Estonian is also one of the official languages of the European Union
Throughout its history, Estonia has been under Danish, Swedish, Teutonic, and Russian rule. In 1721, Estonia became part of the Russian Empire, at which time Russian was declared the official language. During World War II, Estonia was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 and subsequently occupied by Germany until 1944. Under Soviet rule, Estonia experienced another period of Russification until its independence in 1990, just as Estonian became the national language.
Status
Currently, Estonian is spoken by over 1 million people in the Republic of Estonia. Additionally, it is spoken by another 100,000 people in Australia, Canada, Finland, Latvia, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Estonian is the official language of the Republic of Estonia and one of the official languages of the European Union. Standard Estonian is used and accepted at all levels of society. After the collapse of the USSR, Estonia became an independent republic, and although Russian is still widely spoken as a second language, Estonian is taught in schools, and proficiency in Estonian is a requirement for citizenship. And do not be surprised if your Estonian colleagues require you to translate a supply contract into English at the very least.
Dialects
Estonian has two main dialects.
• Northern Estonian, based on the dialect of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.
• Southern Estonian, based on the dialect of Tartu, the second largest city in Estonia.
Structure
Sound system. In general, the sound system of Estonian is similar to that of Finnish. The language is rich in vowels and relatively poor in consonants.
Vowels. Estonian has 9 vowel phonemes, each of which can be used with three different lengths: short, long, and overlong. Short and long vowels are distinguished by relative duration, while so-called overlong vowels are distinguished by tonal contour.
In writing, long vowels are represented by doubling, but overlong vowels are not distinguished at all. There is a contrast between some rounded and unrounded front and back vowels. In addition, Estonian has 19 diphthongs.
To enjoy working and living in Estonia, it is not at all necessary to learn Estonian. Throughout Estonia, you will find people who want and can speak to you in various languages. English, Finnish, and Russian are the most common languages, but many people also speak French, German, or Swedish.
Estonian has no gender and no future tense form – the language lacks the concept of grammatical gender and future tense. Nevertheless, it has 14 cases for nouns. You win something, you lose something, as they say.
Estonian is intriguingly different from the most common European languages. It belongs to the small Finno-Ugric language group and is indeed quite difficult to learn. Estonian is also related to Finnish and Hungarian.
Many people actually learn Estonian for personal development. You will make quick progress once you understand the basics of the language. We can promise you that every step on the path of language learning will be amazing.
Think of Estonian as an elvish language with a remarkable, almost Japanese style.