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35-557: The first notable process of Latvianization was during the First Latvian National Awakening , when Germanisms in Latvian started to be replaced with native Latvian ones: beķeris ( baker ) > maiznieks , duršlags ( colander ) > caurduris , trekteris ( funnel ) > piltuve (both words are in use today), and the intolerant attitude was formed towards these borrowings. This process continued over time and by 1990s

70-590: A 5% national election threshold using an unmodified version of the Webster/Sainte-Laguë method . Voters cast a vote for a party list, which consists of the candidates that the party has submitted in that constituency. Although a specific ordering is listed for each candidate, which is determined by the party, this has no effect on the actual chances of each candidate. Instead, voters cast "specific votes" for candidates. These votes can be either positive votes or negative votes. The number of votes for each candidate

105-576: A criminal offence or deemed to be of diminished mental capacity. The term of the Saeima is four years. An election may be called early, but doing so is more complicated than in other parliamentary democracies. If the President proposes that the Saeima be dissolved, a national referendum must be held to confirm the dissolution. If the dissolution is not approved, the President is removed from office. If one-tenth of

140-606: A group of 10-13 students grew around him; they organized “Latvian evenings”, during which they debated about the condition of German-oppressed Latvians. Juris Alunāns and Krišjānis Barons soon became leading members. They established the newspapers Mājas Viesis and Pēterburgas Avīzes . The movement initially was supported by Russian authorities, who saw it as a tool against the German-dominated Baltic provinces. In 1868, Young Latvian Fricis Brīvzemnieks began gathering Latvian folk songs known as dainas . His work

175-468: A member of a Latvian nationalist group called the Young Latvians , claimed ownership to the word "saeims". Despite the similar sound, similar semantic structure and clear historical connotations, he claimed that it was a purely Latvian word that he had invented. As mentioned earlier, the word bears a similar meaning: "a gathering, a meeting, a council". He claimed that the word he constructed stemmed from

210-569: A slightly different name, e.g., Daugmants was Germanized as Daugmann and then de-Germanized into Daugmanis. Demographer Ilmārs Mežs  [ lv ] has estimated that nowadays around a third of all the Latvian surnames are of German origin. The modern Latvian law, basically follows the norms established in 1920s-1930s. After the discussions of the Linguistic Commission, the 1927 "Law on writing names and surnames in Latvian passports"

245-408: Is determined by taking the number of votes for the respective list, and adding it to the candidate's positive votes, before subtracting the number of negative votes for that candidate. The candidates with the highest number of votes fill the party's seats. A positive vote is indicated by drawing a plus sign (+) next to the candidate's name on the ballot paper. A negative vote is indicated by crossing out

280-539: Is the parliament of the Republic of Latvia . It is a unicameral parliament consisting of 100 members who are elected by proportional representation , with seats allocated to political parties which gain at least 5% of the popular vote. Elections are scheduled to be held once every four years, normally on the first Saturday of October. The most recent elections were held in October 2022 . The President of Latvia can dismiss

315-615: The 3rd from 6 November 1928 to 2 November 1931, and the 4th from 3 November 1931 to 15 May 1934 (date of the Latvian coup d'état ). The Saeima is an entirely elected body. All Latvian citizens (including naturalized citizens) over the age of 18 are eligible to vote. Candidates must be qualified to vote, but must also be over 21, must not be former employees of the USSR and Latvian SSR State security services, intelligence or counter-intelligence services or any other foreign affiliated organizations, must not have been convicted of

350-572: The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia , which was governed by the Dukes and the Landtag of Courland. The word sejm derives from the verb "sjąć się" meaning "to get together", with similar words in some other Slavic languages, of proto-Slavic origin *sъjęti < *sъjemti Sejm, then, as a noun meant "a gathering, a meeting, a council." In the 19th century, as the concept of nations began to emerge, Juris Alunāns ,

385-743: The First Awakening ( Latvian : Pirmā atmoda ) was a cultural and national revival movement between 1850 and 1880 among the Young Latvians , a group of well-educated Latvians , who, opposed to the Baltic German dominance in Livonia and Courland Governorates , created the basis for the modern Latvian nation state. It was influenced by the European romantic nationalism movements of Young Germans and Czech National Revival . Most of their efforts were spent on educating Latvians, criticizing Germans and removing

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420-665: The Union of Greens and Farmers party. The basic document that regulates the proceedings of the parliament is the Rules of Order of Saeima ( Saeimas kārtības rullis , also Rules of Procedure), adopted 23 March 1923 with amendments in 1929 and 1994. The Saeima traces its origins to the Sejm of the Kingdom of Poland , which led to the creation of the Sejm (Seimas) of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and later to

455-609: The Bishop, the Voivode and the Castellan of Inflanty (...) Local sejmiks took place at Daugavpils , while starostas resided at Daugavpils, Ludza , Rēzekne and Viļaka . The voivodeship had six deputies to the Sejm, but only two of them came from Inflanty, the other four were symbolically named by the king, to remember the lost part of Livonia ( Swedish Livonia ). However, the rest of Latvia belonged to

490-474: The Germanic barbarisms (unwarranted borrowings) were to a great extent removed from the literary Latvian. Juris Alunāns was especially active in this and now he is recognized as the father of Latvian linguistics. Notably, he suggested Latvianized names for foreign countries, nationalities, and names of months, elaborating on the suggestion of Krišjānis Valdemārs on the replacement of Germanic-based endings for

525-713: The Latvian Academy of Science and the State Language Center) work to counter the influence of Russian and English. As a notable example, the Latvian government insisted on the Latvianized word eiro for " euro " (from the Latvian word for Europe: "Eiropa") despite the pressure from the EU. Others, such as linguist Andrejs Veisbergs  [ lv ] , object to the excessive language purism . The official records of Latvian names were often variously forcibly assimilated into

560-531: The Latvian language by creating many new words. In 1868, initially, as a charity organization for helping victims of Estonian crop failure, the Riga Latvian Society was established, which organized Latvian cultural life in Riga and regions. The first Latvian theatre troupe led by Ādolfs Alunāns was established here, which led to the birth of playwriting in Latvian. In 1873, the first Latvian singing festival

595-401: The Saeima and request early elections. The procedure for dismissing it involves substantial political risk to the president, including a risk of loss of office. On 28 May 2011 president Valdis Zatlers decided to initiate the dissolution of the Saeima, which was approved in a referendum , and the Saeima was dissolved on 23 July 2011. The current Speaker of the Saeima is Daiga Mieriņa of

630-402: The aforementioned historical context. However, the prefix sa- to a verb in modern Latvian language usually stands for a complete action and the word "Saeima" can stand for a meaning "let's gather together completely". In the pre-war Latvia, the Saeima was elected for three-year terms. The 1st Saeima met from 7 November 1922 to 2 November 1925, the 2nd from 3 November 1925 to 5 November 1928,

665-531: The archaic Latvian word eima instead, meaning "to go" (derived from the PIE *ei "to go" and also a cognate with the Ancient Greek eimi , Gaulish eimu , among others). He could not explain, however, how the s- prefix got added to the word, and what sense this addition made within the limits of the Latvian language. Nevertheless, according to Alunāns, the word is purely Latvian and completely independent of

700-466: The candidate's name. Voters may only cast specific votes for the candidates on the list that they voted for. It is uncommon for any party to achieve more than 30% of the vote in an election. The record is 32.4% for the Latvian Way party in the 1993 election . This means that a coalition has always been necessary. If a seat falls vacant during a term of the Saeima, it is filled by the next candidate on

735-655: The creation of the Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . Polish Livonia , a part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , was exposed to the Polish mode of administration and introduced to the Sejm-system. The Warsaw Sejm of 1677 settled the case of remaining part of Polish Livonia or Latgale ( Polish : Inflanty ), naming it a voivodeship and a duchy, with the right to name three senators:

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770-422: The electorate signs a petition demanding a dissolution, a referendum can be held without the involvement of the President. There are five constituencies, Kurzeme (12 deputies), Latgale (14), Riga (35), Vidzeme (25), and Zemgale (14). Overseas votes are counted for the Riga constituency. Seats are distributed in each constituency by open list proportional representation among the parties that overcome

805-464: The foreign culture dominant at times in Latvian lands. For example, local pastors , who were often of German descent, used to issue marriage and birth certificates with Germanized names: e.g., Kalns was written as Berg (both meaning " mountain " in Latvian and German respectively). On December 21, 1939, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted the "Law on change of surnames" (Likums par uzvārdu maiņu), with

840-629: The intent of giving Latvians a possibility to change the names of German coinage into the names in Latvian style. Article 2 of the law stated that when changing surnames, "Citizens of Latvian nationality should choose only Latvian surnames. Non-Latvians cannot choose Latvian surnames." Many of these changed names were in fact translations from German into Latvian, e.g., Altbergs ( Altberg , "old mountain") > Veckalns ; Veisbergs ( Weisberg , "white mountain") > Baltkalns ; Rozenfelds ( Rosenfeld , "rose field") > Rožlauks; Grīnbergs ( Grinberg ) > Zaļkalns , etc. Sometimes "de-Germanization" produced

875-563: The laws and judge for themselves what justice is. Another aspect of the Lettization policy was the Lettization of towns and small towns ( shtetls ) with the aim of reducing the political weight of the urban minorities in them. One method was expanding their municipal boundaries, to incorporate rural population into them. Another method was to include the nearby military garrisons into the lists of municipal voters. First Latvian National Awakening The First Latvian National Awakening or

910-458: The names of nationalities -deris , -neris , -teris (superficially Latvianized -der , -ner , -ter ) with -ietis , -nieks , -ns , etc. He also created many new Latvian words. In the area of word formation he further promoted the use of the Latvian suffixes -tava , -nieks , and -nīca . After the period of heavy Russification during the times of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union

945-535: The policy of Latvianization was embedded in the Constitution of Latvia , Article 24, which says in part: "The state ensures the development of state policy, including scientific research, protection and teaching of Latvian, promoting the increase of the role of Latvian in the national economy, as well as promoting individual and public understanding of the language as a national value." In the 21st century some groups and government organizations (Terminology Commission of

980-471: The removal of the ethnic minorities (in fact, Latvian Jews ) from economic life and of giving the ethnic Latvians access to all positions in the national economy. This was sometimes referred to as "Lettization". Alfrēds Birznieks , the minister of agriculture, in a speech delivered in Ventspils on 26 January 1936, said: Latvian people are the only masters of this country; Latvians will themselves promulgate

1015-529: The respective case ending. For example, Gerard Depardieu is Žerārs Depardjē , Ivan Ivanov is Ivans Ivanovs , Joaquin Phoenix is Hoakins Fīnikss and Donald Trump is Donalds Tramps . Russian-style patronymics are not considered part of the official Latvian personal name ( Ioakim Ioakimovich Vatsetis > Jukums Vācietis ) . Leader of Latvia Government Later life and death Family Kārlis Ulmanis during his authoritarian rule openly promoted

1050-518: The stigma from Latvian language, traditions and culture. The movement started after 1850 in the University of Tartu , which then was the highest place of education in Livonian Governorate and was attended by around 30 ethnic Latvian students. Krišjānis Valdemārs , a student from Courland, posted in his dorm room a note identifying himself as a Latvian, which was unheard of at the time. Very soon

1085-449: Was adopted by the Saeima , followed by governmental regulations to enact it. By the modern law, Latvian names should conform to the phonetic Latvian orthography and in the case of foreign-born Latvian nationals or marriages between Latvian women and foreigners (whence they assume the family name of their husband) the foreign names are modified to conform to the phonetic spelling and to acquire

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1120-488: Was continued by Krišjānis Barons , who in 1894 published the first book of dainas and eventually become known as the Father of Dainas ( Dainutēvs ). Another literary activist was teacher Atis Kronvalds , who discovered mention of a red-white-red flag in the 13th-century Livonian Rhymed Chronicle . These colors eventually became the flag of Latvia . Kronvalds worked tirelessly on promoting education among Latvians, and modernized

1155-456: Was first published. The First Awakening was a cultural movement mostly among the well-educated classes and soon ran out of momentum as Latvian society became more mature and interested in new political and scientific ideas. Many of the leading Young Latvians died early or worked in Russia, away from their home. Latvians also experienced a wave of Russianization during which use of Latvian in schools

1190-456: Was held in Riga, during which most of the songs were Latvian folk songs. Of the new songs performed there, one of them, composed by Baumaņu Kārlis , later became the national anthem of Latvia . Fearing the growth of nationalism, its original name of “God, bless Latvia!” was changed by Russian censors to “God, bless the Baltics!”. In 1888, the national epic Lāčplēsis , written by Andrejs Pumpurs ,

1225-632: Was prohibited. The First Awakening was followed by the New Current ( Jaunā strāva ) movement, which was much more political and led to the establishment of the Social Democratic Party. The First Awakening's interest in folklore was carried on by the Baltic neopagan movement Dievturība , which was created in the 1920s by Ernests Brastiņš and Kārlis Marovskis-Bregžis. Saeima The Saeima ( Latvian pronunciation: [ˈsai.ma] )

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