Latvian language

Latvian (latviešu valoda, IPA: [ˈlatviɛʃu ˈvaluɔda]), also known as Lettish, is an East Baltic language belonging to the Indo-European language family. It is spoken in the Baltic region, and is the language of the Latvians. It is the official language of Latvia as well as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 1.5 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and 100,000 abroad. Of those, around 1.16 million or 62% of Latvia's population used it as their primary language at home, though excluding the Latgale and Riga regions it is spoken as a native language in villages and towns by over 90% of the population. As a Baltic language, Latvian is most closely related to neighbouring Lithuanian (as well as Old Prussian, an extinct Baltic language); however, Latvian has developed in different directions. In addition, there is some disagreement whether Standard Latgalian and Kursenieki, which are mutually intelligible with Latvian, should be considered varieties or separate languages. Latvian first appeared in print in the mid-16th century with the reproduction of the Lord's Prayer in Latvian in Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia universalis (1544), in the Latin script.