Latvian

The Latvian language belongs to the balto-slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. It is therefore totally different to Estonian (which is a Finno-Ugric language), but rather close to Lithuanian (but locals say they can’t understand each other fully without learning the other language). It is spoken by around 1.7 million people.

EnglishLatvian
yes
no
Hello!Sveiks!
Good day!Labadien!
Good evening!Labvakar!
Good bye! Uz redzēšanos!
Sorrypiekrītu
leftpa kreisi
rightpa labi
Thank you!Pateikties!

During Soviet reign the Latvian language nearly became a minority language in Latvia because of massive Russian immigration. After 1991 measures where taken to give Latvian more importance but still Russian is often spoken in the country.

NumberLatvian
1viens
2divi
3trīs
4četri
5pieci
6 seši
7septiņi
8astoņi
9deviņi
10desmit

Even if Latvia isn’t such a large country there are three major dialects: Lībiskais dialekts, Vidus dialekts and Augšzemnieku dialekts. They can be clearly assigned to three different regions of the country.

EnglishLatvian
Mondaypirmdiena
Tuesdayotrdiena
Wednesdaytrešdiena
Thursdayceturtdiena
Fridaypiektdiena
Saturdaysestdiena
Sundaysvētdiena

Rīga
Latvia

One Reply to “Latvian”

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.