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Latvian: pronunciation courses? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| aru-aru Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 6457 days ago 244 posts - 331 votes  Speaks: Latvian*, English, Russian | Message 2 of 12 14 May 2011 at 10:43am | IP Logged | ||
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I wanted to say - there is none, but some searching led me to this:
Latviešu valodas fonētika cittautiešiem (Latvian phonetics for foreigners) seems to come with an audio cassette. Not available at the stores right now, try finding it somehow. Latviešu literārās valodas fonētika (Phonetics of literary Latvian) seems to be the most detailed work, no audio though. A course with lots of audio is "Easy way to Latvian" by Liga Streipa, also a (much cheaper) Russian edition of this book "Лёгкий путь к латышскому языку" is available (published by Zvaigzne ABC). Has 12 hours of audio, should be enough to get an OK pronunciation. A small audio sample for the English edition. Long/short vowels are not that difficult (if you can pronounce "sit" and "seat" in English nicely, why would long/short be a problem in other languages?), diphthongs can be a bit tricky, also some as if straightforward vowels. "o" has two sounds - "o" like in "pot" and an [uo] sound, like in "suomi" the way Finnish people say it. "e" (and "ē") has two sounds too, "e" like in "pet" and "æ" like in "cat", approximately. None of these are indicated in any way, you just have to know. Consonants - some are quite weird (Ķ, DZ, Ļ, C, Ģ, Ņ), but I guess Belarusian has most our weird consonants too. Stress - very predictable, falls on first syllable 90% of cases, except some common phrases like "Labdien" and "Paldies". I would not say that Latvian pronunciation is very difficult. Apart from some difficult bits, it's more or less pronounced the way it's written. Of course some very predictable sandhi occurs, but that's about it. Edited by aru-aru on 14 May 2011 at 10:44am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| aru-aru Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 6457 days ago 244 posts - 331 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, Russian | Message 4 of 12 14 May 2011 at 1:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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Goethe-verlang: The reader is a native speaker. Sentences don't sound unnatural.
Small Latvian course And one more I don't really know what else to suggest. There's Teach Yourself Latvian, Colloquial Latvian, but you must know these already, Here are some books, but probably not for self study. Some more here. The Palīgā! series seem to have textbooks, workbooks, audio and even video; have not used (and even seen) these books myself, can't comment :) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Dragomanno Triglot Groupie Zimbabwe Joined 5003 days ago 80 posts - 98 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, GermanB2 Studies: Romanian, Serbo-Croatian, Latin, Lithuanian, Albanian, Ancient Greek | Message 5 of 12 18 May 2011 at 10:28am | IP Logged | ||
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Very interesting links. I found Latvian quite fine to pronounce and easy to follow. Grammar is by far the most complicated business ;-)
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| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6105 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 6 of 12 18 May 2011 at 11:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, some helpful links, I'm saving them for a later day when I've got time to use them.
So many thanks. By the way, do you know how much Russian is spoken 'on the street' in Latvia? From what I've discovered, Russian is understood by most people, but how many people actually use it? It would be a shame if Latvian were 'eroded' because it's such a nice language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Dragomanno Triglot Groupie Zimbabwe Joined 5003 days ago 80 posts - 98 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, GermanB2 Studies: Romanian, Serbo-Croatian, Latin, Lithuanian, Albanian, Ancient Greek | Message 7 of 12 19 May 2011 at 12:49pm | IP Logged | ||
Plenty! There is a huge Russian-speaking population, and most of them are not really keen to learn Latvian. All Latvian-speakers are able to speak Russian, due to the their Soviet and Tsarist past. I would but not say that Latvian in endangered in the short time. Luckly. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| aru-aru Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 6457 days ago 244 posts - 331 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, Russian | Message 8 of 12 19 May 2011 at 6:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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"On the street" there is, of course, a lot of Russian, no doubt there. But let me disagree with the "All Latvian-speakers are able to speak Russian" bit. That is increasingly becoming less and less true.
Young people of Latvian origin are now having difficulty finding a job, because they do NOT know how to speak Russian, and most businesses and service industry ask for Latvian AND Russian skills as a minimum (since many older generation Russian people do not speak Latvian). On the other hand, all the youngsters of Russian origin speak reasonably good Latvian, for they're forced to learn it at school (so they get most of the jobs that ask for both languages). Latvian - endangered, well, I'd say yes, but the danger comes not so much from Russian as such, more like from the whole globalizing and Englishizing and emigration thing that's going on in a small country like this. Though I would not claim to be an expert. Personally, I do not see Russian as a threat. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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