Languages 4

I have been told that Daugavpils is the most diverse city in Latvia, even more so than Rīga. In terms of languages, this is probably true. It's not only that Russian is spoken very extensively, but also that Daugavpils also has Polish, Belorussian, and Lithuanian communities. In addition, it's located in the province of Latgale, the easternmost part of Latvia, where one can still hear the very old language Latgalian. I am not sure if this language is more of a dialect than a separate language, but the lowdown is that Daugavpils is a very interesting mix of languages. Given where it's located -- where Latvia, Belarus, and Lithuania all converge, with Russia nearby for good measure -- this doesn't come as a surprise.

Which raises the question of what language use will look like in Latvia's future. The official status of Latvian seems to have assured its survival, especially because it is taught in the schools. I have yet to hear a Russian speaker who could not switch over to Latvian when necessary. I am sure that they exist, but it seems that with an entire generation (and almost two generations now) of Latvians who learned the language either at home or at school, it seems that there are fewer and fewer people who can't demonstrate some facility with Latvian.

That said, I would hate to see Russian lost. I don't think this would happen, though language policies could be and have been put in place to give it less priority. I understand why because, after all, Russian was the language of the oppressors in Soviet times. But it's also important to remember that Russian does not equal Soviet: they are two separate concepts. One is a language and culture, and the other is a political institution that went terribly awry. I don't mean to suggest that I think that Russian would ever be spoken nationally in Latvia. I am told, in fact, that as you travel west in Latvia toward the Baltic coast, you hear less and less Russian, and people are more adamant about the Latvian language being the language of the nation. But it seems to me that Daugavpils and its region is in a very enviable position. Russia is a major trading partner, economic power, and world culture. Daugavpilians effortlessly go back and forth between the two languages. Why not capitalize on this advantage? Why not make Daugavpils a trade center for East-West exchange? The Baltics have always had this function for the rest of Europe, and as unfortunate as the historical situation has been about the relationship of the East-West spheres of power, the reality is that the powers are there and Daugavpils has a leg up on the rest of the nation by being essentially bilingual. Or, if it isn't -- and I'm not the best judge of how bilingual it is -- then it has a leg up on becoming so.

I realize that this discussion is very, very politically charged. This isn't surprising. As I say the very first day of my history of the English language course, nothing is more political than language. That's because nothing is more tied to one's cultural identity than one's language, and no politics hit home quite so hard as identity politics. But I think it's also important to remember that one doesn't have just one identity; Daugavpils is a place where identities intersect, and thousands of Latvian Russians have been living that intersection for generations now. And they are not the only ones: French Canadians speak French but don't give up their Canadian identity in the process because Canada has figured out ways to honor both identities. This is the struggle that the United States has and will have increasingly in the future over Spanish-speaking Latinos who are being told that they need to speak English in order to "be American." My first response is "they do." Study after study shows that new immigrants learn English, despite belief to the contrary. My second response is: why? Why shouldn't America be a bilingual country? (Or, better yet, trilingual? Nothing would make me happier than to see the French language really take off in Maine.) 

When I first arrived in Daugavpils, I despaired over the fact that I would have to navigate two languages, not just one, and figured out that I wouldn't learn much about either of them. Now I can't imagine being anywhere else in Latvia because the place is just so linguistically complicated. And I like to think of that as a very good thing.