The Latvian language belongs to Baltic branch of Indo-European language family. The Baltic languages are divided into Easter Baltic and Western Baltic languages. There are only two alive Baltic languages in nowadays - the Latvian and the Lithuanian language, both of them belong to Easter Baltic languages. There are 3 dialects in the Latvian language - the Central dialect, Tamian and the High Latvian dialect and more than 500 separate languages or dialects (512).
These separate dialects are influenced by standardization, social and culture historical factors and are subordinated to the process of improvement and accommodation to literary standard language. The literary standard language has been developed on the basis of the Central dialect, Zemgalian language (dialect).
The Latvian language has its written form for about 400 years. There have been two orthography traditions since the World War II:
- orthography used by Latvians in Latvia;
- orthography used by Latvians abroad.
Besides, Latgalian orthography tradition exists in the Eastern part of Latvia.
In spite of various contacts with other languages, the inner system of Latvian survives its stability. Latvian is described by complex grammatical system and conservatism to a certain extent. As to structure, Latvian is synthetically inflected language.
The graphical pictures of Latvian letters:
For Latvian fonts visit to:
http://www.deksoft.com.au/
Contents
- Latvian for foreigners by G.
Pujāte., M. Sosāre.
Short general description of the Latvian language.
- Latvian, Introduction by T.
Budiņa Lazdiņa.
Short general description of the Latvian language.
- The Latvian Alphabet by G. Pujāte.,
M. Sosāre.
The Latvian alphabet used in Latvia, examples in Latvian and English.
- The Latvian Alphabet by T. Budiņa
Lazdiņa.
The Latvian alphabet used by Latvians abroad, examples in Latvian and English.
- Notes on pronunciation by T.
Budiņa Lazdiņa.
- A Grammar of Modern Latvian. Introduction
by T.G. Fennell, H. Gelsen.
Notes on some problems and distinctions in Latvian grammar.
- Phonetics by T.G. Fennell,
H. Gelsen.
Description of Latvian sounds and peculiarities of pronunciation. The correlation
between sound and symbol in Latvian. Modifications of sounds: assimilation,
vowel harmony, vocalisation,
vowel weakening. Stress and intonations in Latvian.
- Open and closed e in Latvian. A
Synchronic Approach by T.G. Fennell.
Usage of open and closed e, ē in different parts of speech and in different positions.
- Morphology of Baltic Languages. Introduction
by Endzelīns.
Short information about the Latvian language history, dialects and Baltic languages,
comparison of sounds pronunciations in Baltic languages and Baltic and Slavic languages.
- The Latvian language - Struggle for survival by A. Veisbergs.
Development of the Latvian language, ethnic problems and situation in Latvia and Riga during the century, Russification, the language Law, influence
of the English language on Latvian.
- Processes determining. The future
of the Latvian language by J.Valdmanis.
- Latvian on the Crossroads of History
by J.Stradiņš.
- Teaching Methodology
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