page_title: Latgalians (modern)
section_title: Modern times
hierarchical_section_title: Latgalians (modern) / Modern times
caption_attribution_description: English: Flag of Latgalians and Latgalia, approved by "Latgolys Saeima" ("Latgalian Parliament") Latgaļu: Latgalīšu i Latgolys karūgs, apstyprynuots "Latgolys Saeimā" Latviešu: Latgaliešu un Latgales karogs, apstiprināts "Latgales Saeimā" Русский: Флаг латгальцев и Латгалии, утверждённый «Латгальским Сеймом».
context_page_description: The Latgalians are the ethnic Latvians of Latgale, who speak Latgalian, a distinct dialect of Latvian, and share a common culture that sets them apart from other Latvians.
context_section_description: Latgalians continued to publish books and periodicals abroad. Publishing in Latgalian in Latvia resumed during the Third National Awakening in the late 1980s but is still rare. The Latgalian language is mostly used at home in rural areas and Latvian is overwhelmingly used in official use and in urban areas. Some government protection for the Latgalian language is provided by the language law of 2000 which states that "the State shall ensure the maintenance, protection and development of the Latgalian written language as a historic variant of the Latvian language.."
  Some Latgalians consider themselves to be an ethnic group separate from Latvians. The majority opinion is, however, that present-day Latgalians are a subgroup of the Latvians who are united by a dialect, which has many regional varieties. The number of people who would identify themselves as separate from Latvians is unknown because the Latvian government does not identify Latgalians as a separate group in census data.
  2011 Census of Latvia established that 8.8% of Latvia's inhabitants or 164 500 people speak Latgalian dialect daily. 97 600 of them live in Latgale, 29 400 in Riga and 14 400 in Riga region.
  Additionally, the majority view is that Latgalians appeared because Latgale was part of Poland for 100 years and later under Russian rule, while the rest of Latvia was under German and Swedish rule. Thus, Latvians living in Latgale are more Russified/Polonized as opposed to the rest of the Latvian people (who have undergone more prolonged Germanization).
caption: Unofficial flag of Latgale first used in public in 2010[2]
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