Latvian Language

The current paper is a case study of Estonian-Latvian individual bilin-gualism. Estonian and Latvian belong to different language families (respectively Finnic branch of Uralic and Baltic branch of Indo-European). The case is instructive because it demonstrates that there is no significant differences between impact in imposition (L1 Estonian > L2 Latvian) and in adoption (L2 Latvian > L1 Estonian). This is at odds with Thomason and Kaufman (Language contact, creolization, and genetic linguistics. University of California Press, Berkley, 1988) who argue that impact of L1 is in phonology and grammar and impact of L2 mostly in lexicon, semantics and non-core morphosyntax. The data are analyzed in Code-Copying Framework (CCF, Johanson L, Code-copying in immigrant Turkish. In Extra G, Verhoeven L (eds) Immigrant languages in Europe. Multilingual matters, Clevedon, pp 197–221, 1993; Contact-induced change in a code-copying framework. In Jones MC, Esch E (eds) Language change: the interplay of internal, external and extra-linguistic factors, Contribution to the sociology of language, vol 86. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, pp 285–313, 2002) because it takes into consideration bidirection-ality of contact-induced language change and provides a holistic view on lexicon and morphosyntax (they are not separated in CCF). The similar character of adoption and imposition can be explained by (1) cognitive factors (lack of strict boundaries between the systems, also demonstrated by compromise morphosyntax); (2) individual factors (balanced bilingualism, individual linguistic flexibility), (3) structural factors (material similarity in common borrowings and common international-isms) and (4) certain sociolinguistic factors (two countries with a fairly similar sociolinguistic and political history, roughly equal prestige of both languages, no normative pressure, lack of bilingual community).

This study examines the system of terms used to describe temperature in Latvian, with special focus on temperature adjectives as its core. The main aim of the research is to understand how the domain of temperature is conceptualised in Latvian. The semantics and distribution of eleven adjectives are analysed from different points of view in line with a lexical typological approach. The study shows that the system of Latvian basic temperature terms can be revised and re-evaluated as consisting of four terms rather than three (cf. Sutrop 1999). Some aspects of semantic shifts and regular metaphorical patterns in the relevant domain are discussed as well.

This paper investigates Latvian verbs with causative morphology and their relations to non-causative verbs. Causative morphology comprises vowel alternation and suffixation. The different techniques are largely synonymous, but differ in frequency and productivity. A major concern of this paper is to determine which kind of base verbs have corresponding morphological causatives and how the argument structure of a causative verb can be linked to that of the base verb. The great majority of Latvian morphological causatives represent the causative prototype: they are systematically related to patientive intransitive verbs whose single argument corresponds to the direct object of the causative construction. Variations to this pattern are found with causatives based on intransitive verbs whose primary argument is an Agent, Experiencer, or Theme. Morphological causatives related to transitive base verbs are rare and predominantly used in monotransitive constructions.  In general, causatives with all kind of bases tend to be used in the basic transitive construction of Latvian with one direct object in the accusative, and possibly peripheral arguments marked with the locative or a preposition.

[If you are interested in this paper, please ask me for an electronic offprint.]

This referendum on constitutional amendments to add Russian as an official language in Latvia is the latest skirmish over the status of ethnic non-Latvians, primarily ethnic Russians, and the Russian language since Latvia's resumption of independence at the end of the Soviet occupation in 1991. Although peaceful and with a decisive negative result, the referendum highlighted and exacerbated the political divisions that remain between the Latvian majority and Russian-speaking minority over ethnic and linguistic issues. The proposed constitutional amendments would have altered Sections 4, 18, 21, 101, and 104 of the Constitution of Latvia. The changes would have made Russian a second official language in addition to Latvian. The amendments would further have explicitly made Russian a second working language of state and local governments and an acceptable, legal means of communication between citizens and the government. Finally, the amendments would have altered the oath for members of the Saeima so that they promise to strengthen "the Latvian language and the Russian language as the only official languages" instead of solely the Latvian language. In short, the amendments would have given Russian equal legal status to Latvian and ended the constitutional mandate for the promotion of Latvian as the single state language in the public sphere.

The political shocks of the 2014 Ukrainian crisis have been felt in many former Soviet countries, not least Latvia, where over 35% of the population are native Russian speakers. At a time when analysts and commentators are unsure about Russia’s future plans to intervene on behalf of their ‘compatriots’, this study provides a detailed political and cultural analysis of Russian-speaking identity in Latvia.
By using Russian-speakers in Latvia as a specific case study, this volume also offers a fresh methodological approach to the study of discourses and discursive strategies. It outlines a coherent methodology to study the evolution of discourses over time, rather than a single de-contextualized and static time period.
Drawing on media analysis, elite interviews, focus groups and survey data, Russian Speakers in Post-Soviet Latvia situates the identity strategies of Russian speakers within the political, cultural, and economic transformations of the post-Soviet era. By assessing political, cultural, and economic links with their home state (Latvia) and their potential kin-state (Russia), it offers important insights into the complex identity positions of Latvia’s Russian speakers, and how these positions have evolved in Latvia since the late Soviet period.

On some sociolinguistic mechanisms of lexical transfer in Baltic-Balkan area (based on Turkish-Bulgarian, German-Polish, and Russian-Latvian language contact)

The paper deals with three examples of the so called unbalanced multilingualism (Rzech Pospolita, Ottoman Empire, and Latvian Republic). On the base of the crosslinguistic comparison, the paper shows trigger mechanisms of lexical transfer from the dominant (official) language into stigmatized languages in the postimperial context. The paper deals with three examples of the so called unbalanced multilingualism (Rzech Pospolita, Ottoman Empire, and Latvian Republic). On the base of the crosslinguistic comparison, the paper shows trigger mechanisms of lexical transfer from the dominant (official) language into stigmatized languages in the postimperial context.

Based on a substantial corpus of recordings from the Latvian Parliament's sittings, this book is a detailed analysis of Latvian stance-marking phrases and expressions used in the context of political discourse. It is one of just a few available empirical analyses of contemporary Latvian spoken discourse based on authentic data and possibly the first linguistic analysis of Latvian discourse written in English. Drawing upon a significant body of scientific literature on stance categories in various languages, as well as on the methodology of critical/political discourse analysis, conversation analysis, sociolinguistics, corpus linguistics, social and political studies, it examines stance taking into account the notions of positive and negative politeness, social face, claiming or disclaiming commitment, responsibility or authority, the speakers’ roles, perspectives or ‘footings’, argumentative strategies, and similar. It shows how Latvian speakers work to establish common ground, invoke the feelings of rapport and solidarity, or position themselves and other participants of discourse with relation to the Us vs. Them distinction.

Latgale, the southeast region of Latvia, has a distinct ethnoregional identity largely due to the widespread use of the Latgalian language/dialect. The status of Latgalian as a language/dialect is highly politicised in Latvia today, yet this is not only a twenty-first century phenomenon. Since its inception as a written language in the mid-eighteenth century, the development of written Latgalian has been strongly influenced by politics and nationalism. This is an exploratory paper, which traces the impact of politics and nationalism on the development of written Latgalian throughout the long nineteenth century, a period in which the region was administered by three political regimes (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russian Empire, First Republic of Latvia). Transnational perspectives are used to contextualise the development of written Latgalian with the development of other written languages in the vicinity (Belarusian, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Samogitian), and to open up the field for further comparative studies on the development of non-national written languages/dialects. Latgale is a borderland region often neglected in mainstream Latvian scholarship, and, by extension, even more so outside Latvia. This paper hopes to go some way to rectifying this. //

Gramota: wpływ polityki i nacjonalizmu na rozwój łatgalskiego języka literackiego w długim wieku XIX (1772–1918)

Łatgalię, południowo-wschodni region Łotwy, cechuje odrębna tożsamość etniczno-regionalna, przede wszystkim z racji powszechnego na tym terenie używania języka/dialektu łatgalskiego. Status łatgalskiego jako języka/dialektu stanowi w dzisiejszej Litwie w dużej mierze kwestię o wymiarze politycznym, aczkolwiek nie jest to zjawisko, które pojawiło się dopiero w XX stuleciu. Łatgalski już od czasu swych narodzin jako język literacki w połowie XVIII wieku pozostawał pod silną presją polityki oraz nacjonalizmów. Niniejszy artykuł ma na celu prześledzenie oddziaływania polityki i nacjonalizmu na kształtowanie się literackiej odmiany języka łatgalskiego w ciągu „długiego wieku XIX” – okresu, w którym region ten podlegał administracji rządowej sprawowanej przez trzy systemy polityczne (Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów, Imperium Rosyjskie, Pierwsza Republika Litewska). Spojrzenie na omawiane zagadnienie z perspektywy ponadnarodowej pozwala stworzyć kontekst rozwoju łatgalskiego języka literackiego w odniesieniu do innych języków literackich formujących się w bliskim jego sąsiedztwie (białoruskiego, łotewskiego, litewskiego i semigalskiego), jak też otworzyć pole dla kolejnych studiów porównawczych nad kształtowaniem się nienarodowych języków/dialektów literackich. Łatgalia stanowi region pograniczny, zwykle zaniedbywany przez główny nurt nauki łotewskiej, a tym bardziej w dociekaniach naukowych poza granicami Łotwy. Niniejszy artykuł ma za zadanie choć w pewnej mierze stan ten naprawić.

Latgale; politics of language; regional identity; nationalism; transnational history

Depending on the context the Latvian verb dabūt 'get' expresses either necessity or possibility in combination with the infinitive, which makes it similar to what is known as " acquisitive modals " in other languages, such as Swedish and Esto-nian. The Latvian verb is different in that it is implicative rather than modal, i.e. the necessity or possibility that it expresses is always actualized, unless the verb is negated. The use of dabūt with the infinitive has developed from the meaning 'onset of possession' alongside other meanings that include 'displacement/change of state' and 'unpleasant experience/damage', the former also being found with acquisitive verbs in other languages.

There are fascinating problems at the syntax-morphology interface which tend to be missed. I offer a brief explanation of why that may be happening, then give a Canonical Typology perspective, which brings these problems to the fore. I give examples showing that the henomena could in principle be treated either by syntactic rules (but these would be complex) or within morphology (but this would involve redundancy). Thus ‘non-autonomous’ case values, those which have no unique form but are realized by patterns of syncretism, could be handled by a rule of syntax (one with access to other features, such as number) or by morphology (with resulting systematic syncretisms). I concentrate on one of the most striking sets of data, the issue of prepositional government in Latvian, and outline a solution within Network Morphology using structured case values.

In the course of their development, many Indo-European languages modified the system of three grammatical genders − masculine, feminine and neuter − inherited from Proto-Indo-European, usually by eliminating neuter or merging feminine with masculine. The reasons and processes of such modifications in most cases are poorly understood. The Baltic languages are no exception to this tendency, having lost neuter gender before the time of historical record (Latvian and Lithuanian) or shortly after it started (Old Prussian). It is usually assumed that phonological factors played the crucial role in the Baltic neuter loss, causing minimally different masculine and neuter paradigms to merge. However, this account is unsatisfactory, since it can be shown that paradigm merge alone is insufficient for gender merge. In this paper, I propose that contact with genderless Finnic languages shares the responsibility for elimination of neuter in Baltic. This hypothesis is supported by the distribution of remnants of old neuter gender across Baltic languages (the further north-the less remnants), as well as the loss of the remaining gender categories in Baltic dialects (Tamian) spoken on the former Finnic territory.

[Conclusions]

Latvian periphrastic causative constructions in 16th c. texts differ from
their modern use in three main respects: (1) likt is used in permissive contexts (notably with negation), (2) laist is a default permissive predicate, and (3) ļaut is unattested. The use of dot ‘let’ and spiest ‘make’ is marginal, which parallels the current situation in Latvian. Both dot ‘let’ and spiest ‘make’ seem to be rather closely tied to the (possible) sources of the translations.

As for causee/permittee marking, there is a fluctuation between dative and
accusative, but it should be noted that although the majority of pronominals can be formally classified as datives, they are also used as accusatives. In some cases of reflexive constructions, actual causees/permittees were marked by PPs with no, which seems to reflect the German pattern of PPs with von. However, only some of these examples had corresponding German constructions, meaning that either other sources were used, or the translator was already
accustomed to this construction.

The locus of affixation of the morphological reflexive marker in constructions with likt fluctuates, but the preferred place seems to be the matrix verb.

Related to the permissive use of laist are the 1st person plural hortative
and 3rd person optative/hortative constructions. The 1st person plural hortative is most likely a direct copy of the German lass(e)t uns construction, while the 3rd person constructions seem to be at least a partly independent development of Latvian. Rare 3rd person hortatives/optatives with infinitives, instead of with indicatives, may show an intermediate stage of development (cf. Holvoet 2001: 63): the original permittee was already marked by the nominative, but the infinitive was still kept and then subsequently replaced by the present indicative. Constructions with laid + present indicative (= modern use) are attested in only one source (UP1587).

The paper offers a functional analysis of three Latvian verbs of speaking used in their indicative third person forms – saka, runā and stāsta 'say(s), speak(s) and talk(s)' – based on the Latvian language corpus online (www.korpuss.lv) and, additionally, on examples excerpted from Internet discourse. The article discusses semantic and syntactic similarities and differences between these words, the functions of particular constructions distinguished according to specific syntactic criteria (presence vs. absence of a subject), and the use of these verbs in combination with the Latvian verb form traditionally associated with (potential) evidential meanings, the oblique (atstāstījuma izteiksme). While the use of verbs of speaking for introducing reported speech is seen as unproblematic, the relationship between verba dicendi and evidentiality requires more attention and remains in focus throughout this study. In order to offer an in-depth overview of the nature of this relationship, the relations between reported speech and evidentiality, as well as the oblique and evidentiality, are also briefly considered. The paper concludes that the possibility of the three verbs functioning as evidential markers depends on considerations of theoretical/terminological nature (how to define evidentiality, should reported speech be considered part of it, etc.) and also, to some extent, on the way the subject is realized in verba dicendi constructions (specific human agent vs. non-specific empty subject and absent or zero subject).

Language formed the ideological foundation of many national movements in Central and Eastern Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The decision on whether a people spoke a language or a dialect was not based on arguments about linguistic proximity or distance, but rather on political definitions of who constituted the ethno-linguistic nation. This led to languages being combined or split in accordance with nation-building projects. Often overlooked is the impact of this politicisation of language on sub-national and regional dialects, which are today not accorded the status of languages. This paper focuses on the case study of Latgalian, which is used as a means of everyday communication by 150,000-200,000 people in eastern Latvia. It is officially classified as a ‘historical variety’ and ‘dialect’ of Latvian, but linguists have made the case for it being a separate language. The debate over the distance and proximity of languages/dialects is especially pronounced in this ‘peripheral’ (from the perspective of Riga) and highly multi-ethnic region that borders Belarus, Lithuania, and Russia.

This article explores semantic and grammatical properties of Latvian agent nouns that are derived from verbs by the suffix -ēj-(for primary verbs) or -tāj-(for secondary verbs). These formations show several peculiarities that distinguish them from agent nouns in other European languages and from similar Latvian nouns formed by other means. They are specialized in meaning, highly regular and transparent. They show verbal features such as aspectuality and combinability with adverbs, and they may inherit verbal arguments. The productivity of the formation is almost unlimited, and many ad hoc formations are found in colloquial style, for example in social media. In discourse, agent nouns often have a referential function, either as the only function or in combination with a concept-building function. The focus of the article is on less institutionalized tokens which show the potential of this morphological process that challenges traditional views about the functions of derivation or its delimitation.

This article examines the use and functions of questions in Latvian and Polish parliamentary debates from the perspective of comparative pragmatics. The research is based on a corpus of 200 utterances excerpted from transcripts of Latvian and Polish parliaments' sittings from 2009. It uses the typology of questions in interaction developed by I (1999). The paper suggests that differences in the frequency and functions of questions refl ect different degrees of interactionality of a debate, which is a genre that combines monologic and dialogic features. On this basis, the discourse of Polish parliamentary debates is recognized as more interactional than its Latvian counterpart.

Only Polish words from Marcin Paszkowski’s “Dictionary” have been published up to now while their Turkish equivalents have never been edited although two scholars (Ananiasz Zajączkowski 1938 and Stanisław Stachowski 1989) intended to do so. In this article the reasons for this situation are discussed and explained, as well as a solution is suggested as to how the source can be useful.

Permissive and factitive causative constructions are analyzed based on a corpus of 17th century Old Latvian texts. I demonstrate that the construction with the verb likt still has permissive and factitive functions similar to the 16th century use but different from the modern use, where only the factitive function of likt remains. I suggest that the factitive use of likt possibly developed under direct influence of (or supported by) the German lassen construction. Permissive constructions with dot, laist, ļaut, and (at-)vēlēt are also discussed and of those, the latter two are not found in the 16th century corpus and (at-)vēlēt is no longer used as permissive in modern Latvian. In factitive constructions, the verb (pie-)spiest is also sometimes used, but constructions with likt are much more frequent.

The marking of permittee and causee varies between dative and accusative in some constructions; I argue that the dative should be seen as original in dot constructions and most likely original in likt constructions, and that the use of the accusative instead of the dative may reflect the influence of German constructions with lassen + ACC. I also discuss reflexive constructions, which usually occur with likt and frequently contain two affixal reflexive markers. In these constructions, the permittee can be marked by a PP with no, which is a copy of a corresponding German lassen construction containing a PP with von.

PRATARMĖ Serijai Bibliotheca Salensis pradžią davė nuo 2004 metų Salų dvare (prie Kamajų, Rokiškio rajone) pradėtos rengti kalbotyros vasaros mokyklos. Joje bus leidžiamos specialiai šiai serijai parašytos, daugeliu atvejų Salose perskaitytų paskaitų pagrindu parengtos mažos apimties knygos, kuriose bus pateikti įvairių kalbotyros sričių ir krypčių įvadai. Tai nebus grynai populiari, plačiai publikai skirta serija, nes joje leidžiami tekstai reikalauja pagrindinio lingvistinio išsilavinimo. Leidėjai tikisi, kad serija Bibliotheca Salensis iš dalies galės užpildyti jau seniai jaučiamą spragą knygų rinkoje: trūksta lietuviškai parašytų arba į lietuvių kalbą išverstų knygų, supažindinančių skaitytojus su XX-ojo amžiaus lingvistinės minties pasiekimais tiek teorinės, tiek istorinės-lyginamosios kalbotyros srityje. Serija, žinoma, negalės atstoti fundamentinių lingvistinių veikalų ir platesnių, sistemingų įvadų vertimų, bet specifiniai jos bruožai turėtų ją padaryti patrauklią skaitytojams Lietuvoje: autoriai yra lietuvių kalbą tyrinėjantys arba su Lietuva bendradarbiaujantys lingvistai, serijoje spausdinami tekstai daugeliu atvejų bus paremti lietuvių kalbos medžiaga. Kaip ir pačios Academia Grammaticorum Salensis, taip ir Bibliotheca Salensis tikslas yra Lietuvoje skatinti susidomėjimą naujesnėmis teorinės ir deskriptyvinės lingvistikos kryptimis.

Very few people know that a possibility of reconstructing protolanguages or protoforms was probably first suggested as early as in the 16th century by Miechowita while discussing the origin of the name of Hungarians and that of Yugra. Miechowita’s “Treatise on the Two Sarmatias” was once an extremely important source of knowledge of the geography and history of East Europe. Although much was written on its significance in correcting more or less unlikely information concerning these subjects his linguistic material was actually ignored. The aim of this study is to examine what was known about East European languages in the early sixteenth century.

Primārā salīdzināmā konstrukcija 17. gadsimta latviešu valodā ir bijusi konstrukcija ar saikli nekā, kas Stasena terminoloģijā tipoloģiski reprezentē tā saukto savienoto komparatīvu (angl. conjoined comparative, Stassen 1985). Tas atbilst stāvoklim 16. gadsimta lietuviešu valodā,
kur kā primārās nevienlīdzības salīdzināmās konstrukcijas (COI) lietotas konstrukcijas ar saikļiem, kas ietver noliegumu: neg(i), nei(gi), neng, nekaip, net, nent ‘nekā’ (Ostrowski 2018).

The article analyses a writing system of the Latvian language that has been scarcely researched before. The evidence of the usage of the knot script and song clews is present in the Latvian folklore, although it has been commonly considered as a metaphor. At the beginning of the 20th century there were individuals still using it prior to the conventional literacy increase due to the general education. Similar knot scripts can be found in several cultures around the globe. The article encompasses a study of previous researches and evidence in periodicals, Latvian community in Lithuania, education of commoners in Latvia, reciprocal comparison of the Latvian knot script writing systems, interview with a contemporary witness and experiment on reconstruction of the Latvian knot script. // Keywords: knot script, knot records, quipu, Latvia, Latvian)

Axel Holvoet has demonstrated that Latvian has two types of zero-person constructions which formally differ in grammatical number, and that the singular type has a parallel in Finnic, but not in Lithuanian. This paper shows that the meanings covered by the two types are distinct and do not overlap. Using the framework proposed by Gast and van der Auwera for the description of human impersonal pronouns, it is shown that the singular type is characterized by non-veridicality and an internal perspective. As in Finnish, but not Estonian, it is used in conditional sentences with all kinds of verbs. The plural type is used in Latvian as well as in Lithuanian with veridical propositions and an external perspective.

This corpus-based study presents a description of the various morphosyntactic procedures found in the translation of evaluative forms from Spanish to Latvian. Said procedures have been identified and characterized in previous research by contrasting a total of 3,706 ST evaluative forms to their textual equivalents in Latvian (Martín Calvo 2019b). The present study's analysis focuses on ST evaluative forms containing nine suffixes most commonly employed in the expression of pejorative senses:-ac- ,-ach- ,-aj- ,-astr- ,-ej- ,-oide,-orr(i)- ,-uch- ,-uz-. Given that Latvian does not have dedicated affixal means to express pejoration, we examine the morphosyntactic procedures adopted by translators in order to provide TL textual counterparts for excerpted ST units and evaluate the TT reproduction of their semantic and pragmatic features. The study corpus covers a wide temporal range (1588 to 2013) and contains ST and TT textual units which have been excerpted from 26 works of fiction representing 7 national varieties of Spanish, as well as the work of 21 authors and 11 translators.

El presente artículo presenta una descripción de los diversos procedimientos morfosintácticos de traducción empleados en letón para ofrecer equivalentes textuales a formas evaluativas del español. Dichos procedimientos han sido identificados y descritos anteriormente en base al análisis de un corpus de estudio que comprende 3,706 formas evaluativas extraídas de TO en español así como sus equivalentes textuales en los TM en letón (Martín Calvo 2019b). El estudio examina dichos procedimientos en relación a formas evaluativas en español construidas mediante nueve sufijos comúnmente asociados a la expresión de valores peyorativos o despectivos:-ac- ,-ach- ,-aj- ,-astr- ,-ej- ,-oide,-orr(i)- ,-uch- ,-uz-. Teniendo en cuenta que el letón no posee recursos de afijación evaluativa específicos para expresar dichos sentidos, se examinan aquí los procedimientos morfosintácticos adoptados por los traductores al letón para la reproducción en el TM de los aspectos semánticos y prágmáticos transmitidos por las formas evaluativas peyorativas en el TO. El estudio toma como base un corpus que abarca un amplio segmento temporal (de 1588 a 2013), y cuyas unidades de estudio han sido extraídas de 26 obras de ficción, representando 7 variedades nacionales del español, así como el trabajo de 21 autores y 11 traductores. Palabras clave: Afijación apreciativa, letón, morfología evaluativa, sufijos peyorativos, procedimientos morfosintácticos de traducción. 2

Latvian may express continuative aspect by means of a complex construction which consists of a verb and a locative phrase headed by an action noun from the same verb. The construction is productive and attested with a variety of durative verbs. Salient exemplars are some verbs of talking and crying. In a clause the construction most often is treated in the same way as simple verb forms. Formally and functionally the construction is related to three other cognate constructions in Latvian as well as to iteration of the type talk and talk. However, in these other constructions continuative meaning arises only as an implicature or contains more specific nuances. It is proposed that cognate constructions may form a link between morphological reduplication and syntactic iteration.

19. gadsimts bija laikmets, kurā latviešu rakstu valodai tika risinātas vairākas būtiskas problēmas: 1. Vai latviešu rakstu valodai vispār turpmāk pastāvēt un attīstīties? 2. Kā latviešu rakstu valodai turpmāk pilnīgoties? 3. Kas noteiks rakstu valodas veidošanas principus un kas tos realizēs? šie pamatjautājumi bija aktuāli visa gadsimta garumā, tomēr visasāk tie izvirzīti 19. gadsimta vidū līdz ar nacionālo atmodu, jaunlatviešu, tostarp arī Jura Alunāna, darbību. ekonomiskās un sociālās dzīves pārmaiņas noteica, ka latviešu valodas veidošanu pārņēma latvieši paši, to pakāpeniski tuvinot runātajai valodai, bet līdzšinējie tās veidotāji-vācu tautības mācītāji savu noteicošo lomu zaudēja. Tādējādi vācu periods latviešu rakstu valodas standartizācijas procesā bija beidzies, un to atzina abas puses. Atslēgvārdi: jaunlatvieši, Juris Alunāns, valodas plānošana, latviešu literārās valodas vēsture, Latviešu literārā jeb draugu biedrība.

The focus of this essay is the influence of German on early written Latvian, in particular on Christian discourse. The background for the themes dealt with is formed by loan-based cultural phenomena (the Christian religion and the Lutheran Reformation) and the loan-based texts (above all biblical texts) relating to the phenomena and their translation. The study examines the vocabulary and idioms of Christian discourse in the early 16th and 17th centuries, and also the morphological and syntactic structures, in terms of their origin. Early written Latvian was, in practice, a language translated from German, which was clearly reflected in the difference between the written and the spoken language. The influence of German on the written language was even more pronounced because the writers either spoke German as their mother tongue or they had a very good command of German. The influence of German and the resulting obscurity of the texts remained characteristic features of the language of Christianity until in the 19th century.

A corpus-based study of the two main verbal expressions of necessity in Latvian shows that the much more frequent debitive is commonly used in the present tense without negation while the less frequent vajadzēt is usually found in the subjunctive. An analysis of randomly selected examples of the present, past and future tense and the subjunctive demonstrates an almost identical distribution of deontic and dynamic uses of both modals with respect to grammatical forms without negation. With negation, there is a striking difference between vajadzēt, expressing prohibitions and criticism of past actions , and the debitive, conveying lack of necessity. The article also provides a discussion on how to distinguish between various types of modal meanings in authentic examples from a corpus.

Hinweis: In diesem Sonderdruck wurden einige Druckfehler korrigiert. Außerdem wurden die Abbildungen, die im Druck nur in s/w ausgeführt werden konnten, durch meine farbigen "Originalfassungen" ersetzt. Denn letztere sind einfach besser lesbar.

Sprachkontakt zählt zu den Topthemen der heutigen Sprachwissenschaft. Obwohl man manchmal den Eindruck hat, dass dies eine Mode ist, ist es dennoch unbestritten, dass Sprachkontakt interessant und unterhaltsam ist und sogar auch lehrreich sein kann. Eines der Themen in der linguistischen Kontaktologie, die noch nicht systematisch beschrieben wurden und die sicherlich beschrieben zu werden verdienen, stellt die Frage des fremdsprachigen Einflusses auf das Litauische und das Lettische in anderen Bereichen als Lexik dar. Dies ist natürlich ein sehr komplexes Thema, das eine umfangreiche Monographie verlangen würde. Diese wäre dabei auch deswegen verdienstvoll, weil die verschiedenen Kontakte der baltischen Sprachen für verschiedene Formen des Sprachkontakts und ihrer allgemein-theoretischen Auffassung sehr instruktiv sind. So ist beispielsweise der oft angenommene vorgeschichtliche Einfluss von finnougrischen Sprachen auf die baltischen Sprachen mit der grundlegenden Frage nach der Methode der linguistischen Kontaktologie im Falle von rekonstruierten Sprachsystemen verbunden. Umgekehrt wirft die Geschichte des Einflusses des Deutschen auf das Lettische und des Polnischen auf das Litauische wiederum allgemeine Fragen der Einwirkung von Fremdsprachen auf die funktional-stilistische Stratifikation einer Nationalsprache auf. Schließlich führen beispielsweise solche Differenzen zwischen Litauisch und Lettisch wie die Stellung des Akzents oder der Ausdruck der prädikativen Possessivität und der Notwendigkeit zur allgemeinen Frage, wie es zwischen internsprachlichen und externen (arealbedingten) Motivationen sprachlicher Veränderungen zu unterscheiden ist. Letzteres gilt im Übrigen auch für solche -diesmal im Gegenteil gemeinsame -Erscheinungen in den baltischen bzw. auch ostslavischen Sprachen wie der aus dem Perfekt entwickelte Evidentialis, das mit esse und dem Partizip praeteriti activi gebildete Perfekt, das präponierte genitivische Attribut, die