Latvian language

Latvian (latviešu valoda), sometimes referred to as Lettish, is the official state language of the Republic of Latvia. There are about 1.4 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad.

Latvian belongs to the Eastern Baltic sub-group of the Baltic language group in the Indo-European language family. Of the Baltic languages, only Latvian and its closest relative Lithuanian remain. However, while related, the Latvian and Lithuanian vocabularies vary greatly from each other and are not mutually intelligible.

History

The Baltic languages are of particular interest to linguists because they retain many archaic features believed to have been present in the early stages of the Proto-Indo-European language. There is evidence to suggest the existence of a Balto-Slavic language group after the break-up of Proto-Indo-European, with the Slavic and Baltic languages then splitting perhaps around the 10th century BC. However, this is disputed by many linguists. While the possession of many archaic features is undeniable, the exact manner by which the Baltic languages have developed from the Proto-Indo-European language is not clear.

The Eastern Baltic languages split from the Western Baltic ones (or, perhaps, from the hypothetic proto-Baltic language) between 400 and 600. The differentiation between Lithuanian and Latvian started after 800, with a long period of being one language but different dialects. At a minimum, transitional dialects existed until the 14th century or 15th century, and perhaps as late as the 17th century.

Latvian emerged as a distinct language in the 16th century, having evolved from Latgalian and assimilating Curonian, Semigallian and Selonian on the way. All of these belong to the Baltic language group.

The oldest known examples of written Latvian are from a 1530 translation of a number of hymns made by Nicholas Ramm, a German pastor in Riga.

Classification

Latvian is one of two living Baltic languages (with the other one being Lithuanian), a group of its own within the Indo-European language family. The Latvian and Lithuanian language have retained many features of the nominal morphology of the proto-language, though in matters of phonology and verbal morphology they show many innovations, with Latvian being somewhat more innovative than Lithuanian. The closest ties the Baltic languages have are with the Slavic and Germanic languages.

Dialects

There are three dialects in Latvian: the Livonian dialect, Latgalian language and the Middle dialect. The Livonian dialect is divided into the patois of Vidzeme and the patois of Courland (also called tāmnieku or ventiņu). The Middle dialect, the basis of standard Latvian, is divided into the patois of Vidzeme, Curonian patois and Semigallian patois. (Note: Latvian dialects should not be confused with Livonian, Curonian, Semigallian and Selonian languages )

Livonian dialect

The Livonian dialect was more affected by Livonian substratum than Latvian in other parts of Latvia. There are two intonations in the Livonian dialect. In Courland short vowels in the endings of words are discarded, while long vowels are shortened. In all genders and numerals only one form of verb is used. Personal names in both genders are derived with endings - els, -ans. In prefixes ie is changed to e. Due to migration and the introduction of a standardised language this dialect has declined.

Middle dialect

The Patois of Vidzeme and the Semigallian patois are closer to each other than to the Curonian patois, which is more archaic than the other two. There are three intonations in the Middle dialect. In Semigallian patois, ŗ is still used

Grammar

Latvian is an inflective language with several analytical forms, and German syntactical influence. There are two grammatical genders in Latvian. Each noun is declined in seven cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, and vocative. The stress, with a few exceptions, is on the first syllable.

Orthography and phonology

Historically, Latvian was written using a system based upon German phonetic principles. At the beginning of the 20th century, this was replaced by a more phonetically appropriate system, using a modified Latin alphabet. Today, the Latvian standard alphabet consists of 33 letters:

The modern standard Latvian alphabet uses 22 unmodified letters of the Latin alphabet (all except Q, W, X and Y). It adds a further eleven letters by modification. The vowel letters A, E, I and U can take a macron to show length, unmodified letters being short. The letters C, S and Z, that in unmodified form are pronounced , and respectively, can be marked with a caron. These marked letters, Č, Š and Ž are pronounced , and respectively. Four letters are modified versions of G, K, L and N. The modified letters are called mīkstais letters, and represent palatalisation of the unmodified sounds. These mīkstais letters are written with a little 'comma' placed below (or above the lowercase g), and represent the sounds , , and . Non-standard varieties of Latvian add extra letters to this standard set.

Latvian spelling has almost perfect correspondence between graphemes and phonemes. Every phoneme has its own letter so that a reader need not learn how a word is pronounced, but simply pronounce it. There are only three exceptions to this that could cause mispronunciation. The first is the letter E and its long variation Ē, which are used to write two sounds that represent the short and long versions of either or respectively. The letter O indicates both the short and long , and the diphthong . These three sounds are written as O, Ō and Uo in Latgalian, and some Latvians campaign for the adoption of this system in standard Latvian. However, the majority of Latvian linguists argue that o and ō are only found in loanwords, with the Uo sound being the only native Latvian phoneme. The letter Ō has not been used in the official Latvian language since 1946. Likewise, the letters Ŗ and Ch were discarded in 1957, although they are still used in some varieties and by many Latvians living beyond he borders of Latvia. The letter Y is used only in Latgalian language, where it is used to write a distinct phoneme that does not occur in other Latvian varieties. Latvian orthography consists of seven digraphs, which are written Ai, Au, Ei, Ie, Iu, Ui and Oj.

Other variations that should be taken into account are the old orthography — a historical style introduced by Germans — and the so-called Internet style.

The old orthography was based on German grammar and was dissonant to the Latvian language. At the beginning it was used to write religious texts for German priests to help them in their work with Latvians. The first writings in Latvian were chaotic: there were as many as twelve variations of writing Š. In 1631 the German priest Georgs (Juris) Mancelis tried to systematise the writing. He wrote long vowels according to their position in the word — a short vowel followed by h for a radical vowel, a short vowel in the suffix and vowel with a diacritic mark in the ending indicating two different accents. Consonants were written following the example of German with multiple letters. The old orthography was used until the 20th century when it was slowly replaced by the modern orthography.

An 'Internet style', which is derived from the modern orthography, is used unofficially today when Latvian diacritic marks aren't available in computerised media (e-mail, newsgroups, web user forums). Sometimes diacritics are just reduced to non-diacriticised characters, or an apostrophe is used before or after the character that would properly need to be diacriticised. Another resort is to fall back to digraphs (notably, German-like digraphs and trigraphs were abolished from the Latvian orthography in the early 20th century). Doubled letter in the 'Internet style' may indicate a long vowel; j indicates palatalisation of consonants, except for Š, Č and Ž that are indicated by using h. Use of Ch for Č, however, conflicts with the old orthography use of Ch for what is nowadays just H. Many people find it difficult and/or embarrassing to read text written in double-lettering; therefore some would rather write without any indication of missing diacritic marks or use digraphing only if the diacritic mark in question would make a semantic difference. As of the early 21st century, improved implementations of character encoding in web and e-mail transmission as well as availability of input methods and fonts have resulted in a diminished need to use double-lettering, especially in Latvia.

For example, the Lord's Prayer in Latvian written in different spelling flavours:

Old orthography^*	Modern orthography	Internet style
Muuße Thews exkan tho Debbes	Mūsu tēvs debesīs	Muusu teevs debesiis
Sweetytcz thopetows Wärdtez	Svētīts lai top tavs vārds	Sveetiits lai top tavs vaards
Enakas mums touwe Walſtibe.	Lai nāk tava valstība	Lai naak tava valstiiba
Tows prätcznotecke	Tavs prāts lai notiek	Tavs praats lai notiek
kha exkan Debbes tha arridtczan wűrßon Semmes	kā debesīs, tā arī virs zemes	kaa debesiis taa arii virs zemes
Muſſe deniſke mayſe dode mums ſchoden.	Mūsu dienišķo maizi dod mums šodien	Muusu dienishkjo maizi dod mums shodien
Vnde pam̃et mums muſſe parräde	Un piedod mums mūsu parādus	Un piedod mums muusu paraadus
ka mhes pammettammuſſims parradenekims	kā arī mēs piedodam saviem parādniekiem	kaa arii mees piedodam saviem paraadniekiem
Vnde nhe wedde mums exkâ kärdenaſchenne	Un neieved mūs kārdināšanā	Un neieved muus kaardinaashanaa
Beth atpeſtimums no to loune	bet atpestī mūs no ļauna	bet atpestii muus no ljauna
Aiſto thouwagir tha Walſtibe	Jo tev pieder valstība	Jo tev pieder valstiiba.
Vnde tas ſpeex vnd tas Goodtcz tur muſſige	spēks un gods mūžīgi	speeks un gods muuzhiigi
Amen	Āmen	Aamen

Problems in modern Latvian

Today two widely recognised problems in the Latvian language are linguistic purism and so-called gimalajiešu lāči.

Gimalajiešu lāči

Gimalajiešu lāči probably is not the best term to describe this phenomena, basically it is the influence from other languages that causes, often quite amusing, language errors. The term "gimalajiešu lāči" itself is an incorrect naming of the Asiatic Black Bear. These mistakes are both grammatical and style mistakes; sometimes also obvious typos and mistranslations are considered to belong here. Each year a contest is held aiming to prevent such mistakes. Organisers claim that most mistakes are collected in areas heavily populated by Russians and from Lithuanian chain stores. Mistranslations are not necessarily grammatically wrong, style and choice of words also matters i.e. directly translated English might appear weirdly exalted in comparison with Latvian.

Linguistic purism

Purism is observed in coining of new terms and usually causes negations in general society - although purists have invited some euphonical words, most of their neologisms sound alien, many coinages are unnecessary as pre-existing words could be used instead, and others are literal translations or new loanwords are translated to old loanwords rather than to Latvian words.

Language and politics

Latvia has had a tumultuous relationship with Germany, Sweden, Russia and Poland throughout history, and has always been a multicultural country. However during the years of Soviet annexation (1940-1941; 1945-1991) the policy of Russification greatly impacted the Latvian language. Through these two periods around 340,000 (?) Latvians — approximately one-third of the population — were deported and otherwise persecuted. Followed by a massive immigration from Soviet republics of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and others, the ethnic Latvian population was reduced from about 80% in 1935 to 52% in 1989. Most immigrants settled in the country without ever learning Latvian. Today Latvian is the mother tongue for only a little more than 60% of the country's population.

After the re-establishment of independence in 1991 a new policy of language education was introduced. The primary goals now declared are integration of all inhabitants against the background of the official state language while protecting and developing the languages of Latvia's minorities (Russian language was thrown out of public affairs). Some scholars believe that these programs may be contributing to the overall decline of the Latvian language.

True bilingual education at government expense (primary school only) is available for several minorities. These include Russian, Jewish, Polish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Estonian, and Roma schools where Latvian is taught as a second language in the initial stages so as to encourage the attainment of competence in Latvian and ensure each resident of Latvia integrates into the life of the society and is not hindered by lack of proficiency in Latvian. Since the mid 1990s, the government pays a student's tuition at public universities only if instruction is in Latvian. Since 2004, the state mandates Latvian as the language of instruction in public secondary schools (Form 10-12) for at least 60% of class work. (Previously, there existed a wide system of education in Russian).

The Law on State Language was adopted on December 9, 1999. Several regulatory acts that refer to this Law have been adopted. The observance of the Law is monitored by the Ministry of Justice State Language Centre.

External links

Baltic languages | East Baltic languages | Languages of Latvia

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