LATVIAN VOICE OVER TALENTS NATIVE SPEAKERS - PAGE 1

Latvian language
Native to: Latvia
Native speakers: 1.3 million
Writing system: Latin (Latvian alphabet)
Capital city: Riga
Currency: Euro (EUR)
Dialing code: +371
Country code: LV
Population: 1,990,300
Latvian (latviešu valoda) is the official state language of Latvia. It is also sometimes referred to as Lettish. There are about 1.3 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and 100 thousand abroad. Altogether, 2 million, or 80% of the population of Latvia, speak Latvian. Of those, 1.75 million use it as their primary language at home. The use of the Latvian language in various areas of social life in Latvia is increasing. Latvian is a Baltic language and is most closely related to Lithuanian, although the two are not mutually intelligible. In addition there is some disagreement whether Latgalian and New Curonian, which are mutually intelligible with Latvian, should be considered varieties or separate languages. Latvian first appeared in Western print in the mid-16th century with the reproduction of the Lord's Prayer in Latvian in Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia Universalis (1544), in Latin script. Latvian belongs to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is one of two living Baltic languages with an official status (the other being Lithuanian). The Latvian and Lithuanian languages have retained many features of the nominal morphology of the proto-language, though in matters of phonology and verbal morphology they show many innovations, with Latvian being considerably more innovative than Lithuanian.