ESTONIAN LANGUAGE Kala on Puu Juures A Fish Is Near the Tree Literally: A Fish Is in the Root of a Tree
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
ESTONIAN LANGUAGE Kala on puu juures A fish is near the tree Literally: A fish is in the root of a tree ISBN 9985-9341-9-9 / Published by the Estonian Institute 2004 / Illustrations: Jaagup Roomet / Design: Aadam Kaarma LABOR Estonian Language Urmas Sutrop Estonian is used in the army... aviation... theatre The Estonian language The ancestors of the Estonians arrived at Finnish, Hungarian and Estonian are the the Baltic Sea 13 000 years ago when the best known of the Finno-Ugric languages; mainland glaciers of the last Ice Age had rather less known are the following retreated from the area now designated smaller languages of the same language as Estonia. The first settlers who followed group: South Estonian, Votian, Livonian, the reindeer herds came here from south, Izhorian, Vepsian, Karelian, Sami, Erzya, from Central Europe. Although the vocab- Moksha, Mari, Udmurt and Komi, spoken ulary and grammar of the language used from Scandinavia to Siberia. by people in those days have changed beyond recognition, the mentality of the Estonian differs from its closest large tundra hunters of thousands of years ago related language, Finnish, at least as can be still perceived in modern Estonian. much as English differs from Frisian. The difference between Estonian and Hungar- The majority of European languages ian is about as significant as between belong to the Indo-European language German and Persian. group (e.g. Spanish, Polish, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Albanian, Romany, Greek or Along with Icelandic, Estonian is at Welsh). Of the ancient European langua- present one of the smallest languages in ges, once so widespread throughout the the world that fulfils all the functions continent, Basque in the Pyrenees, the necessary for an independent state to Finno-Ugric languages in the North and perform linguistically. Teaching, at both Central Europe, and Caucasian languages primary school and university level, is in (e.g. Georgian) in the southeastern corner Estonian; it is also the language of mod- of Europe have managed to survive. ern science (molecular biology, astron- omy, computer science, semiotics, etc.). The Estonian language belongs to the Estonian is used in the army, in the Finnic branch of Finno-Ugric group of lan- theatre, aviation, journalism in all guages. It is not therefore related to the walks of life. Estonian is the only official neighbouring Indo-European languages language in Estonia in local government such as Russian, Latvian and Swedish. and state institutions. 3 Language and a lingering mentality Even the most ordinary everyday Estonian the integral concept of the world of our language contains numerous ancient expres- ancestors. Everything formed a whole, a total- sions, possibly going back as far as the Ice ity, also the paired parts of body which were Age. used only in the singular. If one wanted to speak about one hand, one had to say pool The Estonians say külma käes, vihma, päikese, kätt half a hand. Hence the division of the tuule käes in the hand of the cold, rain, sun, holistic world into the right and left halves, wind, or ta sai koerte käest hammustada right and left sides. he was bitten from the hand of dogs, i. e. he was bitten by dogs, or ta sai nõgeste Even now, Estonians find their bearings spa- käest kõrvetada he was stung from the hand tially by using parts of the body, mostly with- of nettles. Quite obviously, nobody any out being aware of it themselves. If some- longer thinks that the wind, rain, dogs or thing is kõrval beside, next to, an Estonian nettles actually have hands. But in ancient speaker does not even notice that what he is times the moving, often personified natural actually saying is that something is on his ear phenomena, to say nothing about animals (kõrv, kõrva meaning ear and suffix -l and plants, were believed to have certain corresponding roughly to the English prepo- powers. These powers, sometimes exerting sition on). The Estonian postposition peal control over human beings, were symbolised on means literally on the head (pea head by a hand. Hence the contemporary Estonian + -l); juures (juur, juure + -s which käskima to order, can be translated to give corresponds in modern Estonian to the orders with ones hand and käsilane means English in but in earlier times stood for near handyman. as well) means that something or somebody is close to the speakers juur root, i.e. the place In all the above Estonian expressions hand where he touches the ground. occurs in the singular. This is associated with Ingel on päikese käes An angel is in the sun Literally: An angel is in the hand of the sun 4 Estonian is spoken by approximately In 1919, a professorship of the Estonian 1 100 000 people throughout the world. language was established at the University About 950 000 of them live in Estonia, of Tartu where Estonian became the and more than 150 000 are scattered over language of study in the same year. At Sweden, Canada, USA, Russia, Australia, present, research on the Estonian lan- Finland, Germany and other countries. guage-related topics is being carried out at the Institute of the Estonian Language The first attempts to describe the Estonian in Tallinn, at the University of Tartu, at the language scientifically were undertaken in Tallinn Pedagogical University, the Esto- the early 17th century. In 1803, a lecture- nian Institute of Humanities, and at var- ship of the Estonian language was estab- ious research institutions all over the lished at what was then the German- world. language University of Tartu, founded in 1632. With the spread of the ideas of Enlightenment, the interest of the Baltic German Estophiles in the local language and culture increased. During the 19th century, the first educated Estonians be- gan publishing scholarly research of their mother tongue. The first doctor of the Finno-Ugric languages of Estonian origin was Mihkel Veske who did research into the history of the Estonian language in the 1870s; the Estonian Writers Union, established in 1871, undertook the task of standardising the common language. First attempts to describe the Estonian language The relations between languages can often be seen from the similarities in numeric systems: Hungarian Finnish Estonian Latvian Russian English 1 egy yksi üks viens odin one 2 ketto kaksi kaks divi dva two 3 három kolme kolm tris tri three 4 négy neljä neli cetri cetyre four 5 öt viisi viis pieci pjat five 6 hat kuusi kuus sesi sest six 7 hét seitsemän seitse septini sem seven 8 nyolc kahdeksan kaheksa astoni vosem eight 9 kilenc yhdeksän üheksa devini devjat nine 10 tíz kymmenen kümme desmit desjat ten 5 Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic languages Estonian Votian Permyak-Komi Khanty Selkup South-Estonian Izhorian Udmurt Mansi Livonian Karelian and Ludian Mari Nenets Finnish Sami Erzya and Moksha Enets Vepsian Komi Hungarian Nganasan History A significant proportion of linguists no hypotheses about the development of the longer subscribe to the theory of a lan- Estonian language during the earliest guage tree, widely approved only a dozen period of development up to the 13th or so years ago. According to that theory, century, are now also considered to be of all Finno-Ugric languages, similar to Indo- dubious reliability. European and other language groups, have developed from one proto-language. It is, however, unanimously agreed that Consequently, doubt has been cast on a ancient Estonian was influenced by large number of assumptions about when various Germanic, Baltic and ancient Sla- changes occurred in pre-written Estonian, vonic languages. This is proved by multi- and about the time when the characteris- ple loan words and several shifts in tic features became established. Several pronunciation (see Vocabulary p. 19). 6 VOTIAN LIVONIAN ESTONIAN ERZYA MOKSHA MARI KOMI UDMURT FINNISH HUNGARIAN KARELIAN VEPSIAN KHANTY IZHORIAN MANSI SAMI A wobbly languages family tree of the Finno-Ugric languages Probably the oldest recorded instance of The stage of development of the Estonian an Estonian word dates from the 8th language covered by more thorough writ- century AD: in his Cosmographia, clergy- ten sources started in the 13th century. man Aethicus Ister mentioned an island This was the time when German and called Taraconta (Tharaconta), denoting Scandinavian crusaders reached Estonia, probably either the whole of Estonia or its one of the last pagan countries in Europe. largest island Saaremaa. Describing The crusades against the Estonians are Estonia as an island is not so strange as it described in the early 13th century in the may seem, considering that as late as the Latin chronicle Heinrici Chronicon Livo- 11th century, the North German chronic- niae, which already contains words and ler Adam of Bremen thought that Estonia fragments of sentences in Estonian. and Scandinavia were parts of a large archipelago. Taraconta can be interpreted Numerous Estonian proper names and as Taara + kond. Taara was one of the place names date from the 13th century most important gods of ancient Esto- as well: thus the Danish taxation list, Liber nians; the affix kond in Estonian denotes a Census Daniae, compiled between 1219 fellowship of people, e.g. perekond fami- and 1220, already includes about five ly, sugukond clan, or territorial unit, e.g. hundred place names from Northern maakond county, kihelkond parish. Estonia. All but fifty of them have survived Thus Taraconta could easily refer to Esto- until today, and offer ample comparative nians as the worshippers of Taara. material, fixed in many documents, to research the language changes. 7 As a result of the crusades, the predomi- country people, and their vernacular nantly Low German nobility and burghers maakeel, country language. became established on the territory of Old Livonia, which covered areas of the During the first decades of the 20th cen- present day Estonia and Latvia.