Latvian language. Dictionaries, teaching aids and didactic material

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 state language of Latvia, as well as one of the 24 official languages European Union. According to the 2011 census, the number of native speakers of Latvian in Latvia 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 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, study guides 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 XII century, although it is interrupted for some time due to the strong German influence in the XII-XVIII centuries. The influence of the Russian and partly Polish into Latvian resumes after the 18th century. Particularly noticeable Russian influence 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, Latvian is also closely related to Lithuanian language.

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) were subjected to strong Germanization and to early XVIII fully assimilated into the German language environment(like the Polabian Slavs). It is noteworthy that by this time given 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 modern Estonia, the ancient Finno-Ugric dialects have been preserved and evolved into the modern Estonian language.

It also had a significant impact on independent development languages occupation Livonian Order in XIII and XIV centuries the Western Dvina/Daugava river basin. Thus, the main distinguishing factors of the Latvian language from Lithuanian were the Finno-Ugric substratum in the period early medieval 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 down Latin alphabet.

The first information about the book Latvian text belong 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). 1638 George Manselius compiled the first Latvian dictionary"Lettus".

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

J j

K k

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 determine 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 rearward, and the vowel has interesting articulation options, 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 voiceless, hard and soft, and also have different characteristics place and type of education. 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 Latvian falls on the first syllable absolute majority 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. Norm literary language requires three intonations - even, falling and interrupted (similar to the pronunciation of a 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. In spite of high level synthesism, Latvian grammar is simpler than that of the related Lithuanian language - it has more simplified declension and conjugation paradigms. For example, dying instrumental case, simplified case management in plural, the subjunctive verb has only one form for all persons and both numbers in "-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) at courtesy will turn into Jūs (you). 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 with prepositions is used only dative, while in the singular genitive, dative, and accusative are possible.
instrumental in singular With rare exceptions coincides with accusative, 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 full form m.r. unit into "-i", as well as Ukrainian and Belarusian, where they are not used short adjectives). 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 // encyclopedic Dictionary 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

Origin

The Latvian language, like most of the languages of modern Europe, has a pronounced Indo-European character. Presumably, the region of the South Baltic until the 20th century. BC was the core of the settlement of the North European people, who spoke the common ancient Balto-Slavic-Germanic language. Between the 20th and 10th centuries BC. e. there is a disintegration of the group into the western - German and eastern - Balto-Slavic. It is the common ethno-linguistic past during the period of Balto-Slavic unity that explains the similarities in vocabulary and grammar between modern Slavic and Baltic languages. The period of Balto-Slavic unity ends between the 10th and 5th centuries. BC e., after which there is a slow differentiation of these two groups. The Balts remain concentrated mainly in the coastal regions of the Baltic, while Slavic populations populate the vast continental expanse of Eurasia over the next 20 centuries. It is noteworthy that the modern Baltic languages retain a number of Indo-European archaisms that were 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. Due to the long and ongoing contact between the Baltic and Slavic languages sometimes it is difficult to distinguish which features of the Latvian language date from the period of common Balto-Slavic unity, and which developed as a result of language contacts in the Middle Ages and modern times.

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 \u200b\u200bhave a rather different history. In addition to the Latgalian language, the Lithuanian language is also closely related to Latvian. Until the middle of the 15th century, all Baltic idioms, like the East Slavic languages, were very close to each other, however political factors and the formation of various state formations on the territory of the Baltic States led to the gradual fragmentation of the Baltic-speaking area.

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 \u200b\u200b(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, as well as the Masurians). The speakers of the Baltic languages migrated to the territory of modern Latvia relatively late - between the 6th-10th centuries AD. e. 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 have been preserved in the territory of modern Latvia in the form of the so-called Liv language, which has been under the threat of extinction since the beginning of the 20th century. To the north - in the territory of modern Estonia, the ancient Finno-Ugric dialects of non-Indo-European origin survived and evolved into modern Estonian.

The differentiation between Lithuanian and Latvian began in the 800s, however, they remained dialects of the same language for a long time. Intermediate dialects existed at least until the 14th-15th centuries, and apparently until the 17th century. The occupation of the Livonian Order in the 13th and 14th centuries in the basin of the Western Dvina / Daugava River (almost coinciding with the territory of modern Latvia) 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

The first information about a book with a Latvian text dates back to when The German Mass was printed in Germany in Low German, Latvian and Estonian. In 1530, Nikolaus Ramm first translated passages from the Bible into Latvian. 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 P. Kanizia (Vilnius,) and the Small Catechism M. Luther (Kenigsberg,). In 1638, Georg Manselius compiled the first Lettus dictionary in Latvia.

Modern alphabet and IPA transcription

The modern Latvian alphabet, based on the Latin alphabet, has 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

J j

K k

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

Phonetics

Vowels

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

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

Latvian diphthongs: ai, ei, ui, o, au, ie.

In writing, the vowel system is indicated rather imperfectly: open and closed [æ (:)] ~ do not differ - both sounds are transmitted by the letters “e ē”. The letter "o" conveys three sounds: //[o]. The last two are pronounced only in borrowings, but sometimes it is difficult to determine 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 rearward, and the vowel has interesting articulation options, which, however, do not coincide with the Russian "y", as it seems to Russian at first glance. In addition, it is very difficult for Russians to correctly pronounce long unstressed vowels (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:

Way of education	labial	labiodental	dental	Alveolar	Palatal	back lingual
Explosive (mute)	p		t		ķ [c]	k
Explosive (sounds)	b		d		ģ [ɟ]	g
fricatives (silent)		f	s	š		x
Fricatives (voice)			z	ž
Affricates (deaf)			c	č
Affricates (voice)			dz	dž
Approximants		v			j
Nasal sonants	m		n		ņ [ɲ]
Sonants lateral				l	ļ [ʎ]
Trembling				r(ŗ)

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. The letter for it is also excluded from the official standard alphabet. The sounds "š" and "ž" are pronounced softer than the usual Russian "sh" and "zh", but not as softly 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 “liepa”, and this “ye” is pronounced as one syllable (the vowel “i” in Latvian, under the influence of a solid consonant, is pronounced more rearward) . Therefore, for Russians, when pronouncing, for example, the city of Liepaja, one should not read “and” at all: [Lepaja] - this will be closer to the Latvian version than [Liepaja]. In addition, there is a difficulty with the names of toponyms in that Russians who do not live in Latvia often shift the stress from the first syllable to a long consonant (in the word Liepaja there is a long “a”), or wherever it is convenient for them (in the word Daugava - stressed the first "a", not the second, as is often mistakenly pronounced in Russia). It must be remembered that the stress in Latvian words, with the exception of a number of words and a few unstressed prefixes, is placed on the first syllable.

stress

The stress in the Latvian language falls on the first syllable of the vast majority of words. Such an innovation 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 modern Lithuanian, 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).

Grammar

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". There is no neuter gender in Latvian. 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 apmierināšu tevi ar savu dziesmu ~ es apmierināšu tevi 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 by gender, number and case, that is, it agrees with the noun it forms. 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 dragons! - Dear friend!
when substantiating: klibais ar aklo iet pa ceļu - the lame and the blind are walking 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.

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	mēriju	mēriju	mērīšu
tu	meri	merji	mērīsi
viņš/viņi	meri	merija	meris
mes	mērijam	mērījam	mērīsim
jus	mērijat	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

Below are the main prepositions and postpositions of the Latvian language.

Prepositions and postpositions with the genitive case

aiz - for: aiz kalna (over the mountain)

bez - without: bez manis (without me)

dēļ - for the sake of, because of: manis/ musu dēļ (because of me/us) this postposition governs the genitive in both numbers

no - from, from: no pilsētas (from the city)

pēc - by, for, through, after: pēc darba (after work), pēc maizes (for bread), pēc nedeļas (in a week), pēc plana (according to plan)

uz - on: uz galda (on the table)

pie - at, at: pie mājas (at the house)

virs - above: virs ezera (above the lake)

zem - under: zem grīdas (under the floor)

pirms - before: pirms gada (a year ago), pirms darba (before work)

Prepositions and postpositions with the dative case

līdz(i) - before, c. with: man līdzi (together with me), līdz mežam (to the forest)

pa - by: pa vienai māsai (one sister each)

Prepositions and postpositions with the accusative and instrumental case

ar - with: ar tēvu (with father)

par - oh, for what (when comparing): runāt par tēvu (talk about father), par ko strādāt (who to work with), par ko vecāks (older than who), par ko maksāt (pay for what)

pār - through: pār ielu (across the street)

caur - through: caur logu (through the window)

gar - past: gar mežu (along, past the forest)

starp - between: starp mums / skolu un māju (between us / school and home)

pa - by: pa ceļu (on the way), pa logu redzu ... (I see through the window ...), pa dienu (in the afternoon)

ap - around: ap māju (around the house)

uz - to, to (about direction): uz darbu (to work), uz pilsētu (to the city)

Notes

Literature

// Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.

Linguistic and cultural diversity is the most great strength and wealth of the world. Along with more than 6700 languages of the world, there is a language spoken by people living along the coast 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. The main contact languages until recently 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

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 phonetic system and grammar.


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

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 our time, traces of tribal dialects can be found in three main dialects and in more than 500 colloquial forms Latvian, which exist alongside a highly standardized form of Latvian.

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.

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.

First written texts appeared in the Latvian language 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 observing 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.

First printed books the second half of the 16th century, the spelling was based on the principles of writing Middle Low German using gothic font.

The Gothic script 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.

Contact languages

Since the consolidation of the Latvian people, Latvians have been in constant 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 administration, the dictionary of the Latvian language includes about 3,000 borrowings from the German language. Over the past decades, many borrowings have been made from of English language. 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.

Standardization of the Latvian language

The standardization of the Latvian language spontaneously took place in the period before written 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, the Latvian language had become a highly standardized language, in which many press publications and fiction. With the creation 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 obsolete Prussian) have become the subject of research by 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 on international forums.

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

During the period of Soviet rule political reasons Latvian linguists could not influence the process of reducing the sociolinguistic functions of the Latvian language, so the main tasks were to preserve the quality of the language and even improve it. Terminology Commission of the Latvian Academy of Sciences started vigorous activity 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.

After the restoration of the independence of Latvia, studies of the Latvian language are carried out by the Institute of the Latvian Language and departments of the University of Latvia, 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 - the language state power and bodies was Russian. The Latvian language was gradually being squeezed out of certain areas such as transport, banking, police, 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 Latvian speakers and the reduction of the sociolinguistic functions of the Latvian language have never reached critical level for the inevitable change of 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 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 residents in terms of the official state language while maintaining and developing languages national minorities Latvia. Recognizing existing problems in society, the government of Latvia has started to implement 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.

Law on 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 decisive 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 the Latvian society, while respecting their rights to use their native language and any other language.

120 hour Latvian language course, two lessons per week from October 15, 2013 to March 19, 2014 and passed the "A" level exam. It may sound a little snobbish, but it worked! At the same time, when we went to the first lesson, we did not think at all about passing the exam with a positive result. But what can I say, we were not going to go to the first lesson in the Latvian language so quickly.

Why learn Latvian?

The fact is that Russians living in Latvia, especially those who limit themselves to staying in Riga, Jurmala and their immediate environs, can do without knowledge of the Latvian language. Actually, this is exactly how we lived the first year in Latvia, without meeting a single person (!) Who did not understand Russian. And, I assure you, we are not hermits sitting at home all day. Our occupation obliges to meet with large quantity people, and the character is very sociable.

But this is precisely what became one of the incentives motivating the study of the Latvian language. Latvians speak Russian, but we do not know Latvian, and yet we have been living in Latvia for a year! The difficulty of learning Russian is known to everyone, and the Latvians were able to learn it, so why can't we do the same? Of course, this is not the only reason that prompted us to start learning the Latvian language last year and more about them later.

Knowledge of the state language required condition change of status from residence permit to permanent residence in Latvia.

If you know the language, at least you can read, then it is easier to communicate with various public and private services, public utilities and electricity or gas suppliers. They like to send some intricate letters by mail or e-mail or slip various questionnaires and forms to fill out. The alternative to being able to read Latvian is to feel stupid or to run with each such piece of paper to acquaintances who speak Latvian. This is not always convenient, and sometimes it is simply not possible.

Well, everything becomes especially complicated if you are going to earn a living in Latvia. To all the above reasons, signing a lot of papers in the bank, reading letters from the tax office and much more is added.

How we learned the Latvian language.

First we bought ourselves a Latvian language textbook and a Russian-Latvian-Russian dictionary. They didn’t particularly philosophize what turned up in the nearest bookstore. The textbook turned out to be Liene Lieģeniece "Latvian for everyone. Self-taught", Zvaigzne publishing house, 2005. And a dictionary of a small, probably pocket format from the Avots publishing house, 2004, for 22,000 words.

Then came Dina Ezeriņa "Latvian Language Tutorial", 2007, a few more dictionaries with more entries, and a couple more textbooks from the Internet published in ancient times.

But learning a language from textbooks and dictionaries is not very effective, especially when it comes to pronunciation, and someone should explain the rules. In our city, no one has ever heard of courses, even paid or free. But we live not far from Jelgava, so the search for courses continued there. Alas, Jelgava is not Riga, where they say you can learn Latvian even for free.

The only place where Latvian is taught in Jelgava is the specialized training center Zemgales Reģiona Kompetenču Attīstības Centrs, located at Svētes iela 33. Here they teach everything from cross-stitching to advanced accounting training.

There are two approaches to learning the Latvian language in the training center. One of them is intensive, when the language is taught five days a week for many hours. This course is suitable for the unemployed, who have a lot of free time and a chance to get a job after learning the Latvian language. Another standard - twice a week for three teaching hours. In both cases, students receive 120 hours of Latvian, only with different intensity. We chose the second option.

Courses begin as potential students appear, so they had to wait for them to start. The start of training was given in mid-October 2013, with a finish in the second half of March 2014. The group turned out to be a small group of two Russian couples doing business in Latvia, a young man from Belarus who also works, and three girls, all Ukrainians who married Latvians. Everyone had one goal - to learn the language and pass the exam at the highest possible level, giving the right to receive permanent residence in Latvia.

We were very lucky with the teacher, but I realized this closer to the end of the course, when the result began to appear. At first it seemed that training is in progress somehow not too intense, or something. But it turned out that the main thing, when learning the Latvian language, is not the number of exercises performed in class or memorized words. The main merit of the teacher was the ability to overcome the student's fear of the Latvian language, shyness, initial tongue-tiedness and other complexes associated with learning new things. Everything else the student will do himself. Now I know for sure that the Latvian language is not terrible.

As part of the training, we were given a textbook (+CD) and "Palīga" notebooks, which are considered very good course to replenish vocabulary and set the correct colloquial speech. The textbook was published with the assistance of the European Union. The scenario of the course is somewhat playful: "Russian guy Andrey Popov, originally from Daugavpils, works as a taxi driver in Riga and slowly beats off the girl Ilze from her old friend Rudis.

In general, according to the textbooks that I managed to hold in my hands, I can say the following - there are no textbooks that are ideal for everyone. Some of the material is better presented by one author, something by another. In the process of passing the course, I had to refer to all available textbooks. Thank God the materials in them did not contradict each other, typos and inattentive proofreading do not count.

Features of the Latvian language.

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. The separation of the Latvian language into an independent one took place in the 6th and 7th centuries AD. The formation of the common Latvian language began in the 10th-12th centuries. The Latvian alphabet consists of 33 letters:

It is much easier for a Russian person to learn the Latvian language than, for example, an Englishman. There are a lot of words similar or similar to Russian in the Latvian language. Nouns in the Latvian language have 7 cases, verbs have the category of tense, mood, voice and person, which is quite understandable to a Russian person. There are not many letters in the Latvian language that are pronounced differently from Russian. The word order in a sentence is relatively free.

Besides grammar rules the Latvian language is quite strict here and practically does not allow exceptions. For example, stress in Latvian words almost always falls on the first syllable.

Perhaps the only thing that makes it difficult to learn the Latvian language is the presence of two types of vowels - short and long. Many words that often mean completely different things differ only in the length of the vowel. The most characteristic example of the word "goats" (kazas) and "wedding" (kāzas). And if the appearance of longitude in case endings nouns or tenses of verbs obeys the rules, then for the root of the word there is no even approximate algorithm for its appearance. It remains only to remember.

Exam in Latvian.

And in conclusion, a little about the exam, as the most exciting and responsible stage in learning the Latvian language. In total knowledge of the Latvian language is divided into three levels - basic (A), intermediate (B) and higher (C). Each of them is divided into sublevels (1) and (2).

Thus, our goal after completing the course in the first 120 hours of level A2 is the highest level main level. To pass at level A2, you need to be able to conduct a dialogue on simple everyday and work topics, speaking in short sentences, understand simple everyday speech and texts, and also be able to draw up template documents (for example, statements, acts, etc.). Vocabulary of about 1000 common words.

We passed the exam in Jelgava, indoors training center visiting commission. But I think that this is not important, since the delivery procedure is the same. The exam is divided into four blocks according to the type of skill being tested. Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. Examples of tasks can be viewed on this page of the site, but I will tell you about the procedure for passing the exam.

One hour is allotted for passing the first three parts of the exam. The exam takes place in a group. All are located in the same room. Before the exam, everyone is given forms with tasks and a little time to get acquainted with them. The same text is listened to by the whole group, but the tasks in the forms are different. Our group had three options for eight people.

It is very important for Listening to have time to pre-read and comprehend the task. This helps to hear what the speaker is saying better. An examinee at level A, as a rule, does not have enough vocabulary and you have to guess the meaning of many words from the context. If while reading you have time to think over each written phrase, then when listening to the recording, alas, no. And yet such a trifle, but top scores were those who sat closer to the source of the sound.

Reading and Writing exam for Level A does not represent great complexity, training in the learning process allows you to develop algorithms for describing pictures, writing a letter to a friend and filling out questionnaires. Level A is especially easy if you first complete several tasks intended for the exam for level B. Yes, and 45 minutes for these two parts of the exam is enough.

But the conversation is serious. It takes place individually, the examiner against two examiners. One is talking, the other is recording the process, including on a dictaphone. Here I had to sweat, all at once disappeared somewhere vocabulary and with difficulty you extract standard phrases from memory. The fact is that they ask for a variety of topics, just have time to readjust. And after only 120 hours of courses, fluent Latvian is oh so far away. It is a little easier for those who can speak Latvian at work or in the family. But the peculiarity of living in the central part of Latvia near Riga for those who study the Latvian language is precisely that there is simply nowhere to practice speaking. However, why complain, the exam was passed on the first run.

The results of the exam must be summed up within 2 weeks, plus the time for sending documents. As a result, having passed the exam on 03/25/2014, we received the card by mail on 04/22/2014.

I liked everything so much that next year it is planned to continue my studies to pass the exam at level B.

The Republic of Latvia is a popular tourist destination for everyone who is interested medieval architecture and beach holiday. 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 public institutions and judicial authorities. However, it is impossible to get a job in these structures, having a temporary or permanent view for residence.

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 State Center content of education.

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 ( East End countries) 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:

On formation language tradition significant influence rendered by Russian culture, 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. It changed language composition 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.

Aggregate historical facts became the reason that today in Latvia Russian is a part of the national culture.

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”. Uncommon and specific speech turns: for example, here they say not “What, excuse me?”, but “What, please?”.

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

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see also

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General information. Linguistics

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Latvian Language Information About

Origin

Story

Writing

Modern alphabet and IPA transcription

Phonetics

Vowels

Consonants

stress

Grammar

Noun

Adjective

Verb

Prepositions and postpositions

Prepositions and postpositions with the genitive case

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see also

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Linguistic characteristic

Latvian script

Contact languages

Standardization of the Latvian language

Sociolinguistic language situation and language legislation after World War II

Why learn Latvian?

How we learned the Latvian language.

Features of the Latvian language.

Exam in Latvian.

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

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