LETTISH LANGUAGE. The Lettish language is very closely related to Lithuanian (q.v.). Their phonetic systems are the same, except that Lettish has undergone some changes in which Lithuanian has had no share. Lettish has two systems of orthography; in the older one, the language is written as if it were German (the Letts learned writing from the Teutonic Knights) ; in the newer one (the result of several successive re forms), most of the letters have the same values as in Lithuanian. Books and newspapers continue for the most part to be printed in the old orthography, with the same ("Gothic") fount of type as German books and newspapers, to which a few new letters have had to be added. For manuscript the Letts use only the Latin alphabet. Long vowels are indicated in the old orthography by the addition of h, e.g., mahte and mate are respectively, the old and the new spellings of the word for "mother" (pronounced mate, with a as in English far and e as ay in outlay, but short). In the old orthography ee is pronounced is or ie (somewhat as in English dear), and in both orthographies o is pronounced no or ua (cf. English poor). The following are the chief phonetic dif ferences from Lithuanian. The Indo-European a (e.g., Lat. mater) is not changed to 5, as in Lithuanian mote, but remains a (Lett. mate). Where Lithuanian has S and 1", Lettish has s, z (as in Eng. so, zero) : e.g., Lithuanian Simtas "a hundred," Lettish simts; Lithuanian ieme "country," Lettish zeme. Before e and i Lettish changes k into c (pronounced ts) and g into dz, e.g., Lithuanian sakyti "to say," Lettish sacit; Lithuanian gerti "to drink," Lettish dzert. Lithuanian short vowels in end-syllables disappear in Lettish (except u) : Lithuanian skis "eye," Lettish acs (pro nounced ats) ; Lithuanian long vowels in end-syllables become short in Lettish: Lithuanian saka "he says," Lettish saka. The nasal n cannot stand before a consonant in Lettish : Lithuanian pinti "to weave," jungas "yoke," ranka "hand," and bendras "comrade," become Lettish pit, jugs, roka (pronounced ruoka) and biedrs (in the old orthography beedrs). The consonant j (=Eng. y in you) coalesces with a preceding consonant, but the result is not the same as in Lithuanian: svetja (Lith. sveseio "of a guest") becomes Lettish svda; media (Lith. medfio "of a tree") becomes Lettish mesa. Some other consonants suffer similar changes, as a result of which Lettish possesses a set of palatal consonants, denoted in the old orthography by crossed forms of k, g, and in the new by k, r, 1, n. The clensions and conjugations are on much the same lines as in Lithuanian. The dual is almost, but not quite, obsolete. In the conjugations Lettish makes a more extended use of auxiliary verbs.
The stress is on the first syllable of every word. In addition there are distinctions of intonation, but their effect on the ear is not the same as in Lithuanian. Lettish, for instance, has in
certain syllables the glottal catch (the Danish Stiidton, heard also in the Scotch dialect pronunciation of butter—bu'er), which is not heard in Lithuanian. Analysis has, however, revealed the principles according to which the Lettish intonations correspond to the Lithuanian, even when not identical with them, and in this way Lettish has become an important witness in questions of Baltic accentuation.
Lettish is spoken in numerous dialects, which for many years have been dying out owing to the general adoption of a common form of Lettish, based on a single dialect.
The oldest Lettish text is a translation of the Catechismus Catholicorum (1585) which was found in 1911 in Uppsala uni versity library. A translation of Luther's Catechism was printed in 1586.
The Lettish vocabulary differs considerably from the Lithuan ian. From the common stock of Baltic words the two languages have sometimes made a different selection, e.g., the ox is called Lettish goys (cf. Lat. bos, Grk. boos, Engl. cow), but Lithuanian jautis (cf . Skt. yauti "he yokes") ; a son is Lettish Ms (cf. Lat. Pus), Lithuanian slinus (cf. Skt. siinus). Sometimes a suffix common to the two languages has acquired a different meaning in each, e.g., Lithuanian -okas=English -ish (gerokas=goodish), but Lettish -dks is the ending of the Comparative (Lett. labiiks= better). Loan-words have passed into Lettish from German, (chiefly Middle Low German words borrowed from the Teutonic Knights, whose influence on the Letts was much stronger than on the Lithuanians, but also in later times High German words), from Russian (part of the church terminology, e.g., krusts "cross" from Old Russian kristit, dates from the time, before the Teutonic influence, when the Letts were almost converted to Greek Chris tianity), and from Livonian, a Finno-Ugrian language once widely spoken in Livonia and Kurland, but now spoken only by some Boo persons on the headland to the west of Riga. The German words are very numerous, the Russian and Livonian words rarer, but some of the commonest words are Livonian, e.g., vajaga "it is necessary, one must," maksat "to pay," pestit "to free," puisis "lad," sulainis "servant." The Finnish languages do not tolerate a group 01 consonants at the beginning of a word (e.g., Old Norse straumr "stream" on Finnish lips became rauma). When, there fore, we find in Lettish an initial s- unexpectedly prefixed to an other consonant, as in stopzege/is "topsail" (borrowed from Low German), such words owe their s- to Livonian speakers who failed to distinguish in foreign words between st- and t-, sp- and p-, etc. The Finno-Ugrian influence on Lettish continues at the present day, the northern neighbours of the Letts being the Esthonians, who speak a Finno-Ugrian language closely related to Livonian and to Finnish itself.