The language situation in Latvia 1850–2004

Abstract

Latvia's sociolinguistic situation has changed dramatically over the past 150 years as a result of historical and political forces. German, Russian and Latvian have all serially been the dominant language in the territory at various times, while numerous linguistic minorities have been variously oppressed, ignored or recognised and supported. The political environment has directly affected both the number of speakers and the status of the various languages, and affects sociolinguistics today, which is still closely tied to the politics of reestablishing Latvian as the official State language after the Soviet period. Concern for the status and at times the purity of Latvian has been the leitmotif of Latvian linguistic work from the time of the national awakening in the late 1800s onwards. Newer sociolinguistic work is beginning to give a more detailed view of actual language use and variation in Latvia, but political imperatives — guarding against Russian influence and negotiating entry to Europe — still influence the direction of the sociolinguistic field.⟨p⟩