Estonian (eesti keel)

Estonian is an Finno-Ugric language closely related to Finnish spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia. The main difference between Estonian and Finnish is that Finnish has a lot of loan words from Swedish, while Estonian contains many words of German origin, plus some words from Russian, Latin, Greek and English. There is considerable mutual intelligibility between Estonian and Finnish.

The oldest examples of written Estonian are names, words, and phrases found in early 13th century chronicles. The earliest surviving longer text dates from the 16th century. An Estonian textbook first appeared in 1637. Ferdinand Johann Wiedemann published the comprehensive Estonian-German dictionary in 1869, and a grammar describing the Estonian language in 1875.

Estonian alphabet (eesti keel tähestik)

Estonian alphabet

Estonian pronunciation

Notes

Stress almost always falls on the first syllable of words. Quite a few words of foreign origin and a few native Estonian words, such as aitäh, don't follow this pattern.
Vowels and consonants can be short (written with one letter), long or extra long (written with two letters).
The de-voiced versions of b, d and g are used at the beginnings of words. Alternative names for these letters are nõrk pee (weak b), nõrk tee (weak d) and kee.
The letter y is also called igrek.
The letters f, š, z and ž are only used in words of foreign origin.
The letters c, q, w, x and y are used in personal names, placenames and foreign words.

Information about the Estonian alphabet and pronunciation compiled by Wolfram Siegel, with some details from: http://www.eki.ee/knn/ungegn/un7_gdl.htm

Sample text in Estonian

Kõik inimesed sünnivad vabadena ja võrdsetena oma väärikuselt ja õigustelt. Neile on antud mõistus ja südametunnistus ja nende suhtumist üksteisesse peab kandma vendluse vaim.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Longer sample text (Tower of Babel)

Useful phrases in Estonian

Links

Information about the Estonian language
http://www.einst.ee/publications/language/language.html

Online Estonian lessons
http://www.speakestonian.co.uk

Online Estonian dictionaries
http://www.ibs.ee/dict/
http://www.dictionaric.com/dicoestonien/dicoestonien.php

Estonian Electronic talking dictionaries
http://www.ectaco.com

Eesti Raadio - online Estonian radio
http://www.er.ee

Online Estonian news
http://www.vabaeuroopa.org

Related languages

Erzya, Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Karelian, Khanty, Komi, Livonian, Mansi, Mari, Moksha, Saami, Udmurt, Võro, Votic

Other languages written with the Latin alphabet