THE SCIENTIFIC HERITAGE OF THE PROMINENT ESTONIAN LINGUIST MATI HINT

Abstract

The scientific views of the famous Estonian linguist, public figure and politician, legendary professor of the University of Tallinn, Mati Hint (1937-2019), cover a wide range of Estonian philology, from phonetics to linguistic politics and the research of linguistic landscape. The number of his scientific works is well over 300. Mati Hint was characterized by a constant opposition to the mainstream. He popularized the South Estonian Tartu literary language, which had become extinct at the beginning of the 20th century, by publishing several scientific articles on this subject. Hint provided an innovative description of the phonological system, morphophonology and the grade alternation of the Estonian language. According to his concept, in the Estonian language, three longitudes of phonemes cannot be distinguished. Three longitudes can have a syllable. Thus, Estonian is not an unique language that differs from all other languages of the world, but on the contrary, it fits perfectly into all languages of the world. In many works he explains the problems of contacts between the Estonian and the Russian languages. Hint indicates the consequences of bilingualism, which may result in semilingualism, and in extreme cases in a language shift. A large language can be pidginized and creolized. According to the current period, professor Hint attributed to the English language similar roles in relation to Estonian, which he attributed to the Russian language during Perestroika.