Languages
See also: Language policy in Latvia
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- official: Latvian
- considered indigenous in some legislation: Livonian, Latgalian
- other languages registered as mother tongue by at least 500 speakers in 2000 census (in declining order): Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Polish, Romani, Tatar, Yiddish and Hebrew, Estonian, German
- other languages widely spoken: English
In the 2000 census, 1,311,093 persons in Latvia reported Latvian as their mother tongue; 891,451 respondents listed Russian as their mother tongue, representing 37.5% of the total population, whereas Latvian was recorded as the mother tongue for 58.2%. Latvian was spoken as a second language by 20.8% of the population, and 43.7% spoke Russian as a second language. In total, 71% of ethnic Latvians said they could speak Russian, and 52% of Russians could speak Latvian.
Read more about this topic: Demographics Of Latvia
Famous quotes containing the word languages:
“It is time for dead languages to be quiet.”
—Natalie Clifford Barney (1876–1972)
“Wealth is so much the greatest good that Fortune has to bestow that in the Latin and English languages it has usurped her name.”
—William Lamb Melbourne, 2nd Viscount (1779–1848)
“The less sophisticated of my forbears avoided foreigners at all costs, for the very good reason that, in their circles, speaking in tongues was commonly a prelude to snake handling. The more tolerant among us regarded foreign languages as a kind of speech impediment that could be overcome by willpower.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)