Latvianlanguage

Latvian language (Latviešu valoda) is a Baltic language in the Indo-European family, closely related to Lithuanian. It is the official state language of Latvia and is used in government, education, media, and daily life. There are about 1.8 million native speakers, primarily in Latvia, with smaller communities in neighboring countries and a diasporic presence in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere.

Linguistic classification and dialects: Latvian forms part of the Baltic branch of Indo-European languages. It has two principal dialect groups: Latgalian in the eastern part of Latvia and Western Latvian, which includes Central Latvian and Courland (Kurzeme) varieties. The standard written language is based on Central Latvian dialects, especially those around Riga. Latgalian is often treated as a distinct literary form or separate language by some linguists and institutions.

Orthography and script: Latvian uses the Latin alphabet with diacritics. The alphabet includes letters such as ā, ē, ī, ū, č, ķ, ļ, ņ, š, ž, among others. Orthography has been standardized since the early modern period, with a modern standard in place for contemporary education and media.

Grammar and syntax: Latvian is a highly inflected language with seven noun cases. It has two grammatical genders (masculine and feminine) and two numbers (singular and plural). Verbs inflect for tense, mood, person, and number, and aspect is indicated through inflection and participles. The language relies on inflection and word order to convey grammatical relationships, and it does not use definite or indefinite articles.

Usage and policy: The Latvian constitution guarantees Latvian as the state language, with protections for minority languages and cultures. Latvian is taught in schools, used in official communications, and widely represented in national media. Latgalian operates with recognized regional use and its own literary forms in parts of Latvia.