Latgalian (, ) is an East Baltic language. The language law of Latvia classifies it as a "historical variant of the Latvian language". It is mostly spoken in Latgale, the eastern part of Latvia. The 2011 Latvian census established that 164,500 of Latvia's inhabitants, or 8.8% of the population, speak Latgalian daily. 97,600 of them lived in Latgale, 29,400 in Riga and 14,400 in the Riga Planning Region.
History
thumb|Baltic tribes (approximately),
Originally Latgalians were a tribe living in modern Vidzeme and Latgale. It is thought that they spoke the Latvian language, which later spread through the rest of modern Latvia, absorbing features of the Old Curonian, Semigallian, Selonian and Livonian languages. The Latgale area became politically separated during the Polish–Swedish wars, remaining part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as the Inflanty Voivodeship, while the rest of the Latvians lived in lands dominated by Baltic German nobility. Both centuries of separate development and the influence of different prestige languages likely contributed to the development of modern Latgalian as distinct from the language spoken in Vidzeme and other parts of Latvia.
18th–20th century
The modern Latgalian literary tradition started to develop in the 18th century from vernaculars spoken by Latvians in the eastern part of Latvia. The first surviving book published in Latgalian is (Gospels for the whole year) in 1753. The first systems of orthography were borrowed from Polish and used Antiqua letters. It was very different from the German-influenced orthography, usually written in Blackletter or Gothic script, used for the Latvian language in the rest of Latvia. Many Latgalian books in the late 18th and early 19th century were authored by Jesuit priests, who came from various European countries to Latgale as the north-eastern outpost of the Roman Catholic religion; their writings included religious literature, calendars, and poetry.
Publishing books in the Latgalian language along with Lithuanian was forbidden from 1865 to 1904. The ban on using Latin letters in this part of the Russian Empire followed immediately after the January Uprising, where insurgents in Poland, Lithuania, and Latgale had challenged the rule of Tsar. During the ban, only a limited number of smuggled Catholic religious texts and some hand-written literature were available, e.g. calendars written by the self-educated peasant .
After the repeal of the ban in 1904, there was a quick rebirth of the Latgalian literary tradition; first newspapers, textbooks, and grammar appeared. In 1918 Latgale became part of the newly created Latvian state. From 1920 to 1934 the two literary traditions of Latvians developed in parallel. A notable achievement during this period was the original translation of the New Testament into Latgalian by the priest and scholar , published in Aglona in 1933. After the coup staged by Kārlis Ulmanis in 1934, Latgalian was downgraded from language to dialect, as a subject it was removed from the school curriculum and was invalidated for use in state institutions; this was as part of an effort to standardize Latvian language usage, however, usage of Latgalian was unofficially permitted. Latgalian survived as a spoken language in Soviet-occupied Latvia (1940–1990) while printed literature in Latgalian virtually ceased between 1959 and 1989. In emigration, some Latgalian intellectuals continued to publish books and studies of the Latgalian language, most notably .
Since the restoration of Latvian independence in 1990, there has been a noticeable increase in interest in the Latgalian language and cultural heritage. It was once again taught as an optional subject in some universities; in Rēzekne the Publishing House of Latgalian Culture Centre () led by Jānis Elksnis, prints both old and new books in Latgalian.
In 1992, Juris Cibuļs together with published one of the first Latgalian alphabet books after the restoration of the language.
21st century
In the 21st century, the Latgalian language has become more visible in Latvia's cultural life. Apart from its preservation movements, Latgalian can be more often heard in different interviews on national TV channels such as LTV1 and regional channel (some of which are produced by the broadcasting company SIA Latgales reģionālā televīzija or LRT). Latvijas Radio, the national public radio broadcaster, offers an hour-long Latgolys stuņde (Latgale Hour) bulletin every Friday live from its Latgale studio on LR1. Additional digital content and articles in Latgalian are offered by its parent organization, LSM. The private station ' (Latgolys Radeja) mostly broadcasts in Latgalian. Other publications include the digital magazine ' (Latgalian Culture Gazette, lakuga.lv), a supplement of the regional newspaper Latgales Laiks called Latgalīšu Gazeta etc.
There are modern rock groups such as and Dabasu Durovys singing in Latgalian who have had moderate success also throughout the country. Today, Latgalian is also found in written form on public signs, such as some street names (e.g. in Kārsava) and shop signs, evidence of growing use in the linguistic landscape.
thumb|Bilingual direction signs in Latgalian and Latvian in [[Salnava Parish, Ludza Municipality, in 2016]]
In 2014, 105 bilingual street signs in Latvian and Latgalian were installed in Kārsava Municipality as part of a youth initiative enabled by the Latgale Culture Program. The Latvian State Language Center objected to the signs over the fact that they feature Latgalian more prominently than Latvian and asked for their removal, but no action was taken.
In November 2021, the first state-approved road sign in both Latvian and Latgalian was placed on the border of Balvi Municipality, with others being gradually installed in other locations in Latgale such as in Preiļi Municipality and in 2023 also in Rēzekne Municipality. The bilingual road signs gained a mixed reception with some seeing at as a pretext for dividing society or being upset that they were not informed about it beforehand and in Balvi Municipality the bilingual road signs have even become a target of vandalism with the Latgalian name being repeatedly painted over.
In 2022, Latvian President Egils Levits opened the annual Latgale Congress encouraging a wider use of spoken and written Latgalian, while reasserting that Latvian should remain the only official state language.
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Alphabet
The Latgalian language uses an alphabet with 35 letters. It is the same as the Latvian alphabet, but has two additional letters: represents ), an allophone of which is absent in standard Latvian. The letter survives from the pre-1947 Latvian orthography, but is used less during modern times in Latgalian and is being replaced by two letters that represent the same sound; the letter is more likely used in loanwords.
{| class="wikitable"
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|Y
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|Ī
|ī
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|J
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|Ķ
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|L
|l
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|Ļ
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|M
|m
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|N
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|Ņ
|ņ
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|O
|o
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|Ō
|ō
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|P
|p
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|R
|r
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|S
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|Š
|š
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|T
|t
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|U
|u
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|ū
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|z
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|ž
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The IETF language tags have registered subtags for the 1929 orthography () and the 2007 orthography ().
See also
- Latgalian Wikipedia
- Samogitian language
- Võro language
- Livonian language
References
Sources
External links
- Lithuanian-Latvian-Latgalian Dictionary
- Sanita Lazdiņa, Heiko F. Marten: Latgalian in Latvia: A Continuous Struggle for Political Recognition. In: Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe
- The Two Literary Traditions of Latvians
- The Grammar of Latgalian Language (in Latvian, PDF document)
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