Countries
Estonia, European Union
  
European Union, Latvia
  
National Language
Estonia, Gambia
  
Latvia
  
Second Language
Not spoken in any of the countries
  
Not spoken in any of the countries
  
Speaking Continents
Europe
  
Europe
  
Minority Language
Denmark, Russia, Sweden
  
Not spoken in any of the countries
  
Regulated By
Institute of the Estonian Language
  
Latvian State Language Center
  
Interesting Facts
- Estonian language is considered to be powerful symbol of Estonian identity and culture.
- Estonian language has adopted many words with Finnish language.
  
- The first written form of Latvian dates from 16th century was found in religious texts.
- The old latvian language was based on the a Gothic script.
  
Similar To
Finnish
  
Lithuanian Language
  
Derived From
Not Available
  
Not Available
  
Alphabets in
Estonian-Alphabets.jpg#200
  
Latvian-Alphabets.jpg#200
  
Phonology
  
  
Scripts
Latin
  
Latin
  
Writing Direction
Left-To-Right, Horizontal
  
Left-To-Right, Horizontal
  
Hard to Learn
  
  
Hello
Tere
  
Sveiki
  
Thank You
aitäh
  
Paldies
  
How Are You?
kuidas sul läheb
  
Kā jums klājas?
  
Good Night
Head ööd
  
Ar labunakti
  
Good Evening
Tere õhtust
  
Labvakar
  
Good Afternoon
Tere päevast
  
Labdien
  
Good Morning
Tere hommikust
  
Labrīt
  
Please
Palun
  
lūdzu
  
Sorry
Vabandust
  
Piedodiet!
  
Bye
Head aega
  
Uz redzēšanos
  
I Love You
ma armastan sind
  
Es tevi mīlu
  
Excuse Me
Vabandage
  
Piedodiet!
  
Dialect 1
Keskmurre
  
Livonian
  
Where They Speak
Gabon, Northeastern coast of Estonia
  
Latvia
  
Dialect 2
Tartu
  
Middle Latvian
  
Where They Speak
Georgia, South Estonia
  
Latvia
  
Dialect 3
Idamurre
  
High Latvian
  
Where They Speak
France, Northwestern shore of Lake Peipsi.
  
France, Latvia
  
How Many People Speak?
1.10 million
  
99+
1.75 million
  
99+
Speaking Population
Not Available
  
Not Available
  
Native Speakers
0.95 million
  
99+
1.75 million
  
99+
Native Name
eesti keel
  
latviešu valoda
  
Alternative Names
Eesti keel
  
Lettish
  
French Name
estonien
  
letton
  
German Name
Estnisch
  
Lettisch
  
Pronunciation
Not Available
  
Not Available
  
Ethnicity
Estonians
  
Latvians or Letts
  
Origin
13th century
  
1530
  
Language Family
Uralic Family
  
Indo-European Family
  
Subgroup
Finno-Ugric
  
Baltic
  
Branch
Finnic
  
Not Available
  
Language Forms
  
  
Early Forms
No early forms
  
No early forms
  
Standard Forms
Estonian
  
Latvian
  
Signed Forms
Estonian Sign Language
  
Latvian Sign Language
  
Scope
Macrolanguage
  
Macrolanguage
  
ISO 639 1
et
  
lv
  
ISO 639 2
  
  
ISO 639 2/T
est
  
lav
  
ISO 639 2/B
est
  
lav
  
ISO 639 3
est
  
lav
  
ISO 639 6
Not Available
  
not Available
  
Glottocode
esto1258
  
latv1249
  
Linguasphere
No data available
  
54-AAB-a
  
Types of Language
  
  
Language Type
Living
  
Living
  
Language Linguistic Typology
Subject-Verb-Object
  
Subject-Verb-Object
  
Language Morphological Typology
Agglutinative
  
Synthetic
  
Estonian and Latvian Greetings
People around the world use different languages to interact with each other. Even if we cannot communicate fluently in any language, it will always be beneficial to know about some of the common greetings or phrases from that language. This is where Estonian and Latvian greetings helps you to understand basic phrases in Estonian and Latvian language. Estonian word for "Hello" is Tere or Latvian word for "Thank You" is Paldies. Find more of such common Estonian Greetings and Latvian Greetings. These greetings will help you to be more confident when conversing with natives that speak these languages.
Estonian vs Latvian Difficulty
The Estonian vs Latvian difficulty level basically depends on the number of Estonian Alphabets and Latvian Alphabets. Also the number of vowels and consonants in the language plays an important role in deciding the difficulty level of that language. The important points to be considered when we compare Estonian and Latvian are the origin, speaking countries, language family, different greetings, speaking population of these languages. Want to know in Estonian and Latvian, which language is harder to learn? Time required to learn Estonian is 44 weeks while to learn Latvian time required is 44 weeks.