REZEKNE - While Latvia's Parliament grapples this week with legislation to further entrench the Latvian language in the country's everyday life, people in the rural eastern region of Latgale are trying simply to keep their language alive. There is a joke in Latgale, a farming region bordering Russia where most people know more about flax combines than fax machines, that when Latvia joins the European Union the Latgalian language, considered by some a dialect and others a distinct language, will be the first thing to go. Next, they lament, will be Latvian itself. Spoken by thousands in towns...
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