Latvian language
The Middle dialect is spoken in central and Southwestern Latvia. Kursenieki language, which used to be spoken along Curonian Spit, is closely related to the varieties of middle dialect spoken in Courland. The dialect is divided into the Vidzeme variety, the Curonian variety and the Semigallian variety. The Vidzeme variety and the Semigallian variety are closer to each other than to the Curonian variety, which is more archaic than the other two. There are three intonations in the Middle dialect. In the Semigallian variety, "ŗ" is still used. Standard Latvian is based on the middle dialect.
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.