Category
Topic
Year
An etymology accomplished: kasima and kasin
Keywords: Estonian, Finnic languages, Baltic loanwords, lexical history
Although Julius Mägiste in his ”Estnisches etymologisches Wörtebuch” has pointed out the Estonian word family of kasima as well as its Livonian and Votic counterparts as possible Baltic loans, he fails to mention the source word. This article accomplishes the etymology by suggesting *kās– as the possible Baltic etymon, some derived terms being, e.g. Lithuanian kóšti (kóšia, kóšė) ‘to strain a liquid (e.g. milk) for purification, to pass fermented ale through a strainer to prevent sediment from getting into the barrel etc.’ and Latvian kãst, kàst (kāš, kāsa) ‘to strain a liquid for…
Although Julius Mägiste in his ”Estnisches etymologisches Wörtebuch” has pointed out the Estonian word family of kasima as well as its Livonian and Votic counterparts as possible Baltic loans, he fails to mention the source word. This article accomplishes the etymology by suggesting *kās– as the possible Baltic etymon, some derived terms being, e.g. Lithuanian kóšti (kóšia, kóšė) ‘to strain a liquid (e.g. milk) for purification, to pass fermented ale through a strainer to prevent sediment from getting into the barrel etc.’ and Latvian kãst, kàst (kāš, kāsa) ‘to strain a liquid for…
Estonian adolescent speech II
Keywords: Estonian vowels, formant frequencies, vowel trajectory length, vowel space area, age, gender-related variations
The paper reports the results of an exploratory study on the acoustic characteristics of vowels depending on the subject’s age and gender. The research material consists of a subset of read speech samples derived from the Estonian Adolescent Speech Corpus: 21 utterances per subject produced by 173 girls and 132 boys in the age range of 10 to 18 years.
The results show that both the formant frequencies and the vowel space area decrease gradually from 10 to 15 years in both gender groups and the quality of…
The paper reports the results of an exploratory study on the acoustic characteristics of vowels depending on the subject’s age and gender. The research material consists of a subset of read speech samples derived from the Estonian Adolescent Speech Corpus: 21 utterances per subject produced by 173 girls and 132 boys in the age range of 10 to 18 years.
The results show that both the formant frequencies and the vowel space area decrease gradually from 10 to 15 years in both gender groups and the quality of…
Estonian sacred natural sites in oral and literary culture on the example of the Estonian epic Kalevipoeg
Keywords: nationalism, landscapes, site heritage, Estonian National Awakening, semiotics of culture, cultural typology
The article demonstrates differences between the symbolic landscapes of an oral vernacular culture and a literate culture, drawing on examples of perceiving and depicting sacred natural sites in Estonia. Vernacular oral culture and written national culture are considered as subsystems of a wider cultural system, following Yuri Lotman. In the literate Estonian culture from the 19th century onward, references to oak groves dominate as a typical image of ancient Estonian sacred sites. The symbol of the sacred oak grove is literary in origin, deriving from European examples of…
The article demonstrates differences between the symbolic landscapes of an oral vernacular culture and a literate culture, drawing on examples of perceiving and depicting sacred natural sites in Estonia. Vernacular oral culture and written national culture are considered as subsystems of a wider cultural system, following Yuri Lotman. In the literate Estonian culture from the 19th century onward, references to oak groves dominate as a typical image of ancient Estonian sacred sites. The symbol of the sacred oak grove is literary in origin, deriving from European examples of…
Patterns of the Estonian sonnet from 1881–2015
Patterns of the Estonian sonnet from 1881–2015: Frequency, metre, rhyme schemes, authors
Keywords: sonnet, Estonian poetry, metre, rhyme schemes
The article reports an attempt of multi-aspect analysis of the Estonian sonnet from its emergence in 1881 to 2015 (incl.). The research material covers all 4551 sonnets published in the Estonian language space. Diachronic analysis shows that despite the ever increasing number of sonnets their proportion in published poetry has decreased to the extent of becoming marginal by the 21st century. The metre of the Estonian sonnet is varied. Similarly to Germanic languages, a traditional Estonian sonnet uses iambic pentameter, yet this applies only…
Keywords: sonnet, Estonian poetry, metre, rhyme schemes
The article reports an attempt of multi-aspect analysis of the Estonian sonnet from its emergence in 1881 to 2015 (incl.). The research material covers all 4551 sonnets published in the Estonian language space. Diachronic analysis shows that despite the ever increasing number of sonnets their proportion in published poetry has decreased to the extent of becoming marginal by the 21st century. The metre of the Estonian sonnet is varied. Similarly to Germanic languages, a traditional Estonian sonnet uses iambic pentameter, yet this applies only…
Olev Jõgi as translation critic
Keywords: translation methods, totalitarian discourse of translation, literal translation, implicit translation poetics, translation canon
Requirements presented to the translators of literary classics by literary critic, literary scholar, translator and journalist Olev Jõgi in the early post-Stalinist period are discussed. This was when a massive lot of fiction as well as scientific, popular scientific, academic and other literature was translated from Russian into Estonian, but often the quality of translation left to be desired. The article is focused on the unpublished paper presented by Olev Jõgi at the translation section of the Estonian SSR Writers’ Union in February 1954. The paper represents…
Requirements presented to the translators of literary classics by literary critic, literary scholar, translator and journalist Olev Jõgi in the early post-Stalinist period are discussed. This was when a massive lot of fiction as well as scientific, popular scientific, academic and other literature was translated from Russian into Estonian, but often the quality of translation left to be desired. The article is focused on the unpublished paper presented by Olev Jõgi at the translation section of the Estonian SSR Writers’ Union in February 1954. The paper represents…
Semantic classification of Estonian verbs
Keywords: verb, semantics, polysemy, construction, categorisation, linguistic methods
In this paper, the methodology of verb classification is addressed. The main aim is to provide an overview of the possible ways verbs and sentence patterns could be analysed for the purpose of verb classification, and to reveal the possible shortcomings of different methods and problems of verb classification in general. For that purpose, the rare verb classifications available for the languages of the world (mainly English) are introduced focusing on the methodological aspect. In addition, an overview is given of the treatment of verbs as belonging to several semantic classes in Estonian…
In this paper, the methodology of verb classification is addressed. The main aim is to provide an overview of the possible ways verbs and sentence patterns could be analysed for the purpose of verb classification, and to reveal the possible shortcomings of different methods and problems of verb classification in general. For that purpose, the rare verb classifications available for the languages of the world (mainly English) are introduced focusing on the methodological aspect. In addition, an overview is given of the treatment of verbs as belonging to several semantic classes in Estonian…
Departure of the Seto God Peko
Keywords: Peko, Setomaa, popular Orthodox Christianity, popular religion, fertility god
The cult of the Seto pre-Christian fertility God Peko has attracted research attention both from descriptive (Eisen 1909; 1936) and analytical aspects (Ränk 1933; Hagu 1975, 1997; Västrik 2017), the latter concentrating upon its geographical distributon and context among Finno-Ugric and Finnic deities. This article, based mainly on information collected in Setomaa since the 1990s, sheds light upon its latest phase of retreat and disappearance. The cult of Peko survived the longest in the small district of Mokornulk west of Obinitsa church village, historically extreme periphery of the Orthodox Pskov Government…
The cult of the Seto pre-Christian fertility God Peko has attracted research attention both from descriptive (Eisen 1909; 1936) and analytical aspects (Ränk 1933; Hagu 1975, 1997; Västrik 2017), the latter concentrating upon its geographical distributon and context among Finno-Ugric and Finnic deities. This article, based mainly on information collected in Setomaa since the 1990s, sheds light upon its latest phase of retreat and disappearance. The cult of Peko survived the longest in the small district of Mokornulk west of Obinitsa church village, historically extreme periphery of the Orthodox Pskov Government…
Reproduction of an everyday practice
Keywords: literary criticism, cultural journalism, current literature, statistical overview
The survey addresses the literary criticism published in 2017 and 2018 in the publications of SA Kultuurileht. For the sake of objectivity, a statistical approach was applied. Out of the 388 reviews, 144 appeared in the cultural weekly Sirp, 87 in the literary magazine Looming, 70 in the cultural magazine Vikerkaar, 38 in the journal Keel ja Kirjandus, 31 in the literary magazine Värske Rõhk and 18 in the cultural monthly Müürileht. Although there is an equal number of texts from male and female critics, only 32 percent of the reviews dealt with works by female authors. Moreover, male critics…
The survey addresses the literary criticism published in 2017 and 2018 in the publications of SA Kultuurileht. For the sake of objectivity, a statistical approach was applied. Out of the 388 reviews, 144 appeared in the cultural weekly Sirp, 87 in the literary magazine Looming, 70 in the cultural magazine Vikerkaar, 38 in the journal Keel ja Kirjandus, 31 in the literary magazine Värske Rõhk and 18 in the cultural monthly Müürileht. Although there is an equal number of texts from male and female critics, only 32 percent of the reviews dealt with works by female authors. Moreover, male critics…
My specifics of translating Estonian poetry
Keywords: translation, poetry, Estonian literature, Estonian, Latvian
The author shares his experience, spanning close to forty years, translating Estonian and Finnish poetry. In the process of translating, he has gained knowledge and developed his own system for dealing with ancient Estonian folksongs, the epic poem Kalevipoeg, as well as the poems by such authors as Ilmar Laaban, Artur Alliksaar, Andres Ehin, Juhan Liiv, Hando Runnel, Jaan Kaplinski, Hasso Krull and others.
The highlights of the paper are as follows: the specifics of Estonian as compared to Latvian; the common and the distinctive (lack of grammatical gender and future, musical qualities of Estonian etc.);…
The author shares his experience, spanning close to forty years, translating Estonian and Finnish poetry. In the process of translating, he has gained knowledge and developed his own system for dealing with ancient Estonian folksongs, the epic poem Kalevipoeg, as well as the poems by such authors as Ilmar Laaban, Artur Alliksaar, Andres Ehin, Juhan Liiv, Hando Runnel, Jaan Kaplinski, Hasso Krull and others.
The highlights of the paper are as follows: the specifics of Estonian as compared to Latvian; the common and the distinctive (lack of grammatical gender and future, musical qualities of Estonian etc.);…
About translation in the EU institutions
Keywords: translation, translators, translation studies, legislation, translation industry, machine translation
This article examines mainly four topics: 1) the impact of the European Union’s multilingualism policy on the Estonian language, 2) the role of translation in implementing multilingualism, 3) the translation pipeline in EU institutions, and 4) changes in the translator’s profession. Based on statistics, the author shows that the Estonian language entities in eight EU institutions translate yearly more than 200,000 pages of EU documents into Estonian. At the same time terminologists and translators of the Commission, Council and European Parliament introduce several thousand new terms into the IATE database (InterActive…
This article examines mainly four topics: 1) the impact of the European Union’s multilingualism policy on the Estonian language, 2) the role of translation in implementing multilingualism, 3) the translation pipeline in EU institutions, and 4) changes in the translator’s profession. Based on statistics, the author shows that the Estonian language entities in eight EU institutions translate yearly more than 200,000 pages of EU documents into Estonian. At the same time terminologists and translators of the Commission, Council and European Parliament introduce several thousand new terms into the IATE database (InterActive…
On the reception of Estonian literature in Europe
Keywords: translations, foreign reception, Estonian literature, Kalevipoeg, Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, Jaan Kross, Andrus Kivirähk, Maarja Kangro
The article investigates the foreign reception of Estonian literature and concentrates on why some piece of literature is chosen for translation and how its distribution works. It comprises four case studies, i.e. the Estonian epic „Kalevipoeg” by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, the novel „The Czar’s Madman” by Jaan Kross, „The Man Who Spoke Snakish” by Andrus Kivirähk, and „Child of Glass” by Maarja Kangro. It shows how different times, different language areas and different approaches constitute various versions of reception.
Cornelius Hasselblatt (b. 1960), PhD, member of…
The article investigates the foreign reception of Estonian literature and concentrates on why some piece of literature is chosen for translation and how its distribution works. It comprises four case studies, i.e. the Estonian epic „Kalevipoeg” by Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, the novel „The Czar’s Madman” by Jaan Kross, „The Man Who Spoke Snakish” by Andrus Kivirähk, and „Child of Glass” by Maarja Kangro. It shows how different times, different language areas and different approaches constitute various versions of reception.
Cornelius Hasselblatt (b. 1960), PhD, member of…
Learning Estonian as a second language
Keywords: Estonian as a second language, language acquisition, language constructions, usage-based approach, gamification
The article tries to answer the question whether Estonian as a second language can be learned in a way that is not only effective, but also easy and fun. First, the principles of second language development are discussed. This discussion is based on the view that language consists of constructions – linguistic units in which words and grammar are inextricably intertwined and whose form and meaning form a whole (e.g. I do not know) (Goldberg 1995; Croft 2001). Constructions develop in the learner language on a usage-based way…
The article tries to answer the question whether Estonian as a second language can be learned in a way that is not only effective, but also easy and fun. First, the principles of second language development are discussed. This discussion is based on the view that language consists of constructions – linguistic units in which words and grammar are inextricably intertwined and whose form and meaning form a whole (e.g. I do not know) (Goldberg 1995; Croft 2001). Constructions develop in the learner language on a usage-based way…
Estonian literary language: ours vs yours
Keywords: history of literary Estonian, colonial linguistics
Estonian national identity is nowadays based on standard literary Estonian. The article discusses which groups of people may have shared the knowledge and development of Estonian earlier in history and what the developers’ aims and options were in the 19th century, during the preliminary and early phases of national awakening.
Early modern times was the period of the growth of ethnic and linguistic confrontations underpinning the emergence of natonal self-awareness. For several historico-political and socio-cultural reasons the task of developing written Estonian befell native German (and Swedish) pastors in the 16th–18th centuries. Their Estonian competence…
Estonian national identity is nowadays based on standard literary Estonian. The article discusses which groups of people may have shared the knowledge and development of Estonian earlier in history and what the developers’ aims and options were in the 19th century, during the preliminary and early phases of national awakening.
Early modern times was the period of the growth of ethnic and linguistic confrontations underpinning the emergence of natonal self-awareness. For several historico-political and socio-cultural reasons the task of developing written Estonian befell native German (and Swedish) pastors in the 16th–18th centuries. Their Estonian competence…
Multilingualism, language contacts and (meta)linguistic awareness
Keywords: linguistic awareness, multilingualism, language contacts
The article discusses the concept of (meta)linguistic awareness and its importance for contact linguistic research. The concept is used on a regular basis in second and third language acquisition and in multilingualism studies but not in contact linguistics. The reason is the prevalence of formal approaches in contact linguistics. Few scholars have so far acknowledged the role of conscious decisions in contact-induced language change. The article analyses the following instances of multilingual linguistic awareness: its role in corpus planning, which results, among other things, in contact-induced language change; individual language planning, including computer-mediated multilingual communication;…
The article discusses the concept of (meta)linguistic awareness and its importance for contact linguistic research. The concept is used on a regular basis in second and third language acquisition and in multilingualism studies but not in contact linguistics. The reason is the prevalence of formal approaches in contact linguistics. Few scholars have so far acknowledged the role of conscious decisions in contact-induced language change. The article analyses the following instances of multilingual linguistic awareness: its role in corpus planning, which results, among other things, in contact-induced language change; individual language planning, including computer-mediated multilingual communication;…