Language policy in Latvia

Articles 4 and 114 of the Constitution of Latvia form the foundation for language policy in Latvia, declaring Latvian to be the official state language and affirming the rights of ethnic minorities to preserve and develop their languages. Latgalian and the Livonian language, in addition to latvian, are considered indigenous and all other languages foreign, including Russian (the first language for more than one third of the population). Other significant minority foreign languages include Belarusian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Polish, and Romani.

The preamble to the State Language Law includes as its goals "the integration of national minorities into Latvian society while respecting their right to use their mother tongue or any other language; [and] the increase of the influence of the Latvian language in the cultural environment of Latvia by promoting a faster integration of society."

The official language (valsts valoda, literally state language) in Latvia is Latvian; this status has been explicitly defined since 1988. In 1992, amendments to the 1989 Law on Languages strengthened the position of Latvian. All other languages, except the extinctLivonian language, are defined as foreign languages in Section 5 of the State Language Law of 1999.

Since 1998, the official status of the Latvian language has been written into the Constitution (Article 4); and since 2002, MPs have been asked to promise to strengthen Latvian as the only official language in order to take their seats (Article 18). In the Constitution's chapter on human rights, rights to get answers from authorities in Latvian are specified since 2002 (Article 104). The current State Language Law was not amended since its adoption in 1999 (as at 2017).

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