Estonian Language Research Articles

Arno Rafael Cederberg Eesti Vabariigi Tartu Ülikooli õppejõuna [Abstract: Arno Rafael Cederberg as a Professor at the Estonian Republic’s University of Tartu

Abstract: Arno Rafael Cederberg as a Professor at the Estonian Republic’s University of Tartu
 Soon after the Republic of Estonia declared itself independent on the 24th of February 1918, academics and politicians of the newly formed nation wished to found a new national university built on the foundation of the former Imperial University of Tartu. This university would teach in the Estonian language, with the aim of offering higher educational studies in Estonian, as well as building up Estonian national sciences.
 By the spring of 1919, the committee for reopening the university was ready to open the university for studies and research in the autumn of the same year. However, they were struggling to find suitably qualified professors, as Estonians had generally been excluded from the imperial university. Prior to 1918, only three Estonians had worked as professors at the University of Tartu, while others were forced to find positions at Russian universities.
 In order to avoid delaying the opening of the new university, the committee decided to invite foreign professors to fill the vacant positions. They were particularly keen on Finnish professors, with whom Estonians had formed strong ties during the early 20th century. Thus, in the first half of the 1920s, Estonian research and university life was supported by eight Finnish professors.
 This article focuses on one of them, namely Professor A. R. Cederberg, Professor of Estonian and Nordic History, and his activity and contributions to the formation of a new field of science and its study at the University of Tartu, as well as in the rest of Estonia.
 As Cederberg was an experienced archivist, he was asked to help build up the archives of Estonia and organise the collection of the Estonian National Museum, while working for the University in parallel. Despite his large workload, he was able to quickly set goals and priorities for the development of Estonian historical science and its study programme at the university. Prior to the opening of the national university, Estonian history had primarily been researched by Baltic Germans, whose goals and visions of history differed significantly from those of Estonians.
 Cederberg believed that historical research efforts should focus more on the period of Swedish rule from the 16th century until the beginning of the 18th century. This period of Estonian history had previously been largely ignored by the historical community in favour of other historical periods. While working in mainly Finnish and Scandinavian archives during summer and winter holidays, he found many sources that shed light on the period of Swedish rule in Estonia. By directing students towards researching the early modern era in Estonia, he ensured that dozens of seminar works and Master’s and Doctor’s theses were written on this subject.
 Cederberg was not convinced that the foundation of Estonian historical science could be based only on research conducted at the university. As such he decided to found the first Estonian Academic Historical Society right after his arrival in Tartu in the early 1920s. While the primary goal of this society was to get students interested in history, particularly Estonian history, the society quickly developed into the centre of Estonian historical science.
 During the eight-and-a-half years he worked at the University of Tartu, Cederberg contributed enormously to the development of Estonian historical science. He built up an entirely new field of science and study based on the histories of Estonia and the Nordic countries, and educated a plethora of outstanding young historians (such as H. Sepp, H. Kruus, P. Treiberg (Tarvel), J. Vasar, E. Blumfeldt, A. Soom, O. Liiv, G. Rauch, etc.), who vigorously and effectively continued the work their professor had started.

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

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.

Russian Ethnic Problem in Estonia

Due to historical conditions, the area of modern Estonia is multi-ethnic and multicultural. The influx of Russian people and extensive Sovietization led to the nationalization of part of the local community. This was accompanied by the marginalization of the Estonian language. Top-down Russian-Soviet ethnic policy has led to partial national degeneration and a percentage decline in the Estonian population, as well as a rapid increase in the number of Russians and the Russian-speaking population. A broad statistical approach to national transformations in the lands of modern Estonia, taken from a historical perspective, proves that ethnic changes were determined by geopolitical conditions. An important role from the point of view of national security policy is played by the Russian minority, which after the collapse of the Soviet Union lost its previous privileged social position. This population largely identifies with the tradition of the past system. After his fall, with the regaining of independence, the citizens of Estonia began to build a new political and socio-economic order. The collapse of the Soviet system saved Estonia from the coming ethnic and cultural disaster. Regaining independence prevented the loss of ethnic identity. It also gave the opportunity to build a new social and political order. The Estonian language has regained its original meaning and became a privileged state language. The Russian and Russian-speaking factors do not facilitate this process. Rather, it promotes the reintegration of the post-Soviet area. In counteracting the above, the Estonian authorities have introduced a relatively restrictive naturalization policy. Therefore, the situation of Slavic minorities can be a source of serious socio-political problems. Key words: Russia; Estonia; nationalities; conflict.

De-etymologisation as one of the varieties of change of the word morphological structure in the Mordovian languages

Introduction. In the languages of different systems, there are many cases when the morphemic structure of a word is not clear. As a result of a comparative analysis of a word with etymologically related words and their reconstructed stems and meanings, single-morphemic, root and polymorphic words consisting of two or more morphemes are distinguished. Considering the nature of structural changes in a word and their nature in linguistics, there is simplification, re-decomposition, truncation of the stem and others. The article describes simplification, one of the most common processes of changing the morphological structure of a word based Mordovian (Moksha and Erzya) and Baltic-Finnish (Finnish and Estonian) languages. Materials and methods. The method of comparative historical analysis allows us to state that many Finno-Ugric foundations have retained the old morphological structure. After the collapse of the former linguistic unity for several millennia of independent development, significant changes took place in each of the languages that affected the morphological structure of the stem. Results and discussion. In connection with the morphological process of simplification, the structure of the primary Finno-Ugric stem of a number of words began to differ significantly from their structural design in the later periods of the development of the Finno-Ugric languages (Finno-Permian, Finno-Volga) and, moreover, their current state. This process covered a large number of the stems of the general vocabulary of the compared languages. All simplified stems can be attributed to different periods of language development. The connection of the ancient Finno-Ugric language with other languages led to numerous borrowings of tokens with which various morphological and morphological structures penetrated and gradually established themselves in the Finno-Ugric language. The latter partially adapted in the Finno-Ugric language system, and partially continued to maintain a special look. Conclusion. The morphological process of simplification took place at different periods in the development of the Mordovian and Baltic-Finnish languages, namely in the Finno-Ugric, Finno-Permian, Finno-Volga periods of their separate development.

Film Branding: How the Estonia 100 umbrella brand influenced production, marketing and consumption of the Estonia 100 films

Abstract The Republic of Estonia celebrated the 100th anniversary of its independence on February 24, 2018. The celebration marked a significant milestone for Estonians and, as a way of recognizing this, the Estonian government implemented different marketing and participatory strategies for involving individuals and organizations to take part in the celebration. As such, individuals and organizations were invited to create special gifts for Estonia and its citizens. These gifts could be in the form of tangible presents or in the form of special events and cultural programs. The official gifts were marked by the official Estonia 100 (in the Estonian language: EV100) logo. One such gift to the Estonian population were a number of audiovisual productions that were enabled through special funding from the Estonian government, managed by the Estonian Film Institute. These productions included, besides 40 short documentaries about young Estonian inventors, one animation, six feature films, two documentaries and a TV drama series (EV100 2019a).1 This paper reports a study that explored the impact of the Estonia 100 brand on the production, marketing and consumption of these films and the TV series.

Hipoteza Witolda Mańczaka o ugrofińskim substracie w językach bałtyckich

Witold Mańczak’s Hypothesis about the Finno-Ugric Substrate in the Baltic Languages
 The paper discusses Witold Mańczak’s hypothesis concerning a Finnic (particularly Balto-Finnic) substrate in the Baltic languages (Mańczak 1990: 29–38; 1993: 151; 2008: 149–152), as well as J. H. Holst’s critical evaluation of the problem (Holst 2015: 151–173). Mańczak lists as many as ten arguments in support of the substrate theory: According to Meillet (1925: 100–101), the disappearance of the neuter gender in Lithuanian and Latvian occurred under the influence of Balto-Finnic languages, since the category of gender is absent from Finno-Ugric; Old Lithuanian displays secondary local cases (i.e. illative, allative, adessive, ines-sive), formed using postpositions according to the Finno-Ugric pattern (Meillet 1925: 101); The Lithuanian constructions expressing evidentiality (e.g. Lith. nešęs velnias ak-menį) – as well as their Latvian counterparts – appeared due to substrate influence, according to Pisani (1959: 217); The Lithuanian numerals 11–19 ending in -lika (e.g, Lith. vienúolika ‘eleven’, dvýlika ‘twelve’, etc.) are of substrate origin (Pisani 1959: 217); The particle of the Lithuanian imperative -ki or -k (e.g. OLith. dúoki ‘give’) – repro-duces a similar particle known from Finnish, according to some scholars (Топоров, Трубачев 1962: 249–250); The alternation of voiced and voiceless consonants like blekai / plekai ‘tripe’ (Kiparsky 1968: 76–90 lists 200 such doublets in Latvian and 50 in Lithuanian) may be caused by the influence of a Finno-Ugric substratum, since the Finno-Ugric lan-guages used to lack voiced consonants; There are Common Baltic terms of Finno-Ugric origin, e.g. the name for ‘amber’: OPrus. gentars, Lith. giñtaras, Latv. dzĩtars m. ‘amber’ (Bednarczuk 1976: 47–48). The use of the genitive instead of an adjective in East Baltic (e.g. Lith. lietuvių kalba ‘Lithuanian language’, Latv. latviešu valoda ‘Latvian language’), unknown in other Indo-European languages, arose through Balto-Finnic influence – cf. Finnish suomen kieli ‘Finnish language’, Est. eesti keel ‘Estonian language’ (Bednarczuk 1968). The territory of Latvia abounds in hydronyms of Finnic provenance, while in Lithuania we may identify the name Nemunas (chief river in the area) as well as ca. 30 other river names of potential Finno-Ugric origin (Zinkevičius 1984: 155). The non-distinction of grammatical number in third-person finite verb forms in Lithua-nian, Latvian and Old Prussian was, according to some researchers (e.g. Thomason, Kaufman 1988: 243), caused by Balto-Finnic influence. Besides, the present author reviews Holst’s critical paper on the theory of a Uralic substratum in Common Baltic.

Väärikas teos Eesti pulmatraditsioonidest võõramaalaste pilgu läbi / A good work on the wedding customs of Estonians as seen through the eyes of foreigners

In 2018 a remarkable book compiled by Ants Hein was published: „Vanaaja pulm. Valitud tekste ja pilte 16. sajandi keskpaigast 19. aastasaja viimase veerandini“ (Weddings of the Bygone Days. Selected Texts and Pictures from the Middle of the 16th Century to the Last Quarter of the 19th Century).
 Hein has assembled a decent collection of sources about the wedding customs of the local peasants, produced by foreigners travelling through and residing in the Estonian and Livonian provinces. The authors of the selected texts vary from visitors passing through to priests and private teachers who lived here for decades. The texts are presented in a chronological sequence, with thematic insights into contextualising topics, such as clerical advice to newly-weds from the 17th century, passages on festive foods, music and dances, an essay on sexual relations before marriage, and so on. The information about Estonian wedding customs is presented systematically and the wider social context is taken into account. Every excerpt is accompanied by a compiler’s comment, discussing the writer’s period and reason for visiting Estonia. Altogether approximately 120 diverse sources have been used in the collection.
 The outsider’s perspective is evident in the descriptions. Sources in the Estonian language, mostly the results of the great initiative of oral folklore collecting called for by Jakob Hurt, generally cover the period from the mid-19th century, but foreign written sources enable us to extend our ‘national memory’ to more distant periods of time and to a wider array of viewpoints and languages. It is an acknowledged ethnographic truth that in order to notice the most regular everyday details in a culture, one should not be brought up in that culture.
 The book is richly illustrated and the pictures form perhaps the most important part of it for a native craft researcher. Although some of the captions may be a bit far-fetched, the book as a whole is a valuable, rich and a praiseworthy contribution to the information that is available on the topic of Estonian weddings. Material has been gathered from the archives of Germany, Russia and Latvia; many documents have been translated into Estonian from German, which used to be widely spoken here, but has lost its importance among present-day Estonians. It is a pleasure and a privilege that such a book has been prepared for us.

Literature Defined by Language? Some Remarks on the Definition of Estonian Literature

In the era when multiculturalism is one of the key concepts and the relationship between foreign and own is shifting, the definition of national literature has been in the centre of discussions. In Estonia the issue has been raised most prominently in connection with the Estonian Russianlanguage writer Andrei Ivanov (born 1971) whose works have turned out to be difficult to classify. How to define Estonian literature? Is it a literature written in the Estonian language, literature written by Estonians, literature associated with Estonia or is it a literature written in Estonia? Especially small nations like Estonians tend to define one’s identity according to the language spoken and ethnicity, not the citizenship. There are various significant shifts in Estonian literary history, for example, when the beginning of Estonian literature is discussed, then Baltic German authors are included but when the Estonian literature made by Estonians is born in the 19th century, Baltic German literature disappears from Estonian literature, although Baltic German literature continued until the 20th century. The aspect of value plays a significant role, as what is included or excluded in the literary history is associated with ideological choices. It is only recently that the inclusion of Baltic German literature into Estonian literature is taking place. The position of Estonian Russian literature has also shifted from rejection and periphery in the spotlight and the works by Andrei Ivanov have played a crucial role in that process. Taking the Estonian Russian-language literature and Baltic German literature as examples, the article addresses the question of defining (national) literature.

Vowels of the end of Finno-Ugric word basis in the Mordovian languages

The article describes the characteristics of the system of vowels of the end of the Finno-Ugric word base in the Mordovian languages. Considering generally accepted opinions in Finno-Ugric linguistics that the Baltic-Finnish (especially Finnish) and Sami languages ​​preserved the vocalism of the basis language, the nominal and verbal foundations of the Finno-Ugric origin in the Mordovian languages is ​​better than other related languages ​​in terms of comparison with their etymological correspondences of Finnish and Estonian languages. The nominal and verbal foundations of the modern Mordovian languages, which served as the material for the study, are subjected to comparative historical analysis with their etymological correspondences in the Baltic-Finnish (Finnish and Estonian) languages. The analysis of these fundamentals based on the comparative historical method makes it possible to firstly, establish, the preserved genetic community in the sound composition of the end of the basis, secondly, identify significant changes resulting from the isolated development of Mordovian languages, as well as to reveal their extralinguistic and internal language reasons of their appearances. The authors established phonetic correspondences based on the systematization and detailed description of the composition of the vowels of the end of the base. As a result of the loss of vowels, a number of changes occurred in the structure of the ancient base.

PLYUSSA ESTONIANS: FROM ETHNIC HISTORY OF NORTH-WESTERN RUSSIA (BASED ON PERIODICAL LITERATURE)

The article studies the way of life of Estonians who migrated from Governorate of Estonia and Governorate of Livonia to the eastern direction, to the Plyussky region. In the study the author gives the list of places of compact residence of Estonians in this region in the 19th-20th centuries (farmsteads, villages; Plussa and Lyady among others). The author also investigates the religious peculiarities of the life of the Estonian population of the region. The author collected, systematized and presented in this work the materials from pre- and post-revolutionary newspapers in Estonian language, which are first introduced into scientific circulation. The article shows the cultural identity of the local Estonian community of the Plyusskiy District, tells about the traditions of the Estonians of the region. The author describes biographies of the Estonians who are the famous natives of the Plyussa region and their contribution to the history of the region, as well as about the current situation of Estonian population in this region. In the conclusion, the author states that Estonians made the significant contribution to the history and culture of the multinational Plyusskiy District. The main methods used in the study are the generalization method, system approach, historical-descriptive method, analysis of the documents, and empirical descriptive method.

ESTONIAN ITEMS IN THE INTERNET DISCOURSE OF THE RUSSIAN SPEAKING POPULATION OF ESTONIA

The Estonian influence on the discourse of the Russian speaking population of Estonia has drawn the attention of many researchers. The insertion of elements of Estonian in the discourse of Russian speakers is analysed and systematised from different points of view. Research has been conducted on formal aspects of code switching and on more pragmatic language aspects on the basics of different material (e.g. spoken language, jargons and dialects, advertisements, journalistic texts). However, the influence of the Estonian language in the discourse of Russian speaking groups of Estonia has not been fully studied, especially with internet sources, which can give an idea of the currently relevant processes of spoken language. This paper is part of a larger research project in which we plan to compare the functions of foreign language items in the internet discourse of the Russian speaking population of Italy and Estonia. In this paper, however, the main focus is on the lexical content of Estonian insertions in the internet discourse of the Russian speaking population of Estonia and on two of its main functions. Namely, the identifying reference function and the figurative speech function. Data was collected from different forums and Facebook groups. The analysis of the collected material shows that the insertion of Estonian items occurs very frequently when the communicants discuss bureaucratic-administrative spheres, space, and time. Those Estonian insertions are very often used in order to clearly identify the object of their conversation. Longer insertions are often used within the figurative speech function, which conveys the characteristics of the speech, of the speaker and the evaluative characteristics. The study of the influence of the Estonian language on the internet discourse of the Russian speaking population of Estonia in the future will allow a deeper understanding of formal and functional aspects of the Estonian language, such as the morphological and syntactic features of the language and the semantic and pragmatic meaning of certain Estonian words and particles. Furthermore, this research will contribute to the study of the problems connected with language contacts.

State-of-the-art on monolingual lexicography for Estonia

The paper describes the state of the art of monolingual lexicography in Estonia. Firstly, we describe the current situation in Estonia and the main public functions performed by the Institute of the Estonian Language. Secondly, we provide an overview of the primary types of monolingual academic dictionaries (dictionaries of Standard Estonian and explanatory dictionaries) published in Estonia since the 20th century. Monolingual learner’s lexicography has emerged as a new field in the 2010s, focusing on basic vocabulary and collocations. Thirdly, we give a short overview of accessibility policy and availability of language resources for Estonian. Finally, we envisage the future work in the field of lexicography in the Institute. Within the framework of the new dictionary writing system Ekilex the Institute is moving away from presenting separate interfaces for different dictionaries towards a unified data model in order to provide the data in the aggregated form.

Features of the evolution of the vowels of the first syllable of Finno-Ugric stem in the Mordovian languages

The phonetic system is one of the most important aspects of the language. The study of the structure and features of this system allows tracing both the current state and the history of the development of a language. The development of the phonetic structure of Finno-Ugric word stem in Mordovian languages is considered with the help of a comparative and historical method. The system of vowels of the first syllable in the words of modern Mordovian languages is compared with the reconstructed forms of the stem, which go back to the Finno-Ugric pro-linguistic unity (Uralic, Finno-Ugric, Finno-Permian and Finno-Volga) and their etymological correspondences in the Finnish and Estonian languages. The article presents an analysis of the evolution of vowels of the first syllable of the Finno-Ugric word in Mordovian (Moksha and Erzya) languages. On the basis of the achievements of modern Finno-Ugric studies, phonetic processes are observed in the field of vowels of the first syllable that transformed the primary basis of the word. The description of the features of the vocalism of the first syllable in Mordovian languages is carried out in terms of comparison with the reconstructed forms of the Finno-Ugric original language and comparison with etymological correspondences in the Finnish and Estonian languages. A comparative analysis of the vowel system of the first syllable of the Finno-Ugric word stem in modern Mordovian languages with their etymological correspondences in the Finnish and Estonian languages allowed us to detect phonetic processes that changed the structure of some languages. In some cases, these are minor changes, while in other cases, they are rather significant.

Adaption and validation of the Mississippi Aphasia Screening Test to Estonian speakers with aphasia.

ObjectivesThe Mississippi Aphasia Screening Test (MAST) is a brief screening tool for assessing the expressive and receptive language abilities of patients with aphasia. The goal of this study was to adapt and validate the MAST into the Estonian language. The discriminant validity and internal consistency of the test were examined, as well as its sensitivity and specificity.MethodsThe MASTest was administered in 50 left hemisphere stroke patients with aphasia (LHA+ group) in the acute phase after the stroke and 126 healthy volunteers in a control group (CG), stratified by age and level of education. Nonparametric tests were used to get normative values, compare the values of the MASTest scores between the LHA+ group and the CG, and to assess the discriminant validity, internal consistency, sensitivity, and specificity of the MASTest.ResultsThe summary scores: total score (MASTest‐T), expressive score (MASTest‐E), and receptive score (MASTest‐R) correlated with age and educational level, and the normative values were adjusted accordingly. The LHA+ group showed more impairment than the CG in all subtests and summary scores. The internal reliability of the MASTest was high for the whole sample and LHA+ group. The sensitivity and specificity of the MASTest using the 5th percentile were 74% and 94%, respectively, but using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, it was 89% and 80%.ConclusionThe MASTest is a valid screening tool for evaluating expressive and receptive language abilities in Estonian patients with aphasia in early stroke. The MASTest is the first validated aphasia screening test for Estonian‐speaking people, who number less than one million worldwide.

Facing the Foreign: The Aftermath of World War II and Estonian as Otherness in Two Films by Ingmar Bergman

Abstract Drawing on a few concepts of postcolonialism, including Edward Said’s idea of Orientalism and Stuart Hall’s theory on representation, this article explores the representations of Estonian culture and language in two films by Ingmar Bergman, This Can’t Happen Here (Sånt händer inte här, Sweden, 1950; also known as High Tension) and The Silence (Tystnaden, Sweden, 1963). Through a descriptive textual analysis of the Estonian representational elements in these films, the article suggests that Bergman uses Estonian language and culture to establish a certain kind of Otherness, marking a cultural hegemony and exotifying a new foreign element in post-war Sweden. An additional aim of the article is to present and contextualise the exiled Estonian actors that starred in This Can’t Happen Here, as this has not been done in a scholarly context, and since the film ended up being their only cinematic appearance in their new adopted country.

Swearing: Dissolution into Nothingness<br>Preklinjanje: izničenje v praznino</br>

In this study we will comparatively analyse swearing material form Slovenian and Estonian language in order to show the lexical and structural similarities/differences between swearing and incantations present in the material as to argue that swearing is not only a manner to give voice to taboos, but is similar with incantations. The basic premise underlying the analysis is the existence of the “go to X” formula found both in the material and in the two genres analysed. Place X is the place of origin, non-existence or chaos, where the unwanted is sent to. There are more than 50 different variants of “go to X” we can detect in both Estonian and Slovenian language; besides we consider the phrases which carry the idea to negate someone to somewhere but they are in different formulation.

Eesti etnograafid lõunavepsa külades 1965–1969

Estonian ethnographers in southern Vepsian villages, 1965–1969 Estonian ethnographers have taken an interest in Finno-Ugric peoples since the dawn of ethnography, and to the extent possible, they have made trips to the regions in question to study their culture. Starting in the 1960s, the State Ethnography Museum of the Estonian SSR in Tartu (the past and present Estonian National Museum) became the hub of Finno-Ugric ethnography under its director, Aleksei Peterson. Expeditions to the linguistic relatives in the east began at the initiative and with the support of linguists (chiefly, Paul Ariste) and continued in later years independently. The article looks at five expeditions made by Estonian ethnographers to southern Vepsian villages in the years 1965–1969. The central source is the fieldwork diaries maintained on the expeditions. In addition, the article examines the photographs, film footage and drawings from these expeditions, along with collected items and ethnographic descriptions. The scholarly and popular science-oriented texts based on the material acquired on the expeditions and coverage of the expeditions in the Estonian media of that era are analysed. Interviews were conducted with a few of the people who took part in the trips. The southern Veps region was poorly connected with the rest of the world in the 1960s, and the people there led quite an isolated existence. For this reason, the villages in the region had an abundance of extant or only recently defunct aspects (such as slash and burn agriculture, dugout canoe construction or use of twigs to heat the stove), which captivated the ethnologists. The southern Veps region was a unique window to the past for Estonian researchers, who in that period dealt with questions of ethnogenesis. The material culture had received little study and Peterson saw this as his calling and an opportunity. Modernisation was already under way and everything old was at risk of fading. Ethnographers interested in these matters had to hurry to save for science what could be salvaged. The traditional peasant culture of the Vepsians was documented using still cameras and film cameras, ethnographic interviews were conducted, ethnographic drawings prepared, and artefacts were collected with great verve. Quantity was important, and the field work was generally a collective pursuit – many people could after all accomplish more than just one. The material recorded in the course of fieldwork reached academic circulation quite rapidly – presentations were delivered at international conferences, and journal articles were published. The coverage of the expeditions in the Estonian media was quite lively as well. Newspapers published accounts of various lengths and on at least once occasion the ethnographers’ activities in the Vepsian region was discussed on television. Estonian scholars perceived and conveyed the southern Veps villages as some kind of Baltic-Finnic fairy tale land. In general, researchers relished the opportunity to go on an expedition. It was felt that this was a noble thing, which in some sense also tied in with the Estonian national cause. Research into the linguistic relatives was positively received by Estonian society for this reason – i.e. it was linked to the national identity. Local authorities in the destination regions generally took a positive attitude toward the ethnographers. The zeitgeist favoured science and expeditions. The Veps people – especially those in more remote and isolated villages – frequently greeted the Estonian ethnographers with initial scepticism. The Estonians had to explain their objectives and use documents to prove their bona fides. Later the alienation dissipated and once the close kinship of the Vepsian and Estonian languages was revealed, the newcomers received a rapturous reception as if they were long-lost relatives. At Sodjärv Lake, which served on multiple occasions as the ethnographers’ base camp, Estonian researchers became accepted by the Vepsians as their own people. It is difficult to gauge precisely the influence that those and later expeditions had on the Vepsian peoples. The Estonians’ visits probably helped to bolster the generally weak self-identity of the Veps people. While the Russians in the region all too often took a supercilious view of the Veps and their language, the ethnographers from Estonia had come to study them precisely because of their identity and held in high regard everything from old peasant culture to the language. Some local people still speak positively about Estonians. The five expeditions to the villages of the southern Vepsian region discussed in this article, their outcome and resonance make up a key part of a cultural current that sprang from Finno-Ugric studies in Soviet Estonia, the best-known examples of which are Lennart Meri’s ethnographic documentary films, the choral music of Veljo Tormis and the graphic art of Kaljo Põllu. Emphasising their Finno-Ugric roots was for Estonians an additional way to express their Estonian identity independent of Soviet rule and ethnographers made a significant contribution to this trend.

Verse texts in the Latin inscriptions of Estonian ecclesiastical space: meter, rhythm and prosody

In 2014, the project CEILE (Corpus Electronicum Inscriptionum Latinarum Estoniae, EKKM 14-364) was launched within the framework of the program “Estonian language and cultural memory”, in order to systematically map and study the Latin inscriptions created before 1918 and stored in Estonian Lutheran and Catholic churches. As of 2018, the database contains more than 300 inscriptions. Although the proportion of verse texts is not high (13 entries), the fact that the material (totalling 175 verses) has survived almost completely, part of them in situ and partly in transcriptions, and contains several lengthier texts, allows us to make certain generalizations about their metrical and prosodic structure. In this paper, we will give an overview of the chronology and sites of inscriptions and describe the metrical, rhythmical and prosodic structure of the verse texts, addressing also the conjectural role of meter and prosody in our work. We will also dwell on the metrical and prosodic correctness of the texts and will take a separate look at the prosodic licences and errors which occur in the verse texts of the corpus.

World Literature in Estonia: the Construction of National Translation Ethics

In addition to many other functions, translating may (and often does) also have a national agenda. Such agenda determines what is going to be translated, how and by whom. Depending on what the national agenda might be, various questions of ethics come into play. Such questions of ethics may be reflected in the translation norms, they may be concealed but still have an important role in constructing the image of translators as well as the idea of what translations should be like.
 In Estonia, translation has been of pivotal importance among other things in the formation of the national canon and in developing the Estonian language. In addition to that, translation can be considered to be a means of implementing new ideologies as well as means of resistance. In the present paper, we will ask questions rather than try to answer them: What does ethics of translation mean in the Estonian cultural context? Considering Estonian translation history, can translation ethics be said to be dependent on a particular historical-political situation? And, who has the right to judge translations and the activity of translators?

Native vs. Borrowed Material as Approached by Estonian Language Planning Practitioners: The Experience of the Dictionary of Standard Estonian

Native vs. Borrowed Material as Approached by Estonian Language Planning Practitioners: The Experience of the Dictionary of Standard Estonian