The Archive of Estonian Dialects and Finno-Ugric Languages at the Institute of the Estonian Language

Abstract

This report gives an overview of the materials in the Archive of Estonian Dialects and Finno-Ugric Languages (AEDFUL) at the Institute of the Estonian Language (IEL). The AEDFUL holds the world’s largest collection of Estonian dialect examples as well as many other materials on other Finno-Ugric languages. Materials in the AEDFUL have been collected by researchers from the IEL and the Mother Tongue Society during the 20th century. All the Estonian dialect areas as well as all of the Finnic languages are represented in written and/or recorded form. Especially large amounts of language materials have been collected for Livonian, Ingrian, and Votic. At the beginning of the 21st century when active collecting work ended, a new era began focused on digitization and making these materials publicly available. At present, electronic databases and dictionaries are available via the Internet.