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:''This article is about the ethnic group called Latvians or Letts. For the inhabitants of Latvia, see Demographics of Latvia.''
'Latvians' or 'Letts' (Latvian: ''latvieši''), the indigenous Baltic people of Latvia, occasionally refer to themselves by the ancient name of ''Latvji'', which may have originated from the word ''Latve'' which is a name of the river that presumably flowed through what is now eastern Latvia. A small Finnic-speaking tribe known as the Livs settled among the Latvians and modulated the name to "Latvis," meaning "forest-clearers," which is how medieval German settlers also referred to these peoples. The German colonizers changed this name to "Lette" and called their initially small colony ''Livland''. The Latin form, ''Livonia'', gradually referred to the whole territory of the modern-day Latvia as well as southern Estonia, which had fallen under German dominion. Latvians and Lithuanians are the only surviving members of the Baltic peoples and Baltic languages of the Indo-European family.
Latvian culture has experienced historical, cultural and religious influences, over centuries during Germanic and Scandinavian colonization and settlement. Eastern Latvia (Latgale), however, retains a strong Polish and Russian cultural and linguistic influence. This highly literate society places strong emphasis upon education, which is free and compulsory until age 18. Most Latvians belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church, but a small minority is Russian Orthodox, and Eastern Latvia (Latgale) is predominantly Roman Catholic. In the late 18th century, a small but vibrant Herrnhutist movement played a significant part in the development of Latvian literary culture, before it was absorbed in to the mainstream Lutheran denomination.
The national language of the Latvian people is Latvian. The Soviet Union imposed the official use of Russian language in the Latvian SSR after World War II, so most adult Latvians in Latvia today speak Russian as a second language. Many Latvians living in the diaspora outside the former Soviet Union also speak the primary language of their host countries, e.g. English in the USA or Australia, Swedish in Sweden, etc.

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See also

★ List of Latvians

★ Demographics of Latvia

★ Latgalians

★ Curonians

★ Kursi

★ Semigallians

★ Latvian women names

References