105-755: Votic or Votian ( vaďďa tšeeli , maatšeeli ) [ˈvɑdʲːɑ ˈt͡ɕeːlʲi, ˈmɑːˌt͡ɕeːlʲi] , is a Finnic language spoken by the Votes of Ingria , belonging to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages . Votic is spoken only in Krakolye (now part of Ust-Luga ) and Luzhitsy , two villages in Kingiseppsky District in Leningrad Oblast , Russia . In the 2020–2021 Russian census, 21 people claimed to speak Votic natively, which
210-552: A close-mid back unrounded /ɤ/ (but a close central unrounded /ɨ/ in Livonian), as well as loss of *n before *s with compensatory lengthening . (North) Estonian-Votic has been suggested to possibly constitute an actual genetic subgroup (called varyingly Maa by Viitso (1998, 2000) or Central Finnic by Kallio (2014) ), though the evidence is weak: almost all innovations shared by Estonian and Votic have also spread to South Estonian and/or Livonian. A possible defining innovation
315-454: A temperate seasonal climate . Its capital and largest city is Riga . Latvians belong to the ethnolinguistic group of the Balts and speak Latvian . Russians are the most prominent minority in the country, at almost a quarter of the population; 37.7% of the population speak Russian as their native tongue. After centuries of Teutonic , Swedish , Polish-Lithuanian , and Russian rule,
420-473: A Finnic language. In the 12th century in the territory of Latvia, there were lands with their rulers: Vanema , Ventava , Bandava , Piemare , Duvzare , Sēlija , Koknese , Jersika , Tālava and Adzele . Although the local people had contact with the outside world for centuries, they became more fully integrated into the European socio-political system in the 12th century. The first missionaries, sent by
525-502: A Votic village. Three definite dialect groups of Votic are known: The Western dialect area can be further divided into the Central dialects (spoken around the village of Kattila ) and the Lower Luga dialects. Of these, only the Lower Luga dialect is still spoken. In 1848 it was estimated that of a total of 5,298 speakers of Votic, 3,453 (65%) spoke the western dialect, 1,695 (35%) spoke
630-491: A dozen native speakers of Votic remain. Regardless, even for these languages, the shaping of a standard language and education in it continues. The geographic centre of the maximum divergence between the languages is located east of the Gulf of Finland around Saint Petersburg . A glottochronological study estimates the age of the common ancestor of existing languages to a little more than 1000 years. However, Mikko Heikkilä dates
735-817: A power vacuum was created by the Russian Revolution in 1917, followed by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk between Russia and Germany in March 1918, then the Allied armistice with Germany on 11 November 1918. On 18 November 1918, in Riga, the People's Council of Latvia proclaimed the independence of the new country and Kārlis Ulmanis was entrusted to set up a government and he took the position of prime minister. The General representative of Germany August Winnig formally handed over political power to
840-528: A rather different view. The following grouping follows among others Sammallahti (1977), Viitso (1998), and Kallio (2014): The division between South Estonian and the remaining Finnic varieties has isoglosses that must be very old. For the most part, these features have been known for long. Their position as very early in the relative chronology of Finnic, in part representing archaisms in South Estonian, has been shown by Kallio (2007, 2014). However, due to
945-783: A second resettlement scheme was agreed. The racially approved being resettled mainly in Poland, being given land and businesses in exchange for the money they had received from the sale of their previous assets. On 5 October 1939, Latvia was forced to accept a "mutual assistance" pact with the Soviet Union, granting the Soviets the right to station between 25,000 and 30,000 troops on Latvian territory. State administrators were murdered and replaced by Soviet cadres. Elections were held with single pro-Soviet candidates listed for many positions. The resulting people's assembly immediately requested admission into
1050-473: A system of consonant gradation, which is discussed in further detail in the consonant gradation article, although a large amount of alternations involve voicing alternations. Two important differences in Votic phonetics as compared to Estonian and Finnish is that the sounds /ʝ/ and /v/ are actually fully fricatives, unlike Estonian and Finnish, in which they are approximants. Also, one possible allophone of /h/
1155-564: A variety of areas, even after variety-specific changes. A broad twofold conventional division of the Finnic varieties recognizes the Southern Finnic and Northern Finnic groups (though the position of some varieties within this division is uncertain): † = extinct variety; ( † ) = moribund variety. A more-or-less genetic subdivision can be also determined, based on the relative chronology of sound changes within varieties, which provides
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#17328445073331260-402: Is [ɸ] , ühsi is thus pronounced as IPA: [yɸsi] . The lateral /l/ has a velarized allophone [ɫ] when occurring adjacent to back vowels . Voicing is not contrastive word-finally. Instead a type of sandhi occurs: voiceless [p t k s] are realized before words beginning with a voiceless consonant, voiced [b d ɡ z] before voiced consonants (or vowels). Before a pause, the realization
1365-468: Is 1,866 km (1,159 mi). The total length of its land boundary is 1,368 km (850 mi), of which 343 km (213 mi) is shared with Estonia to the north, 276 km (171 mi) with the Russian Federation to the east, 161 km (100 mi) with Belarus to the southeast and 588 km (365 mi) with Lithuania to the south. The total length of its maritime boundary
1470-462: Is 498 km (309 mi), which is shared with Estonia, Sweden and Lithuania . Extension from north to south is 210 km (130 mi) and from west to east 450 km (280 mi). Most of Latvia's territory is less than 100 m (330 ft) above sea level . Its largest lake, Lubāns , has an area of 80.7 km (31.2 sq mi), its deepest lake, Drīdzis , is 65.1 m (214 ft) deep. The longest river on Latvian territory
1575-715: Is an increase from 4 in 2010. Arvo Survo also estimated that around 100 people have knowledge of the language to some degree. Votic is one of numerous Finnic varieties known from Ingria. Votic shares some similarities with and has acquired loanwords from the adjacent Ingrian language , but also has deep-reaching similarities with Estonian to the west, which is considered its closest relative. Some linguists, including Tiit-Rein Viitso and Paul Alvre, have claimed that Votic evolved specifically from northeastern dialects of ancient Estonian. Votic regardless exhibits several features that indicate its distinction from Estonian (both innovations such as
1680-637: Is now Latvia by the 1880s. The Young Latvians were largely eclipsed by the New Current , a broad leftist social and political movement, in the 1890s. Popular discontent exploded in the 1905 Russian Revolution , which took a nationalist character in the Baltic provinces . World War I devastated the territory of what became the state of Latvia, and other western parts of the Russian Empire. Demands for self-determination were initially confined to autonomy , until
1785-562: Is the Gauja , at 452 km (281 mi) in length. The longest river flowing through Latvian territory is the Daugava , which has a total length of 1,005 km (624 mi), of which 352 km (219 mi) is on Latvian territory. Latvia's highest point is Gaiziņkalns , 311.6 m (1,022 ft). The length of Latvia's Baltic coastline is 494 km (307 mi). An inlet of the Baltic Sea,
1890-698: Is the loss of *h after sonorants ( *n, *l, *r ). The Northern Finnic group has more evidence for being an actual historical/genetic subgroup. Phonetical innovations would include two changes in unstressed syllables: *ej > *ij , and *o > ö after front-harmonic vowels. The lack of õ in these languages as an innovation rather than a retention has been proposed, and recently resurrected. Germanic loanwords found throughout Northern Finnic but absent in Southern are also abundant, and even several Baltic examples of this are known. Northern Finnic in turn divides into two main groups. The most Eastern Finnic group consists of
1995-468: Is using c for /t͡ʃ/ (this phoneme comes mostly from palatalization of historical /k/ , compare Votic ceeli 'language', cülä 'village' with Finnish kieli, kylä ). Some publications use tš or č instead. One may find different orthographies for Votic in descriptive work. Some use a modified Cyrillic alphabet, and others a Latin one. The transcriptions based on Latin have many similarities with those used in closely related Finnic languages, such as
2100-751: Is voiceless lenis, [b̥ d̥ ɡ̊ z̥] ; the stops are here similar to the Estonian b d g . Thus: Votic is an agglutinating language much like the other Finnic languages. Finnic languages The Finnic or Baltic Finnic languages constitute a branch of the Uralic language family spoken around the Baltic Sea by the Baltic Finnic peoples . There are around 7 million speakers, who live mainly in Finland and Estonia . Traditionally, eight Finnic languages have been recognized. The major modern representatives of
2205-691: The Battle of Daugavpils was a part of the Polish–Soviet War ). A freely elected Constituent assembly convened on 1 May 1920, and adopted a liberal constitution, the Satversme , in February 1922. The constitution was partly suspended by Kārlis Ulmanis after his coup in 1934 but reaffirmed in 1990. Since then, it has been amended and is still in effect in Latvia today. With most of Latvia's industrial base evacuated to
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#17328445073332310-688: The East Finnish dialects as well as Ingrian, Karelian and Veps; the proto-language of these was likely spoken in the vicinity of Lake Ladoga . The Western Finnic group consists of the West Finnish dialects, originally spoken on the western coast of Finland, and within which the oldest division is that into Southwestern, Tavastian and Southern Ostrobothnian dialects. Among these, at least the Southwestern dialects have later come under Estonian influence. Numerous new dialects have also arisen through contacts of
2415-867: The European Film Awards 2014 . On 1 July 2016, Latvia became a member of the OECD . In May 2023, the parliament elected Edgars Rinkēvičs as new President of Latvia , making him the European Union’s first openly gay head of state. After years of debates, Latvia ratified the EU Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence , otherwise known as the Istanbul Convention in November 2023. Latvia lies in Northern Europe, on
2520-684: The Freikorps formation Eiserne Division ("Iron Division"). Estonian and Latvian forces defeated the Germans at the Battle of Wenden in June 1919, and a massive attack by a predominantly German force—the West Russian Volunteer Army —under Pavel Bermondt-Avalov was repelled in November. Eastern Latvia was cleared of Red Army forces by Latvian and Polish troops in early 1920 (from the Polish perspective
2625-467: The Great Depression . Latvia showed signs of economic recovery, and the electorate had steadily moved toward the centre during the parliamentary period. On 15 May 1934, Ulmanis staged a bloodless coup , establishing a nationalist dictatorship that lasted until 1940. After 1934, Ulmanis established government corporations to buy up private firms with the aim of "Latvianising" the economy. Early in
2730-658: The Great Northern War (1700–1721), up to 40 percent of Latvians died from famine and plague. Half the residents of Riga were killed by plague in 1710–1711 . The capitulation of Estonia and Livonia in 1710 and the Treaty of Nystad , ending the Great Northern War in 1721, gave Vidzeme to Russia (it became part of the Riga Governorate ). The Latgale region remained part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as Inflanty Voivodeship until 1772, when it
2835-856: The International Monetary Fund , the Nordic-Baltic Eight , the Nordic Investment Bank , the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development , the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe , and the World Trade Organization . The name Latvija is derived from the name of the ancient Latgalians , one of four Indo-European Baltic tribes (along with Curonians , Selonians and Semigallians ), which formed
2940-520: The Latvian people , speaking one Latvian language . Throughout all the centuries, however, an actual Latvian state had not been established, so the borders and definitions of who exactly fell within that group are largely subjective. Meanwhile, largely isolated from the rest of Latvia, southern Latgallians adopted Catholicism under Polish/ Jesuit influence. The native dialect remained distinct, although it acquired many Polish and Russian loanwords. During
3045-715: The Order of Livonia , formed the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia . Though the duchy was a vassal state to the Lithuanian Grand Duchy and later of the Polish and Lithuanian commonwealth, it retained a considerable degree of autonomy and experienced a golden age in the 16th century. Latgalia , the easternmost region of Latvia, became a part of the Inflanty Voivodeship of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In
3150-476: The Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe . It is one of the three Baltic states , along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to the southeast, and shares a maritime border with Sweden to the west. Latvia covers an area of 64,589 km (24,938 sq mi), with a population of 1.9 million. The country has
3255-636: The Soviet Union , followed by the invasion and occupation by Nazi Germany in 1941 and the re-occupation by the Soviets in 1944, which formed the Latvian SSR for the next 45 years. As a result of extensive immigration during the Soviet occupation, ethnic Russians became the most prominent minority in the country. The peaceful Singing Revolution started in 1987 among the Baltic Soviet republics and ended with
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3360-855: The Supreme Council in the March 1990 democratic elections . On 4 May 1990, the Supreme Council adopted the Declaration on the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia , and the Latvian SSR was renamed Republic of Latvia. However, the central power in Moscow continued to regard Latvia as a Soviet republic in 1990 and 1991. In January 1991, Soviet political and military forces unsuccessfully tried to overthrow
3465-513: The Sámi languages , has long been assumed, though many of the similarities (particularly lexical ones) can be shown to result from common influence from Germanic languages and, to a lesser extent, Baltic languages . Innovations are also shared between Finnic and the Mordvinic languages , and in recent times Finnic, Sámi and Moksha are sometimes grouped together. There is no grammatical gender in any of
3570-457: The oblique case forms. For geminates , the process is simple to describe: they become simple stops, e.g. ku pp i + -n → ku p in (Finnish: "cup"). For simple consonants, the process complicates immensely and the results vary by the environment. For example, ha k a + -n → haan , ky k y + -n → ky v yn , jär k i + -n → jär j en (Finnish: "pasture", "ability", "intellect"). The specifics of consonants gradation vary by language (see
3675-467: The prewar currency . Albeit having experienced a difficult transition to a liberal economy and its re-orientation toward Western Europe, Latvia is one of the fastest growing economies in the European Union. In November 2013, the roof collapsed at a shopping center in Riga, causing Latvia’s worst post-independence disaster with the deaths of 54 rush hour shoppers and rescue personnel. In 2014, Riga
3780-620: The 17th and early 18th centuries, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden , and Russia struggled for supremacy in the eastern Baltic. After the Polish–Swedish War , northern Livonia (including Vidzeme) came under Swedish rule. Riga became the capital of Swedish Livonia and the largest city in the entire Swedish Empire. Fighting continued sporadically between Sweden and Poland until the Truce of Altmark in 1629. In Latvia,
3885-562: The 1990s, several Finnic-speaking minority groups have emerged to seek recognition for their languages as distinct from the ones they have been considered dialects of in the past. Some of these groups have established their own orthographies and standardised languages. Võro and Seto , which are spoken in southeastern Estonia and in some parts of Russia, are considered dialects of Estonian by some linguists, while other linguists consider them separate languages. Meänkieli and Kven are spoken in northern Sweden and Norway respectively and have
3990-563: The 20th century there emerged a generation of young ethnic Votes whose first language was Russian and who understood Votic but were unable to speak it. There have been multiple attempts in Votic language education. In 1995–1998, Votic language courses were held in St. Petersburg, which were organized by Mehmet Muslimov . These courses were attended by about 30 people. In 2003–2004, courses were held again, and these were also organized by Muslimov. Muslimov has also made Votic self-study material available on
4095-516: The Coastal Estonian dialect group), Livonian and Votic (except the highly Ingrian-influenced Kukkuzi Votic). These languages are not closely related genetically, as noted above; it is a paraphyletic grouping, consisting of all Finnic languages except the Northern Finnic languages. The languages nevertheless share a number of features, such as the presence of a ninth vowel phoneme õ , usually
4200-595: The Finnic dialects that can be extracted from Viitso (1998) is: Viitso (2000) surveys 59 isoglosses separating the family into 58 dialect areas (finer division is possible), finding that an unambiguous perimeter can be set up only for South Estonian, Livonian, Votic, and Veps. In particular, no isogloss exactly coincides with the geographical division into 'Estonian' south of the Gulf of Finland and 'Finnish' north of it. Despite this, standard Finnish and Estonian are not mutually intelligible . The Southern Finnic languages consist of North and South Estonian (excluding
4305-527: The Finnic languages, nor are there articles or definite or indefinite forms. The morphophonology (the way the grammatical function of a morpheme affects its production) is complex. Morphological elements found in the Finnic languages include grammatical case suffixes, verb tempus, mood and person markers (singular and plural, the Finnic languages do not have dual ) as well as participles and several infinitive forms, possessive suffixes, clitics and more. The number of grammatical cases tends to be high while
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4410-466: The Germans, began to fight against the new occupier. Anywhere from 120,000 to as many as 300,000 Latvians took refuge from the Soviet army by fleeing to Germany and Sweden. Most sources count 200,000 to 250,000 refugees leaving Latvia, with perhaps as many as 80,000 to 100,000 of them recaptured by the Soviets or, during few months immediately after the end of war, returned by the West. The Soviets reoccupied
4515-607: The Latvian Provisional Government on 26 November. On 18 November, the Latvian People's Council entrusted him to set up the government. He took the office of Minister of Agriculture from 18 November to 19 December. He took a position of prime minister from 19 November 1918 to 13 July 1919. The war of independence that followed was part of a general chaotic period of civil and new border wars in Eastern Europe. By
4620-407: The Latvian people settled on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea . The Balts established trade routes to Rome and Byzantium , trading local amber for precious metals. By 900 AD, four distinct Baltic tribes inhabited Latvia: Curonians , Latgalians , Selonians , Semigallians (in Latvian: kurši , latgaļi , sēļi and zemgaļi ), as well as the Finnic tribe of Livonians ( lībieši ) speaking
4725-419: The Pope, sailed up the Daugava River in the late 12th century, seeking converts. The local people, however, did not convert to Christianity as readily as the Church had hoped. German crusaders were sent, or more likely decided to go of their own accord as they were known to do. Saint Meinhard of Segeberg arrived in Ikšķile , in 1184, traveling with merchants to Livonia , on a Catholic mission to convert
4830-521: The Protestant religion of the inhabitants. During the 19th century, the social structure changed dramatically. A class of independent farmers established itself after reforms allowed the peasants to repurchase their land, but many landless peasants remained, quite a lot Latvians left for the cities and sought for education, industrial jobs. There also developed a growing urban proletariat and an increasingly influential Latvian bourgeoisie . The Young Latvian ( Latvian : Jaunlatvieši ) movement laid
4935-427: The Red Army which helped the Germans. By 29 June Riga was reached and with Soviet troops killed, captured or retreating, Latvia was left under the control of German forces by early July. The occupation was followed immediately by SS Einsatzgruppen troops, who were to act in accordance with the Nazi Generalplan Ost that required the population of Latvia to be cut by 50 percent. Under German occupation, Latvia
5040-435: The Republic of Latvia authorities by occupying the central publishing house in Riga and establishing a Committee of National Salvation to usurp governmental functions. During the transitional period, Moscow maintained many central Soviet state authorities in Latvia. The Popular Front of Latvia advocated that all permanent residents be eligible for Latvian citizenship, however, universal citizenship for all permanent residents
5145-405: The Soviet KGB. 'The publication, which followed two decades of public debate and the passage of a special law, revealed the names, code names, birthplaces and other data on active and former KGB agents as of 1991, the year Latvia regained its independence from the Soviet Union.' In the second half of the 1980s, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev started to introduce political and economic reforms in
5250-409: The Soviet Union that were called glasnost and perestroika . In the summer of 1987, the first large demonstrations were held in Riga at the Freedom Monument —a symbol of independence. In the summer of 1988, a national movement, coalescing in the Popular Front of Latvia , was opposed by the Interfront . The Latvian SSR, along with the other Baltic Republics was allowed greater autonomy, and in 1988,
5355-555: The Soviet sphere. A week later, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland ; on 17 September, the Soviet Union invaded Poland as well . After the conclusion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, most of the Baltic Germans left Latvia by agreement between Ulmanis's government and Nazi Germany under the Heim ins Reich programme. In total 50,000 Baltic Germans left by the deadline of December 1939, with 1,600 remaining to conclude business and 13,000 choosing to remain in Latvia. Most of those who remained left for Germany in summer 1940, when
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#17328445073335460-466: The Swedish period is generally remembered as positive; serfdom was eased, a network of schools was established for the peasantry, and the power of the regional barons was diminished. Several important cultural changes occurred during this time. Under Swedish and largely German rule, western Latvia adopted Lutheranism as its main religion. The ancient tribes of the Couronians, Semigallians, Selonians, Livs, and northern Latgallians assimilated to form
5565-594: The USSR, which the Soviet Union granted. Latvia, then a puppet government, was headed by Augusts Kirhenšteins . The Soviet Union incorporated Latvia on 5 August 1940, as the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic . The Soviets dealt harshly with their opponents – prior to Operation Barbarossa , in less than a year, at least 34,250 Latvians were deported or killed. Most were deported to Siberia where deaths were estimated at 40 percent. On 22 June 1941, German troops attacked Soviet forces in Operation Barbarossa. There were some spontaneous uprisings by Latvians against
5670-428: The West. There was a pause in fighting, apart from partisan activity, until after the siege of Leningrad ended in January 1944, and the Soviet troops advanced, entering Latvia in July and eventually capturing Riga on 13 October 1944. More than 200,000 Latvian citizens died during World War II, including approximately 75,000 Latvian Jews murdered during the Nazi occupation. Latvian soldiers fought on both sides of
5775-419: The anti-Soviet partisan activity. Between 136,000 and 190,000 Latvians, depending on the sources, were imprisoned or deported to Soviet concentration camps (the Gulag ) in the post-war years from 1945 to 1952. In the post-war period, Latvia was made to adopt Soviet farming methods. Rural areas were forced into collectivization . An extensive program to impose bilingualism was initiated in Latvia, limiting
5880-463: The beginning of the diversification (with South Estonian as the first split) rather precisely to about 150 AD, based on loanword evidence (and previous estimates tend to be even older, like Pekka Sammallahti's of 1000–600 BC). There is now wide agreement that Proto-Finnic was probably spoken at the coasts of the Gulf of Finland. The Finnic languages are located at the western end of the Uralic language family. A close affinity to their northern neighbors,
5985-595: The conflict, mainly on the German side, with 140,000 men in the Latvian Legion of the Waffen-SS , The 308th Latvian Rifle Division was formed by the Red Army in 1944. On occasions, especially in 1944, opposing Latvian troops faced each other in battle. In the 23rd block of the Vorverker cemetery, a monument was erected after the Second World War for the people of Latvia who had died in Lübeck from 1945 to 1950. In 1944, when Soviet military advances reached Latvia, heavy fighting took place in Latvia between German and Soviet troops, which ended in another German defeat. In
6090-527: The corresponding back-harmonic vowels are a õ o u . Unlike Finnish, Votic only has a single neutral vowel, i . However, there are some exceptions with the behavior of o ö . Some suffixes including the vowel o do not harmonize (the occurrence of ö in non-initial syllables is generally a result of Finnish or Ingrian loan words), and similarly onomatopoetic words and loanwords are not necessarily subject to rules of vowel harmony. Notes: Nearly all Votic consonants may occur as geminates. Also, Votic also has
6195-413: The country in 1944–1945, and further deportations followed as the country was collectivised and Sovietised . On 25 March 1949, 43,000 rural residents (" kulaks ") and Latvian nationalists were deported to Siberia in a sweeping Operation Priboi in all three Baltic states , which was carefully planned and approved in Moscow already on 29 January 1949. This operation had the desired effect of reducing
6300-451: The course of the war, both occupying forces conscripted Latvians into their armies, in this way increasing the loss of the nation's "live resources". In 1944, part of the Latvian territory once more came under Soviet control. The Soviets immediately began to reinstate the Soviet system. After the German surrender, it became clear that Soviet forces were there to stay, and Latvian national partisans , soon joined by some who had collaborated with
6405-496: The eastern and 150 (3%) spoke the dialect of Kukkuzi. Kreevin had 12–15 speakers in 1810, the last records of Kreevin speakers are from 1846. The Kreevin dialect was spoken in an enclave in Latvia by descendants of Votic prisoners of war who were brought to the Bauska area of Latvia in the 15th century by the Teutonic order . The last known speaker of the eastern dialect died in 1960, in the village of Icäpäivä ( Itsipino ). A fourth dialect of Votic has often been claimed as well:
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#17328445073336510-563: The eastern shores of the Baltic Sea and northwestern part of the East European Craton (EEC), between latitudes 55° and 58° N (a small area is north of 58°), and longitudes 21° and 29° E (a small area is west of 21°). Latvia has a total area of 64,559 km (24,926 sq mi) of which 62,157 km (23,999 sq mi) land, 18,159 km (7,011 sq mi) agricultural land, 34,964 km (13,500 sq mi) forest land and 2,402 km (927 sq mi) inland water. The total length of Latvia's boundary
6615-888: The ethnic Latvian population had fallen to 62%. Since Latvia had maintained a well-developed infrastructure and educated specialists, Moscow decided to base some of the Soviet Union's most advanced manufacturing in Latvia. New industry was created in Latvia, including a major machinery factory RAF in Jelgava , electrotechnical factories in Riga , chemical factories in Daugavpils , Valmiera and Olaine —and some food and oil processing plants. Latvia manufactured trains, ships, minibuses, mopeds, telephones, radios and hi-fi systems, electrical and diesel engines, textiles, furniture, clothing, bags and luggage, shoes, musical instruments, home appliances, watches, tools and equipment, aviation and agricultural equipment and long list of other goods. Latvia had its own film industry and musical records factory (LPs). However, there were not enough people to operate
6720-403: The ethnic core of modern Latvians together with the Finnic Livonians . Henry of Latvia coined the latinisations of the country's name, "Lettigallia" and "Lethia", both derived from the Latgalians. The terms inspired the variations on the country's name in Romance languages from "Letonia" and in several Germanic languages from "Lettland". Around 3000 BC, the Proto-Baltic ancestors of
6825-448: The families whose members had been sent to Finland under the Nazi government. Since then, the Votes have largely concealed their Votic identity, pretending to be Russians in the predominantly Russian environment. But they continued to use the language at home and when talking to family members and relatives. After the death of Stalin, the Votes were no longer mistreated and many of those who had been sent away returned to their villages. But
6930-406: The family are Finnish and Estonian , the official languages of their respective nation states. The other Finnic languages in the Baltic Sea region are Ingrian and Votic , spoken in Ingria by the Gulf of Finland , and Livonian , once spoken around the Gulf of Riga . Spoken farther northeast are Karelian , Ludic , and Veps , in the region of Lakes Onega and Ladoga . In addition, since
7035-474: The former Soviet block state and was active in Latvia joining both NATO and the European Union in 2004. Latvia signed the Schengen agreement on 16 April 2003 and started its implementation on 21 December 2007. Approximately 72% of Latvian citizens are Latvian, while 20% are Russian. The government denationalized private property confiscated by the Soviets, returning it or compensating the owners for it, and privatized most state-owned industries, reintroducing
7140-414: The groundwork for nationalism from the middle of the century, many of its leaders looking to the Slavophiles for support against the prevailing German-dominated social order. The rise in use of the Latvian language in literature and society became known as the First National Awakening . Russification began in Latgale after the Polish led the January Uprising in 1863: this spread to the rest of what
7245-408: The independent Republic of Latvia was established on 18 November 1918 after breaking away from the German Empire in the aftermath of World War I . The country became increasingly autocratic after the coup in 1934 established the dictatorship of Kārlis Ulmanis . Latvia's de facto independence was interrupted at the outset of World War II , beginning with Latvia's forcible incorporation into
7350-400: The interior of Russia in 1915, radical land reform was the central political question for the young state. In 1897, 61.2% of the rural population had been landless; by 1936, that percentage had been reduced to 18%. By 1923, the extent of cultivated land surpassed the pre-war level. Innovation and rising productivity led to rapid growth of the economy, but it soon suffered from the effects of
7455-403: The internet. During 2010–2015, there were Votic courses established, which were attended by around 10 people. There are also Votic events where studying material for Votic is given to people. In 2015, a Votic study book called "Vad'd'a sõnakopittõja" was published by Heinike Heinsoo and Nikita Djačkov. There have also been a few lessons organized by T.F. Prokopenko for little children in a school in
7560-610: The language began to decline. World War II had a devastating effect on the Votic language, with the number of speakers considerably decreased as a result of military offensives, deliberate destruction of villages by Nazi troops, forced migration to the Klooga concentration camp in Estonia and to Finland under the Nazi government, and the Stalinist policy of "dispersion" immediately after the war against
7665-467: The language had considerably declined and the number of bilingual speakers increased. Because Votic was stigmatised as a language of "uneducated villagers", Votic speakers avoided using it in public and Votic children were discouraged from using it even at home because, in the opinion of some local school teachers, it prevented them from learning to speak and write in Russian properly. Thus, in the second half of
7770-520: The large number of diphthongs . There are 16 diphthongs in Finnish and 25 in Estonian; at the same time the frequency of diphthong use is greater in Finnish than in Estonian due to certain historical long vowels having diphthongised in Finnish but not in Estonian. On a global scale the Finnic languages have a high number of vowels. The Finnic languages form a complex dialect continuum with few clear-cut boundaries. Innovations have often spread through
7875-588: The largest port in the Russian Empire), railways built; new factories, banks, and a university were established; many residential, public (theatres and museums), and school buildings were erected; new parks formed; and so on. Riga's boulevards and some streets outside the Old Town date from this period. Numeracy was also higher in the Livonian and Courlandian parts of the Russian Empire, which may have been influenced by
7980-543: The legal status of independent minority languages separate from Finnish. They were earlier considered dialects of Finnish and are mutually intelligible with it. Additionally, the Karelian language was not officially recognised as its own language in Finland until 2009, despite there being no linguistic confusion about its status. The smaller languages are endangered . The last native speaker of Livonian died in 2013, and only about
8085-455: The letter õ is used, as in Estonian. Votic has 10 vowel qualities, all of which can be long or short; represented in the following chart. The vowels /ɨ/ and /ɨː/ are found only in loanwords. The Votic ⟨õ⟩ /ɤ/ , however, is impressionistically a bit higher than the Estonian ⟨õ⟩, with the rest of the vowel inventory generally corresponding to the ones found in Estonian. In some central dialects,
8190-528: The long mid vowels /eː oː øː/ have been diphthongized to /ie uo yø/ , as in Finnish. Thus, tee 'road' is pronounced as tie . Votic also has a large inventory of diphthongs. Votic has a system of vowel harmony , rather similar to Finnish in its overall behavior: the vowels are divided in three groups, front-harmonic , back-harmonic and neutral . Words may generally not contain both front-harmonic and back-harmonic vowels; but both groups can combine with neutral vowels. The front-harmonic vowels are ä e ö ü ;
8295-477: The morning of 24 August 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a 10-year non-aggression pact, called the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact . The pact contained a secret protocol, revealed only after Germany's defeat in 1945, according to which the states of Northern and Eastern Europe were divided into German and Soviet " spheres of influence ". In the north, Latvia, Finland and Estonia were assigned to
8400-484: The newly built factories. To maintain and expand industrial production, skilled workers were migrating from all over the Soviet Union, decreasing the proportion of ethnic Latvians in the republic. The population of Latvia reached its peak in 1990 at just under 2.7 million people. In late 2018 the National Archives of Latvia released a full alphabetical index of some 10,000 people recruited as agents or informants by
8505-408: The number of verb infinitive forms varies more by language. One of the more important processes is the characteristic consonant gradation . Two kinds of gradation occur: radical gradation and suffix gradation. They both affect the plosives /k/ , /t/ and /p/ , and involve the process known as lenition , in which the consonant is changed into a "weaker" form. This occurs in some (but not all) of
8610-473: The old dialects: these include e.g. the more northern Finnish dialects (a mixture of West and East Finnish), and the Livvi and Ludic varieties (probably originally Veps dialects but heavily influenced by Karelian). Salminen (2003) present the following list of Finnic languages and their respective number of speakers. These features distinguish Finnic languages from other Uralic families: Sound changes shared by
8715-670: The old pre-war Flag of Latvia flew again, replacing the Soviet Latvian flag as the official flag in 1990. In 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a resolution on the Occupation of the Baltic states , in which it declared the occupation "not in accordance with law", and not the "will of the Soviet people". Pro-independence Popular Front of Latvia candidates gained a two-thirds majority in
8820-521: The other southern Finnic languages include: In the 19th century, Votic was already declining in favour of Russian (there were around 1,000 speakers of the language by the start of World War I ). After the Bolshevik Revolution, under Lenin, Votic had a brief revival period, with the language being taught at local schools and the first-ever grammar of Votic (Jõgõperä/ Krakolye dialect) being published. But after Joseph Stalin came into power,
8925-422: The palatalisation of velar consonants and a more developed system of cases, and retentions such as vowel harmony). According to Estonian linguist Paul Ariste, Votic was distinct from other Finnic languages, such as Finnish and Estonian, as early as the 6th century AD and has evolved independently ever since. Isoglosses setting Votic apart from the other Finnic languages include: Features shared with Estonian and
9030-446: The population from their original pagan beliefs. Pope Celestine III had called for a crusade against pagans in Northern Europe in 1193. When peaceful means of conversion failed to produce results, Meinhard plotted to convert Livonians by force of arms. At the beginning of the 13th century, Germans ruled large parts of what is currently Latvia. The influx of German crusaders in the present-day Latvian territory especially increased in
9135-516: The population. They have no citizenship of any country , and cannot participate in the parliamentary elections. Children born to non-nationals after the re-establishment of independence are automatically entitled to citizenship. The Republic of Latvia declared the end of the transitional period and restored full independence on 21 August 1991, in the aftermath of the failed Soviet coup attempt . Latvia resumed diplomatic relations with Western states, including Sweden. The Saeima , Latvia's parliament,
9240-406: The presence of the vowel õ ) are absent from the dialect. The Kukkuzi dialect has been declared to be dead since the 1970s, although three speakers have still been located in 2006. In the 1920s, the Votic linguist Dmitri Tsvetkov wrote a Votic grammar using a modified Cyrillic alphabet. The current Votic alphabet was created by Mehmet Muslimov in 2004: A peculiarity of Muslimov's orthography
9345-573: The region, which shaped many loanwords in the Latvian language. After the Livonian War (1558–1583), Livonia (Northern Latvia & Southern Estonia) fell under Polish and Lithuanian rule. The southern part of Estonia and the northern part of Latvia were ceded to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and formed into the Duchy of Livonia ( Ducatus Livoniae Ultradunensis ). Gotthard Kettler , the last Master of
9450-708: The restoration of both de facto and official independence on 21 August 1991. Latvia has since been a democratic unitary parliamentary republic . Latvia is a developed country with a high-income , advanced economy ranking 39th in the Human Development Index . It is a member of the European Union , Eurozone , NATO , the Council of Europe , the United Nations , the Council of the Baltic Sea States ,
9555-831: The second half of the 13th century following the decline and fall of the Crusader States in the Middle East . Together with southern Estonia, these conquered areas formed the crusader state that became known as Terra Mariana ( Medieval Latin for "Land of Mary ") or Livonia. In 1282, Riga, and later the cities of Cēsis , Limbaži , Koknese and Valmiera , became part of the Hanseatic League . Riga became an important point of east–west trading and formed close cultural links with Western Europe . The first German settlers were knights from northern Germany and citizens of northern German towns who brought their Low German language to
9660-465: The separate article for more details). Apocope (strongest in Livonian, Võro and Estonian) has, in some cases, left a phonemic status to the phonological variation in the stem (variation caused by the now historical morphological elements), which results in three phonemic lengths in these languages. Vowel harmony is also characteristic of the Finnic languages, despite having been lost in Livonian, Estonian and Veps. The original Uralic palatalization
9765-513: The serfs took place in Courland in 1817 and in Vidzeme in 1819. In practice, however, the emancipation was actually advantageous to the landowners and nobility, as it dispossessed peasants of their land without compensation, forcing them to return to work at the estates "of their own free will". During these two centuries Latvia experienced economic and construction boom – ports were expanded (Riga became
9870-780: The spring of 1919, there were actually three governments: the Provisional government headed by Kārlis Ulmanis , supported by the Tautas padome and the Inter-Allied Commission of Control ; the Latvian Soviet government led by Pēteris Stučka , supported by the Red Army ; and the Provisional government headed by Andrievs Niedra , supported by Baltic-German forces composed of the Baltische Landeswehr ("Baltic Defence Force") and
9975-532: The strong areal nature of many later innovations, this tree structure has been distorted and sprachbunds have formed. In particular, South Estonian and Livonian show many similarities with the Central Finnic group that must be attributed to later contact, due to the influence of literary North Estonian. Thus, contemporary "Southern Finnic" is a sprachbund that includes these languages, while diachronically they are not closely related. The genetic classification of
10080-506: The traditional language variety of the village of Kukkuzi. It shows a mix of features of Votic and neighboring Ingrian , and some linguists, e.g. Arvo Laanest have claimed that it is actually rather a dialect of Ingrian. The vocabulary and phonology of the dialect are largely Ingrian-based, but it shares some grammatical features with the main Votic dialects, probably representing a former Votic substratum . In particular, all phonological features that Votic shares specifically with Estonian (e.g.
10185-458: The use of č for /t͡ʃ/ . At least a couple of ways exist for indicating long vowels in Votic; placing a macron over the vowel (such as ā ) as in Latvian , or as in written Estonian and Finnish, doubling the vowel ( aa ). Geminate consonants are generally represented with two characters. The representation of central vowels varies. In some cases the practice is to use e̮ according to the standards of Uralic transcription , while in other cases
10290-468: The use of Latvian language in official uses in favor of using Russian as the main language. All of the minority schools (Jewish, Polish, Belarusian, Estonian, Lithuanian) were closed down leaving only two media of instructions in the schools: Latvian and Russian. An influx of new colonists, including laborers, administrators, military personnel and their dependents from Russia and other Soviet republics started. By 1959 about 400,000 Russian settlers arrived and
10395-716: The various Finnic languages include the following: Superstrate influence of the neighboring Indo-European language groups (Baltic and Germanic) has been proposed as an explanation for a majority of these changes, though for most of the phonetical details the case is not particularly strong. Latvia – in Europe (green & dark grey) – in the European Union (green) – [ Legend ] Latvia ( / ˈ l æ t v i ə / LAT -vee-ə , sometimes / ˈ l ɑː t v i ə / LAHT -vee-ə ; Latvian : Latvija Latvian pronunciation: [ˈlatvija] ), officially
10500-578: Was administered as part of Reichskommissariat Ostland . Latvian paramilitary and Auxiliary Police units established by the occupation authority participated in the Holocaust and other atrocities. 30,000 Jews were shot in Latvia in the autumn of 1941. Another 30,000 Jews from the Riga ghetto were killed in the Rumbula Forest in November and December 1941, to reduce overpopulation in the ghetto and make room for more Jews being brought in from Germany and
10605-520: Was again elected in 1993. Russia ended its military presence by completing its troop withdrawal in 1994 and shutting down the Skrunda-1 radar station in 1998. The major goals of Latvia in the 1990s, to join NATO and the European Union , were achieved in 2004. The NATO Summit 2006 was held in Riga. Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga was President of Latvia from 1999 until 2007. She was the first female head of state in
10710-639: Was incorporated into Russia. The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia , a vassal state of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth , was annexed by Russia in 1795 in the Third Partition of Poland , bringing all of what is now Latvia into the Russian Empire . All three Baltic provinces preserved local laws, German as the local official language and their own parliament, the Landtag . The emancipation of
10815-502: Was lost in proto-Finnic, but most of the diverging dialects reacquired it. Palatalization is a part of the Estonian literary language and is an essential feature in Võro , as well as Veps , Karelian , and other eastern Finnic languages. It is also found in East Finnish dialects, and is only missing from West Finnish dialects and Standard Finnish. A special characteristic of the languages is
10920-591: Was not adopted. Instead, citizenship was granted to persons who had been citizens of Latvia on the day of loss of independence in 1940 as well as their descendants. As a consequence, the majority of ethnic non-Latvians did not receive Latvian citizenship since neither they nor their parents had ever been citizens of Latvia, becoming non-citizens or citizens of other former Soviet republics. By 2011, more than half of non-citizens had taken naturalization exams and received Latvian citizenship, but in 2015 there were still 290,660 non-citizens in Latvia, which represented 14.1% of
11025-629: Was the European Capital of Culture , Latvia joined the eurozone and adopted the EU single currency euro as the currency of the country and Latvian Valdis Dombrovskis was named vice-president of the European Commission . In 2015 Latvia held the presidency of Council of the European Union . Big European events have been celebrated in Riga such as the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 and
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