Latvian | |
---|---|
latviešu valoda | |
Native to | Latvia, Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, New Zealand, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom, USA, Venezuela, Finland |
Region | Europe |
Native speakers | native 1.39 million (Latvia) 150,000 (Abroad) 1.54 million (Worldwide)[1] second language: 500,000 |
Roman script | |
Official status | |
Official language in | Latvia, European Union |
Regulated by | Latvian State Language Center |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | lv |
ISO 639-2 | lav |
ISO 639-3 | lav |
Latvian (Latvian: latviešu valoda), is the official state language of Latvia. It is also called Lettish and Lettisch.[2] It is estimated, that there are 1.75 million native speakers in Latvia.[3]
The Latvian alphabet has 33 letters. The letters are based on the Latin alphabet.[4] Along with the Lithuanian language, Latvian is the only live Baltic language.[5]