Latvian

Latvian may refer to:

See also

Latvian horse

The Latvian Horse (Latvian: Latvijas šķirne, "Latvian breed") is a purpose-bred warmblood horse breed from Latvia. Breeding began in Latvia in the early twentieth century, and a herd book was established in 1927. The breed was officially recognised in 1952. There are two types, sometimes called the Latvian Harness Horse and the Latvian Riding Horse. The harness type was predominant until about 1960, when demand for sport horses increased and more of the saddle type were bred.

History

The origins of the Latvian breed go back to 1856, when western European horses were cross-bred with native Latvian horses. In 1890 planned breeding was begun from ten different breeds, principally Hanoverian and Oldenburger, with some Holsteiner influence. More than 100 Oldenburgers (65 stallions and 42 mares) were imported from Germany and the Netherlands between 1920 and 1941, and these were the basis of the breed, which was officially recognised in 1952. From about 1960 or 1970, Hanoverian, Arab and some Thoroughbred blood was used to create a lighter sport horse type, the Latvian Riding Horse.

Latvian language

Latvian (latviešu valoda [latviɛʃu valɔda]) is the official state language of Latvia. It was previously known in English as Lettish which remains the standard today in various forms in most other Germanic languages. There are about 1.3 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and 100,000 abroad. Altogether, 2 million, or 80% of the population of Latvia, speak Latvian. Of those, 1.16 million or 56% use it as their primary language at home. The use of the Latvian language in various areas of social life in Latvia is increasing.

Latvian is a Baltic language and is most closely related to Lithuanian. In addition there is some disagreement whether Latgalian and New Curonian, which are mutually intelligible with Latvian, should be considered varieties or separate languages.

Latvian first appeared in Western print in the mid-16th century with the reproduction of the Lord's Prayer in Latvian in Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia Universalis (1544), in Latin script.

Classification

Latvian belongs to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is one of two living Baltic languages with an official status (the other being Lithuanian). The Latvian and Lithuanian languages have retained many features of the nominal morphology of the proto-language, though in matters of phonology and verbal morphology they show many innovations, with Latvian being considerably more innovative than Lithuanian.