Category
Topic
Year
Changing Kakason to Kaljula
Keywords: anthroponymics, surnames, Estonian history, name changes, national campaigns
Surname changes have taken place throughout their existence, but not so often as a result of a nationwide campaign. In Estonia campaign of Estonianizing foreign (mostly German) sounding names took place in 1920–1944 with 99% of the name changes taking place in 1935–1940. It stands out for its intenseness which resulted a surname change of every sixth person. Also, public access to the complete database of name changes already since the 1990s (www.ra.ee/apps/onomastika/) is unique when compared to other countries. Author of this article has amended the public version of the database…
Surname changes have taken place throughout their existence, but not so often as a result of a nationwide campaign. In Estonia campaign of Estonianizing foreign (mostly German) sounding names took place in 1920–1944 with 99% of the name changes taking place in 1935–1940. It stands out for its intenseness which resulted a surname change of every sixth person. Also, public access to the complete database of name changes already since the 1990s (www.ra.ee/apps/onomastika/) is unique when compared to other countries. Author of this article has amended the public version of the database…
Dialects, variation and corpus data
Keywords: dialects, language variation, multivariate analysis, corpus linguistics, negation, Võru, Seto
The article exemplifies contemporary language variation studies by examining the variation in the position of the negation word in the Võru and Seto varieties of South Estonian. Using frequency analysis of dialect corpus data, it is shown that despite being close both geographically and linguistically, Seto and Võru exhibit opposite tendencies with regard to their preferences towards pre- and postverbal negation. Võru speakers predominantly use preverbal negation patterns, showing more variation only in two southwestern parishes – Rõuge and Vastseliina. Seto, in turn, prefers the typologically rare postverbal negation construction,…
The article exemplifies contemporary language variation studies by examining the variation in the position of the negation word in the Võru and Seto varieties of South Estonian. Using frequency analysis of dialect corpus data, it is shown that despite being close both geographically and linguistically, Seto and Võru exhibit opposite tendencies with regard to their preferences towards pre- and postverbal negation. Võru speakers predominantly use preverbal negation patterns, showing more variation only in two southwestern parishes – Rõuge and Vastseliina. Seto, in turn, prefers the typologically rare postverbal negation construction,…
From a collection of dictionaries to a language portal
Keywords: e-lexicography, corpora, dictionary writing system, language portal, data model, API
The article aims to describe some major changes that have taken place in e-lexicography in recent decades in Europe generally and in Estonia in particular. Digital changes have permeated not only the dictionary compilation process but also whole workflow from lexicographic content creation to publication. The focus has shifted from building specific dictionaries to building a central database and infrastructure that can be adapted for further user and NLP applications.
We describe methods and technologies used to better integrate lexicographic data (several tools have been developed within the Horizon 2020…
The article aims to describe some major changes that have taken place in e-lexicography in recent decades in Europe generally and in Estonia in particular. Digital changes have permeated not only the dictionary compilation process but also whole workflow from lexicographic content creation to publication. The focus has shifted from building specific dictionaries to building a central database and infrastructure that can be adapted for further user and NLP applications.
We describe methods and technologies used to better integrate lexicographic data (several tools have been developed within the Horizon 2020…
Digital reading and humanities education
Keywords: semiotics of culture, reading comprehension, digital culture
The paper focuses on the problems of reading and teaching literature in the context of digitalization and offers solutions for facilitating a meaningful dialogue with cultural heritage. Both divergence and convergence of media pose a challenge to the conventional ways of teaching literature based on source texts, as both processes entail diversification of media channels and dispersion of content across them. Reading in the digital age is characterized by an increasing multimodality, variability and fragmentariness of texts. The best practices of digital learning platforms allow synthesizing heterogeneous versions of the original into a…
The paper focuses on the problems of reading and teaching literature in the context of digitalization and offers solutions for facilitating a meaningful dialogue with cultural heritage. Both divergence and convergence of media pose a challenge to the conventional ways of teaching literature based on source texts, as both processes entail diversification of media channels and dispersion of content across them. Reading in the digital age is characterized by an increasing multimodality, variability and fragmentariness of texts. The best practices of digital learning platforms allow synthesizing heterogeneous versions of the original into a…
Distant reading of literary language
Keywords: digital humanities, distant reading, quotations, literary style, formalism
This paper aims to take advantage of modern digital methods to address research topics that, until now, have mostly been subjects of assumption and interpretation based on rather few examples.
More specifically, the purpose of this article is to explore some usage patterns of open quotation as a literary device and its impact on meaning. Open quotation, as defined by the French philosopher François Recanati, is a type of quotation where a string of words in an utterance is marked with quotation marks to imply the presence of multiple or deformed meanings.
Alongside with…
This paper aims to take advantage of modern digital methods to address research topics that, until now, have mostly been subjects of assumption and interpretation based on rather few examples.
More specifically, the purpose of this article is to explore some usage patterns of open quotation as a literary device and its impact on meaning. Open quotation, as defined by the French philosopher François Recanati, is a type of quotation where a string of words in an utterance is marked with quotation marks to imply the presence of multiple or deformed meanings.
Alongside with…
Differences, distances and fingerprints
Keywords: stylometry, computational text analysis, authorship attribution, Estonian fiction
The recent rapid expansion of computational methods and tools into humanities have rekindled the conversation surrounding the relationship between a study object and its mathematical representation, or model. The paper serves as a conceptual introduction to stylometry, a sub-field of computational text analysis that studies differences between texts quantitatively, and shows how simplistic models of texts can be used to uncover their complex relationships.
The very term “stylometry” and the field’s development is closely linked to the problem of authorship attribution and identification – the paper briefly introduces the early history of…
The recent rapid expansion of computational methods and tools into humanities have rekindled the conversation surrounding the relationship between a study object and its mathematical representation, or model. The paper serves as a conceptual introduction to stylometry, a sub-field of computational text analysis that studies differences between texts quantitatively, and shows how simplistic models of texts can be used to uncover their complex relationships.
The very term “stylometry” and the field’s development is closely linked to the problem of authorship attribution and identification – the paper briefly introduces the early history of…
From digital humanities to cultural data analytics
Keywords: cultural data analytics, cultural analytics, digital humanities, complexity, semiosphere, cultural semiotics, cultural science
Digital Humanities (DH) has been a success story in the academic world over the last twenty years which has opened many new vistas in the humanities research. However, we argue that it is better to consider DH as a transitory phenomenon that needs to be developed into more specific research fields in order to overcome some fundamental shortcomings of DH. First, it is vital to transcend the division between qualitative inquiry into ideographic phenomena and quantification of nomothetic phenomena. This specifically includes the emergence and analysis of…
Digital Humanities (DH) has been a success story in the academic world over the last twenty years which has opened many new vistas in the humanities research. However, we argue that it is better to consider DH as a transitory phenomenon that needs to be developed into more specific research fields in order to overcome some fundamental shortcomings of DH. First, it is vital to transcend the division between qualitative inquiry into ideographic phenomena and quantification of nomothetic phenomena. This specifically includes the emergence and analysis of…
Digital humanities in Estonia
Keywords: digital humanities, data in humanities, digital methods
The article serves as a preface to the special issue on digital humanities of Keel ja Kirjandus. The aim of the issue is to familiarize the Estonian readers with the complex and controversial notion of digital humanities by way of examples. The issue gathers overviews of themes and methods in digital humanities along with empirical case studies representing them. We provide a brief discussion on what digital humanities is and why we need it. We consider that the core of digital humanities is the integration of digital data into humanities research. A growing…
The article serves as a preface to the special issue on digital humanities of Keel ja Kirjandus. The aim of the issue is to familiarize the Estonian readers with the complex and controversial notion of digital humanities by way of examples. The issue gathers overviews of themes and methods in digital humanities along with empirical case studies representing them. We provide a brief discussion on what digital humanities is and why we need it. We consider that the core of digital humanities is the integration of digital data into humanities research. A growing…
Estonian names for a flat cap
Keywords: Estonian, Estonian dialects, etymology, Swedish loanwords
The Estonian language knows several names for a flat cap: there are soni and the colloquial soge, in dialects we also find, e.g., kepka ~ kipka, hurask ~ vurask and keps. All those terms are loanwords in Estonian: soni is of (Baltic) German and soge of German origin, whereas kepka ~ kipka and hurask ~ vurask have been borrowed from Russian. The dialect word keps ~ käps, which has been recorded from three parishes (Muhu, Kihnu and Häädemeeste) is a Swedish loanword. The Swedish keps ‘a soft rounded hat with a rather wide top,…
The Estonian language knows several names for a flat cap: there are soni and the colloquial soge, in dialects we also find, e.g., kepka ~ kipka, hurask ~ vurask and keps. All those terms are loanwords in Estonian: soni is of (Baltic) German and soge of German origin, whereas kepka ~ kipka and hurask ~ vurask have been borrowed from Russian. The dialect word keps ~ käps, which has been recorded from three parishes (Muhu, Kihnu and Häädemeeste) is a Swedish loanword. The Swedish keps ‘a soft rounded hat with a rather wide top,…
Estonian language in 17th and 18th century church administrative documents
Keywords: historical sociolinguistics, Estonian language history, business Estonian, code switching
The article deals with language use in 17th–18th century documents concerning the Estonian-speaking area. Although this was the period when German (and Swedish) pastors were busy creating literary Estonian, the latter was mainly used in translating church literature (catechisms, hymns, the Bible) and in sermon writing. The matrix language used in church administration was German. The documents contain but single Estonian sentences, phrases and words still missing generalised analysis. A closer look is given to the cases of Estonian used in four kinds of documents of church administration: 17th century visitation…
The article deals with language use in 17th–18th century documents concerning the Estonian-speaking area. Although this was the period when German (and Swedish) pastors were busy creating literary Estonian, the latter was mainly used in translating church literature (catechisms, hymns, the Bible) and in sermon writing. The matrix language used in church administration was German. The documents contain but single Estonian sentences, phrases and words still missing generalised analysis. A closer look is given to the cases of Estonian used in four kinds of documents of church administration: 17th century visitation…
Radical homelessness in Ene Mihkelson’s poetry
Keywords: homelessness, phenomenology, allegory, poetry
The article examines the homeless experience of the lyrical subject in Ene Mihkelson’s poetry. The main argument is that in her phrasing of homelessness Mihkelson goes to extremes as her texts containing the word kodu ‘home’ are almost void of moments of homely coziness. In the article, thematic analysis of homelessness covers the whole poetic oeuvre of Mihkelson. The analysis follows the framework developed by the author’s previous articles defining home as an experience horizon with a spatial and an inter-subjective (sharing) aspect, whereas homelessness means an essential error in the home experience. The conclusion reads…
The article examines the homeless experience of the lyrical subject in Ene Mihkelson’s poetry. The main argument is that in her phrasing of homelessness Mihkelson goes to extremes as her texts containing the word kodu ‘home’ are almost void of moments of homely coziness. In the article, thematic analysis of homelessness covers the whole poetic oeuvre of Mihkelson. The analysis follows the framework developed by the author’s previous articles defining home as an experience horizon with a spatial and an inter-subjective (sharing) aspect, whereas homelessness means an essential error in the home experience. The conclusion reads…
“The Writers Union has not yet been able to unite all”
Keywords: Estonian Soviet Writers Union, Soviet Estonian literature, Sovietization of intellectual life, power struggle
A survey is given of how the Estonian Soviet Writers Union was created and developed as a Sovietized creative organization and how the final formation of its membership took place from 1943–1946. Special attention is paid to the Board meeting of the ES Writers Union (22.12.1945) and the general meeting of Soviet Estonian writers (30.12.1945) as key events of the process.
The membership formation of the Estonian Soviet Writers Union as a Soviet-minded creative association started in 1942 in Soviet rear, when four leading writers were accepted as…
A survey is given of how the Estonian Soviet Writers Union was created and developed as a Sovietized creative organization and how the final formation of its membership took place from 1943–1946. Special attention is paid to the Board meeting of the ES Writers Union (22.12.1945) and the general meeting of Soviet Estonian writers (30.12.1945) as key events of the process.
The membership formation of the Estonian Soviet Writers Union as a Soviet-minded creative association started in 1942 in Soviet rear, when four leading writers were accepted as…
New dates about the origin of the place name Tartu
Keywords: town names, Estonia, toponymy, etymology, research history, folkloristics
The paper attempts 1) to reflect and supplement the research history of the name origin of Tartu town (Latin Tharbatu, German Dorpat), 2) to find additional justifications for some previous etymologies, 3) to propose a competing hypothesis, and 4) to study possible connections with toponyms known from folklore. The article draws attention to the local historian and writer August Wilhelm Hupel’s role, albeit modest, in explaining the origin of the name Tartu. The Finno-Ugrist Paul Ariste’s hypothesis, which is still considered the most plausible, according to which a toponym *Tarvatto is derived…
The paper attempts 1) to reflect and supplement the research history of the name origin of Tartu town (Latin Tharbatu, German Dorpat), 2) to find additional justifications for some previous etymologies, 3) to propose a competing hypothesis, and 4) to study possible connections with toponyms known from folklore. The article draws attention to the local historian and writer August Wilhelm Hupel’s role, albeit modest, in explaining the origin of the name Tartu. The Finno-Ugrist Paul Ariste’s hypothesis, which is still considered the most plausible, according to which a toponym *Tarvatto is derived…
The base form and other forms of Estonian verb
Keywords: morphology, verbal inflection, paradigm structure, corpus linguistics, linguistic variation, text statistics, child language, historical linguistics, old Estonian
The article discusses the implicational patterns present in the Estonian verb paradigm: which paradigm slot acts as the base form, which slots act as other principal parts, and what their hierarchical dependency looks like. The argumentation relies on data from three different sources: childrens acquisition of Estonian as their first language; verbal inflectional classes as reconstructed from the 17th century Tallinn variety of Estonian; and statistics from different contemporary corpora. The article arrives at a different implicational schema than the one traditionally considered…
The article discusses the implicational patterns present in the Estonian verb paradigm: which paradigm slot acts as the base form, which slots act as other principal parts, and what their hierarchical dependency looks like. The argumentation relies on data from three different sources: childrens acquisition of Estonian as their first language; verbal inflectional classes as reconstructed from the 17th century Tallinn variety of Estonian; and statistics from different contemporary corpora. The article arrives at a different implicational schema than the one traditionally considered…
Names and nicknames of Siberian Estonians
Keywords: community, fieldwork, name giving tradition, Siberian Estonians
In the article, I discuss the name giving tradition of Siberian Estonians. The material has been collected from various Estonian communities in Siberia during the fieldwork of the Estonian Folklore Archives in the period 1991–2013. Most of my informants were descendants of those who emigrated to Siberia more than a century ago, and in some villages, I also met the descendants of those deported during the Tsarist period.
In the last decade of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, there were only a few villages in Siberia that remained more or…
In the article, I discuss the name giving tradition of Siberian Estonians. The material has been collected from various Estonian communities in Siberia during the fieldwork of the Estonian Folklore Archives in the period 1991–2013. Most of my informants were descendants of those who emigrated to Siberia more than a century ago, and in some villages, I also met the descendants of those deported during the Tsarist period.
In the last decade of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, there were only a few villages in Siberia that remained more or…
“A Jew who came to Estonia”
Keywords: Juri Lotman, reception, Estonian literature, history and fiction, intellectual history
This article focuses on the reception of Juri Lotman in Estonia. Lotman, a scholar of Jewish origins who wrote – predominantly in Russian – about Russian culture, came to be recognized as one of the most prominent Estonian intellectuals. His correspondence with Estonia’s leading cultural and political figures of the 1980s and early 1990s proves that already during his lifetime he was considered an Estonian scholar, not only from a geographical but from a cultural and political point of view. In the article, this type of reception is referred to as naturalization.…
This article focuses on the reception of Juri Lotman in Estonia. Lotman, a scholar of Jewish origins who wrote – predominantly in Russian – about Russian culture, came to be recognized as one of the most prominent Estonian intellectuals. His correspondence with Estonia’s leading cultural and political figures of the 1980s and early 1990s proves that already during his lifetime he was considered an Estonian scholar, not only from a geographical but from a cultural and political point of view. In the article, this type of reception is referred to as naturalization.…