About the Latvian language

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Today I'm exploring one of the only two remaining Baltic languages - the Latvian language. Even though it has only around 1,7 million native speakers, it's an important language when it comes to reconstructing the Proto-Indo-European language. It is said the that the Baltic languages have conserved the most archaic forms out of all the other Indo-European languages alive today. And of course the Latvian language doesn't lack other cool features that I talk about in this video!
Super big thank you if you decide to support me on Patreon, here's the link:
/ julingo

[@Ossian_Germany]

Along with Hungarian, Estonian, Icelandic and Basque, Latvian is one of my favourite languages. Latvian sounds really warm and beautiful. Greetings from Germany!

[@gabor6259]

Greetings from Hungary!

[@leavemealone.542]

Aww thank you! Greeting from Hungary!

[@KohaAlbert]

Greetings from Estonia. You might want to check up Livonian.

[@ralfsbelohvosciks7466]

Well you being a german explains why you would think Latvian sounds warm 😂 I think compared to something like Italian it sounds much more agressive

[@ekusupairado]

Paldies, sveicieni no Latvijas! :D ( Thanks, greetings from Latvia! :D )

[@kimazi9248]

Well, Latvia has its own swear words actually, but indeed they're veeery rare lol.

[@dreamthedream8929]

Many use daunis and lohs in Latvia. Those are real bad and popular. And there are more. Do you also use daunis and lohs??

[@sanitamierina6612]

@@dreamthedream8929 lohs - It is from Russian language - Лох (лопух)

[@dreamthedream8929]

@@sanitamierina6612 yeah thats right but Russians themselves are not very fond of this word. They have plenty of other bad ones that they prefer. But Latvians like saying lohs! And daunis! Which basically means a mental condition which apparently makes people stupid. This is what daunis means in Latvian!

[@gausts]

Pis suni teļa taukums tāds, muļka poda birste, nekad nebūsi nekas vairāk kā teļa pakausis. Latviešiem ir labi lamuvārdi.

[@kimazi9248]

@@dreamthedream8929 I do if necessary lol. And what about Ma*ka or kuce? It's latvian swear words too. Let's collect! 😂

[@Zile.e]

Why swear at someone with one word when you can create equivalents of “your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.” Or, you know, just grumble and scream.

[@sparshjohri1109]

Exactly! Without strong swear words, you have to get so much more creative in how you insult people, which makes the insults funnier but also more incisive. :-)

[@nobbynoris]

Are you talking about me without my consent?

[@gaufrid1956]

My late wife was from Latvian parents, and rarely swore, but when I remarried I moved to Mindanao with my Binisaya speaking Filipina wife. In Binisaya if you are a bit upset about something, you say "Pastilan!", if a bit more upset, you say "Pastilan gyud!", and if very upset about something, or really disgusted, you say "Sus pastilan gyud!". "Sus" and "gyud" are intensifiers, and "pastilan" has no equivalent in English. Swearing that way helps me avoid the rather cruder Aussie swear words.

[@blewis0719]

LOL

[@AlirioAguero2]

I notice some cool similarities between Latvian and my native language, Croatian: 1. Seven cases, no particles 2. Phonetic pronunciation - each letter is pronounces separately, always the same, and there are no silent letters 3. Letters used for Č, Š, Ž are exactly the same, and pronounced the same 4. Latvian is one of the rare languages that pronounces the letter ''j'' as a consonant ''y'' rather than a variation of an English ''j'', just like we do. Difference is that we don't have the length of the vowels written, and that the foreign names are exempt from the phonetic writing. We would write ''Britney Spears'', for example. But, much like Latvian, we do adapt other foreign words into our grammar. For example: ''telephone'' becomes ''telefon'', ''computer'' becomes ''kompjuter'', and ''doctor'' becomes ''doktor''. Really nice video. Latvian seems like a really interesting and unique language. :)

[@asgerhougardmikkelsen8770]

I think it common to pronounce j as a y, I speak danish and j is only pronounced dj in loaners from English

[@TimothyGrabarczyk]

I think only English is like that

[@lindamazule2289]

actualy, I think (as a Latvian), that we most oftenly use Telefons instead of the literal pronounciation Tālrunis. And nowadays we have a great mixture (in our own communty groups) From latvian and english language, even to the extent, that if you ask any teenger any question wich requires longer explanation, you are most lkely to hear a lot of "anglicisms" or straight english words from them as they try to exlain their opinion...

[@mg4361]

not to mention similarities in vocabulary (kaza/koza, četiri/četiri) and grammar (basically identical instrumental, definitness through adjectives)

[@miernas]

Those are very common similarities in Eastern European / Balkan languages :)

[@Turbolover1987]

As a student of Baltic languages at Stockholm university, I found this video very interesting and useful. Paldies! :D

[@supermagicalcookie2400]

Finally KZbin recommends me something good. Great work and don’t worry about your English. It’s great.

[@thenoscoperhacker5121]

Agreed

[@lolabunumoved9260]

Yep

[@mossyclimber7900]

I agree too. Thank you @JulieMaksimova

[@hemantd9349]

Why would she worry about her English, she is so confident and sweet

[@joalexsg9741]

As one who has mastered the language after decades of study but still struggles to catch on to some native speakers, her accent is not only lovely but also wonderfully intelligible, unlike some natives'!

[@poisonspitter5131]

I'm Estonian and I live right next to the border in the city called Valga, although I don't understand Latvian language but I have heard it so many times that I can instantly recognise it when someone is speaking Latvian.

[@mr.oxigenwaster2047]

The legend says if you whisper Latvia three times at 3 am, a wild Latvian will appear next to you ready to consume all the potatoes.

[@mossyclimber7900]

Interesting my dad was Latvian and he was obessed about getting enough Meat and Potatoes. I think it was also related to not being able to get foods like liked while in refugee camps after World War II.

[@Esvelatceroskadsitasbijald]

As a Latvian, i can confirm this is true.

[@arvissibeiks3901]

Sāpīga tēma?

[@eleanalove08]

No wonder i love potatoes

[@untrustfulsoldchannel9238]

As a Latvian, I can confirm

[@worldforces7856]

love and respect latvia from georgia

[@thenoscoperhacker5121]

Well thx

[@lolabunumoved9260]

Yay ty

[@yimp4130]

World Forces tnx 😅😁

[@grandesheart_8527]

Thank you

[@Sakur3ne_01]

Ty :)

[@samantariekstina84]

Patīkami no citām valstīm dzirdēt labu par Latviju!

[@janiskalnberzs8008]

Piekrītu

[@Raeda4ever]

@@janiskalnberzs8008 Jā!

[@michvmikel1606]

XD

[@slimebor7059]

Jā

[@aijasaveljeva562]

Jā

[@nicole187]

Thank you for talking about Latvia, its usually overlooked

[@projectmayhem6898]

I am going back to visit Latvia next year for the third time. It is an excellent country. I like the Freedom Monument in Riga. I give it 3 out of 3 stars. Hopefully you understand this joke.

[@nicole187]

Project Mayhem haha yes I do understand!

[@janiskalnberzs8008]

Piekrītu i'm from latvia

[@nicole187]

Janis Kalnberzs Es nemāku rakstīt Latvišu tik labi bet es ceru Tu saproti ko es saku

[@nicole187]

@@daniels1263 I think someone was arrested for it! Not sure

[@hawaiiusa6147]

I love your way of speaking. You have a beautiful voice. My parents were from Latvia and I was born in Australia even though my first language is Latvian.

[@WildestMinds]

Šajā video es uzzināju vairāk nekā man bija mācīts skolā! ;)

[@janiskalnberzs8008]

Piekrītu

[@rebekastirna5362]

Es arī

[@gabrielbulle819]

Lmao same

[@chris-2496]

Tā notiek, ja skolā nemācās

[@pechenka4476]

7-12 klasē to visu laiku atkārto

[@InfiniteSoulsUnited5458]

We Latvians DO have swear words, there are latvian swear words they just are very light.

[@ciskudrillis2086]

they just are too funny to be swear words :D

[@skunksmirch7185]

Now translate it into English, fuckin' moron

[@kristsavots6850]

Ofcourse we have for example, pisies, kuce, dirsa, mauka, sprāgonis, žļēmēkslis, kuņaspups, mauku stallis, kroplis, pediņš, kuņa, pajāt, peteņkoferis u.t t. So we have and actually quite a lot.

[@fidenemini111]

The same for Lithuanians. Our original old swear words ar relative light: gyvatė, rupūžė (snake, toad), and simillar. There are some funny like "po šimts pypkių" (for hundred pipes) :)

[@InfiniteSoulsUnited5458]

@@UndeadCrabstick because you dont know anything about Latvians.

[@mikuskokenbergs8853]

That one with kazas is funny. Once, when I was a kid, I wrote to all my friends in Latvian in stead of "Happy Easter", so I wrote "Get married in the Easter". In Latvian Happy Easter - Priecīgas Lieldienas. Get married in the Easter - Precīgas Lieldienas. :D Greetings from Riga. And yes I'm a Latvian. :)

[@bandzis]

Precīgas Lieldienas bija arī mana kļūda, rakstot Lieldienu apsveikumus katru gadu :D. Bet interesanti, ka norādi uz šo līdzību ar precēšanos, nekad par to neaizdomājos. Likās, tikai divskaņa 'reducēšanas' kļūda. :)

[@lauvzane]

It took me a minute to recognize the difference :D "Precīgas Lieldienas" is more like "wedding-ly Easter" or maybe more like "The Easter wedding season" which does not make any sense though. Bet smieklīgi tomēr, es arī esmu tā kļūdījusies :)

[@mikuskokenbergs8853]

@@lauvzane Yes,sir. Your variant is more correct. :D

[@agne.a.4423]

I am Lithuanian, and the Latvian language is very close to us. Many Lithuanians understand the Latvian language because it is very similar to our language, more to the Samogitian language living in north Lithuania. It is difficult to say which language is older Lithuanian or Latvian, because both are very similar, However, many scholars say that Latvian has become more modern, and Lithuanian is still trying to survive.

[@edgar17d]

Lithuanian language is older.

[@ellismhm]

yeah lithuanian is probably older when i was visiting lithuania i as a latvian felt a bit weird for example we use "kamols" to only refer to a ball of yarn, not also a basketball "laikruodis"( i think thats how its written, idk) is really similar to the old name ("laikrādis") for a clock ("pulkstenis") there are probably more examples that im forgetting but yeah 😂

[@ManteIIo]

Latvian is not mutually intelligible with Lithuanian and don't be fooled that knowing either of the two languages will give you ability to onderstand the other one. There are indeed many words that have a common root in both Latvian and Lithuanian from which an approximate meaning can be inferred, but in many cases the meaning has distantly shifted. Bread in Lithuanian is duona; in Latvian dona refers to the end-piece or crust of the bread. Latvian word for “bread” would be maize. Miestas means “city” in Lithuanian, whereas miests in Latvian means a small hamlet. Lithuanian debesis “cloud” does give some sense to a Latvian as debess means “sky”, but I don’t know if any Lithuanian could guess what mākonis (cloud) means - which would be dangus in Lithuanian. Or the above mentioned example for 'clock' - in lithuanian 'laikrodis' and in latvian 'pulkstenis'. There are lots of false friends too. Māksla means “art” in Latvian, whereas moksla in Lithuanian means “science”, (which in Latvian is zinātne). They both come from the cognate roots mācēt in Latvian, moketi in Lithuanian, meaning “to know how to”. The Lithuanian word for “art” is menas, which I can’t connect to a cognate in any language I know. Even basic concepts like colours can be very different. Sure, balts in Latvian and baltas in Lithuanian both mean “white”, but this cognate is shared with Slavic languages too. However melns means “black” in Latvian, whereas melynas in Lithuanian means “blue”, which is zils in Latvian. Lithuanian has the quite different word juodas for “black”. “Red” is sarkans in Latvian and raudonas in Lithuanian. For green we have similarity: zaļš vs. žalias, and one can infer the connection dzeltēns vs. geltonas for “yellow”. So there are many similarities, and many dissimilarities. Consider these two passages: “Visi cilvēki piedzimst brīvi un vienlīdzīgi savā pašcieņā un tiesībās. Viņi ir apveltīti ar saprātu un sirdsapziņu, un viņiem jāizturas citam pret citu brālības garā.” “Visi žmonės gimsta laisvi ir lygūs savo orumu ir teisėmis. Jiems suteiktas protas ir sąžinė ir jie turi elgtis vienas kito atžvilgiu kaip broliai.” They both say the same thing: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” So as you see, even the most basic daily words differ to such extreme degree. The reason for this is that Latvian culture was butchered and mutilated over the course of 800 years due to conquests by many different powers - Germans, Swedes, Russians and then they have had also big influx of Finno-ugric speakers from the north. Unfortunately unlike many Lithuanian tribes who managed to unite themselves against the common enemy and successfully stand against and fend invaders - Latvian tribes were unable to do that which led to disaster and nearly full assimilation as has happened with many other smaller tribes that were wiped out of the maps. Because of this dark history, their language has undergone major shift with implementing multitude different changes and especially introduction of vast amount foreign loan words.

[@ManteIIo]

@@edgar17d Both Lithuanian and Latvian formed and evolved at the same time, it's just that Latvian was mutilated and butchered over the course of the 800 years due to several invasions and conquests by foreign powers. Because of this dark history, only Lithuanian language managed to stay relatively untouched. Many seemingly unconnected languages all hark back to a common linguistic ancestry. The ancestors of today’s speakers of Indo-European languages spoke a single language, which linguists call Proto-Indo-European (PIE). Typically, it is through active usage that languages evolve and change over the course of centuries owing to their interaction with other languages, the introduction of new vocabulary, changes in pronunciation and so on. But, for various historical reasons, both Sanskrit and Lithuanian (Baltic language belonging to the Indo-European) did not change all that much and retain their ancient features which has resulted in uncanny resemblance. Its similarity to Sanskrit which was first noticed by linguists like Franz Bopp and Ferdinand de Saussure in the 19th century continue to provide clues to how PIE might have sounded - anyone wishing to hear how Proto-Indo-European spoke should come and listen to a Lithuanian peasant, stated Antoine Meillet, one of the most influential French linguists a century ago. Sanskrit's use for many centuries has been somewhat restricted. It has served as a liturgical language and its considerable corpus of written texts are studied extensively, but it has not served either as an administrative language or as a spoken one for centuries. Sanskrit’s non-usage on that count has ensured that it has remained virtually unchanged for centuries thereby retaining its distinct characteristics. Similarly, for historical reasons, the ancient Balts were settled and they were not inclined to mix with other tribes, so their languages maintained their ancient form and has not changed much and retained archaic structure and many features found only in Sanskrit and Ancient Greek. The scholarly consensus is that Lithuanian is the language that has retained most of the features of the Protolanguage, i.e. it is characterised by a very ancient linguistic structure: declensions (of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns), short and long vowels, diphthongs, etc. Although the written Lithuanian language is relatively ‘young’ (barely a century has gone by since the final standardisation of the alphabet and writing system), the spoken Lithuanian language is old and archaic, having been able to survive for thousands of years and to get through various attempts at robbing Lithuanian speakers of their identity. Traditional Lithuanian houses are often adorned with a horse motif. The twin horse heads are known as ‘Ašvieniai’. In Lithuanian mythology, the Ašvieniai are divine twins portrayed as pulling the carriage of the sun god (Saule) through the sky. That their name sounds uncannily familiar to Indians is on account of the fact that the term and other details pertaining to their portrayal are akin to the Ashwin twins of Indian mythology. In fact, the Lithuanian word for horse, from which Ašvieniai is derived - ‘ašva’ - is almost the same as the Sanskrit one: ‘áśva’ • अश्व (horse, stallion) and that’s not all. Many Lithuanian words have more than a passing resemblance to Sanskrit ones. Lithuanians wish profit and wealth to others and say ‘labas’, similar to the Sanskrit ‘labh’ • लभ् which means to gain, possess - comparable to Lithuanian lõbis (treasure, wealth). Dievas (Lithuanian) meaning ‘god’ is similar to devá • देव (Sanskrit) Ugnis (Lithuanian) meaning ‘fire’ is similar to agní • अग्नि (Sanskrit) Dantis (Lithuanian) meaning ‘teeth’ is similar to dánta • दन्त (Sanskrit) Dumas (Lithuanian) meaning ‘smoke’ is similar to dhūmá • धूम (Sanskrit) Sapnas (Lithuanian) meaning ‘dream’ is similar to svápna • स्वप्न (Sanskrit) Akis (Lithuanian) meaning ‘eye’ is similar to ákṣi • अक्षि (Sanskrit) Avis (Lithuanian) meaning ‘sheep’ is similar to ávi • अवि (Sanskrit) Diena (Lithuanian) meaning ‘day’ is similar to dína • दिन (Sanskrit) Sūnus (Lithuanian) meaning ‘son’ is similar to sūnú • सूनु (Sanskrit) Medus (Lithuanian) meaning ‘honey’ is similar to mádhu • मधु (Sanskrit) Ūdra (Lithuanian) meaning ‘otter’ is similar to udrá • उद्र (Sanskrit) Naujas (Lithuanian) meaning ‘new’ is similar to náva • नव (Sanskrit) Vyras (Lithuanian) meaning ‘man’ is similar to vīrá • वीर (Sanskrit) Vilkas (Lithuanian) meaning ‘wolf’ is similar to vṛ́ka • वृक (Sanskrit) Darna (Lithuanian) meaning ‘harmony’ is similar to dhárma • धर्म (Sanskrit) this is only a few examples of hundreds similar words and I'm more than certain that Latvians would also find a lot familiarity, Hindi language has even more words that are extinct in Sanskrit, but were copied into Hindi as foreign words and also almost identical to many Lithuanian words. An interesting example of this would be Hindi word 'kukurmutta' which means 'mushroom' and in Lithuanian kukurbezdalis/kukurdvelkis - 'puffball' mushroom. Imagine how this suffix traveled thousands of km and survived for thousands of years.

[@rlrihards948]

Never seen any Latvian that would understand a thing from Lithuanian besides from very few words that with accent sound different anyways.

[@MegaTali15]

I'm a language enthusiast and well, I love to learn languages, and I've participated in an challenge were you got a random language and you have to learn the most you can in one weekend (obviously it's impossible to learn any language in one weekend, but it's cool to spend some time learning new languages that maybe you never thought to learn). Anyway I got Latvian, and I fell deep in love with it!! It's a fascinating language. I couldn't keep learning because I'm already learning 3 languages, and I can't learn more haha but I'll keep learning it in the future. Greetings from México :) 🇲🇽♥️🇱🇻

[@JuLingo]

sounds like a fun experience! 😄

[@MrLubarts]

Thank you, Julie, for such a great video.

[@chash.4284]

Just found the channel - languages and linguistics are a passion of mine, and your investigations are easy to understand and very interesting. Thanks so much!

[@tomasouzaheuert]

I have watched every video you have made here so far and all of them are simply wonderful. Great job!

[@ripitvapars]

Big thank you for making this video, I enjoyed it a lot. Subscribed and interested to learn more about other languages. Greetings from Latvia :)

[@maijastra]

Beautiful video, next time my friends ask me about my language, I'll show them this! I live in Australia and am constantly explaining

[@PeterPeadar]

Super content! Love the few videos of yours that I've seen in the last couple of days. I look forward to binging on one of my favorite subject - languages and linguistics. Thanks for your work!

[@andrewjfulker]

Thank you, this is a good video. I found it to be very informative and your presentation was engaging and easy to listen to.

[@welshpete12]

I'm constantly surprised what you may find on KZbin . my hobby is etymology and I find this fascinating , thank you for posting .

[@anvershaiju7167]

Your voice and overall presentation was damn good

[@janeshaw6064]

love the informal quality of this video -- thank you for this!

[@gsnovaski]

Julie! What a great video! I've never thought I would know anything about Latvia and its language! Thanks for sharing your knowledge to us! Greetings from Brazil!

[@skoro-vernus]

Great material. Minor correction. 5:54 feminine nouns can also end up with -s, for example Valsts, Pils, Krāsns . Actually when you show declination table 5:13 these words appear as 6th declination.

[@johncouper4070]

Thank you for your enjoyable mixture of language, history, and culture (with a natural "set."). I've lived in Latvia and will return soon, so this is very welcome and has some information I'll pass on to my friends.

[@Timurlane100]

I'm really enjoying your videos. I first stumbled across you when doing a bit of research about the Georgian language, since I'm planning a trip there soon, but I'm pleased to see your other videos, such as this one about Latvian, to which I was introduced when I visited the country last year. Thank you, and two thumbs way up! ;-)

[@andrewtheogre5971]

Hi Julie, I’m so glad I found your channel. Languages and their origins are a passion of mine. Thanks. 😌

[@bobbysamuel9878]

Greeting from India !!! What a lovely introduction about your culture and language. Looking forward to more of such videos. Keep up the good work. :)

[@TheAnadromist]

Julie thanks for (finally) returning with a new obscure language video. I have a Latvian friend named Māra (which is not pronounced Mara). She helped me to understand what an unusual culture Latvia has. Many primitive survivals. I'm going to show this to her. I really appreciate your approach to languages. You clearly love them. My only hope is that you would become ever so slightly more regular in your videos. But I'll take what I can get. Sometime you should discuss a Slavic language since that is obviously home territory for you. Might I suggest Czech which has a wild history and is quite complicated. (I know a bit about it because puppets, which I study, helped keep the language alive when it was suppressed.)

[@TheAnadromist]

@@JuLingo You could go fully bizarre and talk about the languages of New Guinea. Whatever you choose I'll be waiting. (Visual tip: Not quite so much obviously selfie mode. Maybe set up a small tripod sometimes. Sitting on the swing was a nice touch. Keep going!

[@douglaseLamb]

You are doing an amazing job of bringing connection between many cultures through your knowledge of languages. Thx 🙏🏻 Juli, d

[@Darkshot_47]

Love your videos! Informative & unique content 👍

[@andristarakanovs2587]

Paldies, loti labs Video, parsutiju visiem saviem draugiem!!

[@chaireater4209]

7:39 telephone can also be said as telefons, which is used more often by younger people, and rālrunis is used more by older people

[@katluv6871]

Tālrunis not rālrunis.

[@Dana-ey2cz]

@@katluv6871 neesi dzirdējis/usi par kļūdām? Tas cilvēks varēja vienkārši kļūdīties, nav uzreiz jāpārmet

[@es2292]

Ta pat ka jauniesi "istie latviesi" saka rokas nevis piedurknes... Vai ritenis bet vajadzetu velosipeds.. 😂😂😂

[@Dana-ey2cz]

@@es2292 nē, visbiežāk izmanto *piedurknes*

[@thenoscoperhacker5121]

XD tu tā no-OOF-oji

[@mybrandnewlogin]

Great job, I'd wish to see more of content like this on KZbin!

[@VocalEdgeTV]

Your work is so impressive. Much appreciated.

[@eqdeepsingh5061]

Thank you for sharing such a important n beautiful heritage of Latvia 👍

[@nickreid5613]

This was a very interesting video! I have a Latvian friend and didn’t know how rich of a country it really is!

[@JuLingo]

Glad you liked it!

[@pstewart6537]

Excellent presentation. Thank you for sharing your expertise in the basic description and development of the language.

[@andreapineda8596]

This is so cool, thank you for the video!

[@theworldofchess4383]

please upload videos more often i understand it is difficult but i love your videos

[@theworldofchess4383]

@@JuLingo i am from georgia and i am your huge huge fan thank you for these beautiful videos

[@vanderoliver7129]

Create lessons on the Latvian language.That's fascinating. Greetings from Brazil.

[@glennextra]

I really enjoy your channel, have watched at least 15 of your videos, cheers from Vancouver, Canada

[@dianabroere2757]

Just watched your video, learned a bit and enjoyed it!

[@pattyozolina9573]

Thank you for this great video! I am Latvian myself!

[@birgitfenzl3376]

Hi. Congratulations. It is amazing how clear you explain. I'm from Brazil and my great-great parents from mother side where from Latvia. Thank you.

[@xxxyyy8779]

Were their Nazis fleeing from the Soviet justice system?

[@katherinelawrence3032]

Wonderful overview. I found this video as I was researching the various dialects of Latvian. Your summary is great.

[@JuLingo]

Thank you so much ☺️

[@korvusliedke8913]

Great video, especially the added animations!

[@henri372]

Intresting that the historic facts about Latvia are more correct than in the Estonian language video - which is funny because they are basically the same as for Latvia. For example - the estonian and latvian regions were ruled by baltic germans for 700 years which left its imprint on the language and psyche (Lutheran church, work ethic, grammar, etc). They were both under Danish, Swedish, Russian, Polish and German control until 1918 when both republics were created. Were both annexed by Soviet Union at the same time. They are both called the singing nations, have the big singing festivals (designed after the Baltic German choral tradition) and poetry archives collected from 18th-19th century.

[@miks4486]

Hi! I’m from Latvia and this is very interesting video! Sveiki! Es esmu no Latvijas un šis ir ļoti interesants video!

[@jeffc9673]

Juli, great presentation!

[@SoWhat89]

Super interesting! :) Love your videos.

[@doloresaelza9530]

I'm actuly from Latvija and it's fascinating to hear what other countries think about us And that reference about kazas or kāzas was a very interesting way to tell about the long letters and the short letters.

[@mcburger4828]

Pasaki vienu no šiem lamuvārdiem

[@doloresaelza9530]

Vienu no kuriem lamuvārdiem?

[@mcburger4828]

Piedod kādu lamuvārdu

[@doloresaelza9530]

Jūs teicāt "pasakiet vienu no tiem lamuvārdiem". Kuriem lamuvārdiem?

[@zzovic1134]

yeah bro i have a latvian gf man i find it so hard to learn i love ur country i want to learn the language so bad and thats a bad way to show looks hard af

[@SimplyUnst4ble]

I love my country Latvia. My heart is Latvia

[@karfomachet7265]

what is Livonia ???

[@sazviedre]

I'm from Latvia! I'm so happy you crate this video! :)

[@OlgasBritishFells]

Great channel! Just what I love. I am glad that YT recommended it to me.

[@joalexsg9741]

Amazing channel! Latvian has often been underestimated in comparison to its sister Lithuanian in Indo-European studies. And though I certainly respect the value of the latter language in such studies, I think Latvian is no less precious in both cultural and philological terms. It´s so important to have conscious and serious young people like you producing such educational videos, especially about something which used to be a privilege of some intellectual elites! The Indo-European cultures and languages represent such an important part of human civilizations that its family tree should be more divulged and discussed about and that´s exactly what you´re doing, and in such a delightful and accessible way that makes it way more pleasant for everyone to broaden their cultural horizons. It's also a matter of spiritual growth in so many senses. Congratulations and thank you for your precious educational activism!

[@ManteIIo]

Latvian language was butchered and mutilated over the course of 800 years due to conquests by many different powers - Germans, Swedes, Russians and then they have had also big influx of Finno-ugric speakers from the north. Unfortunately unlike many Lithuanian tribes who managed to unite themselves against the common enemy and successfully stand against and fend invaders - Latvian tribes were unable to do that which led to disaster and nearly full assimilation as has happened with many other smaller tribes that were wiped out of the maps. Because of this dark history, their language has undergone major shift with implementing multitude different changes and especially introduction of vast amount foreign loan words. The scholarly consensus is that only Lithuanian is the language that has retained most of the features of the Protolanguage, i.e. it is characterised by a very ancient linguistic structure: declensions (of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns), short and long vowels, diphthongs, etc.

[@joalexsg9741]

@@ManteIIo That may be true but somehow I confess my heart has always been closer to Latvian than to Lithuanian. I also love that Latvia is at least a bit more accpeting of my kind, LGBTIQs than Lithuanians, who are notorious for their LGBTIQ-phobia, but that's one more reason for us LGBTIQ worldwide to support all Baltic brothers and sisters in the region.

[@ManteIIo]

@@joalexsg9741 Yes, Lithuanians thorough the history always been very conservative, is also the reason why language got preserved so well.

[@joalexsg9741]

@@ManteIIo But, unlike linguistic preservation, social conservatism kills minorities or makes their lives miserable. I know Lithuania is not the only homophobic country in the world but as an activist who's been doing web activism for a couple of decades for lesser used and regional languages (and their alternative spirituality), I find it ironic that some of my kind are the ones who actually help make these cultures known to the general public and also help preserve them in their countries. One of our activists ( unfortunately, I lost contact with her as we were friends only on Facebook and I dropped out of that social web in Sept 2017) even takes part in the Baltic Prussian revival and you can bet other LGBTIQs are present in the preservation of Lithuanian language, history and ancestral spirituality, i.e. Romuva. The same for Latvian and Dievturiba. Moreover, as even among Israelites there were LGBTIQS among their exponents (King David was certainly bisexual, despite the desperate attempts by conservatives and orthodox Jews to deny the evidence), I'm sure the more research is carried on, the more Lithuanians will find some of their own exponents were/are LGBTIQS, prejudice making them have to hide their sexual orientation or gender spectrum.

[@xxxyyy8779]

​@@joalexsg9741killing minorities has been at the core of Latvians' xenophobic policies! They did it to Baltic Germans with Agrarian Reform in 1920, to Jews in Latvia during Holocaust and now are buse eradicating all things Russian. So, it's a bit two-faced to care about discriminatory practices towards LGBTQ and yet turn a blind eye to wiping out whole cultures in Latvia, don't you think?

[@perisher2568]

7:41+ "Latvian doesn't have any swear words." Um, actually... latvian has pleanty of its own swear words, it's just that many of the old swear words have become fine to use or were forgotten, yet some words, which were fine and used in poetry, have now become "rude" swear words.

[@daumantsshnore6950]

We are naturally too considerate to use rude swear words. Seriously l have solved the American dilemma of overusing the F word by substituting the D dear word. "Who ate the last piece of the DEAR pizza?"

[@genebigs]

Good job! Very interesting video about a relatively obscure language.

[@luigitubeable]

Interesting language! Thanks for the info. And I love your voice so much!

[@idanzamir7540]

Very interesting! You can really notice how it resembles other ancient indo-european languages like latin, greek or sanskrit

[@anna.bel0]

Thank you Julie for your devotion to helping people learn about languages that get less attention 💞 would you ever want to make a video about top differences between Latvian and Lithuanian (languages and cultures/history)?

[@JuLingo]

Yeah I could ☺️

[@SionTJobbins]

...and similarities between the two languages - are they mutually intellegable? Do Latvians speak a simple Latvian or some hybrid Lat-Lith pidgin language if they go to a shop or pub in Lithuania or speak in Russian or English?

[@bandzis]

@@SionTJobbins No the difference between Latvian and Lithuanian is about the same as between Estonian and Finnish. We don't really understand and can't conversate with each other - English or Russian is used. There is an insiders' joke that Latvian starts to understand some Lithuanian and vice versa only after a whole night of drinking together :) Though there for sure is plenty of common, very similar and false cousins like of vocabulary Lat and Lit share.

[@ManteIIo]

@@bandzis Lithuanian and Latvian are unintelligible. What you think you understand, half of the time are so-called 'false friends' - to give you a few examples 'sky' in latvian translates as 'debesis', but 'debesis' in lithuanian means 'clouds'. For 'sky' lithuanians use 'dangus', while in latvian it's 'mākonis' - totally unintelligible word for lithuanian. 'Bread' in latvian is 'maize', in lithuanian 'duona'. Or an example for 'clock' - in lithuanian it's 'laikrodis' and in latvian 'pulkstenis', another totally unintelligible word for lithuanian. So as you see, even the most basic daily words differ to such extreme degree. The reason for this is that Latvian culture was butchered and mutilated over the course of 800 years due to conquests by many different powers - Germans, Swedes, Russians and then they have had also big influx of Finno-ugric speakers from the north. Unfortunately unlike many Lithuanian tribes who managed to unite themselves against the common enemy and successfully stand against and fend invaders - Latvian tribes were unable to do that which led to disaster and nearly full assimilation as has happened with many other smaller tribes that were wiped out of the maps. Because of this dark history, their language has undergone major shift with implementing multitude different changes and especially introduction of vast amount foreign loan words.

[@ManteIIo]

@@SionTJobbins Lithuanian and Latvian has became so distict to each other, that I probably would understand more Sanskrit and Hindi at this point than Latvian. The scholarly consensus is that Lithuanian is the language that has retained most of the features of the Protolanguage, i.e. it is characterised by a very ancient linguistic structure: declensions (of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns), short and long vowels, diphthongs, etc. Traditional Lithuanian houses are often adorned with a horse motif. The twin horse heads are known as ‘Ašvieniai’. In Lithuanian mythology, the Ašvieniai are divine twins portrayed as pulling the carriage of the sun god (Saule) through the sky. That their name sounds uncannily familiar to Indians is on account of the fact that the term and other details pertaining to their portrayal are akin to the Ashwin twins of Indian mythology. In fact, the Lithuanian word for horse, from which Ašvieniai is derived - ‘ašva’ - is almost the same as the Sanskrit one: ‘áśva’ • अश्व (horse, stallion) and that’s not all. Many Lithuanian words have more than a passing resemblance to Sanskrit ones. Lithuanians wish profit and wealth to others and say ‘labas’, similar to the Sanskrit ‘labh’ • लभ् which means to gain, possess - comparable to Lithuanian lõbis (treasure, wealth). Dievas (Lithuanian) meaning ‘god’ is similar to devá • देव (Sanskrit) Ugnis (Lithuanian) meaning ‘fire’ is similar to agní • अग्नि (Sanskrit) Dantis (Lithuanian) meaning ‘teeth’ is similar to dánta • दन्त (Sanskrit) Dumas (Lithuanian) meaning ‘smoke’ is similar to dhūmá • धूम (Sanskrit) Sapnas (Lithuanian) meaning ‘dream’ is similar to svápna • स्वप्न (Sanskrit) Akis (Lithuanian) meaning ‘eye’ is similar to ákṣi • अक्षि (Sanskrit) Avis (Lithuanian) meaning ‘sheep’ is similar to ávi • अवि (Sanskrit) Diena (Lithuanian) meaning ‘day’ is similar to dína • दिन (Sanskrit) Sūnus (Lithuanian) meaning ‘son’ is similar to sūnú • सूनु (Sanskrit) Medus (Lithuanian) meaning ‘honey’ is similar to mádhu • मधु (Sanskrit) Ūdra (Lithuanian) meaning ‘otter’ is similar to udrá • उद्र (Sanskrit) Naujas (Lithuanian) meaning ‘new’ is similar to náva • नव (Sanskrit) Vyras (Lithuanian) meaning ‘man’ is similar to vīrá • वीर (Sanskrit) Vilkas (Lithuanian) meaning ‘wolf’ is similar to vṛ́ka • वृक (Sanskrit) Darna (Lithuanian) meaning ‘harmony’ is similar to dhárma • धर्म (Sanskrit) this is only a few examples of hundreds similar words and I'm more than certain that Latvians would also find a lot familiarity, Hindi language has even more words that are extinct in Sanskrit, but were copied into Hindi as foreign words and also almost identical to many Lithuanian words. An interesting example of this would be Hindi word 'kukurmutta' which means 'mushroom' and in Lithuanian kukurbezdalis/kukurdvelkis - 'puffball' mushroom. Imagine how this suffix traveled thousands of km and survived for thousands of years.

[@BobSmith-ec3ls]

Excellent video. Very useful and informative.

[@lilelly16]

Lovely video! I learned a lot 💯

[@wildtactical2662]

6:59 skurstenis = chimney

[@FleuveAlphee]

The word is clearly of germanic origin: compare "Schornstein" in German, that was certainly not borrowed from Latvian!

[@herrkulor3771]

It is called skorsten in swedish

[@herrkulor3771]

@Kolnu Andrius No idea. I just added my comment because skorsten is so close.

[@fartreta]

@Kolnu Andrius The Scandinavian languages imported loads and loads of words and even particles like prefixes and suffixes from Low German in the late medieval era because modern society with its towns, buildings, technology, trade and merchants essentially was an import from Northern Germany, so I don't think it's improbable at all that Skorsten has that origin. What's more to it is that words that have diphthongs in High German (like Stein) regularly became monophthongised in Low German (Steen). It's not a bad guess that Schornstein was pronounced "Schornsteen" or even "Skornsteen" in cities like Lübeck and Hamburg. Greetings from a Swedish language enthusiast 😊

[@fartreta]

@Kolnu Andrius none of them are really close actually. Skorsten is pronounced "skoshten" since the combination r+s is pronounced as a "sh" sound (except in Finland-Swedish and in the dialects of southernmost Sweden). And the o vowel is also very different.

[@gregcampwriter]

A choice between a goat and a wedding--there's a joke or a life lesson in there somewhere.

[@plomben]

IKR? And in Norwegian the words for "married" and "poison" are identical, also in the pronunciation (gift).

[@timothyatkinson4333]

Interesting as always. Blessings and grace to you.

[@arsumbris6392]

Very succinct and informative, thank you for making this video.

[@quit1474]

I’m so happy about all what I learned :D“ Es esmu Ļoti priecīga par visu ko es uzzināju :D”

[@skunksmirch7185]

take your medication first, loti prieciga

[@bloodtypena]

If anyone wonders how Britney Spears is in Lithuanian ( close siblings of Latvia) it would be Brtini Spyrs. Also Lithuanian language just like Latvian has no swearwords so we also borrow the swearwords from Russians, Polish, sometimes English ir German. But the Russian/Polish are more popular choises cause well they have very strong swearwords.

[@anthonyivers9206]

I have just discovered your programs.........stunning and amazing

[@SaraHill42]

That was very insightful. Thanks very much

[@sindiyalaure6226]

The video had a few incorrect facts, however I find it extremely cool how i finally see our little country on my recommendation page 😍

[@antrakirsone2992]

Piekrītu.

[@jorgeflorez4327]

I find your country quite nice. Regards.

[@dmark1922]

I'm crazy about Latvian contemporary music, with so many great singers, groups, and composers. I'm listening to Lat-pop on youtube everyday and it's good motivation to keep learning, because YES the grammar is not easy!! About loan words, sometimes I wonder how we can know if a word is "loaned" or if it is actually a cognate found in another Indo-European language?

[@oskarsrode2167]

That is often not easily distinguishable. Even with a background in Indo European studies and knowledge of other languages and quite the imagination it is not always determinable. If you know German you will recognize some words, they will probably not be cognates but loanwords. With Russian being a closer relative it is trickier to tell. But in general (for most languages) - the more basic the word the more probable it's an original as these words are rarely replaced. Good examples are number, closest relatives, basic functions such as eating and drinking. One very old loanword that nobody thinks of as such today is bērns (child). Baran meant to carry in old Germanic, the form loaned here is the past participle carried (out til the end) = born, which came to mean child in some languages. Cf. Scandinavian barn = child and English born and German geboren for the same. Latvian does not have participle forns with n so it must be a very old loanword.

[@dmark1922]

@@oskarsrode2167 Thanks for the insight! Yes I have recognized a few German loanwords, such as "stunde" for hour, but I imagine that "un" is not a loan from "und". My knowledge of Russian is sparse, but I have been picking up a few Russian words via Latvian, for example the word for "year" and others. I have wondered if the word "jokot" is a cognate of "joke" or a loan word from English...

[@oskarsrode2167]

@@dmark1922 Yes, the 'un' is actually from Low German which doesn't have the d at the end. The original used to be 'ir' (still in Lithuanian) and is nowadays only used in the phrase 'ir....ir' ('as well...as'). 'Joks' (joke) probably is an old cognate, although English probably got it from Latin 'iocus' and Germanic never had the word other than a loanword.

[@dmark1922]

@@oskarsrode2167 Thanks I am in awe of your knowledge on the subject and conjecture that your have done much studying in the field of linguistics. Hats off to you! So "un" is a loan word and joke/jokot are basically cognates... I would have thought the reverse, which goes to show how undependable "hunches" can be. ir...ir; yes I have seen that and thought it odd, now I see! Anyway I am looking forward to be able to get back to Latvia and try out what I've learned since my first visit in fall 2018.

[@oskarsrode2167]

@@dmark1922 You're welcome back when it's safe to travel!

[@jurko1984]

Awesome video! Thank you so much!

[@hermessantos181]

What a beautiful channel

[@TheKidrauhul]

She had some mistakes, but over all it was a great video! I'm always really happy to see sombody represent my country and/or language in a positive light

[@isabelpires968]

I m trying to learn Latvian language! Was a good video! Thanks! You do have a beautiful country and language! Ja😁😁😁👍👍👍

[@TheKidrauhul]

@@isabelpires968 Great! Why did you decide to learn Latvian? And also, how are you learning it? Are there any courses? 😄

[@isabelpires968]

@@TheKidrauhul I m learning because I m in love with a person from your country! I m Portuguese! But I m living abroad! So I want to do a surprise to that person! I m listening just youtubers! 🙂 I would like to have an intensive course about latvian language and history 😊😊

[@TheKidrauhul]

@@isabelpires968 Sooo cool! Thank you! Knowing that others are interested in my country and its history makes me trully happy! If you are interested, there are many videos on youtube about our history! :)

[@isabelpires968]

@@TheKidrauhul I m in full love with your people and country! Your country is sooooo beautiful. I m listening a lot and learning also!doing my best! Hope everything goes well at the end ❤️❤️❤️

[@andrzejbanas7261]

Julie, You could have mentioned that this is one of the languages you speak fluently. We have learned from 😊 of your KZbin posts that you are from Latvia!

[@Transilvanian90]

I kind of deduced it's her native language based on how early in her video creation career she made the video

[@lherzog6380]

This is a great presentation of a rare language ! Thank you , paldies

[@rayahui3768]

This is just a very well, educational video. Loved it

[@passage2enBleu]

Love philology! One day when I grow down I'm going to explore the world through languages.

[@HeinrichTsanov]

I am curious what the source languages of the Finnic words are (it looks like Livonian to me). I am pretty sure Latvian puika is related to Finnish poika (which means boy or son as well) and it is spelt in the same way in Ingrian and Votic. The word pois however in Finnish means "away", which is completely unrelated. Kaija on the other hand means parrot in Finnish, which is related to Russian попугай. I am not sure if the Latvian word is related.

[@twaago]

A great resource on mutual language influences between Livonian and Latvian is www.livones.net/en/valoda/mutual-influence-between-livonian-and-latvian

[@rode7916]

Yes most Finnic words in the Latvian language come from mainly Livonian or sometimes Estonian/Protofinnic. Latvian puika is related to Finnish (pūoga in Livonian) and Latvian has many other words which are nearly the same in Finnish, like "laiva" ir "vai" etc. The word puisis (boy) also comes from Livonian pȯis (similar to Estonian poiss). The word kaija comes from Livonian kajāgõz or Estonian kajakas.

[@blackcoffeebeans6100]

@@rode7916 also poika is en pojke in swedish.

[@douglasfuqua7082]

Excellent work...your explanations were very good. KZbin did NOT send me to this video...I looked for this subject myself. Thank you so very much !!! --- Doug, USA

[@lailadot3562]

Thanks for the great video!

[@laumal.7404]

Beautiful video! 🇱🇻 And accurate. I'm latvian. It's a hard language - even for a native. But we do have swearwords just that they are not as 'loud' as russian ones 🤬😅

[@kristianakrista]

Great video! I just want to add that we do have swear words! We use all animal names and not only! HAHA

[@dreamthedream8929]

Yeah Latvians like saying lohs, kuces dels and daunis! And to make it especially offensive they make it cute and say ak tu daunitis tads! Basically meaning that that person has about the same of stupidity as someone who has that syndrom!

[@Seung217]

Thank you for such a fascinating video

[@greggrobinson5116]

Your videos are as addicting as potato chips! I love your variety, and the way you favor the overlooked and obscure!

[@joshuddin897]

Latvian is her mother tongue.

[@katkus1309]

I am Latvian... at 5:16 there is ziļi and ziļiem but in latvian it would just be zili and ziliem 6:59 skurstenis means chimney not roof Overall i really respect that someone notices latvia!😊

[@JuLingo]

katana kaktuss thank you! I’m really sorry for the typos 😰

[@katkus1309]

JuLingo i didnt mean it in a mean way. I just wanted to point out the mistakes so you can improve and others can too. I really apreacitate that you notice latvia, our language and even care enough to make a video about it. Love you😘

[@JuLingo]

katana kaktuss I didn’t get it in a mean way don’t worry 😉 well, it’s a country where I grew up, so of course I care about it a lot ☺️

[@Lachausis]

I swear to god this girl's accent is a mixture of Latvian, finno-ugric and slavic (slovak). Her accent is so cold I might think she's Latvian.

[@hosmanidze]

I was thinking the same, she sound like Latvian :))

[@antoniotraub6183]

@@hosmanidze In anoðer video she commented ðat she's Latvian

[@antoniotraub6183]

@Kolnu Andrius I wouldn't know about her pronunciation. But I saw a comment of hers saying ðat she was

[@antoniotraub6183]

@Kolnu Andrius I'll search for it again to be completely certain

[@mitchellbitzky2799]

She doesn't say many Latvian words in this video but the ones she does articulate sound like from a native speaker. I can't judge how well she pronounces the other languages in her videos. While her English is very good, her accent suggests someone from the Baltics.

[@ermannododaro]

It's really interesting! Thanks for sharing. Hugs from Italy

[@tashuntka]

I so love watching these 3 and 4 year old videos 💛 As always, brilliant and gorgeous... What a combo... Also, I can tell how your confidence has grown over the years and its delightful 😊 💖💃✨️💖

[@emilyspecter9532]

Icelandic does the same thing where they want language purity so instead of adopting foreign words they create new ones that work with the language.

[@thomaskember4628]

I had a Latvian girlfriend once.She never swore, not at me at least. Many of the loanwords from English come from what was originally loanwords into English.

[@jenmorricone4014]

Great job. Very informative

[@travisjames2350]

Very helpful Thank you so much!!