Latgalian in Latvia: A Continuous Struggle for Political Recognition
- This article discusses the situation of the Latgalian language in Latvia today. It first provides an overview of languages in Latvia, followed by a historical and contemporary sketch of the societal position of Latgalian and by an account of current Latgalian language activism. On this basis, the article then applies schemes of language functions and of evaluations of the societal position of minority languages to Latgalian. Given the range of functions that Latgalian fulfils today and the wishes and attempts by activists to expand these functions, the article argues that it is surprising that so little attention is given to Latgalian in mainstream Latvian and international sociolinguistic publications. In this light, the fate of the language is difficult to prognose, but a lot depends on whether the Latvian state will clarify its own unclear perception of policies towards Latgalian and on how much attention it will receive in the future.
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| Author: | Heiko F. MartenORCiDGND, Sanita LazdiņaORCiDGND |
|---|---|
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:bsz:mh39-114904 |
| ISSN: | 1617-5247 |
| Parent Title (English): | Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe |
| Publisher: | European Centre for Minority Issues |
| Place of publication: | Flensburg |
| Document Type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Year of first Publication: | 2012 |
| Date of Publication (online): | 2023/02/03 |
| Publishing Institution: | Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache (IDS) |
| Publicationstate: | Veröffentlichungsversion |
| Reviewstate: | Peer-Review |
| Tag: | Latgalian; Latvia; language activism; language functions; language policy; minority language |
| GND Keyword: | Amtssprache; Lettisch; Minderheitensprache; Soziolinguistik; Sprachpolitik |
| Volume: | 1 |
| Issue: | 11 |
| First Page: | 66 |
| Last Page: | 87 |
| DDC classes: | 400 Sprache / 400 Sprache, Linguistik |
| Open Access?: | ja |
| Linguistics-Classification: | Sprachgeschichte |
| Licence (German): |  Urheberrechtlich geschützt |