s r a m m a r G l a i t n Latvian e s s E e An Essential Grammar g d e l t u o Dace Praulinš R ‘ Latvian An Essential Grammar Latvian: An Essential Grammar is a concise, user-friendly guide to the basic grammatical structures of Latvian. Presenting a fresh and accessible description of the language, this engaging grammar uses clear, jargon- free explanations to set out the complexities of Latvian in short, readable sections. Key features include: • clear grammar explanations • frequent use of authentic examples • pronunciation guide, bibliography and subject index. This is the ideal reference source both for those studying Latvian independ- ently and for students in colleges, universities and adult classes of all types to back up their studies. Dace Praulixš has taught Latvian at the University of Glasgow, UK. Routledge Essential Grammars Essential Grammars are available for the following languages: Arabic Chinese Czech Danish Dutch English Finnish German Greek Hindi Hungarian Korean Modern Hebrew Norwegian Polish Portuguese Romanian Serbian Spanish Swedish Thai Turkish Urdu Latvian An Essential Grammar Dace Praulixš First published 2012 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2012 Dace Praulixš The right of Dace Praulixš to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Praulixš, Dace, 1951– Latvian : an essential grammar / Dace Praulixš. p. cm. – (Routledge essential grammars) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Latvian language–Grammar. 2. Latvian language–Textbooks for foreign speakers–English. I. Title. PG8839.5.E5P73 2012 491′.9382421–dc23 2011032316 ISBN: 978-0-415-57691-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-415-57692-5 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-12442-0 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon and Gill Sans by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong Contents Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations x Chapter 1 Introduction – ievads 1 1.1 Development of the Latvian language 1 1.2 The Latvian language today 3 1.3 Latvian dialects – latviešu valodas dialekti 4 Chapter 2 Pronunciation and orthography – pareizruna un pareizrakstcba 7 2.1 Vowels – patskaxi 7 2.2 Diphthongs – divskaxi 11 2.3 Consonants – lcdzskaxi 12 2.4 Sound changes – skaxu parmaixas 14 2.5 Word stress – varda uzsvars 16 2.6 Tone – intonacija 18 2.7 Phrase and sentence stress – frazes un teikuma uzsvars 19 2.8 The alphabet – alfabbts 19 2.9 Word division – vardu dalcšana 20 2.10 Capitalization – lielo sakumburtu lietošana 21 2.11 Foreign names – citvalodu cpašvardi 23 Chapter 3 Nouns – lietvardi 24 3.1 Grammatical categories – gramatiskas kategorijas 24 3.2 Declension – deklinbšana 27 3.3 Diminutives – deminutcvi, pamazinamie lietvardi 38 v 3.4 Noun formation – lietvardu darinašana 41 Contents Chapter 4 Pronouns – vietniekvardi 51 4.1 Personal pronouns – personu vietniekvardi 51 4.2 Possessive pronouns – piedercbas vietniekvardi 54 4.3 Reflexive personal pronoun – atgriezeniskais vietniekvards 56 4.4 Demonstrative pronouns – noradamie vietniekvardi 57 4.5 Interrogative pronouns – jautajamie vietniekvardi 58 4.6 Relative pronouns – attieksmes vietniekvardi 60 4.7 Indefinite pronouns – nenoteiktie vietniekvardi 61 4.8 Definite pronouns – noteiktie vietniekvardi 62 4.9 Negative pronouns – noliedzamie, noliegtie vietniekvardi 63 4.10 Emphatic pronoun – noteicamais vietniekvards 64 4.11 Reciprocal pronouns – vietniekvardi, kuri norada uz savstarpbjam attieksmbm 65 Chapter 5 Adjectives – cpašcbas vardi 66 5.1 Indefinite endings – nenoteiktas galotnes 66 5.2 Definite endings – noteiktas galotnes 68 5.3 Degrees of comparison – salcdzinamas pakapes 71 5.4 Formation of adjectives – ipašcbas vardu darinašana 73 Chapter 6 Adverbs – apstakva vardi 77 6.1 Cause and purpose – cbloxa un noleka apstakva vardi 77 6.2 Degree – mbra apstakva vardi 78 6.3 Indefinite and negative adverbs – nenoteiktie un negatcvie apstakva vardi 79 6.4 Interrogative adverbs – jautajuma apstakva vardi 80 6.5 Manner – veida apstakva vardi 80 6.6 Place – vietas apstakva vardi 81 6.7 Time – laika apstakva vardi 81 6.8 Comparison of adverbs – apstakva vardu salcdzinamas pakapes 82 6.9 Use compared with English 83 6.10 Impersonal constructions 83 6.11 Writing and pronouncing adverbs – apstakva vardu pareizrakstcba un pareizruna 84 6.12 Formation of adverbs – apstakva vardu darinašana 85 vi Chapter 7 Numerals and quantifiers, time – skaitva Contents vardi, laiks 87 7.1 Cardinal numbers – pamata skaitva vardi 87 7.2 Declension of numbers and their grammatical use 89 7.3 Ordinal numbers – kartas skaitva vardi 93 7.4 Fractions and decimals – davskaitvi un decimaldavskaitvi 94 7.5 Punctuation with numbers 96 7.6 Definite and indefinite quantifiers 96 7.7 Telling the time – pulkstexa laiks 98 7.8 Days of the week, months, dates 101 Chapter 8 Verbs – darbcbas vardi 104 8.1 Verb forms and categories 104 8.2 Conjugation of simple tenses – vienkaršo laiku konjugacija 106 8.3 Tenses – laiki 139 8.4 Imperfective and perfective aspect – nepabeigtie un pabeigtie darbcbas veidi 146 8.5 Active and passive voice – darama un ciešama karta 149 8.6 Infinitives – nenoteiksme 151 8.7 Participles – divdabji 152 8.8 Mood – izteiksme 158 8.9 Verb formation – darbcbas vardu darinašana 166 Chapter 9 Prepositions – prievardi 169 9.1 Prepositions and case 169 9.2 Plurals 173 9.3 Postpositions 174 9.4 Semi-prepositions/semi-postpositions – pusprievardi 175 9.5 Prepositions and verb prefixes 176 Chapter 10 Conjunctions – saikvi 177 10.1 Coordinating conjunctions – sakartojuma saikvi 177 10.2 Subordinating conjunctions – pakartojuma saikvi 181 Chapter 11 Cases – loccjumi 186 11.1 Nominative – nominatcvs 186 11.2 The genitive – \enitcvs 188 vii Contents 11.3 The dative – datcvs 192 11.4 The accusative – akuzatcvs 200 11.5 The locative – lokatcvs 202 11.6 The vocative – vokatcvs 205 11.7 The instrumental – instrumentalis 207 Chapter 12 Syntax and punctuation – sintakse un interpunkcija 208 12.1 Word order – vardu seccba 208 12.2 Members of a sentence – teikuma locekvi 211 12.3 Negation – nolieguma teikumi 212 12.4 Questions – jautajuma teikumi 212 12.5 Full stop – punkts (.) 213 12.6 Exclamation mark – izsaukuma zcme (!) 214 12.7 Comma – komats (,) 214 12.8 Semi-colon – semikols (;) 215 12.9 Colon – kols (:) 216 12.10 Single quotation marks – vienpbdixas (, ’) 216 12.11 Double quotation marks – pbdixas („ ”, « ») 216 12.12 Apostrophe – apostrofs (’) 217 Appendix 1 Second-/third-conjugation verbs ending in -bt/-bties 218 Appendix 2 Reverse retrieval of verbs and nouns 221 Bibliography 239 Internet resources 242 Index 245 viii Acknowledgements I would like to thank a number of people who have reviewed chapters of this book at various stages during the writing process. Their comments, questions and suggestions have helped to improve the finished product and for this I am most grateful to them. My sincere thanks go to Ammon Cheskin, David Clarke, Emma Heillig, Sanita Kremixa, Christopher Moseley, Andrejs and Dulcie Ozolixi, David Preece, and Artis and Cori Rozentali. Any mistakes or inaccuracies that still remain are entirely my own, and I would appreciate being informed about them via the publishers. In addition, my thanks go to Sonja van Leeuwen, Samantha Vale Noya, Isabelle Cheng and Cathy Hurren at Routledge who have looked after the project from the first idea through to production, and to copy-editor Sandra Stafford. ix