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Latgalian (, ) is an East Baltic language. The language law of
Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...
classifies it as a "historical variant of the Latvian language". It is mostly spoken in
Latgale Latgale (; ; ; ; ; ; Belarusian Latin alphabet, Belarusian Latin: ''Łathalija''; ), also known as Latgalia or Latgallia, is one of the Historical Latvian Lands. It is the easternmost region of the country and lies north of the Daugava River. Wh ...
, the eastern part of Latvia. The 2011 Latvian census established that 164,500 of Latvia's inhabitants, or 8.8% of the population, speak Latgalian daily. 97,600 of them lived in Latgale, 29,400 in
Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...
and 14,400 in the Riga Planning Region.


History

Originally
Latgalians Latgalians (, , modern ; variant translations also include Latgallians, Lettigalls or Lettigallians) were an ancient Baltic tribe. They likely spoke a variant of Latvian language, which probably became the ''lingua franca'' in present-day Latvia ...
were a tribe living in modern
Vidzeme Vidzeme (; Old Latvian orthography: ''Widda-semme'', ) is one of the Historical Latvian Lands. The capital of Latvia, Riga, is situated in the southwestern part of the region. Literally meaning "the Middle Land", it is situated in north-centra ...
and
Latgale Latgale (; ; ; ; ; ; Belarusian Latin alphabet, Belarusian Latin: ''Łathalija''; ), also known as Latgalia or Latgallia, is one of the Historical Latvian Lands. It is the easternmost region of the country and lies north of the Daugava River. Wh ...
. It is thought that they spoke the
Latvian language Latvian (, ), also known as Lettish, is an East Baltic languages, East Baltic language belonging to the Indo-European language family. It is spoken in the Baltic region, and is the language of the Latvians. It is the official language of Latvia ...
, 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 This is a List of wars between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to ...
, remaining part of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...
as the
Inflanty Voivodeship The Inflanty Voivodeship (), or Livonian Voivodeship (), also known as Polish Livonia, was an administrative division and local government in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, since it was formed in the 1620s out of the Wenden Voivodeship and ...
, while the rest of the 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 Vidzeme (; Old Latvian orthography: ''Widda-semme'', ) is one of the Historical Latvian Lands. The capital of Latvia, Riga, is situated in the southwestern part of the region. Literally meaning "the Middle Land", it is situated in north-centra ...
and other parts of Latvia.


18th–20th century

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" (''Gospels for the whole year'') 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 Blackletter (sometimes black letter or black-letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule or Gothic type, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for ...
or Gothic script, used for the Latvian language in the rest of Latvia. Many Latgalian books in the late 18th and early 19th century were authored by
Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
priests, who came from various European countries to Latgale as the north-eastern outpost of the
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
religion; their writings included religious literature, calendars, and poetry. Publishing books in the Latgalian language along with Lithuanian was forbidden from 1865 to 1904. The ban on using Latin letters in this part of the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
followed immediately after the
January Uprising The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...
, where insurgents in Poland, Lithuania, and Latgale had challenged the czarist rule. During the ban, only a limited number of smuggled Catholic religious texts and some hand-written literature were available, e.g. calendars written by the self-educated peasant . After the repeal of the ban in 1904, there was a quick rebirth of the Latgalian literary tradition; first newspapers, textbooks, and grammar appeared. In 1918
Latgale Latgale (; ; ; ; ; ; Belarusian Latin alphabet, Belarusian Latin: ''Łathalija''; ), also known as Latgalia or Latgallia, is one of the Historical Latvian Lands. It is the easternmost region of the country and lies north of the Daugava River. Wh ...
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 The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
into Latgalian by the priest and scholar , published in Aglona in 1933. After the coup staged by
Kārlis Ulmanis Kārlis Augusts Vilhelms Ulmanis (; 4 September 1877 – 20 September 1942) was a Latvian politician and a dictator. He was one of the most prominent Latvian politicians of pre-World War II Latvia during the Interwar period of independence from N ...
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, however, usage of Latgalian was unofficially permitted. Latgalian survived as a spoken language in Soviet-occupied Latvia (1940–1990) while printed literature in Latgalian virtually ceased between 1959 and 1989. In emigration, some Latgalian intellectuals continued to publish books and studies of the Latgalian language, most notably . Since the restoration of Latvian independence in 1990, there has been a noticeable increase in interest in the Latgalian language and cultural heritage. It was once again 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 published one of the first Latgalian alphabet books after the restoration of the language.


21st century

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 national TV channels such as LTV1 and regional channel (some of which are produced by the broadcasting company SIA ''Latgales reģionālā televīzija'' or LRT). Latvijas Radio, the national public radio broadcaster, offers an hour-long ''Latgolys stuņde'' (Latgale Hour) bulletin every Friday live from its Latgale studio on LR1. Additional digital content and articles in Latgalian are offered by its parent organization, LSM. The private station ' (''Latgolys Radeja'') mostly broadcasts in Latgalian. Other publications include the digital magazine ' (Latgalian Culture Gazette, ''lakuga.lv''), a supplement of the regional newspaper ''Latgales Laiks'' called ''Latgalīšu Gazeta'' etc. There are modern rock groups such as and Dabasu Durovys singing in Latgalian who have had moderate success also throughout the country. Today, Latgalian is also found in written form on public signs, such as some street names (e.g. in Kārsava) and shop signs, evidence of growing use in the linguistic landscape. In 2014, 105 bilingual street signs in Latvian and Latgalian were installed in Kārsava Municipality as part of a youth initiative enabled by the Latgale Culture Program. The Latvian State Language Center objected to the signs over the fact that they feature Latgalian more prominently than Latvian and asked for their removal, but no action was taken. In November 2021, the first state-approved road sign in both Latvian and Latgalian was placed on the border of Balvi Municipality, with others being gradually installed in other locations in Latgale such as in
Preiļi Municipality Preiļi Municipality () is a municipality in Latgale, Latvia. The municipality was formed in 2000 by merging Aizkalne Parish, Preiļi Parish and Preiļi town. In 2009 it absorbed Pelēči Parish and Sauna Parish, too the administrative centre ...
and in 2023 also in
Rēzekne Municipality Rēzekne Municipality () is a municipality in Latgale, Latvia. The municipality was formed in 2009 by Merger (politics), merging Audriņi parish, Bērzgale parish, Čornaja parish, Dricāni parish, Feimaņi parish, Gaigalava parish, Griškāni par ...
. The bilingual road signs gained a mixed reception with some seeing at as a pretext for dividing society or being upset that they were not informed about it beforehand and in Balvi Municipality the bilingual road signs have even become a target of vandalism with the Latgalian name being repeatedly painted over. In 2022, Latvian President Egils Levits opened the annual Latgale Congress encouraging a wider use of spoken and written Latgalian, while reasserting that Latvian should remain the only official state language.


Classification

Latgalian is a member of the East Baltic branch of the
Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...
group of languages, in the family of
Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...
. The branch also includes the standard form of Latvian and other Baltic languages like Samogitian and Lithuanian. Latgalian is a moderately
inflected In linguistic Morphology (linguistics), morphology, inflection (less commonly, inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical category, grammatical categories such as grammatical tense, ...
language; the number of
verb A verb is a word that generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual description of English, the basic f ...
and
noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...
forms is characteristic of many other Baltic and Slavic languages (see Inflection in Baltic Languages).


Geographic distribution

Latgalian is spoken by about 150,000 people, mainly in
Latgale Latgale (; ; ; ; ; ; Belarusian Latin alphabet, Belarusian Latin: ''Łathalija''; ), also known as Latgalia or Latgallia, is one of the Historical Latvian Lands. It is the easternmost region of the country and lies north of the Daugava River. Wh ...
, Latvia; there are small Latgalian-speaking communities in
Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
,
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, created as a result of the emigration of Latgalians at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. and the Soviet deportations from Latvia.


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" (§3.4). The law regards Latgalian and Standard Literary Latvian as two equal variants of the same Latvian language. Even though such legal status allows usage of Latgalian in state affairs and education spheres, it still happens quite rarely. There is a state-supported orthography commission of the Latgalian language. Whether the Latgalian language is a separate language or a
dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...
of Latvian language was a matter of heated debate throughout the 20th century. Proponents of Latgalian such as linguists and Lidija Leikuma have suggested Latgalian has the characteristics of an independent language.


Dialects

Latgalian speakers can be classified into three main groups – Northern, Central, and Southern. These three groups of local accents are entirely
mutually intelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intellig ...
and characterized only by minor changes in vowels, diphthongs, and some inflexion endings. The regional accents of central Latgale (such as those spoken in the towns and rural municipalities of Juosmuiža, Vuorkova, Vydsmuiža, Viļāni, Sakstygols, Ūzulaine, Makašāni, Drycāni, Gaigalova, Bierži, Tiļža, and Nautrāni) 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. It is the same as the
Latvian alphabet The modern Latvian orthography is based on Latin script adapted to phonetic principles, following the pronunciation of the language. The standard alphabet consists of 33 letters – 22 unmodified Latin letters and 11 modified by diacritics. It ...
, but has two additional letters: represents ), an allophone of which is absent in standard Latvian. The letter survives from the pre-1947 Latvian orthography, but is used less during modern times in Latgalian and is being replaced by two letters that represent the same sound; the letter is more likely used in loanwords. The
IETF language tag An IETF BCP 47 language tag is a standardized code that is used to identify human languages on the Internet. The tag structure has been standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in ''Best Current Practice (BCP) 47''; the subtags ...
s have registered subtags for the 1929 orthography () and the 2007 orthography ().


See also

* Latgalian Wikipedia *
Samogitian language Samogitian ( or sometimes , or ; ), is an Eastern Baltic language spoken primarily in Samogitia and is often considered a dialect of Lithuanian. It has preserved many features of the extinct Curonian language, such as specific phonologica ...
*
Võro language Võro ( ; , ) is a South Estonian language. It has its own literary standard and efforts have been undertaken to seek official recognition as an indigenous regional language of Estonia. Võro has roughly 75,000 speakers (Võros), mos ...
*
Livonian language Livonian ( or ) is a Finnic language whose native land is the Livonian Coast of the Gulf of Riga, located in the north of the Kurzeme peninsula in Latvia but also used to be spoken in the Salaca River valley. Although its last known native ...


References


External links


Lithuanian-Latvian-Latgalian Dictionary
* Sanita Lazdiņa, Heiko F. Marten
''Latgalian in Latvia: A Continuous Struggle for Political Recognition.''
In: ''Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe''
The Two Literary Traditions of Latvians

The Grammar of Latgalian Language (in Latvian, PDF document)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Latgalian Language Latvian language Latgalians (modern) Languages of Latvia Articles citing ISO change requests Languages of Russia Vulnerable languages