Estonian is the official language of Estonia. It is also one of the official languages of the European Union.
Many people assume that Estonian is similar to Latvian and Lithuanian because of Estonia lies so close to Latvia and Lithuania. However, Estonian is not in fact related to the Baltic languages at all. Nor is it related to the Slavic languages such as Russian, Czech, or Polish. Estonian belongs to the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family, which means that it is linguistically closest to Finnish. There are, however, many younger Estonian vocabulary words that have Russian, German, or English origins.
The Estonian language has often been considered a powerful symbol of Estonian identity and culture, particularly during periods of domination by colonial powers. During the Soviet period, for example, Estonian remained remarkably intact as a language, in large part because of a desire to resist colonization. One of the most obvious ways to do so was to continue speaking Estonian instead of adapting to the language of the colonizer. In 1988, Estonian was officially reinstated as the national language of Estonia.
The Estonian language uses a version of the Latin alphabet, the same alphabet used by English. However, the Estonian alphabet contains several additional characters and does not follow the exact same order as English. The Estonian alphabet, in capital letters, is:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S Š Z Ž T U V W Õ Ä Ö Ü X Y
Some of these letters may be pronounced as an English speaker would expect, while the pronunciation of others is different. The letters
c,
q,
w,
x and
y are mostly found in personal names, names of places, and foreign loanwords, while the letters
f,
š,
z, and
ž are only found in words of foreign origin.
One notable aspect of Estonian pronunciation is that the length of a sound can make a difference in the meaning of a word. There are three "phoneme lengths" - short, long, and overlong. These distinctions apply to both vowels and consonants and help give Estonian a unique sound.
Estonian vocabulary shares many words with the Finnish language, because both go back to similar roots. In addition, the Estonian language has also borrowed a good deal of vocabulary from Germanic languages, resulting in some cognate words that may be recognizable to English speakers.
Estonian poses some linguistic challenges to non-native speakers. It has fourteen cases for nouns, adjectives, numerals, and pronouns, and hence an array of different declensions for many words. At the same time, other aspects of the Estonian language are straightforward and simple. For example, in Estonian there are no articles, no gender (not even for pronouns), no aspects of verbs, and only four verb tenses. Word order is also less rigid than in English because the meaning of an Estonian sentence is conveyed through word endings rather than through word order.
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