Editing Latvian language (section)

== History ==
[[File:Baltic Tribes c 1200.svg|thumb|Distribution of the Baltic tribes, {{Circa|1200}} (boundaries are approximate).]]
[[File:Curonians kursenieki in 1649.png|thumb|right|In 1649{{citation needed|date=May 2022}} settlement of the Latvian speaking [[Kursenieki]] spanned from [[Klaipėda|Memel (Klaipėda)]] to [[Gdańsk|Danzig (Gdańsk)]].]]
[[File:Dictionarium Polono-Latino-Lothavicum opus posthumum (Dictionary of the Polish-Latin-Latvian languages) by Georgs Elgers, Vilnius, 1683.jpg|thumb|right|Dictionary of the Polish-Latin-Latvian languages by Georgs Elgers, published in [[Vilnius]], [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]], 1683]]

=== Origins ===

According to some [[glottochronology|glottochronological]] speculations, the [[Eastern Baltic languages|East Baltic languages]] split from [[Western Baltic languages|West Baltic]] (or, perhaps, from the hypothetical [[proto-Baltic language]]) between 400 and 600 CE.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Lithuania taxation laws and regulations handbook.|last=International Business Publications, Usa.|date=2008|publisher=Intl Business Pubns Usa|isbn=978-1433080289|pages=28|oclc=946497138}}</ref> The differentiation between [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]] and Latvian started after 800 CE. At a minimum, transitional dialects existed until the 14th century or 15th century, and perhaps as late as the 17th century.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Indo-European Languages|last1=Ramat|first1=Anna Giacalone|author-link=Anna Giacalone Ramat|last2=Ramat|first2=Paolo|publisher=Routledge|year=1998|isbn=9781134921867|pages=454–479|chapter=The Baltic Languages|oclc=908192063}}</ref>

Latvian as a distinct language emerged over several centuries from the language spoken by the ancient [[Latgalians]] assimilating the languages of other neighboring Baltic tribes—[[Curonian language|Curonian]], [[Semigallian language|Semigallian]], and [[Selonian (language)|Selonian]]—which resulted in these languages gradually losing their most distinct characteristics. This process of consolidation started in the 13th century after the [[Livonian Crusade]] and forced [[christianization]], which formed a unified political, economic, and religious space in [[Medieval Livonia]].<ref name="lnvm.lv">{{Cite web |url=http://lnvm.lv/en/?page_id=942 |title=Livonia. 13th-16th Century |access-date=2017-10-27 |archive-date=2017-10-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171027130544/http://lnvm.lv/en/?page_id=942 |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== 16th–18th century ===

The oldest known examples of written Latvian are from a 1530 translation of a hymn made by {{ill|Nikolaus Ramm|lv|Nikolajs Ramms}}, a German pastor in [[Riga]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Vīksniņš |first1=Nicholas |year=1973 |title=The Early History of Latvian Books |url=http://www.lituanus.org/1973/73_3_02.htm#Ref |journal=[[Lituanus]] |volume=19 |issue=3 |access-date=3 September 2019 |archive-date=24 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120424153605/http://www.lituanus.org/1973/73_3_02.htm#Ref |url-status=dead }}</ref> The oldest preserved book in Latvian is a 1585 Catholic catechism of [[Petrus Canisius]] currently located at the [[Uppsala University Library]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/society/national-treasure-the-oldest-latvian-language-book-in-riga.a197919/ |title=National treasure: The oldest Latvian-language book in Rīga |date=25 August 2016 |publisher=[[Public Broadcasting of Latvia]] |access-date=27 October 2017}}</ref>

The first person to [[Bible translations into Latvian|translate the Bible]] into Latvian was the German [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] pastor [[Johann Ernst Glück]]<ref>{{cite news |last1=Rozenberga |first1=Māra |last2=Sprēde |first2=Antra |title=National treasure: The first Bible in Latvian |url=https://eng.lsm.lv/article/culture/culture/national-treasure-the-first-bible-in-latvian.a197713/ |access-date=27 October 2017 |publisher=[[Public Broadcasting of Latvia]] |date=24 August 2016}}</ref> ([[The New Testament]] in 1685 and [[The Old Testament]] in 1691). The Lutheran pastor [[Gotthard Friedrich Stender]] was a founder of Latvian secular literature. He wrote the first illustrated Latvian [[alphabet book]] (1787), the first encyclopedia "{{ill|The Book of High Wisdom of the World and Nature|lv|Augstas gudrības grāmata no pasaules un dabas}}" ({{lang|lv|Augstas gudrības grāmata no pasaules un dabas}}; 1774), grammar books and Latvian–German and German–Latvian dictionaries.

=== 19th century ===
Until the 19th century, the Latvian written language was influenced by [[German Lutherans|German Lutheran]] pastors and the [[German language]], because [[Baltic Germans]] formed the upper class of local society.<ref name="Dahl and Koptjevskaja-Tamm 2001" /> In the middle of the 19th century [[the First Latvian National Awakening]] was started, led by "[[Young Latvians]]" who popularized the use of Latvian language. Participants in this movement laid the foundations for standard Latvian and also popularized the Latvianization of loan words. However, in the 1880s, when [[Czar Alexander III]] came into power, [[Russification]] started.

According to the [[1897 Imperial Russian Census]], there were 505,994 (75.1%) speakers of Latvian in the [[Governorate of Courland]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_lan_97_uezd_eng.php?reg=638|title=The First General Census of the Russian Empire of 1897 – Courland governorate|publisher=Demoscope Weekly|access-date=December 31, 2018}}</ref> and 563,829 (43.4%) speakers of Latvian in the [[Governorate of Livonia]], making Latvian-speakers the largest linguistic group in each of the governorates.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_lan_97_uezd_eng.php?reg=725|title=The First General Census of the Russian Empire of 1897 – Governorate of Livonia|publisher=Demoscope Weekly|access-date=December 31, 2018}}</ref>

=== 20th century ===
After the death of Alexander III at the end of the 19th century, Latvian nationalist movements re-emerged. In 1908, Latvian linguists [[Kārlis Mīlenbahs]] and [[Jānis Endzelīns]] elaborated the modern Latvian alphabet, which slowly replaced the old orthography used before. Another feature of the language, in common with its sister language Lithuanian, that was developed at that time is that proper names from other countries and languages are [[orthographic transcription|altered phonetically]] to fit the phonological system of Latvian, even if the original language also uses the Latin alphabet. Moreover, the names are modified to ensure that they have noun declension endings, declining like all other nouns. For example, a place such as [[Lecropt]] (a Scottish parish) is likely to become Lekropta; the Scottish village of [[Tillicoultry]] becomes Tilikutrija.

After the [[Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940|Soviet occupation of Latvia]], the policy of [[Russification]] greatly affected the Latvian language. At the same time, the use of Latvian among the [[Latvians in Russia]] had already dwindled after the so-called 1937–1938 [[Latvian Operation of the NKVD]], during which at least 16,573 ethnic Latvians and Latvian nationals were executed. In the 1941 [[June deportation]] and the 1949 [[Operation Priboi]], tens of thousands of Latvians and other ethnicities were deported from Latvia. Massive [[Immigration to Latvia|immigration]] from the [[Russian SFSR]], [[Ukrainian SSR]], [[Byelorussian SSR]], and other [[republics of the Soviet Union]] followed, primarily as a result of Stalin's plan to integrate Latvia and the other Baltic republics into the Soviet Union through [[Soviet colonialism|colonization]]. As a result, the proportion of the ethnic Latvian population within the total population was reduced from 80% in 1935 to 52% in 1989. In Soviet Latvia, most of the immigrants who settled in the country did not learn Latvian. According to the 2011 [[census]] Latvian was the language spoken at home by 62% of the country's population.<ref name="CSB 2013" /><ref name="62%" />

After the re-establishment of independence in 1991, a new policy of language education was introduced. The primary declared goal was the integration of all inhabitants into the environment of the official state language while protecting the languages of Latvia's ethnic minorities.<ref>{{cite book |title=Minority Protection in Latvia |date=2001 |publisher=Open Society Institute |url=http://providus.lv/article_files/1500/original/Min-LatviaEN.pdf?1331720008 |access-date=3 September 2019}}</ref>

Government-funded bilingual education was available in primary schools for ethnic minorities until 2019 when Parliament decided on educating only in Latvian. Minority schools are available for [[Russian language|Russian]], [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]], [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]], [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]], [[Estonian language|Estonian]] and [[Romany language|Roma]] languages. Latvian is taught as a second language in the initial stages too, as is officially declared, to encourage proficiency in that language, aiming at avoiding alienation from the Latvian-speaking linguistic majority and for the sake of facilitating academic and professional achievements. Since the mid-1990s, the government may pay a student's tuition in public universities only provided that the instruction is in Latvian. Since 2004, the state mandates Latvian as the language of instruction in public secondary schools (Form 10–12) for at least 60% of class work (previously, a broad system of education in Russian existed).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Latvian Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies |title=Analytical Report PHARE RAXEN_CC - Minority Education |date=2004 |publisher=Minority Education in Latvia |location=Vienna |url=https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/275-edu-latvia-final.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221010/https://fra.europa.eu/sites/default/files/fra_uploads/275-edu-latvia-final.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-10 |url-status=live |access-date=3 September 2019}}</ref>

The Official Language Law was adopted on 9 December 1999.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://likumi.lv/ta/en/en/id/14740-official-language-law|title=Official Language Law|website=[[likumi.lv]]|access-date=9 January 2018}}</ref> Several regulatory acts associated with this law have been adopted. Observance of the law is monitored by the [[Latvian State Language Center]] run by the Ministry of Justice.

=== 21st century ===
To counter the influence of [[English language|English]], government organizations (namely the Terminology Commission of the Latvian Academy of Science and the State Language Center) popularize the use of Latvian terms. A debate arose over the Latvian term for [[euro]]. The Terminology Commission suggested {{lang|lv|eira}} or {{lang|lv|eirs}}, with their Latvianized and declinable ending, would be a better term for [[euro]] than the widely used {{lang|lv|eiro}}, while [[European Central Bank]] insisted that the original name ''euro'' be used in all languages.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/11051/ |title=No 'eira' - but 'eiro' will do |date=6 October 2004 |publisher=[[The Baltic Times]] |access-date=28 July 2007}}</ref> New terms are Latvian derivatives, [[calque]]s or new loanwords. For example, Latvian has two words for "telephone"—{{lang|lv|tālrunis}} and {{lang|lv|telefons}}, the former being a direct translation into Latvian of the latter international term. Still, others are older or more euphonic loanwords rather than Latvian words. For example, "computer" can be either {{lang|lv|dators}} or {{lang|lv|kompjūters}}. Both are loanwords; the native Latvian word for "computer" is {{lang|lv|skaitļotājs}}, which is also an official term. However, now {{lang|lv|dators}} has been considered an appropriate translation, {{lang|lv|skaitļotājs}} is also used.

There are several contests held annually to promote the correct use of Latvian. One of them is "Word of the year" ({{lang|lv|Gada vārds}}) organized by the [[Riga Latvian Society]] since 2003.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://latviansonline.com/glabejsilite-is-word-of-the-year/|title='Glābējsilīte' is word of the year|date=18 January 2010|publisher=Latvians Online|access-date=14 February 2010}}</ref> It features categories such as the "Best word", "Worst word", "Best saying" and "[[Word salad]]". In 2018 the word {{lang|lv|zibmaksājums}} ([[instant payment]]) won the category of "Best word" and {{lang|lv|influenceris}} ([[influencer]]) won the category of "Worst word".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://eng.lsm.lv/article/society/society/best-and-worst-words-of-2018-underlined.a307541/|title=Best and worst words of 2018 underlined|date=28 January 2019|publisher=[[Public Broadcasting of Latvia]]|access-date=28 January 2019}}</ref> The word pair of {{lang|lv|straumēt}} ([[stream]]) and {{lang|lv|straumēšana}} (streaming) were named the best words of 2017, while {{lang|lv|transporti}} as an unnecessary plural of the name for [[transport]] was chosen as the worst word of 2017.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://eng.lsm.lv/article/culture/culture/best-and-worst-words-of-2017-underlined.a266259/|title=Best and worst words of 2017 underlined|date=31 January 2018|publisher=[[Public Broadcasting of Latvia]]|access-date=28 January 2019}}</ref>