The Estonian language is a case of, “don’t try this at home”, or ära püüa kodus seda keelt õppida. I probably got that wrong. Estonian is a big challenge, for the English speaker at least. The words are unfamiliar in the main; the grammar when reading text is outlandish; understanding the spoken word is all but impossible. And most Estonians speak English.
So, why would anyone other than an Estonian learn Estonian? Curiosity, perhaps. Language afficionados might enjoy the challenge. A spiritual calling? JRR Tolkien would have liked it. I’m running out of reasons quite quickly.
"My fatherland is my love", poem by Lydia Koidula from an anthology, published in 1867
Each noun has up to 14 distinct forms, whereas English usually has four, eg dog, dogs, dog’s and dogs’. Eesti is Estonia; into Estonia, Eestisse. From Estonia would be Eestist. With a friend (sõber) is sõbraga; without a friend sõbrata. And so forth.
“To a beginner” would be algajale, and “to beginners”, algajatele, so the plural forms can be difficult to recognise, let alone figure out how to use. Then there are challenging noun constructions. Changing money into local currency would be vahetamine kohalikuks rahaks, or something of that sort.
Verbs work much like those in, say, German or French, with different persons and tenses, etc. That’s not so bad. Except there are two infinitive forms, “to read”, for instance, is either lugema or lugeda, depending on other verbs in a sentence. I’ll stop there. To study, try Colloquial Estonian by Christopher Moseley.
As to spelling and pronunciation, this is precise. In almost all cases, the consonants and vowels sound much like, say, German, so very different to English.
Estonian belongs to the Uralic languages – nothing like Russian, as often assumed - the closest relatives are Finnish and to a lesser degree, Hungarian, and the languages of the Sami people in northernmost Skandinavia / Lappland. Remnants of peoples still speak Uralic languages in Siberia; Samoyed is one (better known to English speakers as a breed of dog). Some languages, eg Livonian, are close to extinction, if they aren’t already gone.
My reason for learning is twofold: firstly, that I am Estonian, and did not learn the language as a child or adult. That was life as a descendant of refugees in New Zealand, and, anyway, our mother’s Swiss heritage took precedence.
Secondly, New Zealand is experiencing a renaissance in the learning of its indigenous language, te reo Māori. Logically, I should learn this language; however, the effect on me has been to take a greater interest in my own culture and language. No disrespect to anyone, and, so, I am giving Estonian a go.
There are around 1 million speakers in Estonia, and, of course, speakers among the diaspora of World War II. Language is closely tied to culture, so when a language disappears, so too does a culture. Does this matter? Without going into scholarly detail, I think it does. We lose something of our humanity, as cultures and languages disappear, and we lose connections between cultures.
To quote an Estonian poem, kasvasin kesk kadakaid, kadakaid ja kive, need on minu vennad ja õed, kellel pole nime – “I grew up among junipers, junipers and stones, they are my brothers and sisters, each one without a name”. That is to say, figuratively, that Estonians are inseparable from the land they live in – that idea compares well with a Māori world view, as tangata whenua, or “people of the land”.t
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