One of the most striking features of South Estonian among other Finnic languages is the occurrence of the glottal stop /Ê/ as a phoneme, which in modern Võro and Lutsi orthographies is represented by the letter q. While the other grammatical and lexical functions of /Ê/ are shared amongst the South Estonian varieties, the distribution of the glottal stop in the lative forms varies across dialects, caused by the conservative nature of Lutsi and Kraasna, and the innovations in the western subdialects of Võro. This article examines the occurrence of the glottal stop /Ê/ at the end of the lative forms manoq ~ mano âtowardsâ and kuuq ~ kodoq ~ kodoâ(towards) homeâ, adverbialised illative and allative forms mahaq ~ maaha âdownwardsâ, pääleq ~ pääle âontoâ, and at the end of illative forms in Leivu South Estonian and the Hargla subdialect of Võro. This study combines qualitative historical analysis with synchronous quantitative analysis.
The purpose of this scholarly investigation is to present the origins of Karelian-language dialectisms that denote women. The scientific novelty of this research lies in the identification of semantic-motivational principles underlying the nomination of women, based on lexical materials. As a result of the study, 29 dialectisms denoting women and having diverse origins were identified. Among the identified lexical units are names of various origins: both belonging to the Baltic-Finnic heritage and Slavic loanwords. From a word-formation perspective, denominal, deverbal, and composite nouns are distinguished. The motivational aspects identified include a woman's appearance, her lack of family, personality traits, nationality, age, and others. Zoometaphors, onomatopoeic names, and metaphorical substitutions are traced within the thematic group.
This is the second part of the paper published in the opening issue of the journal in 2025, it examines the phonetic and word-formation features of the most reliable linguistic data from the extinct Finno-Ugric varieties once spoken in the Historical Meryan Lands (HML), together with their closest parallels in the Volga-Finnic languages. A historical-phonetic and word-formation analysis of the material supports the earlier conclusion that the linguistic landscape of the HML prior to Russian settlement did not consist of a single language, but of several Finno‑Ugric dialects or languages. The lexical, phonetic and word-formation features observed correspond broadly to those found across the Volga-Finnic branch (Finnic, Mordvin, Mari, and to a lesser extent Saami). Distinct isoglosses can be identified and contrasted, and they represent not merely dialectal but, in many cases, linguistic divisions within the Volga-Finnic continuum. At the same time, these isoglosses intersect in different ways, indicating a linguistic situation far more complex than the recently proposed tripartite division into “Rostov”, “Kostroma” and “Murom” Meryan dialects. The material analysed demonstrates that the hypothesised “language of the Merya and Muroma” cannot be genetically aligned with any of the known Volga‑Finnic languages. The most plausible scenario is that the substrate Volga-Finnic languages of the HML represent independent offshoots of a broader Proto-Volga-Finnic community. Some of these varieties were in close contact with Finnic and Mordvin languages, while others developed affinities with Proto-Mari or Proto-Saami. The article further suggests that the ethnonym *märə may have been used in its original form by the indigenous Volga-Finnic population during the period of the Gorodets culture (second half of the first millennium AD ), in a manner comparable (albeit only typologically) to the emergence of the ethnonym *rus’ among the Eastern Slavs. The phonetic features reconstructed for the Volga-Finnic varieties of the HML are consistent with the derivation of the ethnonyms Merya, Mari and Muroma from this original märə form.
The development of written Estonian during the early national awakening period through the lens of literary translations
This article explores the development of written Estonian during the early national awakening period, with a focus on the mid-19th century, as reflected in literary translations. The language reform process involved a transition from the old orthography to a new one, reducing dialectal differences, and enriching the vocabulary. Translated texts played a central role in this process. By broadening readers’ worldview with new concepts and ideas, and introducing language innovations in an appealing and engaging context, translations from the early national awakening period significantly contributed to the evolution of written Estonian. The article highlights examples from the works of translators who are now largely forgotten, such as Berend Gildenmann, Heinrich Nieländer, and Aleksander Umblia, alongside texts by key figures of the early Estonian national awakening, including Johann Voldemar Jannsen, Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, and Friedrich Nikolai Russow.
During the mid-19th century, the majority of Estonian-language literature comprised translations from German folk literature, adapted to suit the needs and knowledge levels of Estonian-speaking audiences. Translators often added explanations, introduced new words, expanded the existing vocabulary, and included notes that provided cultural and geographical context. Faithfulness to the original source text was not a priority; texts could be abridged, expanded, or annotated as needed. Thus, Estonian translations of popular books, such as Kreutzwald’s Reinowadder Rebbane (1850) and Kilplaste imewärklikud, wäga kentsakad, maa-ilmas kuulmata ja tännini veel üleskirjutamata jutud ja teud (1857), heavily adapted European literary heritage. These and other literary translations helped cultivate reading habits among the Estonian people, establish a book market, and lay the foundation for the emerging tradition of original Estonian literature as a cultural and communal phenomenon.
The article also examines the historical context of the 19th-century standardization of written Estonian and its links to broader social and cultural changes, such as ideological disagreements between Baltic German and Estonian intellectuals and the bilingualism of educated Estonians. It discusses the attitudes of translators towards the language reform as well as the debates and perceptions surrounding translation as a cultural process.
The old written Estonian feminine suffix -ik and its reflection in dialect dictionaries
This article examines the feminine function of the polysemous Estonian suffix –ik. The feminine function of this suffix is documented in numerous sources of old written Estonian and, due to its Proto-Finnic origins (diminutive suffix *-(i)kkoi̯), in studies of other Finnic languages. As a marker of feminine gender, the suffix was primarily used in ethnonyms (e.g., saksik ‘German woman’), but also appeared in broader contexts, such as hõimik ‘female relative’. These derivatives often carried a pejorative connotation, as seen in the following example from Hornung’s grammar: Saksik ein teutsch Weib / Rootsik ein Schwedisch Weib per contemptum dicuntur ‘Saksik a German woman / Rootsik a Swedish woman, said with contempt’. Although the suffix no longer functions as a feminine marker in contemporary Estonian, traces of its earlier usage persist in the word noorik (‘newly married woman’ < noor ‘young’) and in cow names (Mustik < must ‘black’).
In Estonian linguistics, the feminine suffix –ik has primarily been regarded as a distinctive feature of South Estonian. However, an analysis of 12 examples from the dialect dictionaries of the Institute of the Estonian Language reveals that this suffix was used to mark feminine gender throughout the entire Estonian language area. According to our data, two of the examined words appear exclusively in non-southern dialects: kepsik ‘girl with loose morals’ < keps ‘leg’, kepslema ‘to prance’ and naisik ‘immoral woman, mother of an illegitimate child’ < naine ‘woman’. Derivatives found in both southern and non-southern dialects are lehmik ‘promiscuous girl’ < lehm ‘cow’; väitsik ‘little girl’; pordik ‘immoral woman’ < pordu-, a root denoting sexual immorality; noorik ‘newly married young woman’ < noor ‘young’; and kaasik ‘female wedding singer, companion of the bride’ < kaas– ‘co-’. Derivatives found exclusively in southern dialects are latsik < lats ‘child’; välgik < välk, väle ‘swift’; edvik ‘flirtatious girl’ < edeve ‘vain’; lupsik ‘disparaging term for a woman’; and hatik ‘flirtatious girl’ < hatt ‘bitch, female dog’.
It is evident that the use of the suffix –ik as a feminine marker is not limited to South Estonian but spans across dialects, suggesting that the suffix was a widespread linguistic feature. Moreover, the frequent association of femininity with pejoration in the analyzed derivatives indicates that pejoration is a recurring feature of the feminine suffix -ik.
From ning to ja and beyond
This article examines the occurrence and functional distribution of the linguistic units ja and ning (‘and’) in early written Estonian texts. In modern Estonian, ja and ning are high-frequency synonymous coordinating conjunctions, whose functions have been described in previous linguistic studies and subjected to prescriptive language regulation. The corpus-based study reveals that while the conjunction ning appears in the oldest preserved texts, evidence of the reinterpretation of the affirmative response particle ja(a) as a conjunction can already be found in early 17th-century texts. Based on the preserved sources of written Estonian, it is evident that the contact-induced particle ja occurs in (inter)subjective contexts, not only in an affirmative function but also in a connective one (jaa > ja). This represents a rare developmental pathway for conjunctions: a contact-induced particle (ja) evolving into a conjunction. This process demonstrates a transition from pragmatics to grammar.
Previous studies suggest that the more common developmental path involves the opposite direction: a conjunction evolving into a particle. However, such an exceptional pathway becomes possible when the contact-induced linguistic unit possesses a suitable phonological structure and meaning. Although the particle functions of ja – affirmative, emphatic, and concordant – also exist in German, the conjunction function develops only in Estonian. The entrenchment of the conjunction ja was further supported by deliberate decisions made during the ecclesiastical reforms of written language in the late 17th century, as well as by the authority of the 1739 Estonian Bible.
The emphatic function of the particle ja – conveying meanings ‘indeed, surely’ and derived from German – also appears in 17th-century texts, albeit rarely. This represents a secondary branch of functional development influenced by language contact. However, the development of the conjunction ja is primarily linked to the reinterpretation of the affirmative particle jaa, as evidenced by numerous bridging constructions in texts from the early 17th century onward. The emphatic and affirmative functions connect ja as both an affirmative response particle (jaa) and as an emphatic particle (‘ju’). The decline of emphatic usage and the increased positioning of ja in sentence-internal connective roles led to its preference as a neutral coordinative conjunction from the 18th century onward.
A distinction between Northern and Southern Estonian usage lies in the fact that Southern Estonian texts overwhelmingly favour the conjunction ning until the late 18th century. The affirmative response particle jaa emerges in Southern Estonian texts only in the second half of the 18th century. The emphatic use of ja in the sense of ‘indeed, surely’ is also rare in written Southern Estonian. Consequently, the development of ja into a conjunction occurs earlier and more rapidly in Northern Estonian texts compared to Southern Estonian ones.
Although Estonian written languages had existed since at least the first half of the 17th century, for a long time they were not used by native speakers either as writers or as readers. It was only with the arrival of the Moravian Brethren movement that a new attitude toward the written word emerged, making it easier for both writers and readers to adopt Estonian as a written language – previously perceived mainly as an instrument of colonization. The origins of Estonian narrative literature lie in the Moravian movement. On the initiative of the Brethren in Urvaste, the first Estonian-language storybook intended for an Estonian readership was published in 1737: the South Estonian Kolm kaunist Waggausse Eenkojut (“Three Beautiful Examples of Piety”), written by the local pastor Johann Christian Quandt. The book contained three stories: the lives of the shepherd Henning Kuuse, the small craftsman Jörgel, and the maiden Armelle Nikolas.
This work introduced into Estonian literature a new kind of narrative scheme – the life story or conversion narrative – in which the central event was an awakening: through the impact of a certain experience, a person re-evaluates their former life and embarks on a new, transformed life in Christ. The protagonists were people of humble origin with whom the Estonian reader could easily identify. The literary-historical value of the collection lies in its recognition of emotional life and in its search for new stylistic means to express it – in other words, in the development of a literary language.
The awakening narrative model proved remarkably durable, offering a model for depicting human destiny even outside a strictly religious teleology. In the first half of the 19th century, during a new wave of devotional literature in Estonian and Latvian writing, pietistic religiosity was fused with sentimentalism, and biblical stories were interwoven with traditional (hagiographic) legends and literary narrative plots. For example, the fate of Genoveva, daughter of the King of Brabant, is presented in line with the pietistic life-story model, though the heroine’s transformation stems not from an inner awakening but from external circumstances. Sentimentalist stories appealed to the reader’s compassion and touched the heart, often proving more persuasive than the competing popular-educational storybooks that conveyed rationalist teachings and promoted a hierarchical view of the world order. The pietistic-sentimentalist narrative carried a more democratic message: those who follow their hearts attain salvation – at least in the world to come – and before the law of the heart all people are equal.
This article presents a new or more elaborate etymological interpretation for the words kurn âa clutch of eggs; broodâ, pugi âgust of windâ, putitama âto repair, to put (something in working orderâ, riis ânet bag; fishing gearâ, and ruhimik âa cupped handful, gathered handsâ. kurn : kurn âbrood; clutch of eggs; (in dialects) group, gangâ. kurn is a South Estonian word but has also been reported from Virumaa and the shores of Lake Peipus. It is assumed that kurn derives from the Russian dialect word гÑÌÑма meaning âcrowd, throng, gang, herdâ, comparable to Ukrainian and Belorussian гÑÑÐ¼Ð°Ì id. This East Slavic word is considered a borrowing from Polish hurm, hurma âcrowd, large number, pileâ. The word kurn is characterized by a sporadic alternation rm ~ rn within the root, which, as a cross-borrowing via Estonian appears in Latvian dialects: kùrms, kurÌmiÅa âcrowd, herdâ. pugi : pugi âstrong gust of windâ. The word is recorded only in Western Saaremaa. It is assumed that this word for wind either came directly from Livonian (cf. Livonian pÅ«âgÉÌ: tÅ«lÌ pÅ«âgub âthe wind blowsâ) or through Latvian (cf. Latvian dialect pÅ«ga âgusty windâ) as a cross-borrowing, or that it was phonetically influenced by these corresponding terms in the mentioned languages. putitama : putitada âto repair, to set in orderâ. It is presumed to be a Soviet-era borrowing from the Russian polysemous verb бÑÌÑиÌÑÑ âto beat, pound, thump, to sound dullyâ. The Estonian dialect verb putÌtima âto fill gaps between masonry stones with mortarâ also derives from the Russian verb бÑÑиÌÑÑ âto fill a hole, trench with stones and earthâ, representing an earlier loan into Estonian dialects. riis : riisi ânet bag; manually operated fishing netâ. This word is widespread in Saaremaa, Mulgimaa, and the eastern part of the Võru dialect area, and has close equivalents in Votic riisi â(net) wingâ and Finnish dialect riisi âcoastal seineâ. It is assumed that riis is a re-borrowing from the Estonian rüsa word via the Russian dialect (Pskov region) loan base ÑиÌÑа, ÑиÌÑÑ (plural) or Ñизâfish trapâ. ruhimik : ruhimik âcupped handfulâ is a South Estonian word, marked by considerable variability both in the root (ruhi) and in suffixes. There are no etymological counterparts in other Finnic languages. I assume that ruhi- and related forms (< *ruhi < *rukÅ¡eÌ®) are cognates of the Erzya word rukÅ¡na, ruÅ¡na, ruÅ¡Åa âpalm, cupped handâ < rukÅ¡Ç, with -na (-Åa) being a nominal suffix. Artiklis esitatakse uus või täpsustatud etümoloogiline tõlgendus sõnadele kurn âhaudumise jagu mune; pesakondâ, pugi âtuulepuhangâ, putitama âremontima, (töö)korda seadmaâ, riis âvõrkkott; kalapüügivahendâ ja ruhimik âkamal, kokkupandud peodâ.
The variation in the case forms of the indefinite pronoun keegi ‘someone’ in written Estonian
There is variation in the case forms of the indefinite pronouns keegi ‘someone’, miski ‘something’, kumbki ‘either’ and ükski ‘none’ in Estonian. In these pronouns, -gi/-ki can appear after the case ending (e.g., kellelegi), as specified in the standard language norm; before the case ending (e.g., kellegile); between two case endings (e.g., kellelegile); or both before and after the case ending (e.g., kellegilegi).
In this article, I used data from the Estonian National Corpus 2021 to provide an overview of the extent of variation in the case forms of keegi, miski, kumbki and ükski, and to describe the factors influencing the variation in the case forms of the pronoun keegi. The results indicate that for all four pronouns, -gi/-ki is most commonly placed after the case ending, accounting for 85.3% of all occurrences. The second most common forms are those where -gi/-ki precedes the case ending, making up 14.1% of occurrences.
A univariate analysis conducted to identify the factors influencing this variation showed that genre, the occurrence of the pronoun as an attribute, and the function of the pronoun in a clause significantly influenced the variation of case forms. A multivariate analysis indicated that genre – and, consequently, the impact of editing – was most strongly associated with the variation. In genres such as blogs and periodicals, which are typically edited, -gi/-ki is predominantly placed after the case ending. Conversely, in forums, which are often unedited, it is more common for -gi/-ki to appear before the case ending, between two case endings, or both before and after the case ending.
In the early decades of the 20th century, Johannes Aavik proposed enriching the vocabulary of the Estonian literary language by incorporating both the southern Estonian dialect-derived kuhtuma ‘to become weak or feeble, to tire; to fade away, to wane; to extinguish; to wither, to wilt; to pale, to grow pale’, as well as the Finnish borrowing kuihtuma ‘to wilt, to dry up (plants, flowers)’. The article briefly touches on how these words have since fared and then delves into their possible origins. The verb kuhtuma lacks a satisfactory etymology so far: the explanation that the verb is irregularly derived from the word kuiv ‘dry’ is not convincing. The article suggests that the verb kuhtuma has a phonetically and semantically suitable etymological counterpart in the Mordvinic root *koštV-, which is associated with, for example, Erzya koštams ~ kovštams, Moksha kožftams ‘to dry, to harden (for a short while); to become (somewhat, partly) drier, to harden’, etc. There are examples in the Baltic-Finnic-Volga common vocabulary that credibly confirm the possibility of such phonetic correspondence. The article considers one possible evolution, where Finnish kuihtua (> Estonian kuihtuma) and Karelian kuihtuo ‘to wither, to dry up; to shrivel, to wizen’ are a contamination of the verbs *kuhtua and Finnish kujua, Karelian kujuo ‘to ail, to be ill, to ache, to languish, to wither, to wilt’.
The name(s) Kuningamäe
This article examines Estonian place names containing the term kuningas ‘king’. The earliest records of Kuninga-names date back to the 16th century. The Place Names Archive of the Institute of the Estonian Language lists more than 200 place names beginning with Kuning(a)-. By comparison, terms denoting other noble ranks are significantly less common: there are 86 names starting with krahv ‘count’, 43 with parun ‘baron’, 29 each with keiser ‘emperor’ and prints ‘prince’, four with vürst ‘prince’ (from the German Würst), and one with hertsog ‘duke’.
Kuningamäe is a typical Estonian compound place name, composed of kuningas : kuninga ‘king’ + mägi : mäe ‘hill, mountain’. One instance of Kuningamäe is a translation of the German Königsberg, referring to a village near Põltsamaa. Notably, the renowned Königsberg of East Prussia was not translated into Estonian; the German name was retained instead. When Poland reverted the name Kaliningrad to its historical Polish equivalent Królewiec, a parallel debate arose in Estonia. However, Estonia lacks a formal mechanism for standardizing foreign names. Instead, the writing of foreign place names in Estonian is largely guided by the dictionary of standard Estonian.
The act of naming is often more than linguistic; it can reflect political, cultural, historical, and societal considerations. This interplay makes it a rich area of study within socio-onomastics.
The literary works of the 19th-century Italian poet and philosopher Giacomo Leopardi (1798–1836) have been available in Estonian for years. Less familiar, however, is the poetics of the vague and indefinite (Italian: poetica del vago e dell’indefinito) developed in his notebook “Zibaldone”. This concept forms the philosophical core and essence of his artistic creation. By centring his poetics around the conflict between the finiteness of the physical world and the human yearning for infinity, Leopardi proposes substituting the non-existent physical infinity with indefiniteness. By limiting sensory perception, indefiniteness – or vagueness – stimulates the imagination and creates the illusion of infinity, satisfying human desires for pleasure and leading people through delightful mental journeys to a state of mind in whose description Leopardi sees one of the most crucial functions of literature and art. The theoretical explanatory potential of Leopardi’s poetics extends beyond his own works and era, providing a framework that can broaden the interpretive possibilities of contemporary Estonian literature. Using a comparative approach, this article examines the motif of windows through Leopardi’s poetics in Tõnu Õnnepalu’s / Emil Tode’s novel “Border State” (Piiririik, 1993) and Jan Kaus’s notebook “View” (Vaade, 2022). In these works, windows are depicted as memory images that embody poetic elements of indefiniteness, such as frames, duskiness, night, silence, roads disappearing into the distance, the sky, the horizon, and so on. As central elements in the narrators’ self-definition, these windows play a crucial role both in content and composition, structuring the fragmented, introspective narrative without a stable timeline in “Border State” and linking the self-narrative thread in “View”. The appearance of similar windows in other works allows the observations made in the article to be applied to other texts by Õnnepalu and Kaus, facilitating a broader discussion of indefiniteness in their poetics.
Liina Lindström, Maarja-Liisa Pilvik, Helen Plado
et al.
"Võro and Seto language shift in the 20th–21st century: An irreversible process?" This article approaches the endangerment status of Võro and Seto from two main aspects: intergenerational language transmission and language teaching in schools. Despite the revitalisation efforts for Võro and Seto beginning 35 years ago, their overall situation has not seen significant improvement. Currently, there are very few children growing up in a Võro/Seto speaking home.
In our survey, we focused on the mechanisms of intergenerational language transmission. This included identifying from whom different generations acquired their Võro/Seto proficiency and how many have passed the language on to their children. We also investigated experiences and attitudes towards learning the Võro/Seto language in schools. A total of 660 individuals with Võro/Seto roots responded to the survey.
The results indicate a steady language shift from Võro/Seto to Estonian since the 1960s. Võro and Seto have been relegated to the status of “granny languages”, with inconsistent usage resulting in partial acquisition and insufficient transmission to the next generation. Consequently, the role of kindergartens and schools in language learning is becoming increasingly important. However, current efforts have not been adequate to ensure sufficient proficiency among learners.
Commentary on the survey revealed that the Võro/Seto language shift is mainly driven by a widespread negative attitude towards local languages, favouring the use of Standard Estonian. The shift to Estonian is for the most part a voluntary process, motivated by the speakers’ perceived inferiority (stemming from low prestige and limited domains of use for Võro/Seto) and a wish to provide a better future for their children. Reversing this process without state support is very difficult. Nonetheless, the majority of respondents expressed a need to protect the Võro/Seto language and supported its teaching in schools.
This article looks at contemporary accounts of encounters with physically aggressive supernatural beings, set against the backdrop of traditional personal experience narratives (collected up to the first half of the 20th century) describing similar encounters. Analyzing the impact of trends in modern spiritual teachings and global information dissemination, it becomes clear that the main focus of modern spiritual teachings is on protection and self-development, and communication with friendly protective spirits is rather expected, at least among those engaged in esoteric practices. However, the fear of attacks by supernatural beings persists, and some accounts describe experiences of strong physical sensations during contact with aggressive supernatural beings. Such encounters are typically perceived as unexpected and frightening. Often, the experiencer is not an active bearer of the respective narrative tradition and only after an intense personal experience begins to feel the need to interpret what was experienced or seek help. Thus, attempts at explanation (e.g., arguments about guilt and revenge) and strategies to achieve a sense of personal control are central to these personal experience narratives. The analysis shows that the interpretations combine heterogeneous information from family lore, parapsychological literature, media coverage of the respective beliefs, and internet keyword searches.
The article examines the possible Finnic origin of 24 word roots found in the Livonian-like Vainiži dialect of Latvian, spoken in Limbaži region, north-western Latvia, which have either not been hitherto discussed in etymological literature or whose available interpretation leaves to be desired.
This article focuses on American writer Djuna Barnes’s novel “Nightwood” (1936) and Estonian writer Reed Morn’s novel “The Talented Parasite” (Andekas parasiit, 1927). Specifically, the article analyses how the two novels represent bodies, affects and materiality, relying on the notion of affective modernism (Taylor 2012). English-language modernist texts have been frequently portrayed as aiming for impersonality and the rejection of emotions and sentiment. Authors like Julie Taylor have challenged this assumption, demonstrating the presence of emotions, drives and sensations in modernist texts. New research on modernism has shown modernist texts both portraying and theorizing bodies (Watts et al. 2019), discussing the relationship between the human and the non-human (Ryan 2015) as well as the Anthropocene (Adkins 2022). This article focuses on affects and senses, in particular the way affects move between bodies, being simultaneously creative and disruptive (Taylor 2012: 1). Both authors analyzed here employ affective ambivalence (Taylor 2012: 2). The article uses Tim Clarke’s (2021) concept of morbid vitalism to analyse how the two novels engage with a central problem of modernity: how to live in the context of despair. This question is viewed from a gendered perspective. The article builds on Taylor’s and Clarke’s analysis of Barnes, enriching their interpretations with insights from other scholars to bring the notion of affective modernism into the study of Estonian literature.
The analysis shows that Barnes’s novel provides an excellent example of morbid vitalism, showing recognizable affective tensions between life and death, felt especially keenly in the social margins where gender trouble does not permit characters to identify with normative social fantasies. Marginality becomes a privilege that permits the characters to see the contradictions in ideologies promising coherent subjecthood and to create modes of being that are oriented towards death while remaining open to the presence of others. The morbidity of Morn’s novel does not come to a similar understanding of affects and embodiment or embrace the vital potential of morbidity. “Nightwood” challenges the binary gender system, while “The Talented Parasite” fails to break out of the culturally prescribed internalized misogyny.
However, both novels test the boundaries of affective modernism. Women writers faced the especially difficult task of finding ways of writing about bodies and emotions without being criticized for dated sentimentality. Both texts provide new modes of affective writing, in which the body is present in the text, but not subjected to stereotypical emotional regimes. Barnes is bolder in her project. Morn, despite the pessimism of her final conclusion, addresses the same range of questions about representing the affects created by living outside of social expectation. Barnes does not grant a happy ending to her freak dandies, but affords them considerable vitality. Morn’s conclusion is pessimistic: the marginal can escape only into death. Both novels pose the question of how to live with despair and both conclude that the only answer can be found in affective ambivalence.
This article looks at the descriptions of games written down by Rosalie Ottesson, who lived in the Siberian Estonian community in Russia, mainly in the village of Ülem-Bulanka. The descriptions were sent to the Folklore Department (currently Estonian Folklore Archives) of the Literary Museum in the 1960s and 1970s.
We will approach Ottesson’s descriptions of games and game situations through the concept of vernacular literacy. As a folklore collector, Rosalie Ottesson played a dual role in the village society – on the one hand, she had a traditional background similar to that of the villagers, and on the other, she was a member of the Communist Party who worked as a village council chairperson and as a teacher. Ottesson was a mediator between oral and written heritage, between the old (traditional) and the new (Soviet) ideology. In order to record folklore, Ottesson had to develop a way of both using linguistic tools and situating (oral) village culture in the context of folklore collection.
Archivists used to criticize Ottesson’s collection for overemphasizing an irrelevant and personal point of view: commenting on the text, adding her own assessments. In the past, folklore collectors were required to describe the rules of the game, but also the context, as precisely as possible. Correspondence with the archive shows that Ottesson did not always understand what was expected of her as a folklore collector. Although Ottesson tried to accommodate the requests of the archivists, the nature of her notes and the choice of material remained unique. With the rise of performer-centered research and the expansion of the concept of folklore, Ottesson’s folklore texts have proved increasingly valuable.
The article compares birdwatchers’ experience of nature with the natural environment as conveyed in literary fiction. The source materials comprise, first of all, interviews conducted with (mostly amateur) Estonian birdwatchers and, secondly, contemporary Estonian and Swedish literary fiction: Maarja Pärtna’s prose poetry collection “The Living City” (Elav linn, 2022), Andrus Kivirähk’s book “Flight to the Moon” (Lend Kuule, 2022), Tõnis Tootsen’s novel “Pâté of the Apes: One Primate’s Thoughts and Memories” (Ahvide pasteet, 2022) and Kerstin Ekman’s novel “The Wolf Run” (Löpa varg, 2021; Estonian translation 2022). The focus is on whether and how the concerns of nature observers relate to anxiety about changes in the natural environment as expressed in contemporary literature. Amateur environmental science projects aim to draw attention to concerns about the natural environment and climate change and thereby strive for a smaller personal environmental impact. Eco-fiction, in turn, puts environmental issues into words, setting them into a fathomable, although perhaps altogether unexpected scale: hence, eco-prose and -poesy are essential ways of perceiving that also serve to interpret the ongoing changes.
Environment-oriented literary culture has responded to issues with the natural environment before. Now, too, it can be concluded that environmental concerns have made a forceful entry into literature. All of the above-mentioned authors have found their unique way of conceptualizing our home in an era of environmental crises. Their recently published works tell stories about our surroundings and interpret the present situation; they discuss the anthropocentric viewpoint or depict the human focus from an unexpected perspective; they draw attention to our alienation from nature; they reposition the reader and thereby seek solutions to environmental issues. Among other things, they highlight environmentally friendly ways of living and experiencing the world or look at the world through non-human eyes, thus bringing the narrator closer to other forms of being. The writers share with birdwatchers the post-humanist idea of the equality of species as well as a sharp eye for their subject.
Alide Ertel (1877–1955) was an Estonian woman writer active in the early 20th century. The most significant factors influencing her creative path were being born into a wealthy South Estonian family of farmers, her good education, and traveling not only within the Tsarist Empire but also in Western Europe. The active participation of Ertel’s family in the public life also played an important part. Ertel herself was involved in politics, taking part in the 1905 revolution as well as the events of 1917, which can be considered important factors shaping Ertel’s life, work, and its reception. In addition to giving fiery speeches during the revolutionary events, Ertel took a strong stance on issues like popular education, agriculture, and the economic well-being of cultural figures.
At the beginning of her creative career, Ertel published her works primarily in the print media. 1910 saw the publication of her debut novella Rooste (“Rust”), which depicted the residents and conditions of a local poorhouse. Rooste received favourable reviews and is considered, according to later assessments, Ertel’s best work. From 1919 to 1920, Ertel dedicated herself to literary work and produced two plays, a collection of short stories published in two editions, a collection of aphorisms, and a historical novel within a short period of time. All works from this period had a negative reception, which can be attributed to inadequate linguistic editing, going against the literary circles of the time, and a preconceived bias stemming from this opposition as well as Ertel’s association with Bolshevism. The complex publishing market situation during that time must also be considered. Consequently, Ertel withdrew from literary activities. Between 1929 and 1931, she published a book of fairy tales and two plays, but these works also failed to garner the attention she hoped for.
Although Ertel’s creative work has remained lodged in the time of its publication, it is worth exploring also for the contemporary reader. Ertel has depicted the aspirations of marginalized members of society and focused heightened attention on the position of women in the society and their possibilities for self-actualization.
The perspective of multipositionality as a means of taking a holistic approach to a person’s multiple lives, i.e. to their different professional fields of activity, has been used to a great effect in translation (including translator) studies. This article explores the feasibility of adapting this concept to the Estonian literary context by looking at the case of Marta Sillaots (1887–1969), known to the wider public mostly as a translator and critic. Less known is her work as a teacher, journalist, and an author of not just children’s stories, but of adult prose, too.
It was primarily the archival sources which demonstrated that Sillaots’ literary and non-literary activities at the start of her career, in the first decades of the 20th century, took several interrelated forms with transferred interests and shifting authority from one field of activity to another. An exploration of Sillaots’ multiple lives unveils a young woman’s professional literary aspirations in their complex, intertwined nature, and reveals her means of survival within the restrictions, conventions and limitations of the largely patriarchal early 20th century Estonian literary landscape.