A Baltic language and the official tongue of Latvia — closely related to Lithuanian and similarly conservative, though with some innovations like fixed first-syllable stress.
Where it’s spoken
Latvian is the official language of Latvia and one of the EU’s working languages. Russian is widely spoken alongside Latvian, especially in Riga. Latvian diaspora communities live in the United States, Canada, Australia, the UK, Sweden, and Germany — many descended from post-WWII refugees.
What it sounds like
Latvian has two pitch accents (level and falling) in standard pronunciation, though many speakers no longer distinguish them. Stress falls invariably on the first syllable. Vowel length is phonemic — marked in writing by a macron (ā, ē, ī, ū). Latvian preserves an ancient locative case and a vocative used to address people directly.
How it’s written
Latvian uses the Latin alphabet with thirteen modified letters: ā, č, ē, ģ, ī, ķ, ļ, ņ, š, ū, and ž. The diacritics distinguish long vowels (macron) and palatalized consonants (cedilla-below).
History
Latvian was first written by 16th-century German Lutheran clergy. Modern orthography dates from the 1908 spelling reform. After Latvia regained independence in 1991, the state language law promoted Latvian after decades of Russification.
Find more languages by letter
Latvian starts with L and ends with N. Browse other languages along the same letter.
Languages that contain a letter from "Latvian":