upes	zivis	ledus
L	zenos	brāļos	sievas	upes	zivis	ledos

Adjective

It changes in gender, number and case, that is, it agrees with the noun it defines. Adjectives in the predicate function also agree with the subject in gender and number.

An interesting feature of the Latvian adjective is that it has full and short forms (cf. Russian “good ~ good, good ~ good”). This feature is characteristic of most Balto-Slavic languages (except for Bulgarian and Macedonian, where the ending of the full form of the m.s. unlike the Russian language, Latvian short adjectives are used very widely and are presented in all cases. The use of full forms:

for a special selection of some object from a number of similar ones (that is, similar to the function of the defining member): baltais zirgs ir jau vecs - (exactly that) white horse is already old
after demonstrative and possessive pronouns: tas jaunais cilvēks - that young man
in the vocative case: milais draugs! - Dear friend!
when substantiating: klibais ar aklo iet pa ceļu - the lame and the blind walk along the road
in titles: Pēteris Lielais - Peter the Great

Paradigm examples:

case	m.r. unspecified	m.r. def.	zh.r. unspecified	zh.r. def.
N.	salds	saldais	salda	salda
Ģ.	salda	salda	saldas	saldas
D.	saldam	saldajam	saldai	saldajai
A.-I.	saldu	saldo	saldu	saldo
L.	salda	saldaja	salda	saldaja
-	-	-	-	-
N.	saldi	saldie	saldas	saldas
Ģ.	saldu	saldo	saldu	saldo
D.-I.	saldiem	saldajiem	saldam	saldajam
A.	saldus	saldos	saldas	saldas
L.	saldos	saldajos	saldas	saldajas

Verb

Verbs in the Latvian language are conjugated according to persons, numbers, voices and moods. They have many participial forms.

As in Lithuanian, Latvian verbs in all tenses have the same form for singular and plural in the third person due to the loss of inflections in these forms.

Verbs are divided into conjugations. The main division is into the first (outcome of the stem into a consonant) and the second (outcome of the stem into a vowel) conjugations. Verbs of the second conjugation are much simpler, since they do not undergo stem changes during conjugation. Verbs of the first conjugation use palatalization, infixes, ablaut and other means in the formation of different forms. For example:

just (feel) - es jūtu (I feel) - es jutu (I felt)

likt (put) - es lieku / tu liec / viņš liek (I put / you put / he puts) - es liku (I put)

glābt (save) - es glābju (I save) - es glābu (I saved)

Conjugation examples (verbs nest (sp. 1, “to carry”) and mērīt (sp. 2, “to measure”)):

Face	Nast. time	Past time	Bud. time
es	meru	mēriju	mērīšu
tu	meri	merji	mērīsi
viņš/viņi	mera	merija	meris
mes	meram	mērījam	mērīsim
jus	mērat	mērījat	mērīsit

Face	Nast. time	Past time	Bud. time
es	nesu	nesu	nesisu
tu	nes	nesi	nesisi
viņš/viņi	nes	nesa	nesis
mes	nesam	nesam	nesisim
jus	nesat	nesat	nesit

Retelling, present tense (no conjugation for persons and numbers): es, tu, viņš, mēs, jūs, viņi nesot

Subjunctive mood (a noticeable drop in personal conjugation compared to Lithuanian): es, tu, viņš, mēs, jūs, viņi nestu

Imperative: nes! nesiet!

These basic forms of verbs (derived from copulas) in combination with participles form complex verb forms:

perfect: esmu nesis

paraphrase perfect: esot nesis

Participle examples:

zied oss koks - flowering tree

noziedej is koks - faded tree

lasā ma grāmata - readable book

izcep ta maize - baked bread

viņš iet domā dams- he walks thinking

Prepositions and postpositions

In the singular, Latvian prepositions govern the genitive, dative (only a few prepositions) or accusative instrumental. In the plural, all prepositions and most postpositions (except "dēļ", "pēc" (rare)) govern the dative instrumental.

Notes

Latvian language, languages in Latvia, 2003
PX Web - Select variables and values
M. B. Schukin. Birth of the Slavs Balto-Slavica. Retrieved May 10, 2011. Archived from the original on August 24, 2011.
V. V. KROMER. Glottochronology and Problems of Proto-Language Reconstruction (14.03.2003). Retrieved August 17, 2010. (arΧiv: cs/0303007)

Literature

Latvian language // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg, 1890-1907.
Latvian language // Small Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: 4 volumes. - St. Petersburg, 1907-1909.

Links

Wikipedia contains chapter
in Latvian
"Sakumlapa"

In Wiktionary, a list of Latvian words is contained in the category Wiktionary has an entry "Latvian"

General information. Linguistics

Latvian. General information. around the world
Latvian. General information. Literary Encyclopedia
General information about the Latvian language

Dictionaries, teaching aids and didactic material

Latvian-Russian, Russian-Latvian dictionary
Latvian
Russian-Latvian and Latvian-Russian dictionary
Latvian-Russian dictionary
Latvian self-taught online + additional study materials
Russian-Latvian and Latvian-Russian translator online

Baltic languages
Proto-Baltic † (proto-language)
Oriental	extinct and bookish: Semigalian † Selonian † Modern: Lithuanian Samogitian Latvian Latgalian Kurnieki
Western	Prussian † Yatvingian † Curonian † Pomeranian-Baltic † Galindian †
Dnieper-Oka	golyadsky †
† - dead, split or changed languages.

Latvian language, Latvian language in pictures, Latvian language for children city and transport, Latvian language for beginners, Latvian language translator, Latvian language tutorial, Latvian language textbook

Latvian Language Information About

Latvian is the official state language of Latvia. It is spoken by about 1.4 million people in Latvia and about 150 thousand people abroad. It is noteworthy that the Latvian language is actively used by a relatively large number of non-Latvians: thanks to the language policy of the Latvian authorities, it is spoken by about 1.9 million people, or 79% of the population of Latvia.

The Latvian language belongs to the Baltic group of the Indo-European family. It is closely related to another living Baltic language with official status, Lithuanian, although these languages are not mutually intelligible. According to some glottochronological hypotheses, the West Baltic languages separated from the East Baltic (or hypothetical Proto-Baltic language) in 400-600 BC. The differentiation between Lithuanian and Latvian began in the 9th century, after which they existed for a long time (perhaps until the 14th-17th centuries) as dialects of the same language.

Latvian is an inflectional language with numerous analytical forms. It has two grammatical genders (masculine and feminine) and two numbers (singular and plural). Nouns are declined in seven cases (nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, prepositional, vocative). The main stress in a word (with a few exceptions) is placed on the first syllable. There are no articles in Latvian, the basic word order is Subject-Predicate-Object.

The Latvian language has three dialects: Livonian, Latgalian (some linguists consider it an independent language) and Middle Latvian. The Central Latvian dialect became the basis of the standard Latvian language.

Until the 19th century, the Latvian language was strongly influenced by German, as the representatives of the upper classes of the local society were Baltic Germans. When the national revival movement began in the country in the middle of the 19th century, it was led by the Young Latvians organization, which popularized the use of the Latvian language. It was the members of this organization that laid the foundations of the standard language. But when Emperor Alexander III came to power in the 1880s, a period of Russification began in Latvia - some Latvian scholars even suggested switching to Cyrillic writing.

After the death of the king, at the end of the 19th century, nationalist sentiments flared up with renewed vigor. In 1908, the Latvian linguists Karlis Milenbahs and Janis Endzelins created the modern Latvian alphabet, which gradually replaced the old orthography.

During the Soviet period, the development of the Latvian language was seriously influenced by the Russification policy. During this time, many Latvians were deported, followed by large-scale immigration from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other Soviet republics. As a result, the share of the Latvian population decreased from 80% in 1935 to 52% in 1989. In Soviet Latvia, most immigrants did not learn Latvian. Today, Latvian is the mother tongue of over 60% of the country's population.

After the restoration of independence in 1991, a new language learning policy was introduced. The main goal was the integration of all residents into the environment of the official state language, coupled with the protection of the languages of the national minorities of Latvia. Now the government finances the study of the Latvian language in elementary schools for national minorities; these include Russian, Jewish, Polish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Belorussian, Estonian and Gypsy schools.

To counter the influence of Russian and English, government organizations (the Terminological Commission of the Latvian Academy of Sciences and the State Linguistic Center) are trying to popularize the use of Latvian terms and linguistic purism. The latter manifests itself mainly in the creation of new words and expressions, which are then submitted for discussion to the general public. And although the purists managed to come up with a number of euphonious words, most of the neologisms are considered by the population as "alien" and unnecessary, instead of which one could use the words used previously.

For example, a heated discussion broke out in Latvia when the Terminological Commission proposed replacing the word eiro (“euro”) with the word eira, with a “more Latvian” ending. As a result of this language policy, many borrowings in the Latvian language exist in the form of two variants - "foreign" and "Latvian": telefons/tālrunis ("telephone"; the second word is a direct translation of the international term into Latvian), kompjūters/dators (" computer"), etc.

The Republic of Latvia is a popular tourist destination for anyone interested in medieval architecture and beach holidays. Many of those who are going to visit this hospitable country for the first time want to know what language is spoken in Latvia. It should be noted that, unlike some other countries, not only the official language is spoken here.

Latvian as the state language of Latvia

About 1.7 million people in the Republic of Latvia speak Latvian. This is one of several Eastern Baltic dialects that has survived to this day and belongs to the oldest European languages.

Latvian is the state language in Latvia. It is represented by three dialects: Livonian, Upper Latvian and Middle Latvian. The latter formed the basis of the modern literary Latvian language.

Speaking about what language is official in Riga, it should be noted that, of course, this is Latvian. At the same time, approximately 150 thousand people, including those living in Riga, as well as Latgale, Vidzeme and Seliya, speak the Latgalian dialect as their native language.

As for the need to speak Latvian, everything is individual here. Tourists do not need to know it at all, but if your goal is employment or citizenship in the country, you will have to learn the language.

National Latvian is used in all state institutions and courts. However, it is impossible to get a job in these structures with a temporary or permanent residence permit.

The Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Latvia has approved about 4,500 specialties, in which you can get a job only if you speak Latvian at a certain level and have the appropriate confirmation (depending on the specialty).

Levels of knowledge of the language and profession:

Lower Basic (A1) - maid, janitor, kitchen helper, etc.
Higher basic (A2) - courier, operator of various installations, etc.
First middle (B1) - governess, shop assistant, designer, etc.
Second middle (B2) - technologist, chef and others.
Senior (C1 and C2) - municipal employees, ambassador, ministers, etc.

The level of knowledge of Latvian is confirmed by the State Educational Content Centre.

According to a survey conducted in 2009, 48% of Russians rated their command of Latvian as good, while 8% reported that they did not speak it at all.

What other languages are spoken in Latvia

Many people are interested in what languages are spoken in Latvia besides Latvian. Thus, in the tourism sector, Russian, English, German and Swedish are actively used.

In Latgale (the eastern part of the country), the Latgalian dialect is widespread, which some linguists call the third living Baltic language (along with Latvian and Lithuanian). Well, for specialists, extinct dialects are of considerable interest: Zemgale, Selonian and Curonian.

The language of communication in Latvia is Latvian. All announcements, signs, street names, timetables and public transport stops, various inscriptions are made exclusively on it.

How is the Russian language in Latvia?

Russian is the second most spoken language in the Republic of Latvia. It is understood by more than 80% of the country's population, while about 40% of the indigenous people consider it native. Therefore, if you are wondering if Russian is spoken in Latvia, the answer is yes.

According to a survey conducted in 2005, the first language in terms of general proficiency in Latvia was Russian. However, three years later, knowledge of Russian deteriorated markedly (especially among ethnic Latvians). In particular, people aged 15 to 34 were the worst at using it. Of these, 54% of Latvians knew Russian well, 38% - moderately and poorly, and 8% did not speak Russian at all.

In order to understand why Russian is spoken in Latvia, one should turn to historical facts:

Russian culture had a significant influence on the formation of the linguistic tradition, at a time when the territory of present-day Latvia was part of Kievan Rus. It was during this period that some Latvian words appeared.
Mass emigration of the Russian-speaking population to Latvia was observed during the First World War. As a result, the Russian-speaking community in this country has grown rapidly.
As part of the USSR, Latvia was one of the leading countries in the modernization of production. Large-scale construction needed workers. For these purposes, many Russian-speaking citizens from other republics were involved. This changed the linguistic composition of the population. In the late 1980s, more than 80% of the inhabitants of Latvia were fluent in Russian, and about 60% of them were native Latvians.

The combination of historical facts has led to the fact that today Russian is a part of the national culture in Latvia.

If you are interested in whether they speak Russian in Riga, then the answer will be positive. Those who do not know Russian in the capital of the Republic of Latvia are exclusively young people who have come from the villages. True, there are those who pretend not to know. However, in the service sector, in shops, hotels, restaurants and other establishments, personnel are not hired without knowledge of Russian.

As for what language is spoken in Jurmala, Latvian is the most common here, but Russian and English are the next most popular languages in this city. In general, Jurmala is the largest resort on the shores of the Gulf of Riga, which is visited by a huge number of tourists from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Therefore, Russian and English are freely used in the service sector.

Status of the Russian language in the Republic of Latvia

In accordance with Article No. 5 of the Law on the State Language, all languages in Latvia, except for Latvian and Liv, are foreign. Therefore, civil servants do not have the right to accept documents, applications or give any information in Russian, except for cases stipulated by law. Based on this, there is no special status for the Russian language in Latvia. Today it is just one of the foreign languages.

Distribution of Russian-speaking residents across the territory of Latvia

Russian-speaking residents make up a significant part of the population of the Republic of Latvia. So, according to the population census conducted in 2000, Russian was native for 80% of the inhabitants of Daugavpils and almost 46% of the population of Jurmala. The figures are somewhat lower in Jelgava (about 43%) and in Ventspils (about 42%). At the same time, according to the 2011 census, about 90% of the inhabitants of Daugavpils spoke Russian.

Specificity of the Latvian language

If you are interested in whether you should speak Latvian or Latvian, then the correct answer is “Latvian”. At the same time, the closest and only existing related dialect of the Latvian language is Lithuanian.

The Russian language spoken in the Republic of Latvia has a number of loanwords from Latvian. For example, it is customary to say goodbye here with the word “ata” instead of “bye”. Specific turns of speech are also not uncommon: for example, here they say not “What, excuse me?”, But “What, please?”.

Latvia is an interesting country with its own special culture, cuisine, sights, etc. So if you haven't been here yet, be sure to visit.

What do you know about LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE?: Video

Linguistic and cultural diversity is the world's greatest strength and wealth. Along with more than 6,700 world languages, there is a language spoken by the people living along the coast of the Baltic Sea. This is the Latvian language - the state language of the Republic of Latvia.
At present, Latvian is a modern European language used by Latvians from all walks of life; it is the state language of the Republic of Latvia and fully performs the most important sociolinguistic functions in the multi-ethnic community of Latvia.
There are 1.4 million Latvian speakers in Latvia; and about 150,000 abroad. Latvian can even be considered a widely spoken language – there are only about 250 languages in the world with more than one million speakers, and Latvian is one of them. However, the Latvian language has always existed in the face of heavy competition. Until recently, the main contact languages were German and Russian, which have the status of international languages, and besides, the speakers of these languages politically dominated the Latvians. The fact that the Latvian language and culture have been preserved is a real miracle in itself.

Linguistic characteristic


Latvian	Lithuanian language	Russian language	German	English language
barda	barzda	beard	der Bart	beard
circumstance	kirvis	axe	Das Beil	ax
darzs	darzas	garden	der Garten	garden
dzeltens	geltonas	yellow	gelb	yellow
dzintars	gintaras	amber	der Bernstein	amber
mugura	nugara	back	der Ruecken	back
piens	pienas	milk	die Milch	milk
slota	sluota	broom	der Besen	broom
zirnis	žirnis	peas	die Erbse	pea

Latvian script

The Latvian alphabet consists of 33 letters:

a, ā, b, c, č, d, e, ē, f, g, ğ, h, i, ī, j, k, ķ, l, ļ, m, n, ņ, o, p, r, s, š, t, u, ū, v, z, ž.

In the first printed books of the second half of the 16th century, the spelling was based on the principles of writing Middle Low German using the Gothic script.

The Gothic type was used until the beginning of the 20th century, with the exception of books that were printed in the eastern part of Latvia. In 1908, a new orthography was approved, according to which the Gothic letters were replaced by Latin ones, and groups of three or four consonants by one letter or digraphs, using a system of diacritics. In Latvian, longitude is indicated by a longitude sign above vowels, so a short vowel is not indicated, but a dash is placed above a long vowel.

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Origin of the Latvian language. Latvian language and its style

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5. Linguistic and stylistic features of the Latvian language

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Notes

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Latvian Language Information About

Latvian as the state language of Latvia

What other languages are spoken in Latvia

How is the Russian language in Latvia?

Status of the Russian language in the Republic of Latvia

Distribution of Russian-speaking residents across the territory of Latvia

Specificity of the Latvian language

What do you know about LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE?: Video

Linguistic characteristic

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Portal for the student. Self-training

2. Latvian language and its linguistic features

3. History of the Latvian language

4. Standardization of the Latvian language

5. Linguistic and stylistic features of the Latvian language

findings

Origin

Story

Writing

Linguistic characteristic

Phonetics

Vowels

Consonants

Prosody

Morphology

Noun

Adjective

Verb

Prepositions and postpositions

see also

Notes

Literature

Links

General information. Linguistics

Dictionaries, teaching aids and didactic material

Latvian Language Information About

Latvian as the state language of Latvia

What other languages ​​are spoken in Latvia

How is the Russian language in Latvia?

Status of the Russian language in the Republic of Latvia

Distribution of Russian-speaking residents across the territory of Latvia

Specificity of the Latvian language

What do you know about LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE?: Video

Linguistic characteristic

Latvian script

Contact languages

Standardization of the Latvian language

Sociolinguistic language situation and language legislation after World War II

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What other languages are spoken in Latvia