| Latvian State Language Centre | |
| Abbreviation: | VVC |
| Formation: | 1992 |
| Native Name: | Valsts valodas centrs |
| Location: | Eksporta iela 6, Riga, Latvia |
| Leader Title: | Director |
| Leader Name: | Māris Baltiņš |
| Leader Title2: | Deputy director |
| Leader Name2: | Inese Bursevica |
Latvian State Language Centre (VVC; Latvian: Valsts valodas centrs) is a direct administration institution subordinated to the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Latvia. The purpose of the State Language Centre is to implement the national policy on the use of the official language - Latvian.
The Centre supervises and controls the conformity with laws and regulations on the use of official language, provides the State administration institutions and the public with official translations of laws and regulations and other documents issued by the State or international organisations while concurrently ensuring use of consistent terminology. The State Language Centre protects rights and interests of the official language users, promotes the regularisation of the cultural environment of language and promotes comprehensive functioning of the Latvian language.
On 5 May 1989 the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic Law on Languages was adopted, restoring the status of Latvian that it had before the Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940. This Law prescribes:
On 6 January 1998 the Latvian language was once again prescribed as the official language in the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia – 10 years after it was declared the official language.
Since 1993 State Language Centre supervises the conformity with the laws and regulations on the official language use, ensures the maintenance, protection and development of the Latvian language. State Language Centre was assigned additional functions in 2009 after its merger with Translation and Terminology Centre. State Language Centre has the following functions:
The work of the Centre is led by the director of the Centre. After the approval of the candidacy by the Cabinet, the director of the Centre is appointed by the Minister for Justice. The current director of the State Language Centre is Dr. habil. med. Māris Baltiņš, and the deputy director – Madara Rēķe.The State Language Centre consists of three departments - the Administrative, Language Control and Terminology and Legal Translation.[1]
Administrative department is responsible for the organization of the administrative matters (personnel, legal matters, record keeping, management of information systems) as well as prepares and executes necessary documentation.
Language Control Department consists of two branches – Riga Branch of the Language Control Department and Regional Branch of the Language Control Department. Language Control Department has the following functions:
Terminology and Legal Translation Department (and Legal Translation Division), within the scope of their functions, participates in the translation process of the legal acts of the Republic of Latvia, documentation related to the NATO) and other international legal acts. The department prepares and issues various methodological materials and other guidelines to ensure the quality of translations. Terminology and Legal Translation Department have the following functions:
The Latvian Language Expert Commission, on a regular basis, examines the compliance of norms provided for in laws and regulations to regularities of the Latvian language, codifies norms of the literary language, provides opinions on various language issues, for example, the use of capital letters in the names of establishments, the spelling of internationally recognised names of countries and territories, the spelling of house names and numbers, the spelling of addresses, the spelling of languages and language groups in the Latvian language in compliance with the requirements of ISO 639-2 etc. The Commission has prepared several draft legal acts and has participated in the formation of the normative basis for the Official Language Law. The Latvian Language Expert Commission has two sub-commissions: Sub-commissions for Place- names and Latgalian Written Language.
The Calendar Names Expert Commission deals with the person names and their inclusion into the calendar.