Latvian

Indo-European family · Baltic branch · Eurasia

Latvian is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

On The Morphological Imperative, WALS codes Latvian as “Second plural”, a value held by 2 of the 548 languages coded, the other being Apurinã.

On Action Nominal Constructions, WALS codes Latvian as “Double-Possessive: All major arguments treated as possessors”, a value held by 7 of the 168 languages coded, Finnish and Japanese among them.

The order Latvian uses in 9 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Latvian with Russian or with any other language

Uncommon values

Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Latvian, rarest first.

Number of Cases5 case categories12 of 261
Relativization on SubjectsRelative pronoun12 of 166
Order of Subject and VerbBoth orders with neither order dominant110 of 1,496
Asymmetrical Case-MarkingSyncretism in relevant NP-types21 of 261
Distributive NumeralsMarked by preceding word21 of 251

Inside the Indo-European family

Latvian matches the most frequent Indo-European value on 80 of the 112 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (71%). Among the 39 Indo-European languages profiled here, that rate ranks tenth from the top.

Closest profiles

Languages that share the most coded values with Latvian; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.

Russian Indo-European79 of 110
Polish Indo-European51 of 70
Lithuanian Indo-European44 of 63
Hebrew (Modern) Afro-Asiatic65 of 99
German Indo-European68 of 105

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Latvian for 112 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 104 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Latvian shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 19

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Consonant Inventories	Moderately large	94 of 563
Fixed Stress Locations	Initial: stress is on the first syllable	92 of 502
Tone	Simple tone system	132 of 527
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives	158 of 567
Rhythm Types	Absent: no rhythmic stress	98 of 323
Syllable Structure	Complex syllable structure	151 of 486
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Average	234 of 564
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	/p t k b d g/	255 of 567
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems	No weight, or weight factor unknown	261 of 500
Weight-Sensitive Stress	Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity)	281 of 500
Lateral Consonants	/l/, no obstruent laterals	388 of 567
Glottalized Consonants	No glottalized consonants	409 of 567
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels absent	180 of 244
Presence of Uncommon Consonants	None	449 of 567
Uvular Consonants	No uvulars	470 of 567
Absence of Common Consonants	All present	503 of 567
Front Rounded Vowels	None	525 of 562

Word structure 3

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Case Syncretism	Core and non-core	22 of 198
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Moderate preference for suffixing	123 of 969
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	Subject person/number marking is syncretic	60 of 198

Nouns and pronouns 24

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Related by gender markers	24 of 225
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	3rd person only, but also non-singular	42 of 378
Definite Articles	Demonstrative word used as marker of definiteness	69 of 620
Ordinal Numerals	First, second, three-th	61 of 321
Number of Genders	Two	50 of 257
Indefinite Articles	Numeral for 'one' is used as indefinite article	112 of 534
Systems of Gender Assignment	Semantic and formal assignment	59 of 257
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Identity	76 of 322
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction	49 of 207
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	No possessive affixes	260 of 902
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems	Sex-based gender system	84 of 257
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers	Formally different	40 of 116
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	79 of 200
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem	114 of 261
Position of Case Affixes	Case suffixes	452 of 1,031
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated	74 of 168
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality	Plural in all nouns, always obligatory	133 of 291
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural suffix	513 of 1,066
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Two-way contrast	126 of 234
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
Indefinite Pronouns	Interrogative-based indefinites	194 of 326
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	120 of 200
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Same forms	143 of 201

Noun phrases 2

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical	161 of 301
Noun Phrase Conjunction	AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical	131 of 234

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 16

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Combination of tense-aspect strategies with none primary	146 of 1,131
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	Overlap for both possibility and necessity	36 of 207
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	Suppletion according to tense	36 of 193
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + normal negative	113 of 496
Epistemic Possibility	Verbal constructions	65 of 240
Coding of Evidentiality	Verbal affix or clitic	131 of 418
The Perfect	Other perfect	80 of 222
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	Only indirect evidentials	166 of 418
The Past Tense	Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction	94 of 222
The Future Tense	Inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	110 of 222
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system	201 of 375
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	121 of 222
Situational Possibility	Verbal constructions	158 of 234
Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives	None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material)	153 of 193
Verbal Number and Suppletion	No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples	159 of 193
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at beginning of sentence	129 of 884
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN)	373 of 1,367
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial	264 of 902
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral precedes noun (NumN)	479 of 1,154
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Prepositions	511 of 1,184
Order of Demonstrative and Noun	Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN)	542 of 1,225
Order of Object and Verb	Object follows verb (VO)	705 of 1,518
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj)	227 of 481
Order of Genitive and Noun	Genitive-noun (GenN)	685 of 1,249
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Initial subordinator word	398 of 659
Order of Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause follows noun (NRel)	579 of 824

Simple clauses 25

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Obligatory pronouns in subject position	82 of 711
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	Zero realization of all third person singular S forms	45 of 380
Comparative Constructions	Particle Comparative	22 of 167
Verbal Person Marking	Person marking of only the A argument	73 of 378
Predicative Possession	Locational Possessive	48 of 240
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Nominative - accusative (standard)	46 of 190
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat	82 of 297
Nominal and Locational Predication	Identical	117 of 386
Negative Morphemes	Negative affix	395 of 1,157
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding	132 of 386
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Nominative - accusative (standard)	61 of 172
Passive Constructions	There is a passive construction	162 of 373
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy	130 of 297
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is possible	175 of 386
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb	187 of 379
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Indirect-object construction	189 of 378
Applicative Constructions	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Accusative alignment	212 of 380
Periphrastic Causative Constructions	Purposive type but no sequential type	68 of 118
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
Antipassive Constructions	No antipassive	146 of 194
Productivity of the Antipassive Construction	no antipassive	146 of 186
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions	Morphological type but no compound type	254 of 310
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation	Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation	170 of 206

Complex sentences 2

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Relativization on Obliques	Relative Pronoun Strategy	13 of 112
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is left implicit	144 of 283

Vocabulary 2

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Tea	Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te	84 of 230
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196