Latgalian society

Latgalians are one of the Baltic tribes, which historically used to live in Latgale situated north of the river Daugava. The first chronicles used theterm Lethgalli interchangeably with Lethi to refer to Latgalians. (Balode & Holvoet 2001: 7

Balode & Holvoet 2001 / komentarz/comment/r /
Balode, Laimute & Axel Holvoet 2001. „The Latvian language and its dialects”, w: Ö. Dahl & M. Koptjevskaja-Tamm (red.) Circum-Baltic Languages. vol.1. Past and Present. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 3–40.

). In the Chronicon Henrici from 1206, there is a passage Lethi vel Lethgalli ‘Latvians or Latgalians’ (Brejdak 2006: 194

Brejdak 2006 / komentarz/comment/r /
Brejdak, A. 2006. „Łatgal’skij jazyk”, w: Jazyki mira: Baltijskie jazyki. Moskwa: Akademia. 193–213.

). Within the space of ages, the term ‘Latgalians’ had equal meaning to ‘Latvians’. Contemporarily, when referring to Latgalians as to a certain group of Latvians, the terms Latgalians (Latgales) or Lettigalls are used. Brejdak (2006

Brejdak 2006 / komentarz/comment/r /
Brejdak, A. 2006. „Łatgal’skij jazyk”, w: Jazyki mira: Baltijskie jazyki. Moskwa: Akademia. 193–213.

) proposes the term Lettigals to refer to all inhabitants of Latgale, and to use the term Latgalians in relation to those Lettigalls who are ethnic descendants of the Baltic tribes (Brejdak 2006: 194

Brejdak 2006 / komentarz/comment/r /
Brejdak, A. 2006. „Łatgal’skij jazyk”, w: Jazyki mira: Baltijskie jazyki. Moskwa: Akademia. 193–213.

).
First to mention Latgale (Eng. Latgallia, Lat. Latgale) are Old Russian sources from the 11th c., where terms like Łatgoła, Łotyhoła, Łohtihoła can be found. In Descriptio Sarmatiarum from the 1521, Mateusz Miechowski refers to the Latgale as Letthigallia (Brejdak 2006: 194

Brejdak 2006 / komentarz/comment/r /
Brejdak, A. 2006. „Łatgal’skij jazyk”, w: Jazyki mira: Baltijskie jazyki. Moskwa: Akademia. 193–213.

). In the Latgalian language, Latgale is Latgola. In Polish the term Latgale is used interchangeably with a term Latgalia. Before the Partitions of Poland it was common to call those lands Polish Livonia.
Latgalian territories were originally inhabited by Finno-Ugrian peoples, whereas Balts appeared in the 2nd millennium BC. In the Medieval times both Balts and Slavs used the Daugava River for trade which became a trade place for the two peoples. At the beginning of the 13th c. the area was incorporated into lands owned by the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, which resulted in germanization and christianization of Latgalians (Jankowiak 2010: 49

Jankowiak 2010 / komentarz/comment/r /
Jankowiak, Mirosław 2010. „Wielonarodowość i wielokulturowość Łatgalii w aspekcie społecznym i historycznym”, w: J. Mędelska & Z, Sawaniewska-Mochowa (red.) Językowe i kulturowe dziedzictwo Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego. Księga jubileuszowa na 1000-lecie Litwy. Bydgoszcz: UKW.

). Since 1629 Latgale remained within the borders of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and it remained there up to 1772 when, as a result of the First Partition of Poland, it became a part of Vitebsk Region of the Russian Empire. From 1629 up to 1918 Latgale was politically and culturally separated from the rest of Latvia. Polish catholic missionaries worked in Latgale in 17th and 18th c. Their activities strengthened Catholicism in the area and made a Catholic denomination a vital part of the identity for Latgalians – one of the things which distinguishes them from Protestant Latvians and Orthodox Russians (Nau 2011: 5

Nau 2011 / komentarz/comment/r /
Nau, Nicole 2011. A short grammar of Latgalian. München: Lincom Europa.

).
Latgalians are the only Balts native to the terrains outside today’s borders of Latvia and Lithuania – they also live in the vicinity of the Russian town Pytalovo, which in years 1920-1945 was a capital of a region belonging to Latvia. Pytalovo was then known as Janlatgale / Abrene. Latgalians played a significant part in the process of shaping Latvian national awareness and the Latvian language, and Latgalian literary traditions date back to 18th c. In 1918, when Latvia gained independence, after many years of living separated from the rest of Latvians, Latgalians found themselves in a situation where they were not only Latvians, but also a Latvian minority (Nau 2011: 7

Nau 2011 / komentarz/comment/r /
Nau, Nicole 2011. A short grammar of Latgalian. München: Lincom Europa.

).
Latgale is a region inhabited by representatives of numerous nationalities: multinationalism and multilingualism have been, and still is, an important part of Latgalian linguistic scenery. Indigenous Poles account for 7.1% of the Latgalian population, Belorussians – 5.5% (Jankowiak 2010: 50

). An important group among Latgalians are Russians: descendants of the Old Belivers who fled to Latgale to avoid repression by tsarist authorities by the end of 17th c. and Russian-speaking immigrants from the Soviet times. Tradition of making contacts with Russian-speaking communities dates back to several ages before, and today’s centres of the Russian population in Latgale had already existed back in 1760 (Čekmonas 2001: 103

Čekmonas 2001 / komentarz/comment/r /
Čekmonas, Valeriy 2001. „Russian varieties in the southeastern Baltic area: Rural dialects”, w: Ö. Dahl & M. Koptjevskaja-Tamm (red.). Circum-Baltic Languages. vol.1. Past and Present. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 101–136.

National composition of Latgale (map ed.: Jacek Cieślewicz, source: Šuplinska & Lazdiņa 2009

Šuplinska & Lazdiņa 2009 / komentarz/comment/r /
Šuplinska, Ilga & Sanita Lazdiņa (red.) 2009. Valodas Austrumlatvijā: pētījuma dati un rezultāti. Via Latgalica: humanitarno zinātņu žurnāla pelikums 1. Rēzekne: Rēzeknes Augustskola.

).
[Latvians, Russians, Belarusians, Poles]

Nowadays, speakers of Latgalian are mainly composed of the rural inhabitants of Latgale (Lazdina & Marten 2012: 68

Lazdiņa & Marten 2012 / komentarz/comment/r /
Lazdiņa, Sanita & Heiko F. Marten 2012. ”Latgalian in Latvia. A Continuous Struggle for Political Recognition”, Journal of Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe 11: 66–87.

). According to data gathered by Šuplinska and Lazdiņa (2009

), 62.1% of respondents (over 9 thousand Latgale dwellers) reported they knew Latgalian. 70% of respondents are fluent Latgalian speakers, while 36% are fluent in writing. When comparing those results to the overall population of Latgale, it can be constated that knowledge of Latgalian would be attributed to 217 thousand people (Lazdiņa & Marten 2012: 70

). It is usually said that the number of Latgalian speakers is a smaller however. The Institute for Latgalian Language Research at the Daugavpils University (Latgales Pētniecības institūts) estimates the number of people using Latgalian in everyday communication as 150 – 200 thousands (http://dau.lv/ld/latgale(english).html).
The results of the 2011 census, in which the question “Do you use Latgalian language – a variant of Latvian – in your everyday communication?” was asked, show that the number of Latgalian speakers as 164 thousand. This can be considered as the most accurate data as to the population of the people speaking Latgalian. According to this data the most Latgalian-speaking counties of Latgale are: Varakļāni (Lat. Varakļuoni; old Polish name: Warklany), Riebiņi (Ribene, Rybiniszki), Vārkava (Vuorkova; Warkan), Viļaka (Vileks; German Marienhausen), Baltinava (Baļtinova), Kārsava (Kuorsova; Korsówka) i Cibla (Cybla).
The results of the census can be seen on http://www.csb.gov.lv/notikumi/latviesu-valodas-paveida-latgaliesu-valodas-lietosana-35066.html.

Reported knowledge of Latgalian (proportional) according to 2011 census (source: http://www.csb.gov.lv/notikumi/latviesu-valodas-paveida-latgaliesu-valodas-lietosana-35066.html)

The highest number of Latgalian-speaking people outside Latgale is said to be located in Riga (around 29.4 thousand people according to the 2011 census), while outside Latvia – in Siberia (around 1000 people, Mercator 2009:9). Latgalians started to move to the area of Krasnojarsk as a result of tsarist land allocation in the 19th c. The biggest number of Latgalians to inhabit those lands was in 1930s. They have retained their own ethnolect up until now.