Latvian, Standard

Print

Primary tabs

A language of Latvia

ISO 639-3
lvs
Autonym
Latviešu valoda, Latviski
User Population

1,832,000 in Latvia, all users. L1 users: 1,370,000 in Latvia (European Commission 2012). L2 users: 462,000 (European Commission 2012). Total users in all countries: 1,997,500 (as L1: 1,535,500; as L2: 462,000).

Location

Widespread.

Language Maps
Language Status

1 (National). Statutory national language (1998, Constitution, Article 4).

Classification
Indo-European, Balto-Slavic, Baltic, Eastern
Dialects

Tamian is a subdialect of the Central Latvian dialect. A member of macrolanguage Latvian [lav].

Typology

SVO; prepositions; noun head final; gender (masculine/feminine); no articles; case-marking (7 cases); verb affixes mark person, number; passives; tense and aspect; comparatives; 26 consonants, 11 vowels, 10 diphthongs; tonal (3 tones: even, falling, broken); stress on first syllable.

Language Use

Many also use English [eng] (European Commission 2006). Many also use Russian [rus].

Language Development

Fully developed. Bible: 1689–1995.

Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Latvian, Standard
Writing

Latin script [Latn].

Other Comments

Christian.

Also spoken in:

Expand All
Collapse All