The modernLatvian orthography is based onLatin script adapted to phonetic principles, following thepronunciation of the language. The standard alphabet consists of 33 letters – 22 unmodified Latin letters and 11 modified bydiacritics. It was developed by the Knowledge Commission of the Riga Latvian Association in 1908, and was approved the same year by the orthography commission under the leadership ofKārlis Mīlenbahs andJānis Endzelīns.^[1] It was introduced by law from 1920 to 1922 in the Republic of Latvia.

Latvian orthography historically used a system based uponGermanphonetic principles, while the Latgalian dialect was written usingPolish orthographic principles.

The modern Latvian standard alphabet consists of 33 letters, 22 unmodified letters of the Latin alphabet and additional 11 modified by diacritics.

The vowel lettersA,E,I andU can take amacron to show length, unmodified letters being short.

The lettersC,S andZ, which in unmodified form are pronounced[ts],[s] and[z] respectively, can be marked with acaron. These marked letters,Č,Š andŽ are pronounced[tʃ],[ʃ] and[ʒ] respectively.

The lettersĢ,Ķ,Ļ andŅ are written with acedilla or a smallcomma placed below (or, in the case of the lowercaseg, above). They are modified (palatalized) versions ofG,K,L andN and represent the sounds[ɟ],[c],[ʎ] and[ɲ] respectively.

In alphabetical sorting, the lettersČ,Š,Ž,Ģ,Ķ,Ļ andŅ arecollated separately from their unmodified counterparts, butĀ,Ē,Ī, andŪ are usually collated as plainA,E,I,U.

The lettersF andH appear only inloanwords.^[2] However, they are common enough in modern Latvian, more common thanŽ,Ģ,Ķ, orČ.^[3]

Historically the lettersCH,Ō andŖ were also used in the Latvian alphabet. The last of these stood for the palatalized dental trill/rʲ/ which is still used in some dialects (mainly outside Latvia) but not in the standard language, and hence the letterŖ was finally removed from the alphabet on 5 June 1946, when theLatvian SSR legislature passed a regulation that officially replaced it withR in print.^[4] A spelling reform replacingŖ withR,CH withH, andŌ withO, was enacted in 1938,^[5] but thenŖ andCH were reinstated in 1939,^[6]Ō was reinstated in 1940,^[7]Ŗ andŌ were finally removed in 1946^[8] andCH was finally removed in 1957.^[9]

The lettersCH,Ō andŖ continue to be used in print throughout most of the Latvian diaspora communities, whose founding members left their homeland before the post-World War II Soviet-era language reforms. An example of a publication in Latvia today, albeit one aimed at the Latvian diaspora, that uses the older orthography—including the lettersCH,Ō andŖ—is the weekly newspaperBrīvā Latvija.

TheLatgalian language (variously considered a separate language or a dialect of Latvian) adds two extra letters to this standard set:Ō andY.

The Latvian alphabet lacksQ (kū [kuː]),X (iks [iks]) andY (igrek [igrek]) of theISO basic Latin alphabet. They are only used in foreign words and expressions and in international symbols. The letter "Y" is also used in the Latgalian language/dialect.

The Latvian alphabet also lacks the letterW (dubultvē [dubultveː]), which, along with the above scenarios, is used in older texts. It was used for the "v" sound in the German-based orthography, until the 20th century when the old orthography was replaced by the new orthography, in which the letter "W" was replaced by "V".

While the letters⟨q⟩,⟨w⟩,⟨x⟩, and⟨y⟩ are used in some forms of the Latvian keyboard, they are rarely used in Latvian. They occur in specific unassimilated foreign words and expressions (e.g. Latin terms (status quo), musical terms (tranquillo), and recent borrowings (queer; usually spelledkvīrs)). An example of an unassimilated borrowing in Latvian that uses one of these letters isBrexit (also spelledbreksits).^[12] They are replaced by "k(v)/h", "v", "ks", and "i"/"j" respectively (e.g.nikābs, kvarcs, kvarks, hidrohinons, viskijs, vindsērfs, vafele, ekstra, oksimorons, eksosfēra, jeti, joga, itrijs, etc.) in assimilated loanwords. However, they are used in international symbols, such as:

• x andy as unknowns or variables in mathematics;
• X as a Roman numeral for 10;
• W and Bq as physical units (however, when written in full, the words are written using Latvian letters:vats, bekerels);
• Q, Y, y, q as metric prefixes (when written in full, the prefixes are written using Latvian letters:kveta-, jota-, jokto-, kvekto-);
• W, Xe, Y as symbols of chemical elements (when written in full, the words are written using Latvian letters:volframs, ksenons, itrijs).

Despite this, these letters are not used in Latvian for writing foreign personal and geographical names; instead they are adapted to Latvian phonology, orthography, and morphology, e. g.Džordžs Volkers Bušs (George Walker Bush), but brand names are often written in their original spelling (e.g.Pixar).

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Latvian has a phonetic spelling. There are only a few exceptions to this:

• The letterE and its long variationĒ, which are used to write two sounds that represent the short and long versions of either[ɛ] or[æ] respectively:ēdu (/ɛː/, I ate) vs.ēdu (/æː/, I eat) anddzer (/ɛ/, 2sg, you drink) vs.dzer (/æ/, 3sg, s/he drinks)
• The letterO indicates both the short and long[ɔ], and thediphthong[uɔ̯]. These three sounds are written asO,Ō andUo inLatgalian, and some Latvians campaign for the adoption of this system in standard Latvian.^{[citation needed]} However, the majority of Latvian linguists argue thato andō are found only in loanwords, with theUo sound being the only native Latvian phoneme. The digraphUo was discarded in 1914,^{[citation needed]} and the letterŌ has not been used in the standard orthography since 1946.^{[citation needed]} Example:robots [o] (a robot, noun) vs.robots [uo] (toothed; adjective);tols [o] (tolite; noun) vstols [uo] (hornless; adjective).
• Also, Latvian orthography does not distinguish intonation homographs:sējums [ē] (crops) vssējums [è] (book edition), tā (that, feminine) vs tā (this way, adverb).
• Positional sound changes are not indicated in writing. These include: consonant assimilation (bs>ps, cd>dzd, sč>šč, etc.), simplifying word-final consonant clusters (ts>c, šs>š), pronouncing word-final or pre-consonantal combinations "vowel+'j'" and "vowel+'v'" as diphthongs (aj>ai, av>au), prolonging voiceless obstruents between vowels (apa>appa). In these cases, the spelling of morphemes remains the same as in other environments:labs 'good',piecdesmit 'fifty',pusčetri 'half past three',svešs 'strange',tavs 'your',lapa 'leaf'.^[13]

Latvian orthography also uses digraphsDz,Dž andIe.

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The old orthography was based on that of German and did not represent the Latvian language phonemically. At the beginning it was used to write religious texts for German priests to help them in their work with Latvians. The first writings in Latvian were chaotic: there were as many as twelve variations of writingŠ. In 1631 the German priestGeorg Mancelius tried to systematize the writing. He wrote long vowels according to their position in the word — a short vowel followed byh for a radical vowel, a short vowel in the suffix and vowel with a diacritic mark in the ending indicating two different accents. Consonants were written following the example of German with multiple letters. The old orthography was used until the 20th century when it was slowly replaced by the modern orthography.

• 
  Newspaper advertisement, ca. late 19th or early 20th c., showing the use ofGerman script and German-influenced orthography
• 
  19th-century Latvian alphabet (upper)
• 
  Rules of the spelling reform of 1921

Latvian was also traditionally written using a knot system known asmezglu raksti [lv]. One or two threads of differently colored yarn would be tied in knots and wound onto a peg, which created a ball that was unraveled to read the full message. This system was mostly used for recording folk songs or for textile patterns. The system became lost and died out, but lived on with some older individuals until the 20th century.^[14]

Lack of software support of diacritics has caused an unofficial style of orthography, often calledtranslit, to emerge for use in situations when the user is unable to access Latvian diacritic marks on the computer or using cell phone. It uses only letters of theISO basic Latin alphabet, and letters not used in standard orthography are usually omitted. In this style, diacritics are replaced by digraphs:

• ā,ē,ī,ū —aa,ee,ii,uu
• ļ,ņ,ģ,ķ —lj,nj,gj,kj
• š —sh (as well asss,sj, etc.)

Some people may find it difficult to use such methods and either write without any indication of missing diacritic marks or use digraphs only if the diacritic mark in question would make asemantic difference.^[15] There is yet another style, sometimes called "Pokémonism"^{[citation needed]} (In LatvianInternet slang "Pokémon" is derogatory foradolescent), characterised by use of some elements ofleet, use of non-Latvian letters (particularly w and x instead of v and ks), use of c instead of ts, use of z in endings, and use ofmixed case.

TheIETF language tags have registered a subtag for the old orthography (lv-vecdruka,^[16]lv-Latf-vecdruka forFraktur)

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StandardQWERTYcomputer keyboards are used for writing in Latvian; diacritics are entered by using adead key (usually' or`). Somekeyboard layouts use theAltGrmodifier key, usually placed immediately to the right of thespace bar (most notable of such is the Windows 2000 and XP built-in Latvian QWERTY layout).

OnmacOS, diacritics can be entered by holding down the⌥ Option key followed by the respective letters from their unaccented counterparts (including the obsolete letters):

• ⌥ Option+A → ā
• ⌥ Option+C → č
• ⌥ Option+E → ē
• ⌥ Option+G → ģ
• ⌥ Option+I → ī
• ⌥ Option+K → ķ
• ⌥ Option+L → ļ
• ⌥ Option+N → ņ
• ⌥ Option+O → ō
• ⌥ Option+R → ŗ
• ⌥ Option+S → š
• ⌥ Option+U → ū
• ⌥ Option+Z → ž

In the early 1990s, the Latvian ergonomic keyboard layout was developed. Although this layout may be available with language support software, it has not become popular due to lack of keyboards with such a configuration.

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