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ssmacd ssmacd
 
M$1 January 14, 2009 02:14 AM

Where is the largest concentration of Latvian speakers outside of Latvia?

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albanian albanian
 
 January 14, 2009 02:52 AM
Probably Ireland. About 150,000 people are estimated to speak Latvian outside of Latvia. There are about 35,000 Latvian immigrants in Ireland. Britain seems to be second and the USA third but the rest of the Latvians seem to be scattered.
Source(s):
http://latviansonline.com/index.php/commentary/article/1258/
http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2005/12/feature/lv0512104f.htm
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.pmlp.gov.lv/en/images/sta...

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socrtwo socrtwo
 
January 14, 2009 03:14 AM
I like your research. The UCLA Language Materials Center seems to have totally left out Ireland. Note though that not all Latvians speak Latvian as a first language so even 35,000 Latvians working in Ireland, would be less actual native language Latvian speakers. Also the US at 50,000 speakers regarding the original question of the poster, would still be the highest. It is true that UCLA could have an American bias and be really old data, for instance none of their references are more current than 1994.

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shanedj shanedj
 
January 14, 2009 02:53 AM
Your either looking at Russua, Lithuania or the Ukraine. Due to the sheer size of Russia i'd say its Russia.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvian_language


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mrgunn mrgunn
 
January 14, 2009 03:00 AM - Fact Refuted
That's what I thought at first, but you have to consider why people leave. In the absence of war or genocide, people leave for mostly economic reasons, and the strongest economies in that area, where they're likely to be able to immigrate and find a job, are in Ireland and the UK.

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mrgunn mrgunn
 
January 14, 2009 02:56 AM
A demographic study of Latvians says that most of them who leave are going to Ireland and the UK.
"On the latest estimate from the Bank of Latvia some 70,000 Latvians, or around 6% of the labour force, are currently working abroad - mostly in the UK and Ireland - but the true number is very likely considerably higher (IMF Selected Issues Latvia 2006, for example, puts the figure at nearer 100,000)."

This doesn't tell you what percentage of the immigrants are Latvian speakers, however. Those numbers could be highly skewed due to the relatively low percentage(60%) of Latvians who speak Latvian.
Source(s):
http://demographymatters.blogspot.com/2007/06/latvian-population-dynamics.h...
http://www.languagehelpers.com/languagefacts/latvian.html


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socrtwo socrtwo
 
January 14, 2009 03:06 AM
http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/images/Latvian.GIF
The largest concentration of Latvian speakers outside of Latvia is in the US with 50,000 speakers. Russia at 29,000 comes in 2nd, Australia with 25,000 comes in 3rd, and Canada with 15,000 comes in 4th. There are additional smaller communities of speakers in Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Lithuania, Ukraine, Brazil, Estonian, Belarus, New Zealand, and Venezuela.

According to the UCLA Language Materials Program, Latvia itself is thought to have 1.7 million speakers.
Source(s):
http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?LangID=40&menu=004 UCLA Language Materials Center entry on Latvian.


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albanian albanian
 
January 14, 2009 10:31 AM
Your source is reputable but it's sources are pretty old and are encyclopedia's etc which are probably using even older data. Since immigrant groups in America tend to lose their native language over time the numbers are probably lower now. They missed the whole emigration to western European countries thing because it is recent due to the changes in European laws. I don't think we'll know for sure on this question.

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crafttestd... crafttestd...
 
January 14, 2009 03:07 AM
I can't answer this definitively, but it just may be Northeastern Ohio. There is a Latvian Church at the end of my street in Lakewood, Ohio- and on Sunday, that place is jammed full!
Source(s):
My own eyes....


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