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The Estonian Language belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family and to the Baltic-Finnic subfamily. Estonian's daughter languages include Votic and Livonian .

Estonian Alphabet :
Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Qq, Rr, Ss, Šš, Zz, Žž, Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww, Õõ, Ää, Öö, Üü, Xx, Yy

Unlike many other languages, Estonian lacks grammatical Gender .


CASES


Estonian has 14 noun Cases (Here, the word "auto" (car) is declined in 14 cases and in singular and plural):

Estonian lacks the Accusative case. In its place, nominative, genitive, or partitive is used.

It is possible for certain Estonian words to also have a short illative form. For example, instead of majasse (into a house), which is the long form, one would say majja (the short form).


RõHK (STRESS)

Native Estonian words and adapted Loanwords have stress on the first Syllable . More recent loanwords will have stress on the same syllable as the word in the language from which it came.


PHONEME LENGTH


Length is phonemic in the Estonian language. There are three phonemic durations, known in Estonian as lühike (short), pikk (long), and ülipikk (overlong). The following table illustrates the written forms of each length of each sound.













































I välde
II välde
III välde

h, l, m, n, r, s, a, e, i, o, u, õ, ä, ö, ü
hh, ll, mm, nn, rr, ss, aa, ee, ii, oo, uu, õõ, ää, öö, üü
hh, ll, mm, nn, rr, ss, aa, ee, ii, oo, uu, õõ, ää, öö, üü

''ahi, ka'''l'''a, a'''s'''i, ku'''r'''i''
''tsehhid, ka'''ll'''ata, ka'''ss'''a, k'''uu'''rid''

h - after a long vowel or diphthong (''stiihiline, psüühiline'')
''tsehhide, ka'''ll'''ama, ka'''ss'''e, k'''uu'''ride''

h - after an overlong vowel or a diphthong (''stiihia'')

b, d, g

''kabi, sa'''d'''u, ma'''g'''ab''
p, t, k

''kapid, nu'''t'''ab, lu'''k'''ud''
pp, tt, kk

''kappide, nu'''tt'''a, lu'''kk'''e''

p, t, k - After a long vowel, overlong vowel, or diphthong (''too'''p'''i, lau'''t'''a, kõi'''k'''i'')

-
f, š

''šefid, tu'''š'''iga''
ff, šš

''šeffe, tu'''šš'''idega''

f, š - After a long vowel, overlong vowel, or diphthong (''sei'''f'''e, telegraa'''f'''i'' (partitive case))

j

''maja, oja''
-
jj

''majja, ojja''

v

''kivi, kava''
-
vv

''kivvi, kavva''


  • '''Exception''. In some single-syllable words, long or overlong is marked with only one letter. For example : ''ma, sa, ta, me, te, nad; mul, sul, tal; mus, sus, tas'' etc.; ''kel, sel, mil, tol, kes, kus, mis'' etc.; ''et, ja, ka, ju; oh, ah, jah, noh, säh, kah, aitäh, tohoh'' etc.




""Remark"". To elaborate, there is a new phoneme spelling theory, whose fundamental concepts are that phonemes have two lengths: short and long.


WORD LENGTH AND GRADATION


Familiarity with word length and gradation underlies the processes of declension and conjugation.


Medial Word Sounds


The medial sound of a word is after the first vowel of the stressed syllable until the first vowel of the following syllable (barring the last). In Estonian, the primary stress always lies on the first syllable, but in foreign words the stress may lie on a following syllable. Medial word sounds do not take into account noun and verb endings, or the affixes -gi and -ki.

Word Length


Word length depends on the length of the medial word sounds.

:The word is I vältes (in the first length), if all of its medial sounds are in the first length, or if the medial sounds consist of a short vowel and its following consonant. (v'''il'''u, s'''ad'''ama)

:The word is II vältes (in the second length), if there is some vowel in the second length or group of sounds, but not one is in the third length. (l'''ip'''ud, s'''õbr'''ad)

:The word is III vältes (in the third length), if in the medial sounds there is some sound or combination of sounds in the third length, or if the word is single-syllable. (l'''ipp'''ude, s'''õpr'''u)


Astmevaheldus (Gradation)


Astmevahelduseks (Gradation) is the change of medial word sounds in the processes of declension and conjugation. (lipp - lipu, luba - loa; sadama - sajab). Gradation is divided into quantitative and qualitative changes.

Vältevahelduse (quantitative changes) In this case, the length of the medial sounds of the word changes. (the second length alternates with the third). The second-length form is read weakly, while the third length form is read in the strong grade: ''pind'' (1 syllable => 3rd level, strong grade) - ''pinnu'' (2nd level, weak grade).

""Laadivahelduse (qualitative changes)"" In this case, some medial word sounds disappear or change into some other sound - the sounds ""g, b, d, s"" and ""k, t"" in the combination "sk, hk" and "nt" disappear or give place to some other sound. The form where the sound undergoing gradation is present is the strong one. The form where the changing sound is lacking, or has given way to some other sound, is the weak form, irrespective of word length, such as in the following example. "Lugu" (tale), is in the strong form, as the g is present. However, "loo" (of the tale; lugu in the genitive case), is in the weak form, because the g is now absent.

In singular nouns, the nominative, genitive, and with need partitive cases are differentiated based on their gradation patterns. It is also used in the 1st person indicative present and -da form of verbs.

Gradation does not include:
  • Consonant lengthening in the short form of the singular illative and in the "-da" verb form (eg, pesa - pessa, tulema, tulla).

  • The change of "n" to "s" at the end of a noun (eg, teine - teise).

  • The change of "d" in the singular partitive (eg, tuld, merd, und).

  • The change and switching of vowels in words in the same class as "number" (eg, number - numbri, vanker - vankri).


If the medial sounds of a word in the processes of declension or conjugation do not change, that word does not have gradation.




TäHEORTOGRAAFIA (SPELLING)


g, b, d, k, p, t
  • At the beginning of a word that is either native Estonian or an old loanword, it is written "k, p, t". In foreign words, it is written as it appears in the original language, perhaps with "g, b, d".

  • Inside a word, it is written aside unvoiced sounds as "k,p,t". This also arises with the affixes "'-gi"' and "'-ki"': "-ki" is used with words that end in voiceless sounds, and "-gi" is used with words that end in voiced sounds." (eg, haabki, sangki, šeffki, mahlgi, vihmgi, krohvgi)

  • As an exception, "g, b, d" can be used next to voiceless sounds in compound words (''umbkaudu, raudtee''), in front of compounds (''leibkond, jalgsi, üldse''), in the changing forms of the same word (''kärbes - kärbsed; moodne - moodsa; kündma - kündsid, kündku''), and in foreign words.




i, j
  • At the beginning of a syllable, "j" is written and at the end, "i" is written. The exception is the short form of the illative in words where the doubled consonant is "j," such as "maja," which changes to "majja."

  • "i" is not written following "ü", although it is pronounced in words like "süüa, müüakse, püüa, hüüu," and "püüu." Exceptions are loanwords such as "rüiu" and "süit."

  • "ü" and "i" following is written "j" only in agent nouns with the "-ja" affix, such as "müüja," or "viija."




'''Sound Combinations''



  • In a sound combination, each sound is written with one letter. An exception is when a long "s" is next to "l, m, n, r," which is written with two letters, if it doesnt come after a related sound. Examples include "valss, simss, seanss, reveranss," and "kirss."

  • The word root is written as if it would be without an ending:

  • --- inside the "-gi" and "-ki"

  • --- within endings which end with the same letter with which the stem ends (eg, ''portugallane, modernne, komplekssed'');

  • ---in compound words(eg ''keskkool, plekkkatus'');

  • --- in the ''nud''-verb form (eg ''veennud, möönnud'').





Syllabification and Hyphenation


''Syllabification'''
  • A lone consonant between vowels belongs to the following syllable: ''ka-la, tu-ba, mi-da-gi'';

  • The last consonant of a consonant cluster belongs to the following syllable: ''kur-vad, mürts-ti'';

  • A long or overlong vowel, or diphthong, usually belongs in one syllable: ''suu-bu-ma, toe'';

  • --- If the border of the word stem occurs between two vowels, then they belong to separate syllables: ''ava-us'' (''-us'' is a derivational affix);

  • With three sequential vowels, the last belongs to a second syllable: ''põu-a-ne, kau-a'';

  • Compound words are syllabified separately: ''liit-sõ-na, va-na-e-ma'';

  • Foreign words are syllabified like a native Estonian word: ''bar-rel, muu-se-um, o-aas''

  • Compound foreign words are syllabified either:

  • --- as a simple word: ''fo-to-graaf'';

  • --- or as a compound word: ''fo-tog-raaf'';

  • --- It is recommended to syllabify foreign word compounds separately: ''sub-troo-pi-ka, mo-no-gramm''




Hyphenation
The same rules apply as for syllabification, except:
  • A single letter is not left at the end of a row or at the beginning of a new row. (''onu, saia'' aga ''põua-ne'' ehk ''põu-ane'')