In the Latvian language, nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals are inflected in six declensions. There are seven cases:
nominative () genitive () dative () accusative () instrumental () locative () vocative ()
Nouns Latvian has two grammatical genders, masculine and feminine.
Latvian nouns can be classified as either declinable or indeclinable. Most Latvian nouns are declinable, and regular nouns belong to one of six declension classes (three for masculine nouns, and three for feminine nouns).
Latvian nouns have seven grammatical cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative and vocative. The instrumental case is always identical to the accusative in the singular, and to the dative in the plural. It is used as a free-standing case (i.e., in the absence of a preposition) only in highly restricted contexts in modern Latvian. (See below for a true prepositional case, the ablative.)
Masculine declensions The three masculine declensions have the following identifying characteristics: 1st declension: nom. sing. in -s or -š, thematic vowel -a- (e.g. vīrs < *wī́ˀras, "man, husband") 2nd declension: nom. sing. in -is (or -ns/-ss, see below), thematic vowel -i- (e.g. skapis "wardrobe") 3rd declension: nom. sing. in -us, thematic vowel -u- (e.g. tirgus "market, bazaar")
The full paradigms of endings for the three declensions is given in the following table: 1st decl. 2nd decl. 3rd decl. Sing. Plur. Sing. Plur. Sing. Plur. Nom. vīrs vīri skapis skapji tirgus tirgi Gen. vīra vīru skapja skapju tirgus tirgu Dat. vīram vīriem skapim skapjiem tirgum tirgiem Acc. vīru vīrus skapi skapjus tirgu tirgus Ins. vīru vīriem skapi skapjiem tirgu tirgiem Loc. vīrā vīros skapī skapjos tirgū tirgos Voc. vīr vīri skapi skapji tirgu tirgi
The 2nd declension exhibits palatalization of the final stem consonant in the genitive singular and throughout the plural (p → pj in the example above, but see below for full details). Exceptions to this include compound nouns and proper names ending in -dis or -tis (e.g. Atis, gen. sing. Ata).
A small subclass of 2nd declension nouns have identical nominative and genitive singular (most of them ending in -ens). These are part of the so-called consonant stem nouns: e.g. akmens "stone", asmens "blade", mēness "moon", rudens "autumn", sāls "salt", ūdens "water", and zibens "lightning". The 2nd declension noun suns "dog" has the regular genitive singular suņa.
Feminine declensions The three feminine declensions can be characterized as follows: 4th declension: nom. sing. in -a, thematic vowel -a- (e.g. sieva "woman, wife") 5th declension: nom. sing. in -e, thematic vowel -e- (e.g. upe "river") 6th declension: nom. sing. in -s, thematic vowel -i- (e.g. nakts < *náktis "night")
The full paradigms of endings for the three declensions is given in the following
4th decl. 5th decl. 6th decl. Sing. Plur. Sing. Plur. Sing. Plur. Nom. sieva sievas upe upes nakts naktis Gen. sievas sievu upes upju nakts nakšu Dat. sievai sievām upei upēm naktij naktīm Acc. sievu sievas upi upes nakti naktis Ins. sievu sievām upi upēm nakti naktīm Loc. sievā sievās upē upēs naktī naktīs Voc. sieva sievas upe upes nakts naktis
The final stem consonant is palatalized in the genitive plural of 5th and 6th declension nouns (in the examples above, p → pj and t → š, but see the next section for full details). Exceptions to this include loanwords such as epizode (gen. pl. epizodu) in the 5th declension and a handful of words in the 6th declension: acs "eye", auss "ear", balss "voice", zoss "goose".
The 4th and 5th declensions include a number of masculine nouns (e.g. puika "boy", or proper names such as Dilba, Zvaigzne), or common gender nouns that are either masculine or feminine depending on their use in context (e.g. paziņa "acquaintance", bende "executioner"). Some surnames (e.g. Klints) belong to the 6th declension for both masculine and feminine.Согласование слов в роде, числе и падеже (in Russian). In these cases, the masculine nouns take the same endings as given in the table above, except in the dative singular: 4th decl.: -am (e.g. dat. sing. puikam "boy") 5th decl.: -em (e.g. dat. sing. bendem "male executioner", cf. bendei "female executioner") 6th decl.: -im (e.g. dat. sing. Klintim for male surname, cf. Klintij for female surname)
The 6th declension noun ļaudis "people" is masculine. It has no singular forms, only regular plural forms.
Consonant shift (stem-final iotation and palatalization) Some of the case endings given in the declension tables above begin with an underlying palatal approximant - . This is true of the 2nd declension genitive singular (ending -ja), all forms of the 2nd declension plural, and the genitive plural of the 5th and 6th declensions (ending -ju).
In Latvian literature this process is collectively referred to as līdzskaņu mija, i.e., consonant shift. Jotēšana (cf. German Jotisierung), i.e., iotation can be further distinguished as a subcategory. In English Academia the term "iotation" is often used to refer to properties of Eastern Slavic vowels wherein they acquire an underlying which palatalizes the preceding consonants regardless of their position within a word which is similar to the phenomenon of assimilative palatalization of consonants in Lithuanian. Latvian however does not have assimilative palatalization of consonants and the term "iotation" is used strictly in the sense of stem-final labial consonants being "affixed with an iota" (i.e., the letter ⟨J⟩) in 2nd, 5th and 6th declension nouns.
change nom. sing. (not iotated) gen. plur. (iotated) translation p → pj upe upju "river" b → bj gulbis gulbju "swan" m → mj zeme zemju "land" v → vj dzērve dzērvju "crane" f → fj žirafe žirafju "giraffe"
Besides labial consonants () that are iotated, coronal consonants (, see below on ) and affricates () and their clusters can be said to undergo palatalization. Thus, for example, plain Latvian ⟨L⟩ (similar to the standard value of in American English or if not proceeded by a front vowel - Brazilian Portuguese, sometimes distinguished as "dark L" - ) is palatalized to ⟨Ļ⟩, a palatal lateral approximant - .
change nom. sing. (unpalatalized) gen. plur. (palatalized) translation c → č lācis lāču "bear" d → ž briedis briežu "deer" l → ļ brālis brāļu "brother" n → ņ dvīnis dvīņu "twin" s → š lasis lašu "salmon" t → š nakts nakšu "night" z → ž vāze vāžu "vase" sn → šņ krāsns krāšņu "stove" zn → žņ zvaigzne zvaigžņu "star" sl → šļ kāpslis kāpšļu "stirrup" zl → žļ zizlis zižļu "baton" ln → ļņ vilnis viļņu "wave" ll → ļļ lelle leļļu "doll" nn → ņņ pinne piņņu "acne" st → š rīkste rīkšu "rod"
History, exceptions and umlaut After the Soviet occupation of Latvia minor reforms were made to Latvian orthography, namely the use of long ⟨ō⟩, the ⟨ch⟩ digraph and the use of "softened" ⟨ŗ⟩ were abolished. The use of ⟨ō⟩, ⟨ch⟩ and ⟨ŗ⟩ is often collectively referred to as “Endzelīns’ orthography.” The abolition of diacriticized ⟨ŗ⟩ effectively makes the trill sound () the only coronal consonant that does not undergo stem-final consonant shift.
For example, the gen.pl. of cepure "hat" is cepuru (but may be pronounced cepuŗu). It is, however, still used among people of Latvian origin and books outside of Latvia.
Proponents of ⟨ŗ⟩ point out that it aids in distinguishing a number of homographic heterophones and helps distinguishing the so-called "open ⟨e⟩" () and "close ‹e›" () and prevents the appearance of their alternations in nominal paradigm (referred to as umlaut (pārskaņa), metaphony (metafonija) and other names such as regresīvā vokāļu harmonizācija, etc.)
Nominative Old orthography New orthography or (IPA) Tone (Latvian notation: /~/ - level, /^/ - broken) Translation mēris mēŗa mēra mẽra Gen.Sing. plague mērs mēra Gen.Sing. mayor mērs Gen.Sing. measure mērīt 3rd Pers.Ind. - he measures bērt bēru bēru bêru I poured (sand, grain, etc.) bēres bēŗu Gen.Pl. funeral bēris bẽru Gen.Pl. a bay horse
The use of ⟨ŗ⟩ has it that gen.sing. "plague" mēŗa would be distinguishable from gen.sing. "measure" mēra and bēŗu would not show umlaut being pronounced with a close like the rest of its paradigm. Further, besides the 5th declension plurale tantum noun bēres ("funeral") another word that would have stem final consonant shift can be introduced - 2nd declension bēris ("a bay horse") both their gen.pl. will be bēŗu if ⟨ŗ⟩ is used. One could argue that the appearance of umlaut in gen.pl. "funeral" now allows to distinguish it from gen.pl. "bay horse" (assuming the latter is not subjected to umlaut), however, the more common occurrence of the words "I poured (a granular substance)" and "of funeral" becoming perfect homophones is likely to be seen as a net-loss by proponents of ‹ŗ›.
In Latvian literature it is usually assumed that open is the underlying value of e which became the more close when followed by a palatal element - either a front vowel (cf. German Gast : Gäste ) or the palatal approximant (the "shifted" values can always be analyzed as sums of some consonant and *j in historical terms: š < *tj, ž < *dj, etc.)
In fact, consonant shift can be viewed as a means of blocking umlaut alternations in nominal paradigm, e.g., the 5th declension in -e has front vocalic endings (-e, -es, -ei, -ēm, etc.) in all cases except pl.gen. which has the back vowel -u and pl.gen. happens to be the only case where consonant shift takes place for this declension (the 2nd declension in -is is not as immediately obvious because the modern pl.nom. ending -i is a front vowel which should not require consonant shift to block possible umlaut, however, it likely originates from an earlier back vocalic ending *-ai explaining the consonant shift.)
Some suggest that the abolition of Endzelīns' orthography in 1946 and 1957 was motivated by the fact that after the occupation Soviet authorities were promoting Russian-born Latvians for positions in the new administration, who, in turn, were not familiar with the developments that had taken place during the decades of independence.
During the Soviet rule one could observe what might seem motivation to simplify consonant shift further. Thus, for example, in a 1971 book by Aldonis Vēriņš Puķkopība ("Horticulture") the pl. gen. of narcise ("daffodil") is consistently spelled narcisu instead of narcišu.
A 2000 handbook on Latvian orthography lists the following words as exceptions to consonant shift due to reasons of euphony.
nom.sing./nom.pl. gen.sing./gen.pl. translation Guntis Gunta Guntis (name) Atis Ata Atis (name) viesis viesu guest gaišmatis gaišmatu a light-haired person tālskatis tālskatu telescope pase pasu passport gāze gāzu gas mute mutu mouth kaste kastu box, carton torte tortu cake azote azotu bosom acs acu eye auss ausu ear balss balsu voice dzelzs dzelzu iron valsts valstu country, state zoss zosu goose debesis debesu sky
This list is far from exhaustive. 2nd declension two-syllable male names with stems ending in ‹d,t› never undergo consonant shift (Uldis, Artis, Gatis, and so forth.) Besides body parts (acs, auss) there is a number of other words that historically do not undergo consonant shift, e.g., the name of the town of Cēsis. Words with stem-final -st are not subject to consonant shift this includes all feminine forms of -ist nouns (e.g., feministe and so forth.) Further in a number of words consonant shift has been dropped to avoid homophony, thus gen.pl. of "passport" pase would be homophonous with "of (our-, your-, their-) selves" pašu, the same goes for gāze "gas" which would be homophonous with 1st pers. indicative of the verb gāzt "to topple." Perhaps only a small number could be genuinely attributed to euphony, e.g., gaišmaša due to two concomitant sounds occurring within a three-syllable word which some might find "unpleasantly sounding."
Dorsal consonants