Origins

The Latvian language belongs to the Baltic languages – a separate group within the Indo-European family. One theory claims that the Eastern Baltic languages derived from Western Baltic. Another tells about the existence of a proto-language, Baltic-Slavic, which appeared after the split of the proto-Indo-European language, though some evidence has been found against this theory.

Official Language

Latvian is official in the Republic of Latvia. It survived hard times during the Communist regime and the Soviet Union, when Russian was the official tongue for the USSR and local and national languages of the Republics were discriminated against. Since Latvia joined the EU in 2004, Latvian has become one of the EU’s official languages.

Varieties

Latvian has three distinct dialects, some of which are related to former Baltic languages, already extinct, as well as independent ones and those absorbed by Latvian. The main distinct varieties are the Livonian, Latgalian and Middle dialects. Standard Latvian is based upon the Middle dialect.

Brief History

Latvian and Lithuanian have both been of much interest to curious linguists, as they have preserved many archaic features leading directly back to the proto-language of the Indo-European family. The history of Latvian can be traced back as a dialect or variety of some of the older existing Baltic languages. It co-existed with Lithuanian as dialects of the same language, and their separation started in the beginning of the 9th Century, to become realized some six centuries later.

It gained its linguistic independence quite late, and was officially acknowledged in the 16th Century. The first written documents in Latvian are dated back to 1530.

In its separate evolution, Latvian suffered from the forced influence of Russian, like all languages in the former Soviet Union republics, with its transformation into a co-official language in its own state. After the collapse of the USSR, it regained its former popularity and prosperity.

Did you know?

Along with Lithuanian, Latvian forms a separate group within the Indo-European linguistic family – the Baltic languages. Latvian might be one of the oldest living languages, giving direct examples of the proto Indo-European language. Latvian has been an official language of the EU since 2004, and is spoken by about 2 million people.