This article gives an insight into the vocabulary of one of the sub-dialects of the Central dialect of the Latvian language – namely, the sub-dialect spoken in Bārta, a place in South-Western Kurzeme. The focus of the article is on those lexical units of the Bārta sub-dialect that are included in one of the most important works of Latvian linguistics – the Latvian Language Dictionary (1923–1932) and it’s Appendix (1934–1946), compiled and published by Kārlis Mīlenbahs, Jānis Endzelīns and Edīte Hauzenberga. The material analyzed here is taken from the electronic version of the Latvian Language Dictionary (www.tezaurs.lv/mev). The vocabulary of the Bārta sub-dialect is represented there by approximately 660 words, among which there are 330 nouns, 253 verbs, 38 adjectives, 30 adverbs, 7 particles, 2 interjections, 2 conjunctions, and 1 preposition.
The Latvian language dictionary of J. Langius (1685) does not contain a large number of terms denoting monetary units – altogether there are 11 of them (ārtaugs, dālderis, diķis, eiduks, grosis, kauss, mārka, skatiks, šķiliņģis, vērdiņģis, zelta gabals), as well as some other money-related lexemes (e.g., sīknauda, vara nauda etc.) which are not designations of monetary units and therefore are not analyzed in this article. These lexemes are included in most 17–19th century dictionaries, and sometimes are borrowed from one dictionary into another. For instance, J. Langius has taken over the words included in the dictionary of G. Mancelius, but later J. Lange, in his turn, refers to J. Langius in his work.Nowadays most of these words are obsolete, because the objects they denoted are no longer in use. These lexemes can be found in dictionaries, and in many cases also in folklore and in idiomatic expressions, which testifies to their once wide scope of usage and, naturally, the significance of money in the culture and history of the Lower Kurzeme region and the whole territory of Latvia. This fact is supported not only by the analyzed material, but also by various other culturally historical sources.