Uuritavad keeled

Estonian (ISO 639-3: est, ekk, Glottocode: esto1258) is the official language of the Republic of Estonia and one of the official languages of the European Union. As of 2022, Estonian was spoken by approximately 1.2 million people worldwide. The earliest examples of written Estonian date to the 16th Century. Work to standardise Estonian began in the 19th Century and the modern standard language is based on North Estonian. Over its history, Estonian has been in close contact with the Baltic, Germanic, and Slavic languages showing signs of this contact in its vocabulary and morphosyntax. Estonian is especially noteworthy for its three vowel and consonant quantity degrees (short, long, overlong), which manifest as a length ratio between syllables.

Photo: Estonian flags on Midsummer’s Day. Source: Uldis Balodis; Kuressaare, Estonia, 2014.

Western dialect

The western dialect (Glottocode: laan1234) is spoken in western and southwestern mainland Estonia in the districts of Läänemaa and Pärnumaa. The transition between the western and central dialect is gradual and certain western features are found even in the central dialect area. The western and insular dialects, however, show greater reduction of unstressed syllables than in the central dialect, e.g., Western saarlest and Standard saarlased ’islanders’. The western dialect also shows replacement of intervocalic v with b, e.g., Western kõba kibi vs. Standard kõva kivi ‘hard stone’; loss of v before the labial vowels u, ü, ö, e.g., Western sui vs. Standard suvi ‘summer’; and simplification of word-initial consonant clusters, e.g., Western leit vs. Standard kleit ’dress’. Coastal areas (Noarootsi, Vormsi) historically inhabited by Swedish speakers also show Swedish influence, while southern areas (Häädemeeste, Saarde) show both Mulgi and Livonian influence.

Photo: Coastal scene. Source: Uldis Balodis; Tahkuranna, Estonia, 2023.

Eastern dialect

The eastern dialect (Glottocode: idae1234) is spoken in the coastal region along the western and northwestern coast of Lake Peipsi in easternmost Estonia. The eastern dialect shows similarities with the northeastern dialect as well as the Votic language in that, e.g., the vowel õ is common and ss is used in place of st, e.g., Eastern issun, mussad, vedess vs. Standard istun ‘I sit’, mustad ‘black ones’, veest ‘from (the) water’. The eastern dialect also shows similarities with South Estonian forms such as the use of an n-marked inessive, e.g., Eastern ilman vs. Standard ilmas ’in (the) air’, as well as similarities with both Seto and the northeastern dialect in its use of -st to mark the translative, e.g., Eastern suurest mehest vs. Standard suureks meheks ’into a big man’. The eastern dialect is also noteworthy within Finnic for its unique forms of the negative verb: Eastern esin õle, esid õle, es õle, esimä olõ, esittä õle, esid õle vs. Standard Estonian ma ei olnud ‘I wasn’t’, sa ei olnud ‘you (sg.) weren’t’, ta ei olnud ‘s/he wasn’t’, me ei olnud ‘we weren’t’, te ei olnud ‘you (pl.) weren’t’, ne ei olnud ‘they weren’t’. The eastern dialect is also known for the extensive documentation of the archaic Kodavere subdialect conducted by linguist Lauri Kettunen in the 1910s.

Photo: Village street in Kallaste village on the shore of Lake Peipsi. Source: Uldis Balodis; Kallaste, Estonia, 2022.

Northeastern dialect

The northeastern dialect is spoken from the northern coast of Lake Peipsi to the northern coast of Estonia in Ida-Virumaa. The vowel õ is more common in the northeastern dialect than in Standard Estonian, e.g., cf. Northeastern õli, kõht, õtse vs. Standard oli ‘was’, koht ‘place’, otse ‘straight’. The northeastern dialect also shows similarity in its vocabulary to Votic. The Votic speech area is just to the east of the area where the northeastern dialect is spoken and historically there were also some Votic communities living within this part of Estonia, e.g., the mixed Estonian-Votic-Russian community near Iisaku known as the Poluverniki ‘half believers’ who mixed Orthodox and Lutheran traditions. While third-person singular present-tense verb forms are marked with -b as in Standard Estonian, conditional verb forms in the northeastern dialect are marked with -s(i) or -(i)ses(i), e.g., Northeastern tegesin, tegesesin vs. Standard ma teeks ‘I would make’.

Photo: A view of Pirda homestead, Jõuga village, Iisaku kihelkond. Source: Uudo Rips, 1952, ERM Fk 1203:20

Seto

Seto (Glottocode: seto1244) is the easternmost South Estonian variety and is spoken in a region straddling the present-day Estonian-Russian border. This division came as a result of annexation of this territory to Russia during the Soviet occupation of Estonia. Seto speakers live on both sides of this divide. According to the 2011 Estonian census, Seto was spoken by 12,549 people at that time. A vibrant written tradition has existed in Seto for decades with numerous publications appearing in Seto on a regular basis. Work on Seto language and culture is overseen by the Seto Institute and the Seto-language newspaper Setomaa is published monthly. In addition to ä, ü, õ vowel harmony, some Seto varieties also show limited ö harmony, e.g. jänö ‘bunny’. Seto is unique in showing h in all positions including in the inessive and word-finally, e.g., hõbõhhõh ’in silver’, imeh ‘miracle’. Word-final glottal stop serves important grammatical functions in marking the second-person singular imperative and nominative plural, e.g., annaq ‘give!’, tarõq ‘rooms’. Most consonants can be palatalized. Seto also has many Russian loanwords, e.g., Seto paaba, tsuuda vs. Russian баба (bába) ‘old woman’, чудо (čúdo) ‘miracle’. Seto and Võro share a closer linguistic relationship within South Estonian, but are distinguished from each other especially by vocabulary and pronunciation. Culturally, the traditionally Lutheran Võro speakers and Orthodox Seto speakers are also distinguished by religion. The Kraasna and Lutsi language island varieties share a particularly close linguistic relationship with Seto.

Photo: The “Seto tsäimaja” (Seto Teahouse) with its name written in the Seto language. Source: Uldis Balodis; Värska, Setomaa, Estonia, 2019.

Võro

Võro (ISO 639-3: vro, Glottocode: voro1243) is spoken across southeastern Estonia from Lake Peipsi to the Latvian border, south of the areas where the Tartu variety is spoken and west of Setomaa. Võro is also still spoken to a limited extent in neighboring areas of Latvia, e.g., Vana-Laitsna (Latvian Veclaicene). Võro is the most widely-spoken South Estonian variety. According to the 2011 Estonian census, Võro was spoken by 74,499 people at that time. Work on Võro language and culture is overseen by the Võro Institute and the Võro-language newspaper Uma Leht is published twice a month. As noted above in the description of Seto, Võro and Seto share a particularly close relationship with each other within South Estonian and, indeed, have sometimes been described as two sub-varieties of a single South Estonian dialect. Differences, however, can be seen across both varieties. For example, Seto shows influence from Russian in its pronunciation of h and l. Many common words have different pronunciations, e.g., Võro hää, Seto hüä ‘good’, Võro häste, Seto hõste ‘well’, Võro egä, Seto õga ‘any’ (cf. Standard Estonian hea, hästi, iga). Morphological differences include different translative endings: Võro uses -ss, while Seto uses -st. Both Võro- and Seto-like forms are found in the Lutsi language island variety.

Photo: Two Men waiting at a bus stop. Source: Uldis Balodis; Orava, Võromaa, Estonia, 2019.

Lutsi

Lutsi (Glottocode: luts1235) is a South Estonian variety spoken for at least several centuries mostly separated from other South Estonian speakers in Estonia. Lutsi is characterized by extended, intense contact with Latvian and Latgalian as well as with Russian, Polish, Belarusian, and Yiddish. In the late 19th century, Lutsi was spoken in several dozen villages north, east, and south of the city of Ludza in southeastern Latvia (in the historical Mērdzene (Mihalova), Pilda, Nirza, and Briģi (Janovole) parishes). The final speakers lived in the villages of Jāni külä (Lielie Tjapši) and Kirbu külä (Škirpāni) south of Ludza. The last fluent speaker lived until 1983, the last conversational speaker died in 2006, the last partial speaker died in 2014. In the 2020s, several Lutsi rememberers remain. Lutsi descendants are aware of their heritage and view it positively. There are early efforts at language revitalization. Project researcher Uldis Balodis has published a Lutsi language and culture primer. Lutsi, like other Finnic varieties spoken in Latvia, has broken tone or stød, but only as a variant pronunciation of certain intervocalic consonants. Lutsi shows forms characteristic of both Seto and Võro. Thus, the Seto-like forms hüä, höste, õga but also the Võro-like egä all occur in Lutsi. Likewise, Lutsi has both the h-inessive (found in Seto and Võro) and the n-inessive (found in western Võro) as well as the st-translative (found in Seto) and the s-translative (found in Võro). The Lutsis and their communities are further described here.

Photo: Lutsi descendants with project researcher Uldis Balodis at the release of the Lutsi language and culture primer. Source: Uldis Balodis; Ludza, Latvia, 2020.

Salaca Livonian

The Salaca Livonians (ISO 639-3: liv, Glottocode: east2326) are descendants of the Vidzeme (Metsepole) Livonians who lived in western Vidzeme and a small adjacent coastal area of Estonia south of Häädemeeste. Modern descendants are aware of their heritage and view it positively. Salaca Livonian is the only documented variety of Vidzeme Livonian and was historically spoken near Svētciems south of Salacgrīva in Latvia. The last known speakers lived in the 1860s, but Salaca Livonian rememberers survived and were documented into the early 20th century. The project’s principal investigator Karl Pajusalu recently published a guide to Salaca Estonian in Estonian and Latvian as well as several Salaca Livonian poetry collections (as Ķempi Kārl). The University of Latvia Livonian Institute, University of Tartu, and University of Göttingen are involved in work on Salaca Livonian. A guide to Salaca Livonian was published in 2023 in Estonian and Latvian by Karl Pajusalu and Eberhard Winkler.

Photo: Vidzeme Livonian descendants – members of the Lielnori family – study their family tree. Source: Rasma Noriņa; Rīga, Latvia, 2012.

The Ingrians (ISO 639-3: izh, Glottocode: ingr1248) have historically inhabited a number of villages along the Lauga (Russian: Luga) and Hevaha (Kovashi) Rivers as well as on the Soikkola (Soikino) and Kurgola (Kurgolovo) peninsulas. These areas are located in Kingisepp and Lomonosov Districts in Leningrad Region in the Russian Federation. According to the 2010 census, there were 266 Ingrians living in the Russian Federation. Also in 2010, there were 123 known speakers of Ingrian. (Source) Unlike the other languages in this project, Ingrian is a Northern Finnic language, but nevertheless it shares certain (morpho)phonological and morphosyntactic innovations and peculiar typological features with Southern Finnic.

Photo: EM researcher R. Piiri interviews Natalja Nikiforovat (wife of Ilja Konstantinov), born: 1909 (Ingrians). Source: Aado Lintrop, 1979, ERM Fk 1979:60

Kraasna

The only one of the three South Estonian language island varieties (Kraasna, Leivu, Lutsi) historically not spoken in Latvia. Kraasna (Glottocode: kraa1234) was documented in the early 20th century by Estonian researcher Oskar Kallas and Finnish researcher Heikki Ojansuu. Spoken in a network of villages near the town of Krasnogorodsk, Russia near the present-day border with Latvia and only a few dozen kilometers distance from the northernmost Lutsi villages, Kraasna was the first of the South Estonian language island varieties to cease being spoken in daily life – likely already prior to World War II. In 1952 and 1966, Estonian researcher Paulopriit Voolaine still found a few individuals with fragmentary knowledge of Kraasna and, in 2004, a University of Tartu expedition found two families in the village of Ivatsova who were still aware of their Estonian roots. The Kraasna people and their communities are further described here.

Photo: Kraasna rememberer Jegor Vassiljev with his wife. Source: Paulopriit Voolaine, 1966, Mõisa (Myza), Russia, ERM Fk 1508: 138