Latvian Language History Classification Writing System

Latvian (Latviešu)
Spoken in:	Latvia
Region:	Latvia
Total speakers:	1.5 million
Ranking:	Not in top 100
Genetic classification:	Indo-European Baltic Eastern Latvian
Official status
Official language of:	Latvia
Regulated by:	-
Language codes
ISO 639-1	lv
ISO 639-2	lav
SIL	LAT

Latvian language formed until 16th century on the basis of Latgalian accumulating CuronianThe Curonian language now replaced by the Latvian language, was spoken mainly in Courland peninsula, Western Latvia. It belonged to Baltic languages and was closely related to Old Prussian. Baltic languages Extinct languages., SemigallianSemigallian is an extinct language appertaining to the Baltic languages sub-family of Indo-European languages. It was spoken in the Northern part of Lithuania and Southern regions of Latvia and it is thought that it was extinct by the 16th century with th and SelonianSelonian was a language appertaining to the Baltic languages group of the Indo-European languages family. This language was spoken by the Selonians, who lived until the 15th century in Eastern Latvia and North-Eastern Lithuania. They were a small Baltic t languages (all are Baltic languages).

The oldest known examples of written Latvian are from a 1530Events June 25 Augsburg confession presented to Charles V of Holy Roman Empire. August 12 Florence is captured by Spanish troops under Prince Philibert of Orange. The Medici are restored in the person of the Pope's nephew Alessandro de Medici. Knights of translation of a number of hymns made by Nicholas Ramm, a German pastor in Riga.

2 Classification

Latvian is one of two extant Baltic languages, a group of its own within the family of Indo-European languages. Both Latvian and particularly Lithuanian languages are considered to be the most archaic of still-spoken Indo-European languages. The closest ties they have are to Slavic and Germanic families.

3 Writing system

Historically, Latvian writing used a system using German phonetic rules. In the beginning of the 20th century, this system was replaced by a phonetically more appropriate system using a modified Roman script including 33 letters.

The alphabet lacks the letters q, w, x, y, but uses letters modified by a number of diacritic marks: A macron over the vowels a, e, i, u, signifying a long vowel (ā, e, i, u); a caron over c, s and z (c, š, ž); and a comma under or over some consonants signifying a " palatal" variant (g, k, l, n, and historically also r). Ö is only used in the Latgalic dialect, its use in the official Latvian language has been cancelled in the 1940s.

The diphtongs (ai, au, ei, ia, iu, ui, ua) are written (ai, au, ei, ie, iu, ui, o).

Every phoneme has its own letter (with the exception of dz and dž, which however are uniquely identifiable, and the two sounds written as e), so you can always guess how to pronounce a word when you read it. The stress with some exceptions is on the first syllable.

4 Language and politics

Latvia is a country with long historic ties with Germany, Poland, Sweden and Russia. Both during tsarist times (when Latvia was a part of the Russian Empire) and during Soviet occupation in the latter half of the 20th century, many Russians have immigrated into the country without learning Latvian. Today, Latvian is the mother tongue of only some 60% of the country's population (under 50% in major cities). As part of the independence process in the early 1990s, Latvia (as well as Estonia) introduced language laws to protect the language from extinction.

5 See also

List of Eastern Baltic languages

6 External links

Baltic languages Languages of Latvia

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Home > Latvian language

1 History