The Estonian Language
Past, Present, and Future Perspectives
Delaney Michael Skerrett
d.skerrett@uq.edu.au
Map of the presentation

Socio-Historical Perspective



Introduction to Estonia(n)
Estonia(n) & the Soviet occupation
Present & Future Perspectives





Overview of policy & usage by domain
Ethnicity of Estonian population
Identity features of non-ethnic Estonians
Language use
Future perspectives
ESTONIAN IN THE SOCIOHISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Introduction To Estonia(n)
Estonia






One of three “Baltic states”
North-East Europe on Baltic
Sea
Capital: Tallinn (Taani + Linn
= Danish Castle/City)
1.3m inhabitants
Approx. size of Denmark,
Netherlands (but bigger )
Independent 1918-1939,
1991

Occupied by Soviet Union 1939
Member of EU & NATO since
2004
Estonian





Approx. 1.1m native speakers
Estonia (950,000), border regions, & immigrants in
Russia, USA, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Finland
Finno-Ugric language in the Uralic family
Not genetically related to the Indo-European
languages (e.g. Russian, Latvian, English)
One of the three national FU languages of Europe
(Finnish & Hungarian)
History of Estonian

-19thc. only texts were religious


All official documents in German plus briefly
Russian at end of 19thc.
1857 weekly newspaper Perno Postimees

1st mention of Eesti rahvas (Estonian people):
previously only maarahvas (people of the
land; also maakeel: language of the
language) used



Eesti either a German or Swedish borrowing
1861 epic Kalevipoeg complied/composed
1906 language of education
Standardised Estonian


National harmonisation 1914
Based on Tallinn dialect


Translation of whole Bible 1739: Tartu
(southern) dialect had been used first but only
for the New Testament
During 1st independence (1920’s, 30’s):



Standardisation, modernisation
Replacement of German orthography with one
similar to Finnish
Replacement of much German vocab with
international, Finnish, and new (ex nihilo) terms
Features of Estonian

Agglutinative (like Finnish, other FU languages)



Vowel-rich (V:C = 45:55)


Täppi-de-ga lipsu-d sobi-vad esinduslike-le teatri-juhti-de-le-gi
Baltic Sprachbund: Estonian & Latvian (German &
Livonian)


Kuuuurijate töööö jäääärel
Täppidega lipsud sobivad esinduslikele teatrijuhtidelegi


Although moving towards inflectional
14 grammatical cases
e.g. “I have” = “to/on me [there] is” = mul on (Est.); man ir
(Lat.)
Approx. 50% of Estonian vocab of non-FU origin (mostly
from German); 1/3 if international terms (Greek & Latin
origin) not included
Nuestro
ruiseñor ha
ido a otra
parte este
año
Võro Kiil
Estonian Võro Finnish English Castellano
koer
lind
saba
kask
oder
loom
pini
tsirk
hand
kõiv
kesv
elläi
koira
lintu
häntä
koivu
ohra
eläin
dog
bird
tail
birch
barley
animal
perro
ave
cola
abedul
cebada
animal
Me ei saanud onu talus teed juua. (Est.)
Saaq õs miq lellä eloh tsäid juvvaq. (Võro)
We could not have a tea at the uncle's farm. (English)
No pudimos tomar un té en la granja del tío. (Cast.)
http://www.wi.ee/?id=64
Estonia(n) & the Soviet
occupation
Estonian & Soviet Ideology




Language in every public situation acquired a symbolic meaning in
relation to communist ideology:
 “[t]he media were used for creating an alternative reality, ‘an
ideologically correct symbolic environment, filled with content
designed to socialize the audience to the ideas and values of
Communism”
Estonian continued to be used in parallel to Russian but significant
prestige given to Russian:
 “[t]he Russian language seems to me like a huge bridge of
sunbeams [o]ver which the Latvian heart will climb to high
horizons” (Latvian poet)
Myths created regarding past friendships between Estonians &
Russians/other Slavs
Language myths to promote Russian: “the language of international
communication,” “Russian as second national language,” “voluntarily
adopted,” “common lexical fund,” “mutual enrichment of
languages,” “convergence and fusion of peoples”
Linguistic Manipulation: Estonia






10-20m publications destroyed
 86% of books & all periodicals from the independence period
banned
Ideological renaming of streets, publications (Rahva Hääl, Edasi,
etc)
New connotations:
 Positive: dictatorship (of the proletariat), revolution,
communism, socialism, party, apolitical, plan
 Negative: nationalist, nation, capitalist, bourgeois
Direct borrowing or translating from Russian, especially for Soviet
phenomena (kolhoos, kosmonaut, etc)
No official linguistic Russification until 1978: “recommendations”
sent to each Republic on promoting Russian as the “new native
language”:
 Russian to increase in the media, cultural groups, education
Russian the default language of administration in larger cities/North
East
Sociocultural Repression

Over half of writers lost (fled, deported), others stopped
writing:




Cultural organisations closed, local branches of All-Union
organisations opened
Cultural publications included political material
Only standardised, politicised forms of expression
allowed (nationalist, abstract forms banned)


“the end of the 1950s was, as we all remember, a time where
artists and poets no longer found themselves jobs in secondhand shops, and nightwatchmen or stoker poets were not yet in
fashion” (Kross)
Dull, vague, militaristic use of language in the press
Less than 22% of Tartu Uni faculty remained
Censorship: Estonia

Prohibited: non-Soviet versions of history,
national traditions, religion, presence of Soviet
military, explicit discussion of sex,
homosexuality, prostitution, various diseases,
the exact populations of towns of less than
10,000 people, the migratory routes of birds



Books in exotic languages
Permitted: harmonious, happy, cohesive,
progressive portrayal of the Soviet Union
All publications censored at some level (but
more local levels less controlled)
Cultural & Linguistic
Maintenance


Creativity what & where to write
Cultural forms of opposition

Maintenance of language itself as a form of
cultural/political opposition



Census 1970 29% said could speak Rus; 1979
decreased to 24%
Loosening of censorship
Private national world vs. public ideology
Planned Migration

Large numbers of immigrants


Industrialisation but most likely also
ethnolinguistic manipulation
Estonian-speakers:

88.2% in 1934 (close to 100% just before
occupation)  61.6% in 1989
Ethnodemographic changes (Baltic states)
% of population
Titular Proportion of Population
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Pre-Soviet
1959
1989
Ethnodemographic changes (Baltic states)
% of population
Slavic Proportion of Population
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Estonia Slavic
Latvia Slavic
Lithuania Slavic
PreSoviet
1959
1989
Titular language proficiency in
Baltic states
Non-titular population speaking titular
language
70
60
Percent
50
40
1989
30
2000
20
10
0
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Diglossia

“relationship in which a low variety (B) finds
itself subordinated to a high variety (A) […]
[T]he high variety is used in formal situations
and activities considered to be of high prestige,
as in parliamentary debates, court proceedings,
government business, and activities of high
culture including education, high literature [and]
periodical publications of high circulation”


Not fully diglossic (esp. in regional areas)
Now somewhat reversed BUT Rus as a big language,
spoken in many countries
Results of the Regime

Replacement of Estonian with Russian in most public
spheres & in interethnic communication
 Privileged social status of Russian(-speakers) in
Estonia & USSR in general:
Russian required for government, military, transport,
industry, higher education
 Non-Estonians (inc. Ukrainians & Belarusians)
schooled in Russian
 Full set of social institutions in Russian; partial set in
Estonian
Asymmetric bilingualism where Estonian as the (local) majority
language was the less prestigious




“Minority complex” of Estonian-speakers


Minorised local language; majorised immigrant language
High level of “linguistic tolerance” of speakers of other languages,
esp. Russian (but also Finnish)
Expectation of Rus. speakers to be able to be monolingual
PRESENT & FUTURE
PERSPECTIVES
Overview of language usage & policy
by domain

State language Est only


State institutions Est only: except where a minority is a
majority (e.g. Narva); interpreters provided in court





Naturalisation requirement for citizenship for Soviet-era
immigrants
It may not be the case in practice however e.g. tram drivers,
corrections system. Also many public servants in Ida Virumaa
Education: Rus provided at primary & 2ndary levels
(chaning); universities Est only (extra Est courses
provided)
Service sector Est always available (in theory & mostly in
practice except e.g. Narva)
Industry often Rus
Agriculture Est
Ethnicity of Estonian
population
Ethnic composition 2008
Just over half of
non-ethnic
Estonians
(16.3% of total
population) are
not citizens
(mostly Russian
citizens or
stateless,
approx. 50/50)
Immigrants by region 2008
•Immigrant in these
statistics refers to
foreign-born & those
with 1 foreign-born
parent
•Distribution in Est
different to Latvia: each
case has its own
particular difficulties
Immigrant Estonian ability by region
•Refers to % of
immigrants in each
region that can speak
Est
•Figures are high in
most areas
Changing
ethnic
composition
of population
•Among school-aged
children (7-16 years
old) Estonians now
make up 77-78% of
the population (versus
68% overall)
Identity features of nonethnic Estonians
In-group identification
•“Russian” = “Russian-speaker” (conceptually & %)
•Identification with “Estonian” low but category is quite exclusive
•Identification with physical Estonian space more so that national identity
Homeland affiliation
•Identification with Russia as homeland is quite low: identity is
“Russian” but not with Russia
Homeland by generation
•Figures significantly higher in the 2nd generation
Naturalisation


2007: 8.5% stateless
Most social & legal rights same (inc.
voting in local elections) but



Cannot vote in national elections
Cannot stand for election
Geographical and linguistic separation





Social exclusion
Rate of naturalisation slowed
EU saw increase; Schengen decrease
Approx. 4000 children under 15
years are stateless despite
simplified procedures
Most stateless residents wish to
become citizens but only around 20%
feel they have the language skills
Feeling part of the nation 2005-2007



Non-ethnic Estonians’ “yes”:
80% with citizenship, 59% noncitizens, 54% other citizenship
Legal belonging does not equal
social belonging
Distrust on part of ethnic
Estonians



Increased after April 2007
34% -ve/28% +ve increased
participation of non-ethnic
Estonian in politics
Russia’s compatriot policy:
ethnic Russians are part of
Russia’s sphere of interest

Increases fear of Estonians
Identification with Est. society
•Figures are quite high: potential for integration is high
Feeling of being welcome
•2nd generation
feels less
welcome (versus
more “Soviet”style belonging of
1st generation)
Discrimination
•Quite high but
reasonably moderate
Politics



Estonians uniformly critical of Soviet period
Non-ethnic Estonians tend to be for higher
levels of income
Majority of Russian-speakers support
(Estonian) Centre Party



Also supported by ethnic Estonians with
feelings of (economic) exclusion
2005 24/63 members elected in Tallinn
were Russian-speaking
“Their desire to distance themselves from
ethnic party politics gives us reason to
believe that the potential for the
development of multiethnic worldviewbased parties and a corresponding
electorate in Estonia is high [which] is
clearly more beneficial to [...] separation
along ethnic lines” (Lauristin et al 2008)
Language use
Language skills 1987-2007


Passive knowledge (fluent)
Estonians:


English 39-73%
Finnish 32-62%


Russian 88(23)-91(22)%


Both higher in younger grps
Significantly lower in younger
grps: more than half
youngest group cannot
understand Russian
Russian-speakers:


Estonian 42-83%
English 20-53%

Both higher in younger grps
Interethnic
language choices

Most use mixing strategy

BUT 30% Est only Est; 40% others only Rus





Overall Rus still more the lingua franca than Est
Half Rus over 45yrs use only Rus (continued Soviet mentality)
49% Rus say they have no problems communicating only in Rus
Max. Est only using Rus 8% (in oldest grp): decline of Soviet mentality
Growing shift towards Est, however: 45% of youngest Est grp uses
only Est
Use of Estonian in public


Use in last
month
General
increase
esp. so in
informal
areas but
also some
decline in
more formal
domains
Proficiency & acquisition behaviour
Name
Gender
Age
Estonian
citizen
Russian-speaking sub-sample
Mia
Female 22
Yes
Score
/10
Gaps in Proficiency
Acquistion Behaviour
7 or 8
*None reported
(states that not even
native-speakers
should received a
perfect score of ten)
Jill
Female
26
Yes
8
*Vocabulary
Emily
Female
22
Yes
9.5
*Accent
*Decided to attend an
Estonian language high
school
*Attended Estonianlanguage university
*Has Estonian friends
*Consumes Estonian
media
*Attended Estonianlanguage kindergarten
*Studied (Finnish) at
Estonian-language
university
*Has Estonian relatives
*Consumes Estonian
media
*Went to Estonian
kindergarten
*Able to consume Estonian
media but generally does
not
*Has Estonian friends
Public language choice
Name
Languages
spoken
Initial code choice when
interlocutor's language
is:
Unknown
Known
Russian-speaking sub-sample
Mia
RU, ET, EN Estonian/
Estonian/
Russian
Russian
Comments
Jill
RU, ET, FI,
EN
Checks name for ethnicity in public places; will
generally choose Russian in areas such as
Lasnamäe and Ida-Virumaa even for
“unknown”
Checks name for ethnicity in public places;
occasionally uses Finnish with colleagues
Emily
RU, ET, EN, Estonian/
Russian
DE, (FR),
(ES)
Estonian
Estonian/
Russian/
Finnish
Estonian/
Russian
Check name for ethnicity in public places;
occasionally insists on service in Russian,
especially in expensive locations
Normalised public usage?
“sometimes I want to be served in Russian [….] If I
go to a place where I know it’s a very… you
know, high quality” (Emily)
“Really I don’t understand that […] if I know that
my friends know Estonian but choose Russian […]
it’s not normal” (Mia)
“Ah, sometimes I don’t know is [the person]
Russian or Estonian so I start with Estonian of
course […] Because it is [the] state language”
(Jill)
Integrative value of Estonian
“I know what is happening around me.
Others, they live like in their own small
communities, like a small environment.
They don’t know language, they don’t care
about the country […] But they live poor
lives, they have miserable lives” (Emily)
“because if a Russian person doesn’t know
Estonian here, a young person, it’s not
normal, because all his life depends on
Estonian here…” (Mia)
National paradigm
“If we go to live in another country we definitely learn the
language […] I think [Estonians] are right. I mean, if
some Russian people in Estonia or wherever go to
France […] how would they live without French?” (Emily)
“Because it’s very funny, you try to go to Russia [and say]
you know now I think that the Arabian language is
better, let’s [make] this the state language. What
[would] Russians say? You know?” (Jill)
“because if you for example, you go to America […] and
you go to the shop and speak for example Chinese…”
(Jill)
Usefulness of Estonian




Knowledge of Est increases job
opportunities but 53% (&
increasing) Rus say it’s possible
to get a good job without it
Est useful but not necessary
Estonians aware of this
High (& increasing) % Est
believe that increase in Est skills
will solve ethnic problems

Increasing tendency to believe so
for Russian-speakers too
Threat of English

Under the age of 30:

Russian-speakers can speak Estonian & English



Estonians can speak English
Lingua franca is either thus Estonian or English



The increase has been the same since independence (approx. 100% for
both)
For all age groups: 10% Est & 5% Rus say they sometimes
use a 3rd language (mostly Eng)
43% Rus say it’s “normal” to speak English to Estonians
Overall Est still stronger than Eng among Russianspeakers

Even in Ida-Virumaa, according to 2000 census in no city was
the ability to speak Eng higher than Est: closest was 56% in
Sillamäe
Use of English


“I rang about a work issue and asked to be put through to the
accountant. The person who answered the phone couldn’t
speak a word of Estonian and as my Russian is poor we
couldn’t get by and after a few minutes she just hung up
without knowing what I wanted. As it was a hospital I find
this completely unacceptable. An hour later I rang back and
spoke English. The same woman said in Estonian in a
strong accent “oodake-oodake” [wait, wait] and gave the
phone to a man who could speak English who gave me
the accountant’s number. The accountant was also a
monolingual Russian so in the end I got help from a Russianspeaking colleague of mine”
Particular attention needs to be paid to Estonian acquisition
efforts in Ida-Virumaa
Changes in Estonian Russian

Post-independence changes in Rus spoken
in Estonia suggest integrative tendencies


Lexical & morphosyntactic changes specific to
Estonia (from Estonian)
e.g. stavit’ v golovu from pähe panema (put
to the head)

“impossible in monolingual Russian”: “[f]or a
monolingual speaker of Standard Russian […] the
meaning […] remains opaque” (Verschik, 2007, p.
91).
Use of Estonian in IT


While IT products
are available in
Estonian they are
not necessarily
used
Est usage is high
in searches, using
online services &
online
communication
Use of Estonian in IT

Estonians are more bothered by having to use
IT products/services in English than Russians
but younger age groups much less so

i.e. young Estonians are willing to use English
Education reform




From 2007/8 school year, at least one
subject must be taught in Estonian
Original plan to transfer all 2ndary
schooling to Estonian in 2003
More cautious approach
Aim now to teach 60% of subjects in
years 10-12 from 2011
Changing schooling tendencies

1999-2006



Est. 72%-78%
Rus. 28%-20%
2 tendencies
supporting Est:


Decreasing % of
Russian-speakers
Increasing
preference for
Estonian-medium
schools

1/6 students in Est
schools
Media



1/5 reg follow Est media
Local Rus lang press & radio
popular
But no TV: Baltic version of
Russian national channel
based in Riga: 20min Est.
news per day




New state-funded cable channel
with more Rus programming
Otherwise TV programming
from Russia
Need for local Rus TV channel
60% Rus trust Est produced
media vs 38% produced in
Moscow
Võro Kiil



Although Võro language is taught & spoken in SE Estonia…
“regional identity is effectively marginalized in Estonian
education” (Brown, 2005, p.79) because of a focus on (1)
national and (2) European identities
“schools today utilize physical and social space to glorify
Europeanness and qualities of Estonian nationalism” (p. 82)


European identity as an expression of national identity: “it unites us all
as Europeans, as Estonians” (Maahla teacher, p. 83)
“the vitality of the nation is expressed through the vitality of
the national language. In this ideology there is little room for
the study of regional languages” (p. 84)

Võro relegated to “dialect” status in school textbook: “The Estonian people
can be considered lucky that one standard language manage to be
developed. If the small nation had been fragmented on the basis of two
standard languages, this could have presented a danger to both languages
and the vitality of the nation” (Õunpuu & Õunpuu in Brown, p. 84)
Future perspectives
Proposed new language law



Emphasis on purism, correctness of usage
including fines for incorrect use in the
media (now dropped)
Business names would need to include
Estonian e.g. Pank Swedbank
“the cornerstone of everything is the
status of the Estonian language, that’s
why I can’t be satisfied with the new draft
policy” (Mart Rannut)
Purist discourse


“Here we’ve got, for example, Russians, Ukrainians who
speak Estonian their own way. The mistakes will spread
and get stronger. As result of our country’s integration
policy, the language will become unrecognisable. From a
language protection perspective, the best thing would
not to have integration—Russians would speak their own
language and Estonians would speak Estonian amongst
themselves, without dealing with each other” (Urmas
Sutrop, Director, Estonian Language Institute, 2008)
BUT impossible not to deal with each other: interaction
will occur; the question is will it be in Estonian or
English
Analytical Framework

Historical-Structural Approach (Tollefson, 1991)

“Neo-Classical” vs. “Historical-Structural”


Focus on individual (as autonomous) vs. focus on discursive
environment
“[i]n contrast to the neoclassical model [it] assumes that the
primary goal of research and analysis is to discover the historical
and structural pressures that lead to particular policies and plans
and that constrain individual choice” (p. 32)


Behaviour is produced and constrained within a network of social
relations (discourse), but not predetermined by it
Cf. Foucault (1978): Power is not possessed “or appropriated as a
commodity or a piece of wealth [but rather] is exercised through a
net-like organisation […] [I]ndividuals circulate between its threads
[and] are always in the position of simultaneously undergoing and
exercising this power” (1980, p. 98).
Critical LP & Estonia

Understanding present (attitudes towards)
language use in Estonia:

Estonians operating within nation-state discursive
framework


Annexation was always occupation; Soviet identity was myth
(Esp. older) Russian-speakers operating within Soviet
discursive framework


Estonia was part of Soviet state; not immigrants; Soviet
identity had meaning
Rather than seeing Rus. as “lazy” or “unmotivated” need to
understand why they behave the way they do to be able to
promote integration & acquisition of Estonian
Where does this leave us?

(Partial) ecological approach:




Knowledge within language is valuable (e.g. Nettle
and Romaine [2000])
Need to maintain diversity
Doing different languages e.g. “Estonian”, “Võro”,
“Estonian Russian” is worthy of promotion, protection
Queer Theory/Poststructuralism

Need to make Estonianness a queerer, more inclusive
identity (i.e. poststructuralist approach) to achieve
more equitable outcomes for a wider proportion of
Estonian society
Summary of future perspectives

Growing proportion of ethnic Estonians hopefully offset postcolonial
fears & defensive attitude

Still need for more inclusive concept of Estonianness, acceptance of
diversity


Need for removal of barriers to social & economic advancement esp. in
Ida-Virumaa, fostering a discourse of mutual trust & respect




Bronze Soldier events externalised: caused by Russian policies & actors
Positive potential for political integration
Estonian Language Development Plan 2011-2017
Changing ethnodemographics mean greater usefulness of Estonian
in society (plus increased status: education & national paradigm)
but Ida Virumaa will remain largely monolingual for the foreseeable
future and needs closer attention to the specific needs of the region
Great potential for integration on the basis of the Estonian
language but problems of exclusion & isolation remain
Gràcies
Aitäh
Thanks
d.skerrett@uq.edu.au