The dictation of the world in Latvian has been written by 17 participants / Article / LSM.lv

By correcting 2457 works accepted for examination, it has become known that the dictation of the VI world in Latvian, which on November 7, 2020 at 12.15 simultaneously in Latvia and in the world took place online on the site raksti.org, written well by 17 participants, the organizers informed. –

Of the 17 well-written works, four were error-free and 13 were error-free. This year, the 16 best works were written in Latvia (seven in Riga, one each in Rencēni, Līgatne, Liepāja, Jelgava, Valmiera, Ogre, Bauska, Mārupe and Pārgauja region), but one – in Luxembourg.

The organizers of the dictation also noted that some of the best works were written by three schoolchildren aged 14 to 17, as well as two sixty-year-olds.

The average number of errors per dictation is 13 (four spellings and nine punctuation marks). The maximum number of errors per work was 139, while some dictations were not accepted for examination because they were only partially written or lacked diacritical marks.

Of the works accepted for examination, 249 were 2-5 errors, 805 were 6-10 errors, 1050 were 11-20 errors, 237 were 21-30 errors, 47 were 31-40 errors, 28 were 41-50 errors, 24 were 51 and more errors.

The organizers also pointed out that the activity of men writing dictations has increased this year (17%), however, women were still much more diligent writers (83%). It is also known that the youngest participants, who wrote a dictation in Baloži and Jūrmala, are only nine years old, while the oldest participant, who wrote a dictation in Pelči Parish, is 89 years old. The average age of the participants is almost unchanged, ie 36 years.

The majority (96.7%) of the participants in the dictation indicated that their mother tongue was Latvian, 2.6% – Russian, the remaining 0.7% – Lithuanian, Polish, German and other languages. Not all participants in the dictation wanted to indicate the level of education they had obtained, but 47 doctors, 829 masters and 698 bachelors have shared this information with the organizers. According to the submitted data, 393 secondary and 392 primary school graduates have also written a dictation.

This time, those interested could write the dictation online on the website “raksti.org”, watching a live broadcast from the Castle of Light or listening to the Latvian Radio 1 program “Kultūras Rondo”. In total, works were received from 34 countries around the world. The majority of participants were from Latvia (2481), the rest were from Germany (37), Great Britain (32), Belgium (15), the Netherlands (14), Luxembourg and Norway (10 each), Ireland (8), Poland and France ( 7 each), Spain and Sweden (6 each), Greece, Lithuania and Moldova (4 each), Finland, Denmark and the Czech Republic (3 each), Switzerland, Italy, Estonia, Belarus and the United States (2 each) , Austria, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Croatia, Israel, Canada, Cyprus, Russia, Laos, Peru and Taiwan (1 each).

No marks were placed; The dictation could be written both with one’s name and anonymously, as the aim of the initiative is to provide an opportunity for everyone to assess their knowledge of Latvian spelling. In December, all online participants of the event will receive a special confirmation of participation in the Latvian language dictated by the VI World, while the winners of the best results will be awarded with books from the company “Jāņa Rozes grāmatnīca”.

The poem, publicist and translator Ilmārs Šlāpins created the approximately 300-word text “A Tale of the Creation of Words” especially for this purpose. It was dictated by actress and speech teacher Zane Daudiņa in Riga – Castle of Light. The compliance of the text with the Latvian language norms was checked and approved by Professor Andris Kalnača of the Department of Latvian and Baltic Studies, Faculty of Humanities, University of Latvia.

In 2019, 2042 participants wrote the anniversary – the fifth – world dictation in Latvian in person and online, in 2018 – 1648 participants, in 2017 – 935 participants, in 2016 – 789 participants, in 2015 – 920 participants.

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