Editing Latvian language (section)

== Dialects ==
[[Image:WIKITONGUES- Jānis speaking Latvian.webm|thumb|left|A young man speaking in Latvian]]
There are three [[dialect]]s in Latvian: the Livonic dialect, High Latvian and the Central dialect. Latvian dialects and their varieties should not be confused with the [[Livonian language|Livonian]], [[Curonian language|Curonian]], [[Semigallian language|Semigallian]] and [[Selonian language|Selonian]] languages.

=== Livonic dialect ===
[[File:Latvaldialekti.svg|left|thumb|220px|Geographical distribution of the dialects in Latvia. Varieties of the Livonic dialect (''Lībiskais dialekts'') are in blue, the Central dialect (''Vidus dialekts'') in green, the High Latvian dialect (''Augšzemnieku dialekts'') in yellow.]]

The Livonic dialect (also called ''Tamian'' or ''tāmnieku'') of Latvian was more affected by the [[Livonian language]] [[Substrata (linguistics)|substratum]] than Latvian in other parts of Latvia. It is divided into the [[Vidzeme]] [[variety (linguistics)|variety]] and the [[Courland]] variety (also called ''tāmnieku''). There are two syllable [[Intonation (linguistics)|intonations]] in the Livonic dialect, extended and broken. In the Livonic dialect, short vowels at the end of words are discarded, while long vowels are shortened. In all numbers, only one form of the [[verb]] is used. Due to migration and the introduction of a standardised language, this dialect has declined. It arose from assimilated [[Livonians]], who started to speak in Latvian.

=== Central dialect ===
The Central dialect spoken in central and Southwestern Latvia is the basis of standard Latvian. The dialect is divided into the Vidzeme variety, the Curonic variety and the Semigallic variety. The Vidzeme variety and the Semigallic variety are closer to each other than to the Curonic variety, which is more archaic than the other two. There are three syllable intonations in some parts of Vidzeme variety of the Central dialect, extended, broken and falling. The Curonic and Semigallic varieties have two syllable intonations, extended and broken, but some parts of the Vidzeme variety have extended and falling intonations. In the Curonic variety, ''ŗ'' is still used. The [[Kursenieki language]], a historic variety of Latvian, which used to be spoken along [[Curonian Spit]], is closely related to the varieties of the Central dialect spoken in [[Courland]].

=== High Latvian dialect ===
High Latvian dialect is spoken in Eastern Latvia. It is set apart from the rest of the Latvian by a number of phonological differences. The dialect has two main varieties – Selonic (two syllable intonations, falling and rising) and Non-Selonic (falling and broken syllable intonations). There is a [[standard language]], i.e., the Standard Latgalian, another historic variety of Latvian, which is based on deep non-Selonic varieties spoken in the south of [[Latgale]]. The term "Latgalic" is sometimes also applied to all non-Selonic varieties or even the whole dialect. However, it is unclear if using the term for any varieties besides the standard language is accurate. While the term may refer to varieties spoken in [[Latgale]] or by [[Latgalians (modern)|Latgalians]], not all speakers identify as speaking Latgalic; for example, speakers of deep Non-Selonic varieties in [[Vidzeme]] explicitly deny speaking Latgalic.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Markus|first=Dace|date=2012|title=The deep Latgalian variants of the High Latvian dialect in North-East Vidzeme (so-called Malenia)|journal=Baltistica|publisher=Vilnius University|issue=8 priedas|pages=99–110|doi=10.15388/baltistica.0.8.2114|language=lv|url=http://www.baltistica.lt/index.php/baltistica/article/view/2114/2020|doi-access=free}}</ref> It is spoken by approximately 15% of Latvia's population, but almost all of its speakers are also fluent in the standard Latvian language and they promote the dialect in popular culture in order to preserve their distinct culture.<ref name="LanguagesOnLatvia"/> The Latvian Government since 1990 has also taken measures to protect the dialect from extinction.<ref name="LanguagesOnLatvia"/>