Latvia and the Latvians Frederic T. Harned, Harvard University (part of a larger M.I.T. study), 1973

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I. Language Data

The Latvian and Lithuanian languages are the only surviving members of the Baltic group of Indo-European languages. They are clearly distinct, in vocabulary, structure and morphology, from the Germanic and Slavic languages of the surrounding countries. [1] Books appeared in Latvian as early as the 17th century. The standard literary form of the language was established during the National Awakening of the second half of the 19th century and the period of independence (1918 to 1940). The current system of orthography uses the Latin alphabet, with certain diacritic marks.

In 1970 more than 95% of the Latvians in the USSR, and more than 98% of those resident in Latvia, considered Latvian their native language (see Table B.1.). [2] By comparison, 97.9% of the Lithuanians of the Soviet Union—who are only marginally more concentrated in their own republic than are the Latvians—considered Lithuanian their native tongue. Similarly, almost 96% of Estonians, fewer of whom live in Estonia, considered Estonian their first language. [3] Thus the loyalty of the Latvians to their national language would appear to be slightly less than that of their neighbors. However, it is well above that of the Ukrainians, Belorussians, or Armenians.

In 1970, more than half of the total population of Latvia (56.9%, including some 29,000 non-Latvians) claimed that Latvian was their native language. An additional 8% claimed fluency in Latvian as a second language. Approximately two-fifths of the population claimed Russian as a native language, and another one-third claimed Russian as their second language. Thus the proportions of the total population fluent in either one of the other of the two languages were quite similar—64.9% for Latvian, 67.2% for Russian. [4]

Data from the 1970 census regarding native language by age indicates that among all Latvians in the Soviet Union, those in their twenties and those over fifty-years-old are most likely to claim Latvian as their native language. The following table summarizes the data:

[Numbers as originally published, totals do not sum columns. –Ed.]

1. Estonian, a Finnic language, is even more foreign. Only a few words of Finnic origin have been incorporated into Latvian.
2. Itogi 1970: IV: 20, 280.
3. In 1970, 94.1% of the Lithuanians in the Soviet Union lived in their own republic as did 93.8% of the Latvians and 91.9% of the Estonians in their respective republics. The figures for all three peoples represented increases over those for 1959. CDSP, XXIII: 16: 16-18.
4. Itogi 1970: IV: 280. For the urban population, the figures are 55% Latvian, 70% Russian; for Riga, 51% Latvian, 81% Russian. See Ibid., 281, 283.
5. Data for age groups is for Latvians in the Latvian SSR and other major regions of settlement; 94.9% of the total number of Soviet Latvians is included in this listing, whereas the total given in the table is for all Soviet Latvians. Itogi 1970: IV: 360(n). 363.