LATGALIAN LANGUAGE
Latgalians are native peoples living in the Baltic region of Eastern Europe, mostly in the contemporary territory of Latvia (since 1991).
Latgola is a historical territory of Latgalian culture. It borders with Estonia in the North, Russia in the East, Belarus and Lithuania in the South and with Latvian culture region in the West. The biggest cities in Latgola are Daugpils and Rezne.
LATGALIAN LANGUAGE
Geographic location
Latgalian language is spoken in the Baltic country of Latvia, mostly in its Eastern part – Latgola (where Latgalian is a more common language in public) and also in families and small communities of people originating from Latgola and living in the capital city Riga. About one thousand of Latgalians in Russian Siberia – Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk and Omsk regions – also use their mother tongue in everyday conversations along with Russian language. Some Latgalian speakers live in Western Europe, Australia and in the USA.
Linguistic affiliation
Latgalian language belongs to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. Other languages of the Baltic branch are Lithuanian, Latvian and Samogitian.
Number of speakers
In early 20th century, Latgalians amounted to half a million people. During the last hundred years Latgalians have been rapidly assimilated by Latvians and Russians. Nowadays, Latgalian as mother tongue is spoken by approx. 150,000 people.
Official status
In 1919, Latgalian was declared as the official language in Latgola alongside Latvian and Russian. Three years later, in 1922, Latgola was incorporated into the Republic of Latvia, in which Latvian language was the only official state language and Latgalian was considered a dialect. In Russia, however, Latgalian was recognized by the government as a separate language in 1919 and had this official status until 1959.
Nowadays, the status of Latgalians in Latvia is not defined. Due to political reasons, the official authorities of Latvia have been continuously ignoring Latgalian as a separate Baltic language and considering it as only as a dialect of Latvian. In accordance with the contemporary State Language Law of the Republic of Latvia (1999), literary form of the Latgalian is considered a “variety” of the Latvian language. The Latvian State Language Center has declared that Latgalian is not a language and should not be supported by the government. The current language policy of the Republic of Latvia ensures protection and material support from the government for two languages – Latvian and Livonian. The Livonian language has less than 10 speakers left and therefore Livonians do not endanger the official ideology of Latvia. Latgalian issues are in the contrary position. Under favorable auspices, much more than 150,000 people could consider themselves Latgalians and it might result into Russians being a majority in Latvia. Yet Latvia has existed as a country of mononational Latvian culture until 1940 and was renewed on the same ideological basis in 1991.
Role in society
Latgalian was taught at schools in Latgola until 1934, when the Latvian nationalist K. Ulmanis established an authoritarian regime and prohibited public usage of the Latgalian language. In Russia, Latgalian was taught at schools until 1938. Latgalian activities revived in Latvia between 1940 and 1959. After then, the Communist government prohibited Latgalian once more. Since 1960, Latgalian cultural life existed and Latgalian books and periodicals appeared only in Western Europe and in the USA. Since 1988, the Latgalian culture experienced another revival in Latvia. Latgalian television broadcasted from 1991 to 2000. A range of books are published in Latgalian every year. Nevertheless, the mother tongue of the Latgalian people receives no financial support from the government and is not taught at schools. In 2000, the Association of Latgalian language and literature teachers has been established, which seek to obtain support from the government for teaching Latgalian at schools in Latgola.
+ INFO:
- Grammar sketch
- Dialects
- Literature
- Web resources on Latgalian language
- Basic Latgalian prases
http://www.geocities.com/latgalian/ |
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LATGALIAN LANGUAGE (Latvia / Letònia / Letonia)
Enviado - 20 agosto 2007 : 23:49:07
