Latgalian language


Latgalian is an Eastern Baltic language spoken in Latgale, the eastern part of Latvia. It is debated whether it is a separate language with heavy Latvian influence, due to historical mutual exposure, or a distinct Eastern dialect of Latvian. Nevertheless, its standardized form is recognized and protected as a "historical variety of the Latvian language" according to Latvian Language Law. The 2011 Latvian census established that 8.8% of Latvia's inhabitants, or 164,500 people, speak Latgalian daily. 97,600 of them live in Latgale, 29,400 in Riga and 14,400 in the Riga region.

History

Originally Latgalians were a tribe living in modern Vidzeme and Latgale. It is thought that they spoke the Latvian language, which later spread through the rest of modern Latvia, absorbing features of the Old Curonian, Semigallian, Selonian and Livonian languages. The Latgale area became politically separated during the Polish–Swedish wars, remaining part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as the Inflanty Voivodeship, while the rest of Latvians lived in lands dominated by Baltic German nobility. Both centuries of separate development and the influence of different prestige languages likely contributed to the development of modern Latgalian as distinct from the language spoken in Vidzeme and other parts of Latvia.
The modern Latgalian literary tradition started to develop in the 18th century from vernaculars spoken by Latvians in the eastern part of Latvia. The first surviving book published in Latgalian is "Evangelia toto anno" in 1753. The first systems of orthography were borrowed from Polish and used Antiqua letters. It was very different from the German-influenced orthography, usually written in Blackletter or Gothic script, used for the Latvian language in the rest of Latvia. Many Latgalian books in late 18th and early 19th century were authored by Jesuit priests, who came from various European countries to Latgale as the north-eastern outpost of the Roman Catholic religion; their writings included religious literature, calendars and poetry.
Publishing books in the Latgalian language along with the Lithuanian was forbidden from 1865 to 1904. The ban on using Latin letters in this part of the Russian Empire followed immediately after the January Uprising, where Polish insurgents in Poland, and also in Lithuania and Latgale, challenged the czarist rule. During the ban, only a limited number of smuggled Catholic religious texts and some hand-written literature was available, e.g. calendars written by the self-educated peasant Andryvs Jūrdžys.
After the repeal of the ban in 1904 there was a quick rebirth of the Latgalian literary tradition; first newspapers, textbooks and grammars appeared. In 1918 Latgale became part of the newly created Latvian state. From 1920 to 1934 the two literary traditions of Latvians developed in parallel. A notable achievement during this period was the original translation of the New Testament into Latgalian by the priest and scholar Aloizijs Broks, published in Aglona in 1933. After the coup staged by Kārlis Ulmanis in 1934, the subject of the Latgalian dialect was removed from the school curriculum and was invalidated for use in state institutions; this was as part of an effort to standardize Latvian language usage. Latgalian survived as a spoken language during the Soviet annexation of Latvia while printed literature in Latgalian virtually ceased between 1959 and 1989. Some Latgalian intellectuals in emigration continued to publish books and studies of the Latgalian language, most notably Mikeļs Bukšs, see .
Since the restoration of Latvian independence there has been a noticeable increase of interest in the Latgalian language and cultural heritage. It is taught as an optional subject in some universities; in Rēzekne the Publishing House of Latgalian Culture Centre led by Jānis Elksnis, prints both old and new books in Latgalian.
In 1992, Juris Cibuļs together with Lidija Leikuma published one of the first Latgalian Alphabet books after the restoration of the language.
In the 21st century the Latgalian language has become more visible in Latvia's cultural life. Apart from its preservation movements, Latgalian can be more often heard in different interviews on the national TV channels, and there are modern rock groups such as Borowa MC and Dabasu Durovys singing in Latgalian who have had moderate success also throughout the country. Today, Latgalian is also found in written form in public signs, such as some street names and shop signs, evidences of growing use in the linguistic landscape.

Classification

Latgalian is a member of the Eastern Baltic branch of the Baltic group of languages included in the family of Indo-European languages. The branch also includes Latvian, Samogitian and Lithuanian. Latgalian is a moderately inflected language; the number of verb and noun forms is characteristic of many other Baltic and Slavic languages.

Geographic distribution

Latgalian is spoken by about 150,000 people, mainly in Latgale, Latvia; there are small Latgalian-speaking communities in Russia, Siberia.

Official status

Between 1920 and 1934 Latgalian was used in local government and education in Latgale. Now Latgalian is not used as an official language anywhere in Latvia. It is formally protected by the Latvian Language Law stating that "The Latvian State ensures the preservation, protection and development of the Latgalian literary language as a historical variant of the Latvian language". There is a state-supported orthography commission of the Latgalian language. Whether the Latgalian language is a separate language or a dialect of Latvian has been a matter of heated debate throughout the 20th century. Proponents of Latgalian such as linguists Antons Breidaks and Lidija Leikuma have suggested Latgalian has the characteristics of an independent language. Officially Latgalian is considered a variety of Latvian, meaning that Latvian language has two different written standards - Latvian and Latgalian.

Dialects

Latgalian speakers can be classified into three main groups – Northern, Central and Southern. These three groups of local accents are entirely mutually intelligible and characterized only by minor changes in vowels, diphthongs and some inflexion endings. The regional accents of central Latgale form the phonetical basis of the modern standard Latgalian language. The literature of the 18th century was more influenced by the Southern accents of Latgalian.

Alphabet

The Latgalian language uses an alphabet with 35 letters. Its orthography is similar to Latvian orthography, but has two additional letters: represents ), an allophone of which is absent in standard Latvian. The letter survives from the pre-1957 Latvian orthography.
Upper caseLower casePronunciation
Aa
Āā
Bb
Cc
Čč
Dd
Ee
Ēē
Ff
Gg
Ģģ
Hh
Ii
Yy
Īī
Jj
Kk
Ķķ
Ll
Ļļ
Mm
Nn
Ņņ
Oo
Ōō
Pp
Rr
Ss
Šš
Tt
Uu
Ūū
Vv
Zz
Žž

Language examples

Poem of Armands Kūceņš

Tik skrytuļam ruodīs: iz vītys jis grīžās,
A brauciejam breinums, kai tuoli ceļš aizvess,
Tai vuorpsteite cīši pret sprāduoju paušās,
Jei naatteik – vacei gi dzejis gols zvaigznēs.
Pruots naguorbej ramu, juos lepneibu grūžoj,
Vys jamās pa sovam ļauds pasauli puormeit,
Bet nak jau sevkuram vīns kuorsynoj myužu
I ramaņu jumtus līk īguodu kuormim.
Na vysim tai sadar kai kuošam ar speini,
Sirds narymst i nabeidz par sātmalim tēmēt,
A pruots rauga skaitejs pa rokstaudža zeimem,
Kai riedeits, kod saulei vēļ vaiņuku jēme.

[Lord's Prayer]

Tāvs myusu, kas esi debesīs,
svēteits lai tūp Tovs vōrds.
Lai atnōk Tova vaļsteiba.
Tova vaļa lai nūteik, kai debesīs,

tai ari vērs zemes.
Myusu ikdīneiškū maizi dūd mums šudiņ.
Un atlaid mums myusu porōdus,
kai ari mes atlaižam sovim porōdnīkim.
Un naīved myusu kārdynōšonā,

bet izglōb myusus nu ļauna Amen.

Phrasebook

Common words in Latgalian and Lithuanian, different from Latvian

Note the impact of foreign influences on Latvian.
EnglishLatvianLatgalianLithuanianComments
aroundapkārtapleikaplinkaplinkus in Latvian means "indirectly"
alwaysvienmērvysodvisad
everyday-ikdienas-kasdīnys-kasdienis
heviņš, šisjisjis
urgentsteidzamsskubeigsskubusskubīgs has the same meaning in Latvian, but is rarely used
to interrogate, to asktaujāt, izjautātklaustklausti, klausinėtiklausīties in Latvian is "to listen"; klau! means "hey!"; klaušināt means to ask several people
girl, maidmeita, meitenemārgamergina, mergameita in Latvian is used more often as "daughter" while meitene means "girl" exclusively
kerchieflakatiņšskareņaskarelė
dress, frockkleitasuknesuknelėkleita in Latvian is adapted from the German das Kleid, any native term has been lost. Latgalian and Lithuanian - comp. Polish suknia.
top, apicalgalotne, virsotneviersyuneviršūnė
pillar, columnstabsstulpsstulpasstulpiņi in Latvian is preserved as "leggings"
to readlasītskaiteitskaitytiskaitīt in Latvian means to count, noskaitīt is to recite
to comenāktatītateitiatiet in Latvian means to depart
row, range, linerindaaiļaeilėaile in Latvian means row in very narrow sense - it refers to space between two lines
to sit downapsēstiesatsasēstatsisėsti
to answeratbildētatsaceitatsakytiatsacīt in Latvian means to reject, refuse, atsakyti can be used with this meaning in Lithuanian too
to torturemocītkomuotkamuoti
to die nosprāgtnūgaistnugaišti
to squeezemaidzītmaidzeitmaigyti
to catch a coldsaaukstētiespuorsaļtperšaltipārsalt in Latvian means to freeze overly
coldaukstssoltsšaltisauksts is more common in Latvian for "cold" than "salts" which is a chilling cold
mistakekļūdaklaidaklaida
pagelappusepuslopapuslapiscompound word, in Latvian the order is "leaf"+"side", reverse of the order in Latgalian and Lithuanian
down, downwardlejupzamynžemynzemu in Latvian means "low"
and, alsouniirun and arī are common usage in Latvian, "i" is archaic found mainly in folk songs and poetry
to settle iniekārtotiesīsataiseitįsikurti
familyģimenesaimešeima"ģimene" is used in Latvian for the core family, saime denotes extended family and household, for example, saimnieks, saimniece are master and mistress, respectively, of the household while in Lithuanian it is giminė which is used for extended family
homelandtēvzemetāvainetėvynė
eastaustrumireitirytai"rīti" is less common, poetic form in Latvian
westrietumivokorivakarai"vakari" is less common, poetic form in Latvian
to stand uppieceltiesatsastuotatsistoti
to soresūrstētpierkšētperštėti
scissorsšķēreszirklisžirklėsšķēres in Latvian is adapted from the German die Schere, dzirkles refers to shears
to forgivepiedotatlaistatleisti
owlpūcepalādapelėda
toadkrupisrupucsrupūžė
fearbailesbaimebaimė
last name, surnameuzvārdspavuordepavardė
smithkalējskaļvskalvis
to clatterrībēt, skrabētbrazdētbrazdėti
to perishiet bojāpropuļtprapulti
on horsebackjāšusraituraitas
insideiekšāvydāviduj
to noticeievērotītiemētįsidėmėti
a littlemazlietdrupeititruputį
to bore, to become boringapniktatbuost, atsabuostatsibosti
to undressnoģērbtiesnūsaviļktnusirengti
swampdumbrājs, muklājsliuņsliūnas
kidneyniereeikstsinkstas
to pokebakstītbadeitbadyti
to hoverplivināties apkārtlaksteitlakstyti
to bathepeldētiesmauduotīsmaudytis
cloverāboliņšduobulsdobilas
first of allvispirmspyrmavisų pirma
suddenlypēkšņiūmaiūmai
to stretch staipīties, gorītiesrūzeitīsrąžytis
to detectuziet, konstatētaptiktaptikti
to snatchpakamptsačuptsučiupti
to gropetaustītiesčupinētīsčiupinėtis
church holidaybaznīcas svētkiatlaidysatlaidai
variable mainīgi cylojamuos kilnojamos
remotelyattāluatostaiatstu
to make facesvaikstītiesšaipeitīsvaipytis
to shelllobītgaļdeitgliaudyti
to thresh kult bluokštblokšti
to break plīst dyuztdūžti