Vieglā valoda Latvijā: daži klasifikācijas un terminoloģijas jautājumi

Although the idea of easy language was brought to Latvia almost 25 years ago, its development has flourished only recently. Of paramount importance in reducing the existing social inequality in various life domains, easy language in Latvia exists mainly as a practical phenomenon. Easy language in the context of the expressions of Latvian can be studied per se and for practical purposes, that would be enough. However, this special language variant created for certain communicative purposes is also of interest in a broader systemic context. Easy language first should be analysed in relation to literary language or standard language. However, to position this phenomenon as precisely as possible, it is necessary to consider other forms of language
existence, their interaction, and the linguistic attitudes of society, which manifest differently in each language for historical and socio-political reasons. In the classification of Latvian varieties, easy language can be positioned as a modified form of the Latvian literary language (standard language). The development of easy language in the world is diverse; however, all over the world, the practical use of easy language has a richer history than scientific research. This, in turn, confirms that easy language is not an artificially created, worthless concept, but a functional tool for ensuring successful communication, even if it is asymmetric. It is expected that the importance of easy language in providing accessibility to the informative space and
culture will only increase, promoting understanding, reducing prejudices, expanding the use of Easy language, and, accordingly, strengthening the role of research. To accelerate this development, the position of easy language should be secured at the national level; various
individual initiatives, although necessary, cannot ensure homogeneous, targeted, and structured development.
Moreover, to solve the issues of terminology, theory, and practice, further research should be devoted to the phenomenon of Easy Latvian.