Latvian discussion group

[ciuppo2000]

What do you want to know ? I've been to Valmiera once, briefly, they have a church, a theater and a river, I haven't been to Valka, but as the Estonians accused Valka of polluting their waters recently, I suspect they also have a river and the border and Estonians

Valmiera is the brother city of Kecskemét or on the way to become.
And "Man", you're in Latvia then! Besides it is a city of a long history, it is already a pleasure to walk in the main streets of such a place. At least for a Hungarian (and German, and Argentinian, yeah ).

Hello Levo !

Probably it would be better to say: Valmiera is the SISTER city of ...

bet...kā latviski? ...māsas pilsēta...vai ?

Mūsu latviešu draugi varbūt var mums palīdzēt...

ciuppo2000

[mak]

Tās ir sadraudzības pilsētas. Un, piemēram, Rīgai ir sadraudzības attiecības ar Tallinu, Viļņu, Minsku, Maskavu un citām pilsētām.

[Levo]

What do you want to know ? I've been to Valmiera once, briefly, they have a church, a theater and a river, I haven't been to Valka, but as the Estonians accused Valka of polluting their waters recently, I suspect they also have a river and the border and Estonians

Valmiera is the brother city of Kecskemét or on the way to become.
And "Man", you're in Latvia then! Besides it is a city of a long history, it is already a pleasure to walk in the main streets of such a place. At least for a Hungarian (and German, and Argentinian, yeah ).

Hello Levo !

Probably it would be better to say: Valmiera is the SISTER city of ...

bet...kā latviski? ...māsas pilsēta...vai ?

Mūsu latviešu draugi varbūt var mums palīdzēt...

ciuppo2000

Sorry, in my language we say testvérváros and it means both brother and sister, but if you want it means only each of them, however you like, we don't make a problem of genders. So, excuse me in advance for such mistakes, I didn't know whether English considers cities as females or males (which is absolutely pointless for me )

[ciuppo2000]

Hello Levo!

There is no reason to apologize ... this forum is intended to share knowledge...
...for example now I know that in your language there is no grammaticalc gender!

ciuppo2000

[Levo]

Sveiki!
"Siil udus" - This is how my Estonian housemate called the cartoon in Estonian. As he described it, I remembered one cartoon I saw in Latvian once: Ezītis miglā
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6_UdeS0V2U
Is it Russian, or Latvian?
Kas ir "Ieskaņota"?

It is the same cartoon and he told me that according to him, this is the best cartoon made in the 20. century.

[ciuppo2000]

ieskaņot...

...pirmais ka man ienāk prātā ir...

ieskaņot dziesmu = to record a/the song

bet laikam ir arī...

ieskaņot filmu = to add the sountrack to a/the film

ciuppo2000

[sennacherib]

This is the screenshot from the Colloquial Latvian book.

I wonder does the letter 'ğ' exist in the Latvian alphabet? Shouldn't it be 'ģ' instead?

Thanks!

[mak]

Kas ir "Ieskaņota"?

Dubbed.

[ciuppo2000]

This is the screenshot from the Colloquial Latvian book.

I wonder does the letter 'ğ' exist in the Latvian alphabet? Shouldn't it be 'ģ' instead?

Thanks!

Sveiks Sennaheribs !

Have you noticed that the alleged 35 letters of the Latvian alphabet are ... 34 ??!!

Actually the letters of the Latvian alphabet are 33. DZ is a digraph and it is rightly not considered a "letter".

The 11th letter is "ģ". Probably they had not that special character...

ciuppo2000

[Levo]

Kas ir "Ieskaņota"?

Dubbed.

Then it solves the question. Not Latvian.

[sennacherib]

Sveiks Sennaheribs !

Have you noticed that the alleged 35 letters of the Latvian alphabet are ... 34 ??!!

Actually the letters of the Latvian alphabet are 33. DZ is a digraph and it is rightly not considered a "letter".

The 11th letter is "ģ". Probably they had not that special character...

ciuppo2000

Thank you, ciuppo2000!

I wonder if I should continue using that book since it's the only material I've got for Latvian..><

[ciuppo2000]

Kas ir "Ieskaņota"?

Dubbed.

Then it solves the question. Not Latvian.

Why...Not Latvian?

As far as I know IESKAŅOTA is the past participle (passive; feminine and singular) of the verb IESKAŅOT.

So for example when talking of a Latvian film

FILMA IESKAŅOTA RĪGĀ could mean that a soundtrack (dialogs, music, etc. etc.) was added to the film in Riga, while

FILMA IESKAŅOTA ANGĻU VALODĀ could mean that the film was dubbed in English...

ciuppo2000

[ciuppo2000]

Sveiks Sennaheribs !

Have you noticed that the alleged 35 letters of the Latvian alphabet are ... 34 ??!!

Actually the letters of the Latvian alphabet are 33. DZ is a digraph and it is rightly not considered a "letter".

The 11th letter is "ģ". Probably they had not that special character...

ciuppo2000

Thank you, ciuppo2000!

I wonder if I should continue using that book since it's the only material I've got for Latvian..><

Well...if that is the beginning then one cannot expect much from that book, but of course
...never say never...

...in any case if you are really interested in Latvian language a good (practical) grammar is:

A GRAMMAR OF MODERN LATVIAN (T. G. Fennell, H. Gelsen)

ciuppo2000

[Petros]

Sveiciens visiem jaunajā gadā Biju piemirsis par šo adresi, lai gan pats ņemos ar ukraiņu un grieķu valodu. Kā Jums ar latviešu valodu iet?

[Levo]

Sveiciens visiem jaunajā gadā Biju piemirsis par šo adresi, lai gan pats ņemos ar ukraiņu un grieķu valodu. Kā Jums ar latviešu valodu iet?

Hästi...őő...Labi
Man ir avīze pa latviešu valodu, bet man nav laikas/laiku? lasīt.

[Petros]

nav laika.

[Levo]

Sveiki!
I would like to ask you, if the woman in this page pronounces Latvian correctly?
http://www.goethe-verlag.com/book2/HU/HULV/HULV005.HTM
Just because I thought that in Latvian the stress is on the first sylabelle despite of a few exceptions (expressions, vis+..., etc.), but at this page almost all words longer than 2 sylabelles are pronounced with stress on a different sylabelle.
Paldies!

[mak]

Hi Levo

Her pronunciation is flawless and she stressed all the correct syllables. But her intonation (I hope it's the right term) is a bit over the top, it's how announcements on trains and buses sound but no one normally speaks like that unless they are asked to cite a poem by their Latvian teacher.

[Levo]

Thanks.
So, why I hear the stress on different sylabelles is rather because of the intonation?

[ciuppo2000]

Hello Levo!

Generally the reason is that usually words with more than two syllables have two kind of stress: a PRIMARY STRESS and a SECONDARY STRESS.

For instance in the English word EXPECTATION there is a stress on the first syllable [ex] (the secondary stress) and one on the syllable [ta] (the primary stress).

In a normal conversation it is not always possible to "detect" this secondary stress, but speaking slowly and especially using an overstressed/over the top intonation this secondary stress is fully "detectable" and easily mixed up for a primary stress.

Ciuppo2000