Immigrate to Latvia to understand Latvian culture: The Latvian language (latviešu valoda, sometimes referred to as Lettish) belongs to the Eastern branch of the Baltic language group of the Indo-European language family. It is one of only two surviving languages in this group (the other being Lithuanian). It has nearly 2 million speakers, with approximately 1.5 million in Latvia and the remaining nearly 500,000 in neighboring regions and other countries, primarily the United States. The main dialects include the Central dialect, the Livonian dialect (also known as the Tamian dialect or Western Latvian), and the High (Eastern) Latvian dialect. It is one of the oldest languages in the Indo-European family still in use today.
English and Russian are widely used in Latvia. At the same time, German, French, and Scandinavian languages are also frequently spoken. Common foreign languages: English, Russian, German.
The modern standard Latvian language is based on the Central dialect and was formed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The earliest documents date back to a translated Catholic catechism manual from 1585. The stress in Latvian words always falls on the first syllable; pitch accent no longer exists, and any syllable core consisting of two short syllables represents a distinctive tone. Its early vocabulary is similar to Lithuanian but contains more innovative terms; the main methods of word formation are through suffixes, prefixes, and compounding. Latvian is an inflected language, though many inflectional endings have been lost. Grammatically, it is divided into masculine and feminine genders, and singular and plural numbers. Nouns have seven cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative, and vocative. Verbs have three persons and three tenses: present, past, and future. The Latvian language uses a Latin-based script consisting of 33 letters, 11 of which have diacritical marks.
Alphabet:
A a Ā ā B b C c Č č D d E e Ē ē F f G g Ģ ģ H h I i Ī ī J j K k Ķ ķ L l Ļ ļ M m N n Ņ ņ O o P p R r Ŗ ŗ S s Š š T t U u Ū ū V v Z z Ž ž
Basic Latvian phrases:
Hello - Sveiks!
Goodbye - Uz redzēšanos
Yes - Jā
No - Nē
Thank you - Paldies
Please - Lūdzu
Sorry - Atvainojiet
Cheers/Good luck - Laimīgs gadījums! Veiksmi!
How much is this? - Atvainojiet!
