What language is spoken in Latvia?
Latvia
The share of ethnic Latvians had fallen from 77% (1,467,035) in 1935 to 52% (1,387,757) in 1989. In 2011, there were even fewer Latvians than in 1989, though their share of the population was larger – 1,285,136 (62.1% of the population).
The sole official language of Latvia is Latvian, which belongs to the Baltic language sub-group of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. Another notable language of Latvia is the nearly extinct Livonian language of the Finnic branch of the Uralic language family, which enjoys protection by law; Latgalian – referred to as either a dialect or a distinct separate language of Latvian – is also formally protected by Latvian law but only as a historical variation of the Latvian language. Russian, which was widely spoken during the Soviet period, is still the most widely used minority language by far (in 2011, 34% spoke it at home, including people who were not ethnically Russian).
While it is now required that all school students learn Latvian, most schools also include English, Russian and German in their curricula. English and Russian are also widely accepted in Latvia, especially in business and tourism. there were 109 schools for minorities that use Russian as the language of instruction for 40% of subjects (the remaining 60% of subjects are taught in Latvian).
Language policy in Latvia
It should be noted that Latgalian was not considered a language separate from Latvian in any census, whether during the Soviet period, or since the restoration of independence. Therefore, no specific data on the number of its native speakers were available until the 2011 census. Then, 8.8. % of the population indicated they use Latgalian, described as a variety of Latvian.
Other than native speakers of Latvian and Russian, the numbers of speakers of different mother tongues recorded in the 2000 census were:
Livonian language
The language is taught in universities in Latvia, Estonia and Finland, which constantly increases the pool of second-language speakers who do not constantly reside in Latvia.
Culture of Latvia
The majority of inhabitants are Latvians. There is a culturally and linguistically distinct subgroup, the Latgalians, who inhabit the Latgale region in eastern Latvia. Another indigenous group are the Livonians, whose Finnic Livonian language is nearly extinct. The largest minority group is the Slavic people, notably Russians. Other well known minorities are Romani people, Baltic Germans and Jews, whose population decreased significantly after the Second World War, as well as Lithuanians and Estonians.
Livonian language
Livonian has for centuries been thoroughly influenced by Latvian in terms of grammar, phonology and word derivation etc. The dative case in Livonian, for example, is very unusual in a Finnic language. There are about 2,000 Latvian and 200 German loanwords in Livonian and most of the German words were adopted through Latvian. Latvian, however, was influenced by Livonian as well. Its regular syllable stress based on Livonian is very unusual in a Baltic language. In both languages the letter "h" is silent, unlike other Finnic and Baltic languages. Especially as of the end of the nineteenth century there was a great deal of contact with Estonians, namely between (Kurzeme) Livonian fishers or mariners and the Estonians from Saaremaa or other islands. Many inhabitants of the islands of Western Estonia worked in the summer in Kurzeme Livonian villages. As a result, a knowledge of Estonian spread among those Livonians and words of Estonian origin also came into Livonian. There are about 800 Estonian loanwords in Livonian, most of which were borrowed from the Saaremaa dialect.1st Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Latvian language
As a Baltic language, Latvian is most closely related to neighboring Lithuanian. In addition, there is some disagreement whether Latgalian and Kursenieki, which are mutually intelligible with Latvian, should be considered varieties or separate languages.
Latvian language
Latvian is an inflecting language with many analytical forms. Primary word stress, with a few exceptions, is on the first syllable. There are no articles in Latvian, however definiteness is expressed by inflection of adjectives. Basic word order in Latvian is subject–verb–object; however, word order is relatively free.
Latvia
Language and citizenship laws have been opposed by many Russophones. Citizenship was not automatically extended to former Soviet citizens who settled during the Soviet occupation, or to their offspring. Children born to non-nationals after the reestablishment of independence are automatically entitled to citizenship. Approximately 72% of Latvian citizens are Latvian, while 20% are Russian; less than 1% of non-citizens are Latvian, while 71% are Russian. The government denationalised private property confiscated by the Soviets, returning it or compensating the owners for it, and privatised most state-owned industries, reintroducing the prewar currency. Albeit having experienced a difficult transition to a liberal economy and its re-orientation toward Western Europe, Latvia is one of the fastest growing economies in the European Union. In 2014, Riga was the European Capital of Culture, the euro was introduced as the currency of the country and a Latvian was named vice-president of the European Commission. In 2015 Latvia held the presidency of Council of the European Union. Big European events have been celebrated in Riga such as the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 and the European Film Awards 2014. On 1 July 2016, Latvia became a member of the OECD.
Demographic history of the Vilnius region
The city of Vilnius, now the capital of Lithuania, and its surrounding region have at various times come under Polish-Lithuanian, Russian, Polish, German, and Soviet rule. The population has been categorised by linguistic and sometimes also religious indicators. At the end of the 19th century the main languages spoken were Polish, Lithuanian, Belarusian and Russian. Both Catholic and Orthodox Christianity were represented, while a large proportion of those within the city were Jews. The "Lithuanian" element was seen as declining, while the "Slavic" element was increasing.
Language policy in Latvia
Before the losses of the Latvian government in the cases "Podkolzina v. Latvia" (ECHR) and "Ignatāne v. Latvia" (UN HRC), a certain level of command in Latvian was asked for eligibility to Parliament and local councils. In practice, this had led to re-examinations of various candidates, at least sometimes unexpected, which prevented Ignatāne and Podkolzina (representatives of the Equal Rights party in the 1997 local and 1998 parliamentary elections) from participation. As of 2011, candidates do not need to prove language proficiency, but elected members of Saeima and local councilors can be deprived of mandate for insufficient command of Latvian.
Language policy in Latvia
In the 2000 census, 891,451 respondents listed Russian as their mother tongue, representing 37.5% of the total population, whereas Latvian was recorded as the mother tongue for 58.2%. Latvian was spoken as a second language by 20.8% of the population, and 43.7% spoke Russian as a second language. At that time, in age groups up to 10–14 years, a greater proportion of Russians could speak Latvian than ethnic Latvians could speak Russian. In age groups over 15 years, however, more Latvians expressed proficiency in Russian than vice versa. In total, 71% of ethnic Latvians said they could speak Russian, and 52% of Russians could speak Latvian.
Latvian State Language Center
On 6 January 1998 the Latvian language was prescribed as the official language in the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia – 10 years after it was declared the official language.
Latvian language
Latvian belongs to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is one of two living Baltic languages with an official status (the other being Lithuanian). The Latvian and Lithuanian languages 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 considerably more innovative than Lithuanian.
Language policy in Latvia
The pro-Bolshevik revolutionary soviet, Iskolat, declared on 4 January 1918 that Latvian should be the primary language of administration on the territory of Latvia.
Latvian language
The adoption of Latvian by minorities was brought about by its status as the only official language of the country, its prominence in the education system, its sole use in the public sector and by changes in the society after the fall of the Soviet Union that shifted linguistic focus away from Russian. As an example, in 2007 universities and colleges for the first time received applications from prospective students who had a bilingual secondary education in schools for minorities. Fluency in Latvian is expected in a variety of professions and careers.
Language policy in Latvia
Under the short-lived Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic in 1919, Latgalian enjoyed co-equal status with both Latvian and Russian as an official language of administration.
Politics of Latvia
Latvian is the sole state language in Latvia; while the threatened Livonian language is recognized as "the language of the indigenous (autochthon) population". The Latgalian written language is also protected "as a historic variant of the Latvian language." All other languages are considered foreign by the law on state languages. Two parliamentary parties, Harmony Centre and ForHRUL, have requested that Russian (26.9% of inhabitants, according to the 2011 census, are Russians) be given official status.
Latvian Wikipedia
As of 2022, the Latvian Wikipedia's articles account for approximately /*100 round 0% of all the articles written in a Baltic language, making it the second-largest edition in the family after Lithuanian, which accounts for /*100 round 0%. The most popular articles are "Latvija" (Latvia), "Eiropa" (Europe), and "Latvijas vēsture" (History of Latvia).
Latvian grammar
The Latvian language is a moderately inflected language, with complex nominal and verbal morphology. Word order is relatively free, but the unmarked order is SVO. Latvian has pre-nominal adjectives and both prepositions and postpositions. There are no articles in Latvian, but definiteness can be indicated by the endings of adjectives.
Language policy in Latvia
Since the beginning of the 1990s, some Polish language schools were created besides the existing schools with Latvian and Russian language of instruction. Certain schools (e.g., Riga Dubnov Jewish Secondary school, founded in 1989, and Riga Ukrainian Secondary School, founded in 1991, which had originally used Ukrainian as language of instruction, but switched to Latvian in 1993/1994) now include in their curriculum lessons in respective minority languages. The number of Russian schools is decreasing, partly due to natural demographic decline and partly due to emigration, as the following table demonstrates, with some schools with apparent viability closed. 
As at 2007, there was also increasing number of minority children attending Latvian-language schools.
According to Education law, as adopted in 1998, the language of instruction in public secondary schools (Forms 10-12) had to be only Latvian since 2004. This has mostly affected Russian schools, some existing in Latvia without interruption since at least 1789. After protests in 2003 and 2004, the law was amended allowing to teach up to 40% of curricula in minority languages (Transition Rules) and allowing orphans to continue their education not only in Latvian, but also in the language he or she began it (Section 56).
Latvia
Latvia is a member of the World Trade Organization (1999) and the European Union (2004). On 1 January 2014, the Euro became the country's currency, superseding the Lats. According to statistics in late 2013, 45% of the population supported the introduction of the euro, while 52% opposed it. Following the introduction of the Euro, Eurobarometer surveys in January 2014 showed support for the Euro to be around 53%, close to the European average.
Lithuania
Lithuania (; ), officially the Republic of Lithuania (), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. Since its independence, Lithuania is considered to be one of the Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, to the east of Sweden and Denmark. It is bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and Kaliningrad Oblast (a Russian exclave) to the southwest. Lithuania has an estimated population of 2.7 million people , and its capital and largest city is Vilnius. Other major cities are Kaunas and Klaipėda. Lithuanians are Baltic people. The official language, Lithuanian, along with Latvian, is one of only two living languages in the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family.
Latvians
The national language of the Latvian people is Latvian. Latvian is part of a unique linguistic branch of Indo-European languages: the Baltic languages.
Russians in the Baltic states
In 2011 pro-Russian groups in Latvia collected sufficient signatures to initiate the process of amending the Constitution to give Russian the status of an official language. On 18 February 2012, constitutional referendum on whether to adopt Russian as a second official language was held. According to the Central Election Commission, 74.8% voted against, 24.9% voted for and the voter turnout was 71.1%. The non-citizen community (290,660 or 14.1% of Latvia's entire population) was non entitled to vote.
Russian language in Latvia
Russian is one of the seven minority languages alongside Polish, Hebrew, Ukrainian, Estonian, Lithuanian, and Belarusian national minority education programmes are provided in. In 2018 there were 94 schools implementing education programs in Russian and bilingually in Latvia.
Latvian language
Latvian in Latin script was first based upon the German alphabet, while the alphabet of the Latgalian dialect was based on the Polish alphabet. At the beginning of the 20th century, this was replaced by a more phonetically appropriate alphabet.
Latvian Orthodox Church
In modern Latvia, there are 350,000 Orthodox Church members. The services are in Church Slavonic and the members are predominantly Russian-speakers. Ethnic Latvians are a minority among church members; there are parishes with services in Latvian in Riga, Ainaži, Kolka, Veclaicene and in other places.
Baltic states
The Estonian language is a Finnic language, together with neighboring Finland′s Finnish language.
Apart from the indigenous languages, German was the dominant language in Estonia and Latvia in academics, professional life, and upper society from the 13th century until World War I. Polish served a similar function in Lithuania. Numerous Swedish loanwords have made it into the Estonian language; it was under the Swedish rule that schools were established and education propagated in the 17th century. Swedish remains spoken in Estonia, particularly the Estonian Swedish dialect of the Estonian Swedes of northern Estonia and the islands (though many fled to Sweden as the Soviet Union invaded and re-occupied Estonia in 1944). There is also significant proficiency in Finnish in Estonia owing to its closeness to the native Estonian and also the widespread practice of listening to Finnish broadcasts during the Soviet era. Russian also achieved significant usage particularly in commerce.
Russian language in Latvia
In the 1925 census Russians were already reported as the largest minority (10.6%) and Russian was spoken as the family language by 14% of inhabitants. A small percent of Russian speakers were not ethnic Russians and conversely a small percentage of ethnic Russians used another language in family, which was attributed to mixed marriages, living in area with another majority language and, in case of Russian speakers, Russification policies of Russian empire. In 1930 census Russian was reported as family language by 13% of inhabitants.
Language policy in Latvia
In the previous 1989 census, conducted while Latvia was still part of the USSR, Latvian was reported as the native language for 52.0% of the population, Russian for 42.1%; 62.4% of population could speak Latvian, and 81.6% could speak Russian.
Latgalians (modern)
During the first independence of Latvia (1918–1940), Latgale was the only region of Latvia with strong regional political parties. Although Latvian governments mainly promoted a united Latvian culture, fostering assimilation of Latgalians, especially after the coup by Kārlis Ulmanis in 1934, the Latgalian language was also used. Books were published in Latgalian, it was taught in some schools, and people could choose to use Latgalian when communicating with the government. They were classified as a Narodnosti in the First All Union Census of the Soviet Union in 1926. In the Nazi German "Generalplan Ost", as far as can be told from the surviving documentation, the Latgalians were scheduled for deportation, while only half of the Latvian population was to be treated so. The reasons for this difference are unclear, but possibly based on racist linguistic arguments, considering that the Nazis planned to physically remove 85% of the Lithuanians (whose language – and by erroneous inference ethnicity – has similarities to Latgalian).
Language policy in Latvia
Articles 4 and 114 of the Constitution of Latvia form the foundation for language policy in Latvia, declaring Latvian to be the official state language and affirming the rights of ethnic minorities to preserve and develop their languages. Livonian language is recognized as "the language of the indigenous (autochthon) population" in the Official Language Law, but Latgalian written language is protected as "a historic variant of the Latvian language." All other languages are considered foreign by the law on state languages. Latvia provides national minority education programmes in Russian (the first language for more than one third of the population), Polish, Hebrew, Ukrainian, Estonian, Lithuanian, and Belarussian.
Latvia
The peaceful Singing Revolution, starting in 1987, called for Baltic emancipation from Soviet rule and condemning the Communist regime's illegal takeover. It ended with the Declaration on the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia on 4 May 1990, and restoring de facto independence on 21 August 1991. Latvia is a democratic sovereign state, parliamentary republic and a very highly developed country according to the United Nations Human Development Index. Its capital Riga served as the European Capital of Culture in 2014. Latvian is the official language. Latvia is a unitary state, divided into 119 administrative divisions, of which 110 are municipalities and nine are cities. Latvians and Livonians are the indigenous people of Latvia. Latvian and Lithuanian are the only two surviving Baltic languages.
Livonia
The historical land of Livonia has been split between Latvia and Estonia ever since. The Livonian language is spoken by fewer than 100 individuals as a second language, and is understood to be fast approaching extinction. The last native Livonian speaker died in June 2013.
The anthem (unofficial) of Livonians is "Min izāmō, min sindimō" sharing the melody of Finnish and Estonian anthems.
Russian language in Latvia
A 2012 research "Language situation in Latvia: 2004–2010" by the Latvian Language Agency reported that the overall proficiency of Russian as a second language is decreasing due to it losing its popularity among the youth, especially in areas with a very large Latvian majority. In a 2004 survey 73% of the Latvian respondents rated their Russian language skills as good, but in 2008 the overall proportion had decreased to 69%.
Latgalian language
Latgalian is spoken by about 150,000 people, mainly in Latgale, Latvia; there are small Latgalian-speaking communities in Russia, Siberia.
History of the Jews in Latvia
According to the population census taken in the Soviet Union in 1959, there were 36,592 Jews (17,096 men and 19,496 women; 1.75 percent of the total population) in the Latvian SSR. It may be assumed that about 10,000 of them were natives, including Jewish refugees who returned to their former residences from the interior of Russia, while the remainder came from other parts of the Soviet Union. About 48 percent of the Jews declared Yiddish as their mother tongue. The others mainly declared Russian as their language, while only a few hundred described themselves as Latvian-speaking. Of the total, 30,267 Jews (5/6) lived in Riga. The others lived in Daugavpils and other towns. According to private estimates, the Jews of Latvia in 1970 numbered about 50,000. The overwhelming majority of them lived in Riga, the capital, which became one of the leading centers of national agitation among the Jews of the Soviet Union. Underground religious and Zionist activity resulted in greater suspicion by authorities.
Russian language in Latvia
In 1989 Russian was the native language to 42% inhabitants, including 8% of population who were non-Russians, while 39% inhabitants spoke it fluently as a second language. From 1989 to 1990 an average of 47.5% pupils had enrolled in schools with Russian as the language of tuition, and the number was even higher (69.3%) in urban centers, suggesting that not only an overwhelming majority of non-Latvians, but also some Latvians had enrolled in Russian-language schools.
Russians in Latvia
Russians were the main ethnic group in the USSR both in number and in political influence. Under the conditions of Soviet Latvia, Russian culture dominated the whole non-Latvian population of the Republic. The Russian language also formed a new group of Russian-speaking Belarusians, Ukrainians, Poles, Jews and Germans of Latvia. In the period of 1959–1979 the number of ethnic Russians in Latvia increased by 47%, but the number of non-Russians considering Russian their mother tongue increased by 78%. A highly developed infrastructure was developed in Latvia on the basis of the Russian language: a broad system of secondary and higher education, science and mass media.
Livonians
Today, many Latvians claim to have some Livonian ancestry. However, there are only 176 people in Latvia who identify themselves as Livonian. According to data from 1995, the Livonian language was spoken by no more than 30 people, of whom only nine were native speakers. An article published by the Foundation for Endangered Languages in 2007 stated that there were only 182 registered Livonians and a mere six native speakers. "The last Livonian", who had learned the Livonian language as a part of an unbroken chain of Livonian generations, was Viktor Berthold (b. 1921). He was buried on 28 February 2009 in the Livonian village of Kolka in Courland.
Official language
The Constitution of Latvia (or Satversme) designated Latvian as the state language. In 2012 there was initiative to hold a referendum on constitutional amendments, elevating Russian as a state language. Kristīne Jarinovska in her analysis describes the proposal in the following way:
Latvian language
Until the 19th century, the Latvian language was heavily influenced by the German language, because the upper class of local society was formed by Baltic Germans. In the middle of the 19th century the First Latvian National Awakening was started, led by “Young Latvians” who popularized the use of Latvian language. Participants in this movement laid the foundations for standard Latvian and also popularized the Latvianization of loan words. However, in the 1880s, when Czar Alexander III came into power, Russification started. During this period, some Latvian scholars suggested adopting Cyrillic for use in Latvian. After the czar's death, around the start of the 20th century, nationalist movements reemerged.
Bilingual education
According to the State Language Law, the official state language of Latvia is Latvian, however national minority education programmes are provided in 7 languages: Russian, Polish, Hebrew, Ukrainian, Estonian, Lithuanian, and Belarussian.
Russian language in Latvia
Leader of Harmony Centre leader and Mayor of Riga Nils Ušakovs publicly declared signing the petition. After that other deputies, local government representatives and public officials from Harmony Centre began to sign it as well, including MP Nikolai Kabanov who was later issued a written warning by the The Saeima Mandate, Ethics and Submissions Committee for violating the deputy's solemn vow (oath), in which Kabanov swore to strengthen the Latvian language as the only official language. Harmony MP Andrejs Klementjevs had refused to formulate his party association's official position, stating that Harmony Centre has distanced itself from the matter, however they will examine the proposal carefully should it reach the parliament.
Russian language in Latvia
Russian became the language of State business, and administrative positions were largely filled by ethnic Russians. In addition to that, Russian served as the language of inter-ethnic communication among the increasingly urbanized non-Russian ethnic groups, making cities major centers for the use of Russian language and made functional bilingualism in Russian a minimum necessity for the local population.
Latvian
Latvian may refer to:
Language policy in Latvia
Latvia's current territory is a close approximation to the range of Latvian habitation since the Latvian people emerged. As such, Latvian and Livonian are native only to Latvia.
Latvia
Several important cultural changes occurred during this time. Under Swedish and largely German rule, western Latvia adopted Lutheranism as its main religion. The ancient tribes of the Couronians, Semigallians, Selonians, Livs, and northern Latgallians assimilated to form the Latvian people, speaking one Latvian language. Throughout all the centuries, however, an actual Latvian state had not been established, so the borders and definitions of who exactly fell within that group are largely subjective. Meanwhile, largely isolated from the rest of Latvia, southern Latgallians adopted Catholicism under Polish/Jesuit influence. The native dialect remained distinct, although it acquired many Polish and Russian loanwords.
Latvian language
According to some glottochronological speculations, the Eastern Baltic languages split from Western Baltic (or, perhaps, from the hypothetical 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.
Official language
It proposed several constitutional amendments for introducing Russian as Latvia's second official language—i.e., amendments to the Satversme’s Articles 4 (on Latvian as the state language), 18 (on the solemn promise of a member of Parliament to strengthen the Latvian language), 21 (on Latvian as the working language of the Parliament), 101 (on Latvian as the working language of local governments), and 104 (on the right to receive a reply to a petition in Latvian). Obviously, the proposed amendments would have influenced other constitutional norms as well. Moreover, since Article 4 of the Satversme alike norms of independence, democracy, sovereignty, territorial wholeness, and basic principles of elections that form the core of the Satversme (according to Article 77 of the Satversme), the initiative, in fact, proposed discontinuing an existing state and establishing a new one that is no longer a nation-state wherein Latvians exercise their rights to self-determination, enjoying and maintaining their cultural uniqueness
Livonian language
After Latvia regained its independence, the newsletter ""Õvâ"" was published in Livonian in 1994, dedicated to the Livonian culture, art and figures of the national movement, and in 1998 with the support of the "Open Society", the first collection of poetry anthology in Livonian ""Ma akūb sīnda vizzõ, tūrska!"" was published and presented in Finland and Estonia, and it combines the works of famous Livonian poets. To date, the only Livonian media outlet is trilingual (English-Latvian-Livonian) livones.lv (livones.net) operated by the Liv Culture Center.
List of revived languages
Livonian is a Finnic language spoken in Latvia. It is one of the three languages (along with Manx and Cornish) listed as revived by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger".
Language policy in Latvia
Since 1998, the official status of the Latvian language has been written into the Constitution (Article 4); and since 2002, MPs have been asked to promise to strengthen Latvian as the only official language in order to take their seats (Article 18). In the Constitution's chapter on human rights, rights to get answers from authorities in Latvian are specified since 2002 (Article 104). The current Official Language Law Law was not amended since its adoption in 1999 (as at 2017).
2012 Latvian constitutional referendum
According to the 2000 census, Russian was the native language of 37.5% and the second language of 43.7% of the residents. Since 2000, Russian has been regarded as a foreign language according to the Official Language Law.
Latvian language
Today, the Latvian standard alphabet consists of 33 letters:
Russian language in Latvia
The leading coalition of Unity, Zatlers' Reform Party and the National Alliance urged voters to participate in the referendum and reject Russian as a second state language. Former presidents of Latvia Guntis Ulmanis, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga and Valdis Zatlers called voters to take part in the referendum and vote against Russian as the second state language. The president at the time Andris Bērziņš initially advised people to ignore the vote gathering, dismissing it as a provocation, but when it came to a referendum also called voters not to support Russian as the second state language and said he would resign should the referendum succeed. Several notable Latvian Russians, including sculptor Gļebs Panteļejevs, stage director Mihails Gruzdovs, and journalist Marina Kosteņecka, as well as the President of Russian fraternity Fraternitas Arctica Dmitrijs Trofimovs also called for a 'no' vote.
Latvia
As of March 2011, Latvians form about 62.1% of the population, while 26.9% are Russians, Belarusians 3.3%, Ukrainians 2.2%, Poles 2.2%, Lithuanians 1.2%, Jews 0.3%, Romani people 0.3%, Germans 0.1%, Estonians 0.1% and others 1.3%. 250 people identify as Livonians (Baltic Finnic people native to Latvia). There were 290,660 non-citizens living in Latvia or 14.1% of Latvian residents, mainly ethnic Russians who arrived after the occupation of 1940 and their descendants.
Lithuania
Ethnic Lithuanians make up about five-sixths of the country's population and Lithuania has the most homogeneous population in the Baltic States. In 2015, the population of Lithuania stands at 2,921,262, 84.2% of whom are ethnic Lithuanians who speak Lithuanian, which is the official language of the country. Several sizeable minorities exist, such as Poles (6.6%), Russians (5.8%), Belarusians (1.2%) and Ukrainians (0.5%).
List of companies of Latvia
Latvia is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe, one of the three Baltic states. Latvia is a democratic and developed country and member of the European Union, NATO, the Council of Europe, the United Nations, CBSS, the IMF, NB8, NIB, OECD, OSCE, and WTO. For 2014, Latvia was listed 46th on the Human Development Index and as a high income country on 1 July 2014. It used the Latvian lats as its currency until it was replaced by the euro on 1 January 2014.
Latvia
Latvia is a member of the European Union, Eurozone, NATO, the Council of Europe, the United Nations, CBSS, the IMF, NB8, NIB, OECD, OSCE, and WTO. For 2014, the country was listed 46th on the Human Development Index and as a high income country on 1 July 2014. A full member of the Eurozone, it uses the euro as its currency since 1 January 2014, replacing the Latvian lats.
Latvian Wikipedia
The Latvian Wikipedia is the third most read edition in Latvia, after the English Wikipedia and the Russian Wikipedia. It is also the seventh most read edition on the island of Guernsey, where there is an emerging Latvian diaspora of approximately 1,500 to 2,000 migrant workers. Despite Latvian having less than 2 million speakers, the edition enjoys a relatively high level of community participation, with 54 editors per million speakers, even though there is still no Wikimedia chapter in Latvia. At around *1000/ round 1 articles per speaker, the Latvian Wikipedia has an above-average number of articles per speaker. These figures were based on an estimate of 1.8 million speakers of Latvian. Its editing community currently consists of administrators (/*100 round 2% of all active users) and active contributors, of which on average between 12 and 20 are very active every month, and there are in total 62 users with over 1,000 edits (excluding bots). Around 90% of both views and edits originate from Latvia, where Wikipedia is the 14th most popular website.
Balts
The Balts or Baltic people (, ) are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group who speak the Baltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family, which was originally spoken by tribes living in the area east of Jutland peninsula in the west and in the Moscow, Oka and Volga rivers basins in the east. One of the features of Baltic languages is the number of conservative or archaic features retained. Among the Baltic peoples are modern Lithuanians, Latvians (including Latgalians) — all Eastern Balts — as well as the Old Prussians, Yotvingians and Galindians — the Western Balts — whose languages and cultures are now extinct.
Russian language in Latvia
The number was even lower among young people (between 15 and 34 years of age), of whom 54% said they have a good command of Russian, 38% have a low command, while 8% have no knowledge of Russian. Nonetheless, the proportion of people knowing Russian (98%) was still higher than the proportion of people knowing Latvian (92%). If overall 1% of the respondents with the native language of Latvian did not know Russian, 8% of the respondents whose native language was Russian reported not having any knowledge of Latvian in return.
Latvian State Language Center
Latvian State Language Centre (VVC; ) is a direct administration institution subordinated to the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Latvia. The purpose of the State Language Centre is to implement the national policy on the use of the official language. The Centre supervises and controls the conformity with laws and regulations on the use of official language, provides the State administration institutions and the public with official translations of laws and regulations and other documents issued by the State or international organisations while concurrently ensuring use of consistent terminology. The State Language Centre protects rights and interests of the official language users, promotes the regularisation of the cultural environment of language and promotes comprehensive functioning of Latvian language.
History of Riga
Between World War I and World War II (1918–1940), Riga and Latvia shifted their focus from Russia to the countries of Western Europe. A democratic, parliamentary system of government with a President was instituted. Latvian was recognized as the official language of Latvia. Latvia was admitted to the League of Nations. The United Kingdom and Germany replaced Russia as Latvia's major trade partners. As a sign of the times, Latvia's first Prime Minister, Kārlis Ulmanis, had studied agriculture and worked as a lecturer at the University of Nebraska in the United States of America.
History of the Jews in Latvia
After the fall of the Soviet Union and Latvian independence in 1991, many Jews who arrived from the Soviet Union were denied automatic Latvian citizenship, as with anyone of any nationality who wasn't a Latvian citizen (or descendent of) until 1941. This included children and grandchildren who were born in Latvia, as to the Latvian law citizenship is not determined by place of birth, but by having an ancestor who is a national or citizen of the state. In public school, the compulsory use of Latvian affected many Jewish students, who spoke Russian as their primary language. As Latvia sought to become a member of the European Union, its citizenship requirements were gradually relaxed, allowing for its postwar residents to apply for Latvian citizenship.
Language policy in Latvia
The official language ("valsts valoda", literally "state language") in Latvia is Latvian; this status has been explicitly defined since 1988. In 1992, amendments to the 1989 Law on Languages strengthened the position of Latvian. All other languages, except the extinct Livonian language, are defined as foreign languages in Section 5 of the Official Language Law Law of 1999.
Latvian orthography
The letters CH, Ō and Ŗ continue to be used in print throughout most of the Latvian diaspora communities, whose founding members left their homeland before the post-World War II Soviet-era language reforms. An example of a publication in Latvia today, albeit one aimed at the Latvian diaspora, that uses the older orthography—and hence, also the letters CH, Ō and Ŗ—is the weekly newspaper "Brīvā Latvija".
Language policy in Latvia
The Law on Electronic Media prescribes that national and regional electronic media need to broadcast at least 65 % in Latvian language (section 32). Besides, films aired in any channel should be dubbed in Latvian or to have original soundtrack and Latvian subtitles; TV broadcasts in languages other than Latvian, except news, live events, language learning broadcasts and retranslated content, must be subtitled in Latvian.(Section 28). The same concerns films shown in cinemas, according to Section 17 of Official Language Law. Until a judgement of the Constitutional Court upon request of 24 ForHRUL MPs (delivered in 2003), broadcasting in minority languages was limited for private TV and radio (originally within 30%, since 1998 within 25%).
Latvian name
Before the emancipation from serfdom (1817 in Courland, 1819 in Vidzeme, 1861 in Latgale) only noblemen, free craftsmen or people living in towns had surnames. Therefore, the oldest Latvian surnames originate from German or Low German, reflecting the dominance of German as an official language in Latvia till the 19th century. Examples: "Meijers/Meijere" (German: "Meier", farm administrator; akin to Mayor), "Millers/Millere" (German: "Müller", miller), "Šmits/Šmite" (German: "Schmidt", smith), "Šulcs/Šulca" (German: "Schulze", constable), "Ulmanis" (German: "Ullmann", a person from Ulm), "Godmanis" (a God-man), "Pētersons" (son of Peter). Some Latvian surnames, mainly from Latgale are of Polish or Belorussian origin by changing the final "-ski/-cki" to "-skis/-ckis", "-czyk" to "-čiks" or "-vich/-wicz" to "-vičs", such as "Sokolovkis/Sokolovska", "Baldunčiks/Baldunčika" or "Ratkevičs/Ratkeviča".
Lithuania
The Lithuanian language ("lietuvių kalba") is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 0.2 million abroad.
Russian language in Latvia
In 2014 schoolchildren of Latvia demonstrated the highest overall results in Russian language (70.9%) of all the exit exams, a 6.75% increase in comparison with 2013.
Lithuanians
Lithuanians (, singular "lietuvis/lietuvė") are a Baltic ethnic group, native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,561,300 people. Another million or more make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Russia, United Kingdom and Ireland. Their native language is Lithuanian, one of only two surviving members of the Baltic language family. According to the census conducted in 2001, 83.45% of the population of Lithuania identified themselves as Lithuanians, 6.74% as Poles, 6.31% as Russians, 1.23% as Belarusians, and 2.27% as members of other ethnic groups. Most Lithuanians belong to the Roman Catholic Church, while the Lietuvininkai who lived in the northern part of East Prussia prior to World War II, were mostly Evangelical Lutherans.
Russian language in Latvia
In 2017 a total of 7% or 5,332 students studied in Russian in Latvia's state and private higher education institutions (around one third in private colleges and less than 1 percent in state higher institutions), the most being at the Transport and Telecommunication Institute, where the share of the students with Russian as the language of tuition reached 86% or 2,358. Other private higher education institutions with notable percentage of people studying in Russian included Information Systems Management Institute with 53% students, Riga International School of Economics and Business Administration with 34% students, Riga Aeronautical Institute with 18% students, Baltic International Academy with 17% students, and University of Economics and Culture with 6% of all its students studying in Russian.
Demographics of Latvia
(p) = preliminar Latvians have always been the largest ethnic group in Latvia during the past century, but minority peoples have always been numerous. Before WW II the proportion of non-Latvians was approximately 25%, the Russians being the largest minority (app. 10%), followed by Jews (approx. 5%), Germans and Poles (2–3%). After World War 2 only small numbers of Jews and Germans remained and following a massive immigration of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians, Latvians almost became a minority. In 1989, the proportion of Latvians had decreased to only 52% (from 75.5% in 1935). Despite the decreasing number of Latvians due to low fertility rates, the proportion of Latvians has considerably increased during the past two decades and reached 62.1% in 2011 (slightly higher than the 62.0% in 1959). This is due to large scale emigration of Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians. The number of these peoples almost halved between 1989 and 2011.In the 2011 census, 1,164,894 persons in Latvia reported Latvian as their main language spoken at home; 698,757 respondents listed Russian as their main language spoken at home, representing 37.2% of the total population, whereas Latvian was recorded as the main language spoken at home for 62.1%. Latvian was spoken as a second language by 20.8% of the population, and 43.7% spoke Russian as a second language. In total, 71% of ethnic Latvians said they could speak Russian, and 52% of Russians could speak Latvian in census 2000.
Russian language in Latvia
On September 9, 2011 NGO "Native Language" submitted a petition to the Central Election Commission signed by 12,516 people on making Russian the second state language in Latvia. From November 1 to November 30, 2011, the Central Election Commission held an official signature gathering, during which 187,378 of the required 154 379 signatures were collected and the proposal was sent to Saeima.
Latvian orthography
Latvian orthography, historically, used a system based upon German phonetic principles, while the Latgalian dialect was written using Polish orthographic principles. The present-day Latvian orthography was developed by the Knowledge Commission of the Riga Latvian Association in 1908, approved the same year by the orthography commission under the leadership of Kārlis Mīlenbahs and Jānis Endzelīns. Its basis is the Latin script and it was introduced by law from 1920 to 1922 in the Republic of Latvia. For the most part it is phonetic in that it follows the language's pronunciation.
Today, the Latvian standard alphabet consists of 33 letters.
The modern standard Latvian alphabet uses 22 unmodified letters of the Latin alphabet. The Latvian alphabet lacks "Q", "W", "X" and "Y", but their names are "kū", "dubult vē", "iks" and "igrek". These letters are not used in writing foreign personal and geographical names, since in Latvian they are adapted to Latvian phonology, orthography, and morphology, e. g. "Džordžs Volkers Bušs" (George Walker Bush). However, these letters can be used in mathematics and sometimes in brand names. It adds a further eleven letters by adding diacritic marks to some letters. 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. The letters "Ģ", "Ķ", "Ļ" and "Ņ" are written with a cedilla or a small comma placed below (or, in the case of the lowercase "g", above). They are modified (palatalized) versions of "G", "K", "L" and "N" and represent the sounds , , and . Non-standard varieties of Latvian add extra letters to this standard set.
Latvian language
During the Soviet occupation (1940–1991), the policy of Russification greatly affected the Latvian language. Throughout this period, many Latvians and Latvia’s other ethnicities faced deportation and persecution. A massive immigration from the Soviet republics of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and others followed, largely as a result of Stalin's plan to integrate Latvia and the other Baltic republics into the Soviet Union by means of Russian colonization. As a result, the proportion of the ethnic Latvian population within the total population was reduced from 80% in 1935 to 52% in 1989. In Soviet Latvia, most of the immigrants who settled in the country did not learn Latvian. Today, Latvian is the mother tongue of more than 60% of the country's population.
Latvian language
Government-funded bilingual education is available in primary schools for ethnic minorities. These include Russian, Yiddish, Polish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Estonian and Roma schools. Latvian is taught as a second language in the initial stages too, as is officially declared, in order to encourage proficiency in that language, aiming at avoiding alienation from the Latvian-speaking linguistic majority and for the sake of facilitating academic and professional achievements. Since the mid-1990s, the government may pay a student's tuition in public universities only provided that the 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, a broad system of education in Russian existed).
Livonians
The Livonians, or Livs (Livonian: "līvlizt"), are a Finnic ethnic group indigenous to northern Latvia and southwestern Estonia. Livonians historically spoke Livonian, a Uralic language closely related to Estonian and Finnish. The last person to have learned and spoken Livonian as a mother tongue, Grizelda Kristiņa, died in 2013, making Livonian extinct. As of 2010, there were approximately 30 people who had learned it as a second language.
List of official languages
Latvian:
Language policy in Latvia
According to Section 6 of Official Language Law, levels of skills in Latvian are defined for various professions, which concern legitimate public interest. Totally, there are six levels and two lists of professions (longer for public sector and shorter for private sector), classified by needed level. For those who didn't get education in Latvian and aren't disabled, an examination is needed to define their skills in Latvian, to work in these professions. Those who fail to show needed level during inspections, can be fined. Labour market shows high demand for skills in Latvian, Russian and English languages.
Russians in Latvia
Another issue of contention for some Russians and Russian speakers in Latvia (most notably Social Democratic Party "Harmony", Latvian Russian Union, Russian School Defense Staff and For the Native Language!) is the status of the Russian language as Latvian is defined by the Law on State Language as the only official language in Latvia.
Demographic history of the Vilnius region
Since the first contact in the 9th century the Slavic (Ruthenian, later Ukrainian) speaking areas have always bordered the vicinity of eastern contemporary Lithuania. Towards the 16th century the Lithuanian language began to become replaced by the Slavic languages. A large number of the Lithuanian speaking population began to become increasingly Slavicized. But still survived in certain parts of the region even up until the end of the 19th century and onwards. The common Slavic dialect spoken in Vilnius region was known as "mowa prosta" and was similar to both Belarusian and Polish. 
In 2015 Polish linguist Miroslaw Jankowiak attested that many Poles of Vilnius region still speak the language which they call "mowa prosta" ('simple speech') by local people.
Lithuanian language
Lithuanian is the state language of Lithuania and an official language of the European Union.
Latvian language
There are three dialects in Latvian: the Livonian dialect, High Latvian and the Middle dialect. Latvian dialects and their varieties should not be confused with the Livonian, Curonian, Semigallian and Selonian languages.
Latvian Russian Union
The party emphasizes issues important to the Russian minority in Latvia. It requests the granting of Latvian citizenship to all of Latvia's remaining non-citizens and supports Russian and Latgalian as co-official languages in municipalities where at least 20% of the population are native speakers of such a language. It supports stronger ties with Russia and was the only major political organization to oppose Latvia's membership in NATO. The Latvian Russian Union is very socially conservative, as is its voter base. Economic issues are less emphasized but the party's economic positions tend to be left-wing.
Latvia
Around 3000 BC, the proto-Baltic ancestors of the Latvian people settled on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. The Balts established trade routes to Rome and Byzantium, trading local amber for precious metals. By 900 AD, four distinct Baltic tribes inhabited Latvia: Curonians, Latgalians, Selonians, Semigallians (in Latvian: "kurši", "latgaļi", "sēļi" and "zemgaļi"), as well as the Finnic tribe of Livonians ("lībieši") speaking a Finnic language.
Ludza Estonians
By the 19th century the church had become Latvianised and Russian had become the official language and lingua franca. According to Oskar Kallas, who made a studying trip to area in 1893, there were 4,387 Ludza Estonians of whom some 800 could speak Estonian. In the 1970s and 80s, there were some 20 people left in the area still using the language, but it is now most likely to have perished. The dialect spoken by Ludza Estonians, was closely related to eastern Võro-dialects. It contained about 180 loanwords from Latvian language and some from Russian. Ludza Estonians reportedly had some difficulty understanding standard Estonian.
Latgalians
They likely spoke the Latvian language, which probably became the "lingua franca" in present-day Latvia during the Northern Crusades due to their alliance with the crusaders. Latgalians later assimilated the neighbouring tribes, forming the core of modern Latvians.
Latgalians (modern)
Latgalians continued to publish books and periodicals abroad. Publishing in Latgalian in Latvia resumed during the Third National Awakening in the late 1980s but is still rare. The Latgalian language is mostly used at home in rural areas and Latvian is overwhelmingly used in official use and in urban areas. Some government protection for the Latgalian language is provided by the language law of 2000 which states that "the State shall ensure the maintenance, protection and development of the Latgalian written language as a historic variant of the Latvian language.."
Language policy in Latvia
In 1995, Latvia signed, and in 2005 ratified the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. When ratifying it, the Latvian Saeima (Parliament) made two declarations (worded as reservations) limiting the implementation of Articles 10 and 11. As at 2008, Latvia did not plan to sign the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
Russian language in Latvia
According to the 1897 Imperial Russian Census, there were 25,630 (3.8%) speakers of "Great Russian" in the Governorate of Courland and 68,124 (5.2%) speakers of "Great Russian" in the Governorate of Livonia, making Russian-speakers the 4th largest linguistic group in each of the governorates.
Lithuanian language
Lithuanian is one of two living Baltic languages, along with Latvian. An earlier Baltic language, Old Prussian, was extinct by the 18th century; the other Western Baltic languages, Curonian and Sudovian, became extinct earlier. Some theories, such as that of Jānis Endzelīns, considered that the Baltic languages form their own distinct branch of the family of Indo-European languages, but the most widely accepted opinion is the one that suggests the union of Baltic and Slavic languages into a distinct sub-family of Balto-Slavic languages amongst the Indo-European family of languages. Such an opinion was first represented by the likes of August Schleicher, and to a certain extent, Antoine Meillet. Endzelīns thought that the similarity between Baltic and Slavic was explicable through language contact while Schleicher, Meillet and others argued for a genetic kinship between the two families.
Constitution of Latvia
In Latvian, "satversme" is officially used instead of 'constitution' ("konstitūcija"), while in everyday conversations "konstitūcija" is often used. The word was created by Atis Kronvalds, one of the leaders of the First Latvian National Awakening in the 19th century. The movement was trying to promote Latvian culture after centuries of Baltic German influence and encourage use of the Latvian language. Kronvalds and like-minded individuals created and introduced many new words and terms intended to be used over Germanic loanwords to modernize Latvian. He derived the term ""satversme"" from the root "-tvert-" ("to grip"), combining it with the prefix "sa-", which yields the word "satvert" (to grasp), adding the "-sm-" suffix and the feminine ending "-e", creating a word that in its meaning is similar to "holder", to illustrate how a constitution holds together all other laws.
Russian language in Latvia
The most prominent Russian-language newspaper in Latvia from 1918 to 1940 was Segodnya (‘Today’) and it was known far beyond Latvia. During the Latvian SSR Sovetskaya Molodyozh (‘Soviet Youth’) first published in 1945 became a popular newspaper successfully competing with other Russian-language newspapers from the rest of the USSR. After the restoration of independence in 1991 the traditions of Sovetskaya Molodyozh were continued by newspapers such as Vesti segodnya (‘Today’s News’), Chas (‘The Hour’), Biznes&Baltia (‘Business & The Baltics’), Telegraph and others. Nowadays, 4 daily Russian-language national newspapers, 11 weekly newspapers, as well as a dozen regional papers and over 30 magazines on various topics are published in Latvia.
Latvia
Latvia ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Latvia (), is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. Since its independence, Latvia has been referred to as one of the Baltic states. It is bordered by Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, Russia to the east, and Belarus to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Sweden to the west. Latvia has 1,957,200 inhabitants and a territory of . The country has a temperate seasonal climate.
Language policy in Latvia
The Electronic Mass Media Law orders to use only Latvian language in the first channels of public radio and television, and basically Latvian language in their second channels (Section 66).
The government of Latvia in its policy documents refers to Latvia as a (democratic) nation state, constructing societal integration on the basis of the Latvian language, while respecting the diversity of languages. Unity block, comprising most of the governing coalition as of 2011, also describes Latvia as a nation state. The idea of the nation state, where "language = nation", is seen as the core and main engine of the language policy of the Latvian state. Critics draw parallels between measures of the Latvian government and the assimilation of linguistic minorities in various countries.
Latvia
In the post-war period, Latvia was made to adopt Soviet farming methods. Rural areas were forced into collectivisation. An extensive programme to impose bilingualism was initiated in Latvia, limiting the use of Latvian language in official uses in favour of using Russian as the main language. All of the minority schools (Jewish, Polish, Belarusian, Estonian, Lithuanian) were closed down leaving only two media of instructions in the schools: Latvian and Russian. An influx of labourers, administrators, military personnel and their dependants from Russia and other Soviet republics started. By 1959 about 400,000 people arrived from other Soviet republics and the ethnic Latvian population had fallen to 62%.
Latvian grammar
Unlike, for example, Romance languages where conjugation classes are assigned based on thematic vowels (e.g., "-are", "-ere", "-ire" forming, respectively, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd conjugation in Italian) Latvian verbs are classified in conjugations regardless of whether they end in "-āt", "-ēt", "-īt", "-ot" or "-t". The classification depends on whether the verb stem has a thematic vowel, and if so, whether it is retained in present tense.
Pitch-accent language
Two languages of the Baltic branch of the Indo-European family survive today, namely Lithuanian and Latvian. (Another Baltic language, Old Prussian, died out in the 18th century.) Both languages have a tonal accent that is believed to derive from the ancestral Proto-Indo-European language.
Baltic tones are often classified as either "acute" or "circumflex." However, these labels indicate a diachronic correspondence rather than a phonetic one. For example, the "acute" accent is falling in Lithuanian but a high level tone in Latvian and is presumed to have been rising in Old Prussian and Classical Greek. The "circumflex" is rising in Lithuanian but falling in Latvian, Prussian and Classical Greek.