About Language Policy in Latvia

Language policy is the attitude and plan of a country to indicate the existence of diversified language types in this country. The complexity of the historical tradition and social background of a multi-ethnic country often lead to a diversification of the language situations and corresponding language policies. The evolution of Latvian language policy is a complicated history. With the change of the political environment, the status planning of Latvian has experienced twists and turns. The history of Latvia has been seriously influenced by Germanization and Russianization, and the language life is bilingual or multilingual. After independence, Latvia made Latvian a national language for promotion and popularization. Russian is listed as a foreign language after English and German; however, the inheritance of Russian has a history of hundreds of years in Latvia. Due to special geographical reasons, political and linguistic issues in Latvia have always been intertwined with ethnic issues. The solution of a language problem in Latvia should be based on the principle of respect for the tradition of language practice, for the language law of each person in order to avoid social conflicts. Mass unrest, as a form of reflection of social conflicts, is inevitable from the point of view of the theory of the sociology of conflict.

Keywords

language policy, Latvia, multinational state, monolinguism, conflict

Received

24.05.2020

Publication date

15.09.2020

Number of characters

13980

Cite

GOST	Liu J. About Language Policy in Latvia // Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya – 2020. – Issue 8 C. 62-66 [Electronic resource]. URL: http://ras.jes.su/socis/s013216250009836-2-1-en (circulation date: 19.04.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S013216250009836-2
MLA	Liu, Juan "About Language Policy in Latvia." Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya 8 (2020):62-66. DOI: 10.31857/S013216250009836-2
APA	Liu J. (2020). About Language Policy in Latvia. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya (8), pp.62-66 DOI: 10.31857/S013216250009836-2

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