Rakstivāls brings Latvian language enthusiasts together

LSM reports that the Rakstivāls festival, held on Sunday in Līgatne, brought together writers, readers and active users of the Latvian language. The event offered children a chance to improve their writing, families an opportunity to spend Sunday together, and writers a place to meet.

Festival attendee Gerda Griezne said people sometimes catch themselves thinking in English first and only then translating their thoughts into Latvian.

“Yes, it is rather sad, but writing itself is quite a solitary activity, and it is difficult to find young people who share this particular interest with one another,” she said.

Writer and festival founder Inga Žolude stressed the importance of practising the language. “We have to write, we have to read, we have to think in Latvian. Otherwise, these skills are beginning to be crowded out by many other things,” she said.

The festival also provided a place for debates about language use. One discussion focused on the phrase “runa iet”, which translates literally as “speech goes”. Modern Latvian dictionaries already record the phrase as being used, although students are taught that speech has no legs.

Some Latvian translations of books use the phrase, and it occasionally slips into broadcasts on Latvian Television.

Poet Dainis Deigelis, who was given the title of writing oracle at the festival, answered visitors’ questions from a candle-lit shelter. Asked whether speech, like thoughts, can fly but only go on its own, he replied: “Speech cannot go anywhere on its own if it does not have the ability to fly.”

Journalist Toms Bricis also brought questions that had long concerned him. He said weather reporting contained several recurring problem areas, including the word “sniegvilksnis”, an old Latvian term for a low snowstorm.

Bricis said the term had been nominated for word of the year but had not been readily accepted by the public, with some people considering it a newly invented word being forced into use. He argued that “sniegvilksnis” most accurately describes the natural phenomenon and said he used it alongside the alternative term “zemais putenis”.