Год: 2008
Количество страниц: 119
Latvian and English are remotely related; they both belong to the Indo-European family of languages. Latvian belongs to the Baltic branch with Lithuanian as its only extant close relative whereas English belongs to the Germanic branch with German, Dutch and Scandinavian languages as its near relatives. The use of English has expanded to all continents; Latvian is fully used only within its narrow national borders in Northeast Europe. Nevertheless, Latvian today is fully capable to express the complexities of mode civilization in all its aspects; it uses the mode media, possesses an expanding literature and maintains institutions of culture and higher leaing.
Besides being a mode language, Latvian has retained many archaisms in its structure that English has shed centuries or even thousands of years ago. Latvian still uses hundreds of suffixes that make the declensional cases, various verbal and participial forms and new words from existing bases. In this Latvian and English represent two different language types: Latvian, with its multitude of affixes, is a syntactic language whereas English is of the analytical type. This difference will be demonstrated throughout this volume: where Latvian has a single word with one or more suffixes, the English equivalent of it will usually be a phrase of two or more separate words.
As in the rest of Europe, there was no common national language in Latvia during the Middle Ages, only closely related dialects of Baltic origin. Like many other smaller nations, the Latvians had the misfortune to fall under a foreign rule. In subjugation the growth to nationhood was slow and painful. No native culture or literature could develop comparable to that of the sovereign countries of Weste Europe. The centers of culture that grew up in the land were foreign In their language and spirit. Like Basques, Bretons or the Welsh, Latvians could enter the larger word only through the culture media of their subjugators. The educated persons were lost to the nation because by being educated they automatically chose an alien language and culture. The meager literature that appeared in Latvian from the end of the 16th to the beginning of the 19th centuries was either religious or narrowly utilitarian, written by the alien masters for their servant class. With some exceptions, most of these writings display misunderstood language structure and stilted expression.
Despite its relegation to a lower class status, the living Latvian language never lost its ancient richness of form and expression. Through the centuries it underwent a consolidation process and developed an "underground" literary tradition truly national in its scope. This folk literature reflected the whole rural world and its experiences. When it began to be collected, Latvian folksongs alone yielded over 90.000 originals with their variants topping one million. During the 19th century, when the Latvians began to strive for greater and greater independence in all areas of their life, the language of the people and of folk literature became the foundation for the now-national medium. Poets and writers of notable talents helped to polish the new literary language and adjust it to the needs of the mode life. Its adjustment for scientific uses followed. Today we have Standard Latvian that is also the spoken language in the families of educated Latvians. Mainly it contains the linguistic features of Central Latvia, but other regions have also made their contributions.
Количество страниц: 119
Latvian and English are remotely related; they both belong to the Indo-European family of languages. Latvian belongs to the Baltic branch with Lithuanian as its only extant close relative whereas English belongs to the Germanic branch with German, Dutch and Scandinavian languages as its near relatives. The use of English has expanded to all continents; Latvian is fully used only within its narrow national borders in Northeast Europe. Nevertheless, Latvian today is fully capable to express the complexities of mode civilization in all its aspects; it uses the mode media, possesses an expanding literature and maintains institutions of culture and higher leaing.
Besides being a mode language, Latvian has retained many archaisms in its structure that English has shed centuries or even thousands of years ago. Latvian still uses hundreds of suffixes that make the declensional cases, various verbal and participial forms and new words from existing bases. In this Latvian and English represent two different language types: Latvian, with its multitude of affixes, is a syntactic language whereas English is of the analytical type. This difference will be demonstrated throughout this volume: where Latvian has a single word with one or more suffixes, the English equivalent of it will usually be a phrase of two or more separate words.
As in the rest of Europe, there was no common national language in Latvia during the Middle Ages, only closely related dialects of Baltic origin. Like many other smaller nations, the Latvians had the misfortune to fall under a foreign rule. In subjugation the growth to nationhood was slow and painful. No native culture or literature could develop comparable to that of the sovereign countries of Weste Europe. The centers of culture that grew up in the land were foreign In their language and spirit. Like Basques, Bretons or the Welsh, Latvians could enter the larger word only through the culture media of their subjugators. The educated persons were lost to the nation because by being educated they automatically chose an alien language and culture. The meager literature that appeared in Latvian from the end of the 16th to the beginning of the 19th centuries was either religious or narrowly utilitarian, written by the alien masters for their servant class. With some exceptions, most of these writings display misunderstood language structure and stilted expression.
Despite its relegation to a lower class status, the living Latvian language never lost its ancient richness of form and expression. Through the centuries it underwent a consolidation process and developed an "underground" literary tradition truly national in its scope. This folk literature reflected the whole rural world and its experiences. When it began to be collected, Latvian folksongs alone yielded over 90.000 originals with their variants topping one million. During the 19th century, when the Latvians began to strive for greater and greater independence in all areas of their life, the language of the people and of folk literature became the foundation for the now-national medium. Poets and writers of notable talents helped to polish the new literary language and adjust it to the needs of the mode life. Its adjustment for scientific uses followed. Today we have Standard Latvian that is also the spoken language in the families of educated Latvians. Mainly it contains the linguistic features of Central Latvia, but other regions have also made their contributions.