PROCEEDINGS OF THE LATVIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Role of the Latvian language in the context of constitutional identity

Keywords: constitutional identity, Latvian language, language use
Language: In Latvian

The article analyses the role of language in the formation and preservation of constitutional identity. At the beginning of the article, the author explains the genesis of the concept of ‘constitutional identity’, providing a more detailed analysis of the Latvian language as an essential part of constitutional identity. This is followed by an outline of the Latvian language policy and its legal status. The author points out the endangered state of the Latvian language as a fullfledged state language, in which it is possible to communicate in all fields, which is caused by the contradiction between the strict requirements for Latvian language use in education and the equally strict (albeit indirect) inducements for the use of foreign languages in science. The author concludes that a frivolous attitude towards the Latvian language in science can have far-reaching consequences, which might threaten the identity of our nation in the future if there are no vocabularies in certain areas to communicate in Latvian.