Latvian phrasebook
Latvian (latviešu valoda) is the official language in the Republic of Latvia, spoken natively by approximately 60% of the residents of Latvia, approximately 1,250,000 people. Worldwide it is estimated to be spoken by 1,504,880 people, a 2009 estimate from Ethnologue. It is an Indo-European language that shares its own Baltic language group with Lithuanian, New Curonian, Old Prussian, and Semigallian. The Baltic languages show closest relationship with the Slavic languages, and are commonly reconstructed to have passed through common Proto-Balto-Slavic stage, during which numerous Common Balto-Slavic lexical, phonological, morphological and accentological isoglosses developed. It is a relatively new language, its first written accounts date to 1530 A.D.
Written Latvian is based on the Latin alphabet and uses 33 letters: Aa, Āā, Bb, Cc, Čč, Dd, Ee, Ēē, Ff, Gg, Ģģ, Hh, Ii, Īī, Jj, Kk, Ķķ, Ll, Ļļ, Mm, Nn, Ņņ, Oo, Pp, Rr, Ss, Šš, Tt, Uu, Ūū, Vv, Zz, Žž.
Pronunciation guideIn Latvian, the stress is almost always on the first syllable.
Phrase listThe 24-hour clock is used in Latvia. You may find that Latvians also use it when speaking. The easiest way to tell time in Latvian is to say the hour and then the minutes, e.g. ' three-twenty '.
Sources and licences
- Guide text adapted from the Wikivoyage article "Latvian phrasebook" by its contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikivoyage · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0