Latgalian is not one of the most widely spoken languages. Moreover, the sphere of its existence today is shrinking quite quickly - largely for demographic reasons. However, despite this, it arouses keen interest both among professional linguists and amateur polyglots.
Latgale - where is it?
Despite the fact that the article will focus not on geographical realities, but on language, first of all it is worth noting that the territory of the Latgalian language is the country of Latvia. More specifically, Latgale is the name of the historical and cultural region of Latvia, located in the north-east of this country. Despite the fact that it is not an independent state, but only part of it, it (like, for example, the subjects of the Russian Federation) has its own coat of arms (griffin with a sword) and a flag (coat of arms against the background of two blue and one white stripes). The region includes a number of cities, as well as territories of territories and regions, each of which has little autonomy.
Latgalian speakers
The population of the region for 2013 is slightly less than 300 thousand people. It is worth noting that the population decreases significantly over time. So, back in 2010, it amounted to about 315 thousand. Since 1990, there is nothing to compare: then it was at least 420 thousand people.
In addition to Latvians, who make up about half of the total population of the region, the second largest ethnic group is Russians (about 40%). This can be explained by the entry of Latvia into the USSR in the 20th century - that is why there are so many Russians, descendants of the Soviet inhabitants of these territories in the Baltic today.
Basic information about the Latgalian language
Actually, the native language that historically was spoken (and spoken!) In Latgale is Latgalian. The number of speakers, alas, is even less than the population of the region itself - only 250 thousand people, although this figure is quite a lot.
Latgalian belongs to the group of Indo-European languages and belongs to the Baltic, as well as Lithuanian and Latvian. The written language used in Latgalian is based on the Latin alphabet, and in Latgalian itself its name is as follows: latgaļu volūda.
Among other things, there are a number of interesting features in which Latgalian differs significantly from Latvian. Firstly, he retained many archaic features that were not reflected in modern Latvian. We can say that to some extent Latgalian “preserved” the ancient linguistic processes in its structure. To this day, the Baltic linguists, as well as the Baltic states from other countries, it is the Latgalian language that serves as such a solid help in tracing the connections and changes in the Baltic and related languages. Needless to say, how useful can such a property be for historians, ethnographers, anthropologists?
It is also worth noting that in the XVIII century, on the basis of the Latgalian dialect, the so-called literary Latgalian language was formed, which later became a religious, sacred, sublime language; the language of education: prayer books and other sacred literature were written on it, as well as many ABCs.
Latgalian - dialect or language?
One of the pressing problems today is the classification of the Latgalian language. Is it an independent system, already dissociated from the Latvian related to him, or just a dialect of the latter?
The problem of distinguishing a language or dialect is actually quite complex and multifaceted; quite often in cases with some countries it lies in political contradictions between countries or regions of one country. It would seem that one can listen to the opinion of language specialists, and immediately everything will become clear. But no: and they hold different points of view. So, some linguists are ready to recognize Latgian as the third Baltic language (along with the only Baltic languages - Latvian and Lithuanian). However, others disagree with them.
In Latvia itself, Latgalian is officially recognized only as a historical version of modern Latvian. Speakers of the Latgalian language are considered as a system of the Upper Latysk dialect.
Phonetic features
Features of the Latgalian dialect are often considered in comparison with similar aspects of the Latvian language. We will follow this example: if we don’t know one or another language, comparing it with another gives a good example and makes the information easier to learn.
So, the most noticeable phonetic features of languages. Vowels in Latvian and Latgalian are often distinguished. In the places where we meet the phoneme / e / in the first, / a / will appear in the second, / i: / is often inferior to / ei /, and / a: / will be replaced by / uo /. Perhaps it would not be a mistake to admit that in Latgalian, a linguistic sound phenomenon such as diphthonicity is preferred: homogeneous sounds tend to be similar to heterogeneous components.
Morphological and lexical features
You can find differences in the names of third-person pronouns (for example, jei instead of jì, juos instead of jõs or jiẽdvi) and in the formation of the return form (what is built in Russian using the postfix "-sya"): pasaruodeit instead of pasirodyti , etc.
There are many lexical differences. At first glance, in some of them the words begin to lean even more toward the look of Lithuanian similar words, but Lithuanian, although it is related, has a more distant and not as strong connection with Latgalian as Latvian! As examples, the word “girl” can be cited, in Latvian having the form meita, in Lithuanian - mergina, and in Latgalian - mārga.
Learning prospects
Learning the Latgian language on your own can be quite difficult: after all, it is not very common, it is unlikely that there will be a sufficient number of high-quality self-study guides available on the Internet, and a tutor who knows this language quite exotic for Russia can be expensive.
Even at schools of Latvia Latgalian is not taught. But this is done at many universities in the world. In particular, at St. Petersburg State University. Since there are a number of books published in Latgalian, as well as a film (so far, however, there is only one - “The Child of Man”, 1991, directed by Janis Streits), it can be quite promising to become a translator from the Latgalian language! However, this is not all.
Since the Latgalian language is not widely spoken, it opens up wide horizons and the scope of its scientific development. For example, the world will benefit from the development of language learning in a practical sense: in compiling dictionaries in the Latgalian language, etc.
Current situation
As already mentioned above, the number of people living in Latgale territory is steadily decreasing. And this means that the scope of this language is getting poorer. So, not even the entire population of the very region of its existence owns it. Moreover, Latgale is more and more clearly over time subject to the influence of the Latvian and Russian languages, used in the neighborhood and in a more dominant form.
At present, even a kind of "action" is being taken in support of the Latgalian dialect, so to speak. For example, in the past 2018, some of the deputies of Latvia took the oath of parliament in the Latvian language. This is consistent with Latvian law, is a legal act, albeit very unusual. Consequently, it draws attention to the problem of Latgale degeneration, which can have a very beneficial effect on its fate.