Latvian Language Translation Services

 

An Accent on Accuracy

The highest quality translations, brisk turnaround schedules, competitive rates, and sharing of our knowledge, are all requisites for ALT's success. The complete and accurate translation of your company's communications is vital to your success. That's why ALT is obsessed with providing the best translators for YOUR project. High-quality translations are the product of a highly talented and experienced translation team with expertise in your industry. ALT puts all the pieces together to make it happen.

Why choose us for English to Latvian or  Latvian to English Translation?

Advanced Language Translation’s Professional Latvian translation services utilize only native speakers to ensure quality and precision translations for your target audience. The ability to translate from/into Latvian requires not only a strong knowledge of the Latvian language, but also the diverse cultures of the Latvian-speaking world, as well as an understanding of the target audience, purpose of the source text and technical aspects of written Latvian.

When doing business in Latvian, professional, human translation is a must. Do not expect to close a business deal or impress your clients with spotty software translation. Only through human translation, edited and customized to your target audience, can your meaning be honestly conveyed and your audience not be offended.

We are proud of our excellent reputation for reliable and high quality Latvian to English and English to Latvian translation services. We have assembled teams of translators from around the world, with an array of skills and specialties and can custom fit the knowledge and strengths of our teams to your specific projects. To demonstrate our commitment to quality and our dedication to our clients, we offer free consultations and provide an industry leading 180-day warranty on translation!

We provide quick and easy custom quotes for your Latvian translation and localization needs.

Need to get the “gist” of Latvian?

Although professional translation is highly recommended for any business, legal or sincere correspondence in Latvian, sometimes it’s necessary to use machine translation (via software or the internet) to get the gist of an e-mail or web page. By no means is machine translation an acceptable substitute for professional translation—the technology is not there yet. But it is great for quickly getting the general idea of an article, e-mail, or web site.

Interesting Facts about the Latvian Language

Latvian is the official language of Latvia and one of the official languages of the European Union.

There are seven different cases in Latvian. In Latvian pronunciation, almost all word stress is placed on the first syllable (with few exceptions).

Fluency in Latvian is expected in a variety of professions and careers in Latvia. There are six levels of proficiency, with professions being dived between the public and private sector. Those that do not have the required proficiency can be fined.

According to Latvian language policy, films on any television channel or movie theater should be dubbed in Latvian or have an original soundtrack with Latvian subtitles, with the only exception being made for minority languages on private TV and radio stations.

History of the Latvian Language

Latvian evolved from Latgalian and first appeared as a distinct language during the 16th century. The oldest known examples of written Latvian come from a hymn translation in 1530, while the first publication in Latvian, the catechism, did not appear until 1585. The first dictionary of Latvian was published in 1638, documenting the language in the Fractur alphabet, which remained in use up until the 1930s.

Today, the Latvian language is regulated by the Latvian State Language Center. This organization helps to maintain standard usage of the language, and oversees the government’s language policy. They also hold several contests to promote correct usage of the language. In addition to this government body, the Terminology Commission of the Latvian Academy of Science also influences the language as it tries to popularize Latvian terminology as opposed to borrowing words from Russian or English.

Written Language

Latvian uses a modified Latin alphabet, which was introduced in the 1930s. Previous to that, it used a variant of the Fractur alphabet, an alphabet that was used for printed and written German from the 16th century up through the early part of the 20th century.

The Latvian alphabet has 33 letters: 22 letters are unmodified, while there are seven extra modified ones. The letters "c, s, z” can have a caron while “g, k, l, n” can have a cedilla. The macron also can be used over some vowels to indicate their length.

Latvian Language Statistics

• Approximately 60% of the ethnic-minority population in Latvia speaks Latvian.
• Latvian is the 160th most spoken language in the world.

 

Translation and Localization Issues with Latvian

Advanced Language Translation Inc has extensive experience with the in and outs of the Latvian Language and we have a long and flawless record of success with complicated Latvian translation projects. 

There are not major issues when typesetting Latvin, as it uses the Roman script; however, issues can arise in hyphenation.

The use of Latvian on computers has given rise to an unofficial style of orthography, due to the lack of support of diacritical marks in software and web pages. Accent marks could be replaced with apostrophes and additional letters have been introduced instead of a diacritical mark. As this is unofficial usage, it is important to determine the purpose of the translation and ensure that it will be properly encoded. All of the Latvian characters are available in Unicode; however, depending on how sites have been previously authored, it is important to have a specialist localize Latvian in software and for use on computers.

Latvian Language Vital Information

Speaking Population:  1.6 Million 
Where Spoken: Latvia, Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Ireland, New Zealand, Russia, Sweden, Ukraine, UK, USA, Venezuela, Finland 
Writing Systems: Latin 1 extended 
Code Pages: Windows - Baltic 
Unicode Supported: Yes 
Common Phrases: (phonetic pronunciations in parentheses) 
      Latvian: Latviski  (LAT-vee-ski) 
      Hello: Sveiki  (SVEI-key) 
      Good-bye: Uz redzēšanos  (ooz RE-dzeh-shan-wahs) 
      Please: Lūdzu  (LOO-dzoo) 
      Thank you: Paldies  (PAL-dee-as) 
      English: angliski  (AN-glee-ski) 
      Yes: Jā  (yah) 
      No: Né  (neh)