Latvian is the official language of Latvia. There are about 2 million speakers (both native and not). It is also one of the official languages of the European Union.
Latvian language belongs to the Baltic group of the Indo-European language family. The Baltic group includes two major languages: Latvian and Lithuanian. They are not easily mutually understandable.
Latvian uses Latin alphabet with additional diacritic symbols above or below the letters.
The stress in Latvian falls mostly on the first syllable of the words.
Latvian language is closely related to the Latgalian language, which is a language spoken in Latgale, the eastern part of the country. Latgalian is sometimes considered a dialect of Latvian.