History of the Latvian Language

Latvian (latvieu valoda) is the official state language of Latvia. It is also sometimes referred to
as Lettish. There are about 1.3 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and 100,000 abroad.
Altogether, 2 million, or 80% of the population of Latvia, speak Latvian.

Latvian is one of the two remaining living languages of the Baltic group within the IndoEuropean linguistic family. It forms the branch of Eastern Baltic, while Western Baltic
languages have only Lithuanian as a representative. Like most of the languages of the
former Soviet Republics, it suffered from the impact of Russian, as well as discrimination
during the period of Communist regime.
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 EUs official languages.
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.
The history of Latvian can be traced back as a dialect or variety of some of the older
existing Baltic languages. The first written documents in Latvian are dated back to 1530.
Latvian might be one of the oldest living languages, giving direct examples of the proto
Indo-European 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 to 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. After the re-establishment of
independence in 1991, a new policy of language education was introduced. Today, the Latvian
standard alphabet consists of 33 letters:
A B CDE F GH I J K L MNOPR S T U V Z