Latvian, Standard
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A language of Latvia
ISO 639-3
Alternate Names
“Lettisch” (pej.), “Lettish” (pej.)
Population
1,470,000 in Latvia (European Commission 2012). L2 users: 497,000 in Latvia (European Commission 2012). Total users in all countries: 2,068,060 (as L1: 1,571,060; as L2: 497,000).
Language Maps
Language Status
1 (National). Statutory national language (1998, Constitution, Article 4).
Classification
Dialects
Tamian is a subdialect of the Central Latvian dialect. A member of macrolanguage Latvian [lav].
Typology
SVO; prepositions; noun head final; gender (masculine/feminine); no articles; case-marking (5 cases); verb affixes mark person, number; passives; tense and aspect; comparatives; 25 consonants, 11 vowels, 5 diphthongs; tonal (3 tones: even, falling, broken); stress on first syllable.
Language Use
Many also use English [eng] (European Commission 2006).
Language Development
Fully developed. Bible: 1689–1995.
Language Resources
Writing
Latin script [Latn].
Christian.