Latvian Language Research Articles

ACTUALIZATION OF VALUES IN PRE-SCHOOL EDUCATION BY IMPLEMENTING COMPETENCE-BASED LEARNING CONTENT

Since 2018, competence-based learning content is being introduced in educational institutions of Latvia focusing on interdependent development of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values. If values are actualized in the educational process, the child gradually develops understanding of values from an early age. Thus, value-oriented pre-school education creates preconditions for the continuous development of a responsible and tolerant society and contributes to the common values that determine its direction.The aim of the study is to explore, based on the normative regulation of values in education, the actualization of values in the context of the implementation of competence-based learning content in educational institutions implementing pre-school education curricula. The study is based on the data analysis of the monitoring survey of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Latvia on the implementation of competence-based learning content during the 2019-2020 school year. The study combines quantitative and qualitative research methods. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics as well as qualitative content analysis.The analysis of the survey data shows that in the educational institutions that implement pre-school education curricula, all values defined in the normative regulation, i.e., life, human dignity, freedom, family, marriage, work, nature, culture, the Latvian language and the State of Latvia, as well as other values set by educational institutions are actualized.

CAPITALISATION ERRORS IN WRITTEN WORKS OF LEARNERS OF LATVIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Capitalisation in writing is usually determined by tradition. Different written languages can have their own grammatical, conceptual or stylistic capitalisation rules. Orthographies exist which do not have the division into capital and small letters. The aim of the article is to find out what problems with capitalisation foreign students in Latvian higher education institutions have during the acquisition of writing skills in Latvian as a foreign language. The research source are the essays written by learners of the Latvian language (foreign students studying in Latvian higher education institutions): the data of the Latvian language learner text corpus being created in the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Latvia were used. The requirements for the acquisition of capitalisation in the context of language learner competences are analysed in the study; the most typical capitalisation errors and possible reasons for them are analysed; and the author’s practical experience teaching the Latvian language to foreign students is revealed.

DIASPORA FAMILY VIEWS ON LEARNING LATVIAN IN DISTANCE LEARNING CLASSES BY THE LATVIAN LANGUAGE AGENCY

8% of the population whose native language is Latvian live outside Latvia in many countries of the world. With the concern for the preservation of Latvian it is disturbing that less than a half of Latvian diaspora families speak Latvian at home, therefore children have a weak proficiency of Latvian or lack it altogether. What is positive about the present situation is that almost all Latvians living in foreign countries wish their children to learn Latvian and choose distance learning classes for language acquisition and improvement, including those provided by the Latvian Language Agency (henceforth – LLA). The aim of the present research is clarifying the motivation of diaspora families to choose for their children distance learning classes of Latvian provided by the LLA and investigating the views of the families on the role of distance classes in the process of learning Latvian. For research data collection, a digital survey questionnaire was compiled and e-mailed to all families participating in distance classes of learning Latvian organized by the LLA in different countries of the world. The research reveals that the majority of the surveyed family children do not attend weekend Latvian schools and prefer regular, systemic language learning classes under the guidance of professional teachers from Latvia. The families admit that distance classes are a convenient mode of language learning, yet the greatest challenges in teaching and sustaining Latvian outside Latvia are the lack of the Latvian linguistic environment and lack of time for engaging with the child, whereas those in distance learning are children’s busyness and lack of motivation for language learning.

TOPICS OF MEDIA LITERACY IN THE CONTENT OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION IN THE SUBJECT OF THE LATVIAN LANGUAGE

People are facing the growth and access of information, as well as the various forms of communication. While some part of society experience a lack of information, others are flooded with printed, broadcast and digital content. UNESCO argues that media and information literacy can provide answers to questions related to our culture of information and critical thinking. Media literacy must be discussed through education, because teachers are the key person to literacy of the society. An important way to update media literacy among teachers and students is to introduce it in the curriculum. The topic of media literacy is currently included in the curriculum based on the new competency approach in Latvia. When evaluating the curriculum of the subject of the Latvian language, the aim of the paper is to determine which topics and aspects of media literacy are included in the curriculum of the Latvian language and what pupils' skills and knowledge they promote.

VERBS IN PERIPHERAL POLISH SPOKEN IN LATGALE

Polish language in Latgale today is only one of many languages spoken in the local community. The Polish minority here forms seven per cent of population but Polish language, which extended to the territory during the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, is in fact threatened with extinction. The regiolect in question is mainly exposed to the influence of the Russian and to a smaller extent Latvian language, thus it extensively incorporates foreign linguistic units. The report aims at describing some structural and semantic peculiarities of verbs functioning in the spoken variety of Latgalian Polish. Current research is based on interviews with eighty-six Poles born from 1922 till 2006 representing all generations of the local Polish minority. KEY WORDS: regiolect, northern peripheral polish, latgale, verbs. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15181/ rh.v0i16.1017

Kārlis Hūgenbergers 19. gadsimta sākumā latviešu literārās kultūras vēsturē

In the article, the literary works of Baltic German writer Carl Hugenberger have been explored. Anthology of his poetry translations, “Derrigs laika kaweklis” (Useful Pastime, I–II, 1826–1827), has been analysed. The anthology was significant in the emancipation of Latvian literary culture and liberation from moral didacticism as well as the development of the self-sufficient aesthetic value of literature. Thus, the anthology prepared the way for the formation of Latvian national literature in the mid-19th century. Special attention has been turned towards Hugenberger’s translations of poems by Johann Wolfgang Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. Besides, the evaluation and reception of Hugenberger’s works have been explored. The article concludes that despite the innovative role and poetic achievements of Hugenberger’s poetry, it did not gain popularity among wider circles of the Latvian reading public and met criticism regarding the shortcomings in the translation techniques that can be explained by the limits of the underdeveloped Latvian language at the time. The most important episodes in Hugenberger’s biography have been outlined as well as his religious hymns and works of popular enlightenment, including translations of “Schillings-Bücher des Rauhen Hauses”, a book series of German Inner mission, works by Jeremias Gotthelf, August Kotzebue, Gottfried August Bürger et al. Special attention has been paid to previously unidentified originals of Hugenberger’s translations – works by Matthias Claudius, Johann Hinrich Wichern, Heinrich Alexander Seidel, and Adolph Krüger as well as previously underexamined partial translation of Johann Peter Hebel’s “Allemanische Gedichte”. The literary works of Hugenberger have been interpreted within the context of the literary praxis of the late popular enlightenment in the Baltics.

Collocations and contextual semantics of the ethnonyms leiši and lietuvieši ‘Lithuanians’ in the text corpus of modern Latvian language

The aim of this paper is, by using Computational linguistics method to analyse collocations of ethnonyms leiši and lietuvieši ‘Lithuanians’ in “Balanced Corpus of Modern Latvian” (Līdzsvarots mūsdienu latviešu valodas tekstu korpuss), compare contextual semantics of both ethnonyms. Comparing the frequency of use of the lexemes lietuvieši and leiši ‘Lithuanians’ in the modern Latvian language text corpus, the prevalence of the ethnonym lietuvieši is evident, therefore, the ethnonym leiši, regardless of its use as synonymic designation (sometimes in one and the same text), can be considered as an obsolete word. The desemantisation cases of the ethnonym leiši, detected in the corpus, show its oldness and varied functionality in Latvian language. The evidences to prove the statement of the “Modern Latvian Language Dictionary” (Mūsdienu latviešu valodas vārdnīca) that the lexeme leiši nowadays “carries slightly pejorative stylistically expressive colouring” were not found in the text corpus. In general, the image of a Lithuanian reflected in the modern Latvian language text corpus is rather positive – mostly in historical, language, culture and sports contexts, yet in the context of economics and emigration rather negative impression of Lithuanians is expressed.

The Russian-speaking population of Latvia in the modern period: correlation of status with local state historical politics

The article considers the change in the status of the Russian-speaking population of Latvia in conjunction with the local memory policy. In this work, we were able to analyse a significant number of legislative sources of the Republic of Latvia, including in the Latvian language, and to reveal cause-and-effect relationships in decision-making regarding national minorities. Based on the highlighted legislative material (some of which are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time), as well as the works of Latvian authors, we traced changes in the political and socio-economic status of the Russian-speaking population of Latvia during the 1990s - 2000s. We can state that the local state-historical policy is directly related to state integration measures and it was the ideological platform for discriminatory legislation in relation to national minorities. Nevertheless, the Russian-speaking population found itself in unfavourable conditions, a sharply reduced socio-economic and political status, managed to consolidate and adapt to the conditions of independent Latvia, taking its niche in all spheres of social society.

NOVCOJUSĪ LEKSIKA J. LANGIJA VĀRDNĪCĀ (1685): NAUDAS VIENĪBU NOSAUKUMI

The Latvian language dictionary of J. Langius (1685) does not contain a large number of terms denoting monetary units – altogether there are 11 of them (ārtaugs, dālderis, diķis, eiduks, grosis, kauss, mārka, skatiks, šķiliņģis, vērdiņģis, zelta gabals), as well as some other money-related lexemes (e.g., sīknauda, vara nauda etc.) which are not designations of monetary units and therefore are not analyzed in this article. These lexemes are included in most 17–19th century dictionaries, and sometimes are borrowed from one dictionary into another. For instance, J. Langius has taken over the words included in the dictionary of G. Mancelius, but later J. Lange, in his turn, refers to J. Langius in his work.Nowadays most of these words are obsolete, because the objects they denoted are no longer in use. These lexemes can be found in dictionaries, and in many cases also in folklore and in idiomatic expressions, which testifies to their once wide scope of usage and, naturally, the significance of money in the culture and history of the Lower Kurzeme region and the whole territory of Latvia. This fact is supported not only by the analyzed material, but also by various other culturally historical sources.

MĪLENBAHA-ENDZELĪNA LATVIEŠU VALODAS VĀRDNĪCĀ IEKĻAUTĀS BĀRTAS IZLOKSNES LEKSIKAS VISPĀRĪGS RAKSTUROJUMS

This article gives an insight into the vocabulary of one of the sub-dialects of the Central dialect of the Latvian language – namely, the sub-dialect spoken in Bārta, a place in South-Western Kurzeme. The focus of the article is on those lexical units of the Bārta sub-dialect that are included in one of the most important works of Latvian linguistics – the Latvian Language Dictionary (1923–1932) and it’s Appendix (1934–1946), compiled and published by Kārlis Mīlenbahs, Jānis Endzelīns and Edīte Hauzenberga. The material analyzed here is taken from the electronic version of the Latvian Language Dictionary (www.tezaurs.lv/mev). The vocabulary of the Bārta sub-dialect is represented there by approximately 660 words, among which there are 330 nouns, 253 verbs, 38 adjectives, 30 adverbs, 7 particles, 2 interjections, 2 conjunctions, and 1 preposition.

Par viduslejasvācu valodas pēdām latviešu īpašvārdos

Searching the traces of Middle Low German in Latvian proper names The great impact of Middle Low German on the Latvian language during the 13 th –16 th centuries is a well-known and rather widely researched fact. However, the main focus of linguists’ attention has so far been on the apellative vocabulary. This article therefore aims to highlight the traces of Middle Low German in Latvian proper names – placenames and personal names (both first names and surnames) – during the time of their appearance and also nowadays (also touching upon the issue of onyms that have disappeared during previous centuries). The system of Latvian personal names (as the ancient Baltic two-stem personal names gradually disappeared during the 13 th –14 th centuries) was largely built on the basis of Christian names in their Middle Low German versions. Among these Latvian names, borrowed from Middle Low German and still in use in the 21st century, we can note Ģederts , Indriķis , Jurģis , Tenis , Ints , Inta etc. In the context of placenames, one must take into account the historical diglossia that lasted until the 1st half of the 20th century. Between the German (initially Middle Low German) and Latvian names of cities, villages and manors there has been a diverse and manifold interaction. Meanwhile, in the names of farmhouses which were mostly coined in Latvian, one can observe many onymized borrowings from Middle Low German. The oldest Latvian surnames used in Riga during the 15 th –16 th centuries can sometimes be (and are) interpreted as the first documentally attested instances of some Middle Low German borrowings in the Latvian language. Among the main conclusions of this article, one can point out the fact that most Middle Low German elements have entered Latvian proper names indirectly, through borrowed common nouns. Moreover, it is essential to continue the research (especially in the field of surnames) and to reevaluate the impact of Middle Low German borrowings in the Latvian language.

Supplement to Scientific Comments of the First Sentence of Article 4 of the Satversme of the Republic of Latvia “The Official State Language in the Republic of Latvia is the Latvian Language”: Abstract

The Latvian language is an essential element of constitutional identity of the Republic of Latvia, without which the Latvian constitutional system and the system of Constitution cannot be imagined, as such. Since 2021, the Official Language Day on 15 October has been celebrated. According to the President of Latvia Egils Levits the Official Language Day may serve as another opportunity to spread awareness and promote the use of the Latvian language as one of the main constitutional values of our state and nation. The Official Language Day is a meaningful contribution to the future tradition of celebrating the official language across society. The current study focuses on the issue of the official language in Latvia and its importance from the perspective of constitutional law. The experience of the Republic of Latvia is divided into two periods. The first – covers the period 1918–1940, when it was interrupted by the Soviet occupation. Consequently, after the restoration of independence in 1990, the second period can be defined: 1990–currently. If during the pre-war period the Latvian language was only enshrined in law, during the second period the official language has been enshrined in the Constitution (Satversme). The official language of the Latvian Constitution is specified in Section 4. The given article is designed to supplement the scientific comments of Section 4, which was issued in 2014. Keywords: Constitution (Satversme), Latvian language, official language, language policy, national minorities.

ПОЛИТИКА ЛАТВИИ В ОТНОШЕНИИ ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ НА РУССКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ

The article considers the development of Russian-language school education in independent Latvia from 1992 to 2020, as well as the process of reforming the system by official authorities. At the time of declaration of indepen- dence and withdrawal from the USSR, a bilingual education system which was formed in Latvia, made it possible to get education at all levels (from kindergarten to technical school and university) in both Latvian and Russian languages. The rise to power in the 1990s of nationalist politicians and the perception of the Soviet period as a period of “occupation”, made it impossible to keep the Russian- speaking school unchanged. The transformations were not long in coming – al - ready in 1995 amendments to the law on the primary school and gymnasium were adopted, proclaiming the need to introduce several subjects teaching in the Lat- vian language in schools for national minorities. The largest reforms were carried out in 2004, when high school link in Russian-language schools (grades 10–12) was required to study in a 60/40 ratio — at least 60% of subjects in Latvian and no more than 40% in Russian. The second set of reforms began to be implemented in 2017, when the high school (of national minorities) completely switched to the Latvian language of instruction, and the secondary school was only partly switched to the Latvian language. The Latvian authorities explain the need for these reforms by the desire to increase the level of knowledge of the state language among national minorities, primarily Russian-speaking. The reform continues and will be completed only in 2021. The article is the first attempt at understand- ing the reform of the Russian school of Latvia with taking into account the latest transformations. The work uses statistical data from public organizations and the Ministry of Education of Latvia, as well as sources in the Latvian language, which are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.

Folklora un ideoloģija: folkloras teksti latviešu mācību literatūrā PSRS 20. gadsimta 20.–30. gados

Keywords: diaspora, Marxist-Leninist ideology, propaganda, education in the USSR, Soviet folklore The focus of this article is Latvian textbooks published in the USSR from 1920-1930 for Latvian pupils living in the Soviet Union, and the use of folklore texts in them. Attention is focused on the principles of the selection of specific texts and how the authors of textbooks interpret folklore texts. This research aims to determine how folklore units available in Soviet Latvian textbooks resonated with the dominant dogmas of the Marxist-Leninist ideology in the USSR. The first half of the article describes the most important aspects of the Soviet Latvian diaspora and the organization of education. In this part of the study, all Soviet Latvian textbooks issued from 1920-1930 were examined: ABC, Latvian language and literature textbooks, school reading books and chrestomathies, as well as published selections of folklore units (24 books in all), not all of them included folklore texts. The focus of the analysis is only those books in which folklore had been published. The analyzed folklore units show how these texts can be used for propaganda purposes using various methods: by selectively picking out only those folklore units that correspond to the Marxist-Leninist ideology, commenting and creating paratexts, ignoring Latvian folklore genres (mythical songs, magic tales), using metrics and formulas of classical folklore to create texts with new content glorifying Soviet reality.

The Latvian Translation Scene at the Beginning of the 20th Century

The first decade of the 20th century was a period of huge advances and expansion in the Latvian translation scene. New, contemporary authors’ works became available to Latvian readers. The Latvian readership was consciously being integrated into general European literary trends. It was also a heyday of periodicals that published numerous translations, including numerous novels. There are countless parallel translations even reaching double digits. Translations included various genres and the traditional Latvian interest in plays was obvious. German was gradually losing its dominant positions as both a source and intermediate language, Russian was advancing. This period also saw a change of generations among translators, and with the new generation women became visible in translation scene. Practically all Latvian writers were also active translators. The translation method changed from localisation to a fidelity mode with a tendency towards foreignisation. Frequently translations now had prefaces and explanations by the translators. Translated literature now ranged from serious classical works to modern ones and from pulp literature to high quality creations. The quality of translations was also very varied. T he expansion of translation and the cultivation of new domains went hand in hand with the development of the Latvian language itself.

Web Application "Latvian Language of Science" for Academic and Research Text Types and Phrases

Web Application "Latvian Language of Science" for Academic and Research Text Types and Phrases

Features of the Russian Population Collective Identity in Latvia in the Period 1991–2021

Russians’ collective ethno-cultural identity in Latvia is concentrated around the values of the Russian language in the private and public life of this ethnic group. At the same time, nation-building in Latvia is focused on the dominance of the Latvian language and culture in the public space. In reality, this is manifested not only in the differences in the legal possibilities of the Latvian identity and the identity of ethnic minorities, but also in the dissemination of ideas in the public consciousness about the different life chances of the bearers of this identity. This collision leads to the politicization of the Russian collective identity, as well as to the need to provide it with more solid ideological foundations in historical memory, in reproduction thanks to the education system.

Language as a Value in a Pragmatic World: Global and National Approach

The article deals with the perception of language and languages in the economy-oriented contemporary world and its specific features in such language-centered countries as Latvia. Two main levels could be discussed concerning the ‘intellectual’, ‘symbolic’ and practical treatment of language: a global (supra-national) and a national one. In majority of countries special laws have been adopted or national level programs have been enacted in order to protect the most significant elements of respective national identities – folklore, traditional ways of life, beliefs and languages in particular. At the beginning of the 21st century, economic and political goals of the European Union have been associated with the ideas of European culture and European identity. At the same time, the popularization of the languages, histories, and traditions of the member states have also been emphasized. The Republic of Latvia belongs to the countries where the diversity of thoughts and viewpoints on language are ever present and intense in both the political debates and even in many informal conversations. The paper gives an insight in Latvian language policy against the background of global and European sociolinguistic processes and wide usage of so-called international languages, English in particular.

Fundamental study on the sounds of standard Baltic languages: phonetic and phonological differences

The article discusses the most important differences in the sound structure of contemporary Lithuanian and Latvian standard languages, scientific and practical benefits of a fundamental comparative instrumental sound research, reviews possible further innovations in theories and methods of acoustic and articulatory phonetics and phonology, and perspectives as well as tasks of such research.In his monograph Comparative History of the Baltic Languages (2019), Pietro Umberto Dini observes that there is a constant decline in the synthetic structure in the Baltic language systems, most notably as a reduction of the flexural forms of the noun and verb. He argues that the Baltic languages, like all other Indo-European languages, recognise a structural development: agglutination → synthetic → isolation language. According to the author, the isolation stage of development in the Lithuanian language is just starting, and the isolation structure of the Latvian language is becoming more and more pronounced. Pietro Umberto Dini states that “from the Baltic systems, the Latvian language ‘drifts’ faster in terms of structural development, and the Lithuanian language remains the most morphologically conservative of the current Indo-European languages due to the much slower change” (Dini 2019, 577). The author, based on, for example, the growing tendency in the colloquial Lithuanian language to move the accent to the first syllable (where the accent has long been emphasised in the Latvian language), considers that analogous tendencies are observed in both languages, i.e. the Baltic languages are evolving towards convergence. The data presented in this article and the latest synchronous instrumental studies of the sounds of the Baltic languages do not confirm the convergence trends: the sound structure of the Lithuanian and Latvian languages is still quite different (cf. Urbanavičienė, Indričāne, Jaroslavienė, Grigorjevs 2019, 286; see also Jaroslavienė, Grigorjevs, Urbanavičienė, Indričāne 2019). Both Baltic languages are characterised by quantitative vowel opposition, adjective system (polytonicity), sufficiently simple structure of consonant compounds (e.g. CV and CVC syllable types make up 79% of all Lithuanian syllables, see Karosienė, Girdenis 1994, 40), the same phonological opposition of consonants (voting, modal, local). However, the Lithuanian language has a free accent, while the Latvian language has a fixed accent. One of the most important distinguishing features of the current Baltic languages is palatalization: Lithuanian language is characterised by secondary palatalization and opposition palatalised vs. unpalatalised realisation, which presupposes a twice as large inventory of consonant phonemes in the Lithuanian language and, in comparison with the Latvian language, an accurate, precise articulation of consonants.The article highlights certain similarities and differences in the sound structure of the contemporary Lithuanian and Latvian standard languages based on the latest synchronous comparative research of the Baltic sound system: two scientific monographs of the series Sounds of the Baltic Languages in the early 21st Century (Jaroslavienė, Grigorjevs, Urbanavičienė, Indričāne 2019; Urbanavičienė, Indričāne, Jaroslavienė, Grigorjevs 2019), where the sounds of Lithuanian and Latvian languages are instrumentally studied and described according to the same principles. This is an excellent basis to continue the instrumental study of the contemporary Baltic sounds (and to discuss the importance of the research) on other relevant aspects and perspectives (a few new instrumental non-comparative studies already exist, cf. Ledichova 2020); to update and highlight the practical benefits of such studies and audio recordings (by taking into account the assistance in language learning, examining standard language norms, pronunciation tendencies, the importance in medicine, developing tools and instruments for language technology and artificial intelligence), innovations and perspectives of theories and methods. It is a very important incentive to continue instrumental scientific and practical research of Lithuanian sound methodological innovations, drawing increasingly clear prospects for further research.

Derivation of verbs attested in the old Lithuanian scripts: infixed and sta-stem anticausatives

The article presents the analysis of infixed and sta-stem verbs opposed to ia-stem verbs attested in the old Lithuanian scripts, investigating the opposition causative/anticausative. The research has shown that this morphosemantic opposition was amply testified in the earliest Lithuanian written sources – 59 correlations of this type were recorded in total. More than 50 percent of the equivalents of the oppositions attested exist in the Latvian language as well. This suggests that the causative/anticausative formation belongs to the Eastern Baltic period, and has been crucial to the productivity of the class of infixed and sta-stem verbs. Although not so abundant, the correspondences of the oppositions found in the Slavic and Germanic languages presuppose an even earlier chronology of decausation. The regularity of the semantics and formal structure of the oppositions allow the relations of the opposites to be treated as derivative. This is particularly true in the case of the abundant reflexes of “complex-root” oppositions such as CeRC/CiRC. The abundance of non-present and prefixed forms of the analysed verbs testifies to the specificity of this flexional class in terms of actionality: inchoative, completive, limitative or punctual meaning realised by corresponding prefixes was important for the development of the morphosemantic uniformity of decausatives and has inspired new patterns of word formation, the durative/terminative opposition and the derivation of the denominatives in particular. The study of the causative/anticausative verbal opposition in the old Lithuanian scripts is significant for the history of Lithuanian infixed and sta-stem verbs and for a typological linguistic research.