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Language code: lv

Technical information about ISO 639 language code lv

Documentation

The table below provides technical details for the Latvian language, designated by the lv code from the ISO 639-1 standard.

Code

lv

Name

Official

Latvian

Native

Latviešu valoda

Family
Baltic
Text direction

Left-to-Right

Language varieties
Central (Middle) LatvianHigh LatvianLivonian (Tamian) Latvian
Related languages
LithuanianLatgalian
Key facts
One of only two living Baltic languagesEmploys diacritics such as macrons (ā, ē, ī, ū) and carons (č, š, ž) to mark phonemic contrastsHas two grammatical genders and seven noun casesDisplays a three-tone system (level, falling, broken) on long syllablesModern Latin-based orthography replaced earlier German-influenced spelling in 1908
Sample phrase

Sveiki, kā jums klājas?

Character encodings

ISO 8859-4, ISO 8859-13, Windows 1257, UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32

Supported in Localizely

Latvian belongs to the Indo-European language family, more specifically to the Baltic subgroup. It is the official language of Latvia. It is written using the Latin script (Latvian alphabet). It is estimated that there are more than 1.7 million speakers worldwide.

Language presence globally

Speakers

Latvia

1.8M

*The graph shows a rough estimate of Latvian speakers in countries where it is an official or minority language.

Related locale codes

lv-LV – Latvian (Latvia)

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