Estonian Language
THE STORY OF THE ESTONIAN LANGUAGE
Act One: Finno-Ugric Europeans
On the territory of Estonia, with Finno-Ugric culture, East meets West.
The word for Estonia, Eesti, originates with the ancient Scandinavians who called those tribes living to the east of Scandinavia esti. In 98 AD, Tacitus in his "Germania" used a slightly different version of this word - aestii. The widespread use of the name of the country Eesti by Estonians themselves dates from no earlier than the 19th century.
During the 13th century, Estonia was conquered and formally Christianised by the Teutonic knights - The Order of the Brethren of the Sword - and a number of them continued to reside in the country. Estonia was in effect divided up into two separate communities: foreign-born Germans and the indigenous Estonian peasants. About one quarter of the roots of the words that form the present-day Estonian vocabulary come from Low German. The Estonians succeeded in assimilating these new and foreign language influences and thus did not lose the genuine Finno-Ugric base of the language. Over time, the spoken language of the German aristocracy who stayed changed into Baltic German, where Low German, now becoming archaic, blended with elements of Estonian.
Act Two: From the rise of the written language to literacy
European culture rests on a foundation of written texts, whilst Finno-Ugric culture is based on the spoken word. Estonia stood at a geo-political crossroads, bordering onto powerful neighbours such as Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Russia and Poland and was, at various times, coveted by all of these. Estonians grew used to being surrounded by a multiplicity of European languages.
Demands for a written version of the Estonian language came initially from foreign clergymen. The Reformation reached Estonia in 1523, the first known book written in Estonian was one with a Lutheran content, printed in Lübeck in 1525. The first extant Estonian book is the Wanradt-Koell catechism which appeared in 1535.
The fact that the Reformation penetrated Estonia so rapidly spurred Catholics of the Counter-Reformation to attempt to create a "Northern Florence" in Tartu as a religious bridgehead in the region. Owing to the continued weakness of the Roman Catholic Church, these grand plans were never realised. But the shock waves nonetheless spilled over into secular matters: in 1632 the King of Sweden turned the building of what had been a Jesuit grammar school into the seat of the famous University of Tartu.
In 1710, Russia conquered Estonia. Conditions began to deteriorate in Estonia, but the tradition of educational and cultural endeavour continued.
The first periodical in the Estonian language which was of general interest was the Lühike Õpetus, a weekly which first appeared in 1766. And the world's first regular farming newspaper was the Estonian Tartu Maarahva Nädalaleht which was started in 1806!
By this time, the literacy level of Estonians was among the highest in Europe, reaching between 70 and 80 per cent by the 1850s. The central Russian authorities saw a self-conscious nation that purposefully broadened its outlook, which would become steadily harder to manipulate with regard to the demands of the state.
Act Three: From cultural autonomy to independence
Civil society developed apace during the latter half of the 19th century. Networks of educational societies, brass bands, choirs, temperance movements spread throughout the land. The number and editions of newspapers increased and in 1880, with a rural population of some 760,000, the popular newspaper Sakala had to answer 713 readers’ letters from farmers alone!
The Estonian national movement had to sail skilfully between the reefs of the Russian authorities and the Baltic Germans, both Russification and Germanisation of the Estonian people were probable.
The primus motor of the Estonian movement was a belief in language. Estonian was thought of as a powerful means of communication on its own, as a way of achieving a better education and the nation's own cultural space. Estonians thus could distract the attention of both the Baltic Germans and the Russian authorities by means of their “secret” language and gradually attained a position of strength - until independence was achieved in 1918.
And that is how Estonian politics was born.
Written for the MFA by Mart Meri, linguist