grammar: sections:
introduction | 1.1 | 1.2 | 2.1 | 2.2 | 2.3 | 3.1 | 3.2
3.3 | 4.1 | 4.2 | 5.1 | 5.2


Grammar 1.1:

The Latvian alphabet uses twenty-two Roman letters. Eleven letters are used TWICE: with no additions (as in English) and with special additions called diacritic marks. In three instances, two-letter combinations (ch, dz, dž) are used to mark single sounds. Four letters found in English texts, q, w, x and y, are not used at all.

The DIACRITIC MARKS are special signs added either above or below the regular letters. In Latvian they indicate long vowels (e.g., ā, ē) and palatal consonants (-š, ņ). Note that * replaces the dot on i - ī.

LETTERS ENGLISH APPROXIMATIONS LATVIAN EXAMPLES MEANINGS
A, a yacht, Sarah ap, maza, ja around, small, if
Ā, ā father, car ātra, mazā, jā fast, the small, yes
B, b but, rabbit bet, laba, grib but, good, want
C, C tse-tse, mats cik, saucam, sauc how many, we call, call
Č, č church, match četri līči four bays
D, d door, bed divas durvis, tagad two doors, now
Dz, dz beds dzer, daudzi, daudz drink, many, much
Dž, dž judge, gin džina, dadži gin, thistles
E, e I ell, met es, zeme, cel! met! I, earth, lift throw!
2. Al, mat ve*se*ls, ze*ma, me*t whole, low, throws
Ē, ē no such sound mēs, spēlē, drēbe we, play, cloth
2. Amer. after, last ē*na, zē*ni, sē*ta shadow, boys, fence
F, f fact, photograph fakts, fotogrāf fact, photographer
G, g get, leg gulta, draugi, de*g bed, friends, burn
Ģ, ģ no such sound ģimene, kuģis family, ship
H, h hair, huge hokejs, hiēna hockey, hyena
I, i it, pill ir, rit, lai, velti is, roll, let, in vain
Ī, ī eat, peel, she Īra, rĪt, veltĪ borrowed, to swallow, bestows
J, j you, royal, buy jā, bija, lej, lemj yes, was, pour, decide
K, k scope, skit, rack kar, pika, lauki, nāk hang, lump, fields, come
Ķ, ķ no such sound ķer, piķa, lauķi nab, of tar, hillbillies
L, l loud, element, all lai, mellene, celi, cel! let, blueberry, knee, lift!
Ļ, ļ no such sound ļaudis, eļļa, ceļi, ceļ people, oil, knees, lift
M, m mouse, cram mēs, mums, mamma, kam we, to us, mommy, whom
N, n name, train, any ne, mana, Anna, man not, my, Ann, to me
Ņ, ņ no such sound ņem, maņa, Anniņ! take, a sense, dear Ann!
0, o wall ola, jokojot, to egg, jokingly, that
2. all ōda, prōza ode, prose
3. Olga Olga, o*ktobris, po*lka Olga, October, polka
P, P spoon, apple, rip papĪrs, apelē, appelē, ap paper, appeal, mold over, around
R, r brogue rod, parunā, pārrunā, kur find, talk, talk over, where
S, s city, rest, glass saka, lasa, tas, ass, pats say, read, that, sharp, self
Š, š she, nation še, laša, ašs, viņš elš here, of salmon, fast, he pants
T, t stop, cat tētis, atāls, attāls, pat daddy, 2nd growth, remote, even
U, u pull, caribou uguns, klusumu, upju, jau fire, silence, of rivers, already
Ū, ū ooze, boo! ūsas, ūpju, lūdzu dabū whiskers, of owls, please get
V, v voice, raven var, tava, tevi, zivis can, your-fem., you, fishes
2. now nav, tavs, tev, zivs isn't, your-masc., to you, fish
Z, z zebra, reason Zuze, grozi, griez Suzy, baskets, you turn
Ž, ž Jaques, decision žē*l, groži, griež a pity, reins, he turns

GRAMMAR 1.1:

SPECIAL FEATURES OF LATVIAN SPELLING AND PRONUNCIATION

a) VOWEL LENGTHS. Latvian has short and long vowels. The bar above the vowel sign indicates that the vowel is long. The length difference is phonemic (grammatically distinctive): ja 'if' - jā 'yes'; pele 'mouse' - pelē 'mold'; rit 'roll' - rīt 'to swallow'; upi 'river' - ūpi 'owl'. The disregard for the vowel length in pronunciation also gives the speaker a heavy unpleasant "accent" in his Latvian.

b) THE O-SOUND in the native Latvian words is a diphthong /wa/. Only in foreign borrowings the long vowel /ō/ (as in oda 'ode') or the short vowel /o*/ (as in polka) appears. The special diacritics ō, o* are not used in the conventional spelling.

c) LATVIAN c AND dz SOUNDS are similar to the end of the word combinations -ts (mats) and -ds (beds) in English. In Latvian, however, they may appear in any position. Note that the letter c in Latvian designates a sound that has nothing to do with the "hard" or the "soft" c in English.

d) THE WEDGE-SHAPED DIACRITICAL MARK * is used to designate 4 sounds: č, dž, š, ž. Thus a single mark serves to indicate the same feature - palatalization - for which various different letter combinations are used in English. In 2-sound clusters, ONLY THE FIRST LETTER CARRIES THE WEDGE: ašs, pronounced /ašš/ 'swift'; mežs /mešš/ 'forest'; Džordžs /džorčš/ 'George'. (The assimilation will be discussed in the Unit Two.)

e) THE "TAIL," under the letters Ģ, Ķ, ķ; Ļ, ļ; Ņ, ņ also indicates a palatalization (since the small g is already long downward, instead of a "tall" below, it gets a "horn" /"antenna"?/ on top - ģ, not *). These 4 sounds have no true English equivalents. However, in some English pronunciations where the glide /y/ is inserted after d- in due, after T- in Tuesday, after l- in lute and after n- in new, their qualities may approach the Latvian ģ, ķ, ļ and ņ respectively. (The traditional grammars prescribe also an ŗ- sound, which we will not use in our language materials.)

f) THE F- AND H- SOUNDS in Latvian are quite recent additions through borrowings from other languages. In Latvian the h-sound is a consonant (not a breath as in English). It has two phonetic (grammatically nondistinctive) variants: a hard back sound [x] with low vowels (hokejs 'hockey', haoss 'chaos', Bahs 'Bach') and a more fronted palatalized sound [*] wit high vowels (hiēna 'hyena', tehnika 'technique'). In Latvia only the letter h is used to write Greek and German words that are spelled with ch: haoss, tehnika, Bahs -the same as f used for the Greek ph: fotografs 'photographer'.

g) DOUBLE CONSONANTS ARE PRONOUNCED LONGER than the single ones, and this length difference is also phonemic: mana 'my' - manna 'manna', apelē 'appeal' - appelē 'mold over', parunā 'talk a bit' - pārrunā 'talk over', atāls 'new grass' - attāls 'remote', tās 'those' - tāss '(birch) bark', etc.

h) LATVIAN k, p, t ARE NOT ASPIRATED in any position. In English the initial sounds in cat, pin, top are strongly aspirated; in Latvian, however, the pronunciation is like that of the /k/ in English scat, /p/ in spin, and /t/ in stop.\

i) THE LETTER v HAS 2 PRONUNCIATIONS. Before a vowel it is [v]: var 'can', visi 'all', tava 'your-f.', tevi 'you', govis 'cows', zivis 'fishes', dzīva 'alive-f'. Before a consonant or in the final position it is [w]: tavs 'your-m.', tev 'to you', govs 'cow', zivs 'fish', dzīvs 'alive-m.', nav 'is not'. In English /v/ and /w/ are two different sounds, but in Latvian they are only positional variants of the same phoneme.

j) AN OPTIONAL DIACRITICAL MARK, UNDER e*/ē*. This mark is not used in the conventional spelling, but we'll use it in our vocabulary lists to indicate the pronunciation differences between the "normal e/ē" (without the mark) and the "broad e*/ē*" - with the mark. This difference is phonemic: met 'you throw' - me*t 'he throws' ēdu 'I ate' - ē*du 'I eat', etc. Note, too, that the Latvian ē is more like a double /ee/ than the diphthongal English /ey/.

k) ANOTHER OPTIONAL DIACRITIC MARK * above certain long vowels and diphthongs will be used to mark the s.c. "broken" pitch. It too does not appear in the conventional spelling. We'll take it up in Lesson 1.2.

l) THE STRESS is usually on the first syllable of the word no matter how long it might be: ala 'cave', papīri 'papers', fotografija 'photograph, snapshot'. There are few exceptions that'll be handled later.