One of the Baltic republics in Northern Europe, Latvia borders Russia and is a popular tourist destination for fans of medieval architecture and beach holidays on the Riga seaside. The only state language of Latvia is Latvian, which is stated in the law regulating the subtleties of using it and others in the state.
Some statistics and facts
- Latvian is not the only language used by the citizens of the republic. In the eastern part of the country, Latgalian is widely spoken, and a significant part of the population speaks Russian.
- About 1.7 million people speak Latvian at home and in the office, about 150 thousand speak Latgalian.
- The second most common in Latvia is Russian. It is considered native by about 37% of the inhabitants of the republic, and 81% of Latvian citizens can understand and understand it.
- Three extinct languages on the territory of the country - Selonian, Curonian and Semigallian - existed until the 15th-17th centuries and today are of interest only to researchers.
Interestingly, the OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities recommended that Latvia revise its language policy in terms of reflecting the multicultural nature of society and simplify the process of using minority languages in correspondence of citizens with official organizations and authorities. While recognizing the existence of a single state language in Latvia, European organizations nevertheless recommended that the country's authorities be flexible in matters of bilingual education.
History and modernity
The state language of Latvia, along with Lithuanian, is one of the two Eastern Baltic languages that have survived to this day. Modern official and literary Latvian is based on the Middle Latvian dialect.
The first written evidence of the existence of the Latvian language appeared in the 16th century, and its entire history is divided into three periods - Old Latvian until the 19th century, Young Latvian from 1850 to 1890, and modern.
Tourist notes
Russian travelers often note that the inhabitants of the Baltic republics are not very eager to communicate in Russian, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of middle-aged and older Latvians speak Russian. Going on a tourist trip to Latvia, it is advisable to tune in to the fact that you will have to speak English in order to receive the necessary information and count on understanding in hotels and restaurants.
