Editing Latvian language (section)

=== Standard orthography ===
Today, the Latvian standard orthography employs 33 characters:

{|class=wikitable style=text-align:center
|-
|bgcolor="#EFEFEF" colspan="33" | '''[[Capital letters|Majuscule forms]]''' (also called '''uppercase''' or '''capital letters''')
|-
| width=15|A || width=15|Ā || width=15|B || width=15|C || width=15|Č || width=15|D || width=15|E || width=15|Ē
| width=15|F || width=15|G || width=15|Ģ || width=15|H || width=15|I || width=15|Ī || width=15|J || width=15|K
| width=15|Ķ || width=15|L || width=15|Ļ || width=15|M || width=15|N || width=15|Ņ || width=15|O || width=15|P
| width=15|R || width=15|S || width=15|Š || width=15|T || width=15|U || width=15|Ū || width=15|V || width=15|Z || width=15|Ž
|-
|bgcolor="#EFEFEF" colspan="33" | '''[[Lower case|Minuscule forms]]''' (also called '''lowercase''' or '''small letters''')
|-
|a ||ā ||b ||c ||č ||d ||e ||ē
|f ||g ||ģ ||h ||i ||ī ||j ||k ||ķ
|l ||ļ ||m ||n ||ņ ||o ||p ||r
|s ||š ||t ||u ||ū ||v ||z ||ž
|}

The modern standard Latvian alphabet uses 22 unmodified letters of the Latin alphabet (all except {{angbr|q, w, x, y}}, which are usually replaced by {{angbr|k(v)}}, {{angbr|v}}, {{angbr|ks}}, and {{angbr|i/j}} respectively in loanwords and even in foreign names, though they may appear in certain specialized terms such as ''status quo''; "W" can be found in older texts, "Y" can be found in the Latgalian language/dialect). It adds a further eleven characters by modification. The vowel letters {{angbr|[[a]]}}, {{angbr|[[e]]}}, {{angbr|[[i]]}} and {{angbr|[[u]]}} can take a [[Macron (diacritic)|macron]] to show length, unmodified letters being short; these letters are not differentiated while sorting (e.g. in dictionaries). The letters {{angbr|[[c]]}}, {{angbr|[[s]]}} and {{angbr|[[z]]}} are pronounced {{IPA|[ts]}}, {{IPA|[s]}} and {{IPA|[z]}} respectively, while when marked with a [[caron]], {{angbr|č, š, ž}}, they are pronounced {{IPA|[tʃ]}}, {{IPA|[ʃ]}} and {{IPA|[ʒ]}} respectively. The letters {{angbr|ģ, ķ, ļ, ņ}}, written with a comma placed underneath (or above them for lowercase ''g''), which indicate [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalized]] versions of {{angbr|g, k, l, n}} representing the sounds {{IPA|[ɟ]}}, {{IPA|[c]}}, {{IPA|[ʎ]}} and {{IPA|[ɲ]}}. Latvian orthography also contains nine digraphs, which are written {{angbr|ai, au, ei, ie, iu, ui, oi, dz, dž}}. Non-standard varieties of Latvian add extra letters to this standard set.

Latvian spelling has almost one-to-one correspondence between graphemes and phonemes. Every [[phoneme]] corresponds to a letter so that the reader can almost always pronounce words by putting the letters together. There are only two exceptions to this consistency in the orthography: the letters {{angbr|e, ē}} represent two different sounds: {{IPA|/ɛ æ/}} and {{IPA|/ɛː æː/}}. The second mismatch is that letter {{angbr|o}} indicates both the short and long {{IPA|[ɔ]}}, and the [[diphthong]] {{IPA|[uɔ]}}. These three sounds are written as {{angbr|o}}, {{angbr|ō}} and {{angbr|uo}} in Standard [[Latgalian language|Latgalian]], and some Latvians campaign for the adoption of this system in standard Latvian. However, Latvian grammarians argue that {{angbr|o}} and {{angbr|ō}} are found only in loanwords, with the {{IPA|/uɔ/}} sound being the only native Latvian phoneme. The digraph {{angbr|uo}} was discarded in 1914, and the letters {{angbr|ō}} and {{angbr|ŗ}} have not been used in the official Latvian language since 1946. Likewise, the digraph {{angbr|ch}} was discarded in 1957, although {{angbr|ō}}, {{angbr|ŗ}}, and {{angbr|ch}} are still used in some varieties and by many Latvians living beyond the borders of Latvia. The letter {{angbr|y}} is used only in Standard Latgalian, where it represents {{IPAslink|ɘ|ɨ}}, a sound not present in other dialects.