ļaudis

See also: laudis, laŭdis, and ļaudīs

Latvian

Etymology

From Proto-Baltic *ljáudi- [Proto-Balto-Slavic *ljáudis], from Proto-Indo-European *h₁léwdʰis (“people”).

Cognates include Lithuanian liáudis (“people, nation”), Old Prussian ludis (“owner, landlord”), ludini (“owner, landlady”), ludysz (“person”), Old Church Slavonic людиє (ljudie, “people”), людинъ (ljudinŭ, “free man”), Russian лю́ди (ljúdi, “people”), Bulgarian лю́де (ljúde), Czech lidé, Slovak ľudia, Polish ludzie, Gothic *𐌻𐌹𐌿𐌸𐍃 (*liuþs, “man”), Old High German liotan (“to grow”), liut, liuti (“people”), German Leute, Ancient Greek ἐλεύθερος (eleútheros, “free”) (< *leudʰeros (“free man”)), Latin liber (“free”) (also < *leudʰeros).^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ʎàwdis]

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

ļaudis m (6th declension, irregular gender)

1. people (a number of human individuals)

   gudri ļaudis ― smart, intelligent people

   veci ļaudis ― old people

   liels ļaužu pulks ― big crowd (lit. crowd of people)

   ļaužu straume ― a stream of people

   ļaužu pilns laukums ― an area full of people

2. people (individuals associated with an occupation, place, social status)

   lauku ļaudis ― rural people

   rūpnīcas ļaudis ― factory people

   kaimiņu ļaudis ― neighboring people

   darba ļaudis, darbaļaudis, darbļaudis ― working people, workers

Declension

	singular (vienskaitlis)	plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs)	—	ļaudis
accusative (akuzatīvs)	—	ļaudis
genitive (ģenitīvs)	—	ļaužu
dative (datīvs)	—	ļaudīm
instrumental (instrumentālis)	—	ļaudīm
locative (lokatīvs)	—	ļaudīs
vocative (vokatīvs)	—	ļaudis

Declension of ļaudis (6th declension)

Derived terms

• darbaļaudis, darbļaudis, darba ļaudis

References

1. Karulis, Konstantīns (1992) “ļaudis”, in Latviešu Etimoloģijas Vārdnīca‎ (in Latvian), Rīga: AVOTS, →ISBN