Estonian

Where it’s spoken

Estonian is the sole official language of Estonia and an official language of the European Union. Estonian-speaking communities live in Finland, Russia, Sweden, the United States, Canada, and Australia. The closely related Võro and Seto are sometimes considered separate languages or distinct South Estonian varieties.

What it sounds like

Estonian famously distinguishes three degrees of consonant and vowel length: short, long, and overlong (e.g., kabi “hoof,” kapi “of the cupboard,” kappi “into the cupboard”). It has 14 grammatical cases, including locative cases that double as Estonia’s tourism-board fascination. Stress falls on the first syllable.

How it’s written

Estonian uses the Latin alphabet plus ä, ö, ü, and the distinctive Estonian õ (a back unrounded vowel). The orthography was reformed by Eduard Ahrens in the mid-19th century on the Finnish model, abandoning earlier German-style conventions.

History

Estonian’s literary tradition began with 16th-century Lutheran texts. The 19th-century national epic Kalevipoeg was modeled on Finland’s Kalevala. Soviet-era Russification pressure was countered by independence in 1991, which restored Estonian as the language of state.