{"id":4887,"date":"2015-10-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/2015\/10\/07\/latvian-languages\/"},"modified":"2018-09-27T02:36:34","modified_gmt":"2018-09-27T02:36:34","slug":"latvian-languages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/2015\/10\/07\/latvian-languages\/","title":{"rendered":"Latvian Languages"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What comes to mind when you hear the word &#8216;Latvia&#8217;? Some people wonder, is it a city in Germany or Sweden? Other people say, &#8220;oh, yes, I have been there, Vilnius is your capital, right?&#8221; No, Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania. Many people aren&#8217;t familiar with the small country of Latvia. Latvia is located on the Baltic Sea between Lithuania and Estonia, with a population of roughly two million people.<\/p>\n<p>This unique country possesses its own exquisite beauty. Riga, the heart of Latvia, is called &#8220;a little Paris&#8221; because of the Old Riga district famous for its art nouveau architecture, medieval buildings and numerous shops and cafes welcoming visitors.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/gpi_latvia_1_350x245.jpg\" width=\"350\" height=\"245\" alt=\"GPI_Latvia_1\" ><\/p>\n<h4><span>Nationalities and Languages<\/span><\/h4>\n<p>According to the statistical data gathered by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.csb.gov.lv\/sites\/default\/files\/publikacijas\/nr_13_2011gada_tautas_skaitisanas_rezultati_isuma_12_00_lv.pdf\"> Central Statistical Bureau,<\/a> Latvia is home to people with more than 160 nationalities. Currently there are slightly less than two million residents, and the main ethnic groups are Latvians (61.6%), Russians (25.8%), Belarusians (3.4%), Ukrainians (2.3%), and Poles (2.1%).<\/p>\n<p>In 2011, the Central Statistical Bureau performed a calculation of the people speaking their respective languages at home with their family members and friends. It showed that the most popular language was Latvian, as expected, spoken by 62.1% residents. It was followed by Russian which is spoken by 37.2% of residents. All other languages were almost non-existent.<\/p>\n<p>However, if you look at the districts in Latvia the data gets fascinating. Latvian is spoken by 91.2% of residents in Vidzeme, 79.7% in Kurzeme, and 76% in Zemgale. But, in Latgale and Riga people mostly speak Russian, 60.3% and 55.8%, respectively.<\/p>\n<h4><span>Latvian Quick Facts<\/span><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Latvia is truly bilingual. However, if you decide to go to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cO2stwIUCik\">Ventspils<\/a> to see the seaport, do not forget to take your English to Latvian phrasebook with you.<\/li>\n<li>If you visit Daugavpils and walk around the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AA-FjllD8KI\">Daugavpils Fortress<\/a>, the history of which starts in the beginning of the XIX century, you might find a couple of Russian phrases handy.<\/li>\n<li>However, in Riga, English will be sufficient!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><span>Summary<\/span><\/h4>\n<p>Latvia is a small, eastern European country with a strong national identity and diverse culture. Latvian is widely spoken by most of the population, however, in some of the districts, like Riga and Latgale, Russian is also spoken.<\/p>\n<div>\n<h4>Translation and Localization Resources<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<p>You may gain further insights into global e-business, global SEO, website translation, country specific cultural facts and related topics by reviewing some previous blogs and resources written by GPI:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What comes to mind when you hear the word &#8216;Latvia&#8217;? Some people wonder, is it a city in Germany or Sweden? Other people say, &#8220;oh, yes, I have been there, Vilnius is your capital, right?&#8221; No, Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania. Many people aren&#8217;t familiar with the small country of Latvia. Latvia is located [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":4888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1001,1002],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4887"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11052,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4887\/revisions\/11052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.globalizationpartners.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}