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Articles 4 and 114 of the Constitution of Latvia form the foundation for language policy in Latvia, declaring Latvian to be the official state language and affirming the rights of ethnic minorities to preserve and develop their languages. Latvian, the Latgalian, and the Livonian language are considered indigenous and all other languages foreign, including Russian (the first language for more than one third of the population〔(2000 census results ) — choose "Results of Population Census Year 2000, in short" and "Iedzīvotāju dzimtā valoda un citu valodu prasme"〕). Other significant minority foreign languages include Belarusian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Polish, and Romani. The preamble to the State Language Law includes as its goals "the integration of national minorities into Latvian society while respecting their right to use their mother tongue or any other language; () the increase of the influence of the Latvian language in the cultural environment of Latvia by promoting a faster integration of society."〔(State Language Law ) — Sections 1, 3-5〕 == Legal framework == The official language (''valsts valoda'', literally ''state language'') in Latvia is Latvian; this status has been explicitly defined since 1988.〔(Decision on status of the Latvian language (Supreme Council of Latvian SSR, 06.10.1988.) )〕 In 1992, amendments to the 1989 Law on Languages strengthened the position of Latvian. All other languages, except the extinct〔http://www.helsinki.fi/~tasalmin/fu.html〕 Livonian language, are defined as foreign languages in Section 5 of the State Language Law of 1999. Since 1998, the official status of the Latvian language has been written into the Constitution (Article 4); and since 2002, MPs have been asked to promise to strengthen Latvian as the only official language in order to take their seats (Article 18). In the Constitution's chapter on human rights, rights to get answers from authorities in Latvian are specified since 2002 (Article 104). The current State Language Law was not amended since its adoption in 1999. In 1995, Latvia signed, and in 2005 ratified the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. When ratifying it, the Latvian Saeima (Parliament) made two declarations (worded as reservations) limiting the implementation of Articles 10 and 11. As at 2008, Latvia did not plan to sign the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.〔(Third report on Latvia ) by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, 2008 — see Paragraph 4〕 Language policy is implemented by a number of institutions: the State Language Commission (under the President) prepares proposals in this field; the State Language Centre (under the Ministry of Justice) executes control, imposes fines for administrative violations and translates documents of international significance, the Latvian Language Agency (under the Ministry of Education and Science) provides consultations and opportunities for learning the Latvian language, analyses the language situation. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Language policy in Latvia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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