Adpositions localize an entity (Figure) with respect to another entity (Ground), designated by the complement of the adposition. Most Finnic adpositions are postpositions with a genitive Ground, while prepositions typically have a partitive Ground. This work is a cognitive-linguistic study of the synchronic and diachronic semantics of partitive-Ground adpositions. It is argued that adpositions with a partitive Ground select a proximal perspective to the locational relationship, while those with a genitive Ground select a distal perspective. Three alternative hypotheses are introduced and compared concerning the origin of two Finnish partitive-Ground adpositions, kohti ‘towards’ and päin ‘towards’: 1) These adpositions originated as instructive-case bodypart expressions of position (cf. selin ‘with one’s back at’), and their partitive Ground indicated a viewpoint person; 2) They were instructive forms with a meronymic-locative meaning, expressing a more precise target area within the Ground, together with a directionality toward that area; 3) The Ground of kohti and päin was originally a partitive object of ‘aiming’ or ‘shooting’ verbs, and the soon-to-be adpositions themselves were lexicalized adverbs of direction.
Kokkuvõte. Tuomas Huumo: Milleks partitiiv? Kaassõnade laiendit markeeriva partitiivkäände motiividest läänemeresoome keeltes. Kaassõnad suhestavad trajektori orientiiriga, mida väljendab kaassõna laiend. Enamik läänemeresoome keelte kaassõnadest on tagasõnad, mille laiend on genitiivis, eessõnade laiend aga on tavaliselt partitiivis. Käesoleva töö eesmärgiks on selgitada partitiivis laiendiga kaassõnade sünkroonilist ja diakroonilist semantikat kognitiivse lingvistika vaatenurgast. Autor väidab, et partitiivlaiendiga kaassõnad valivad asukohasuhtele proksimaalse perspektiivi, erinevalt genitiivlaiendiga kaassõnadest, mis valivad distaalse ja holistilise perspektiivi. Autor pakub välja kolm alternatiivset hüpoteesi, mis puudutavad kahe soome keele partitiivlaiendiga kaassõna, kohti ja päin (mõlemad tähendusega ’suunas, poole’), päritolu: 1) kaassõnad grammatiseerusid instruktiivis kehaosaväljenditest (vrd. selin ’seljaga millegi poole’) ja nende partitiivlaiend väljendas esialgselt vaatleja asukohta; 2) vormid olid lokatiivsed instruktiivid, mis väljendasid meronüümiliselt täpsemat sihtala orientiiri sees; 3) partitiivlaiend oli esialgselt objekt ning väljendas suunatud tegevuse (nt. ’sihtima’, ’laskma’) sihtkohta, tulevased kaassõnad aga olid suunda täpsustavad adverbid.
The Lutsis, a historically South Estonian-speaking language island community located near the town of Ludza in southeastern Latvia, have come increasingly into public awareness in Latvia over the last decade with the release of books on Lutsi history and language suitable for both professional and lay audiences as well as other new works relating to Lutsi folk culture. However, even before this recent burst of activity, the Lutsis have been mentioned in the Latvian and Estonian press and have also appeared in the field notes of researchers whose work was connected with the Lutsis. This article traces the descriptions of the Lutsis in a variety of sources from the first descriptions in the mid-19th century, through the interwar independence of Latvia, and as late as the 1970s when important expeditions by Latvian researchers documented the impressions of the last Lutsi speakers on the state of their language and culture.
Kokkuvõte. Hannes Korjus: Sementovskijst 20. sajandisse. Märkmeid lutsidest Läti ajakirjanduses. Kunagine lõunaeestikeelne lutside kogukond elas Kagu-Lätis Ludza linna ümbruses. Lätis on nad saanud suurema avaliku tähelepanu osalisteks alles viimastel kümnenditel, kui on ilmunud raamatuid nende ajaloo ja keele kohta nii asjatundjatele kui ka laiemale huvirühmale ning on hakatud elavdama lutsi rahvakultuuri. Siiski ka enne seda viimast aktiivsuse tõusu on lutsidest kirjutatud Läti ja Eesti ajakirjanduses ja on ilmunud välitööde märkmeid lutsidega seotud uurimuste tegijatelt. Antud artikkel jälgib lutside kirjeldusi erinevates allikates alates varastest mainimistest 19. sajandi keskel, jätkates maailmasõdadevahelise perioodiga ning jõudes viimaks 1970. aastateni, kui Läti uurijad dokumenteerisid oma ekspeditsioonidel viimaste lutsi kõnelejate keelelist ja kultuurilist olukorda.
Language has both a social and a cultural significance for a community of speakers. It inevitably undergoes constant changes in order to adapt to the requirements of a particular discursive practice (spoken or written communication, face-to-face or online communication, specialized language, etc.). In addition to this, language is externally influenced by the borrowing of loanwords. Focusing on anglicisms in Norwegian, this paper analyses the use of borrowings and of code-switching in the informal speech of teenagers as it is depicted in the Norwegian teen drama web series ‘Skam’. The gradual acknowledgment of English as an international language paved the way in Norway for the acceptance of this foreign language in various domains, especially in the academia, as a tool for increasing exposure and for internationalization practices. Due to the constant exposure to English both in the academic environment and in informal settings, younger generations in Norway tend to engage more often in language mixing and regard this international language as an essential part of their daily lives. The findings of this paper concluded that in addition to the use of anglicisms, two types of code-switching – inter-sentential and intra-sentential code-switching) – were identified in episodes 9 and 10, season 4, of ‘Skam’. In this line of thought, the use of anglicisms in ‘Skam’ and the code-switching performed are iconic for today’s teenagers, as it testifies for the dominance of the western culture in their daily lives, and explains, at least partly, the wide success of this drama series.
The goal of this study was to determine which acoustic parameters are significant in differentiating the speaking styles of a narrator and that of male and female characters as voiced by a reader of audiobooks. The study was initiated by a need to improve the expressivity and differentiation of speaking styles in fiction books read out by synthesized voices. The corpus used as research material was created from an audio novel, as read by a professional male voice artist. To determine whether it is possible to identify these speaking styles from the voice of the reader, a web-based perception test consisting of 48 sentences was conducted. The results showed that the listeners identified all three styles. For acoustic analysis, the openSMILE toolkit was used and 88 eGeMAPS-defined parameters were extracted for every sentence in the corpus. All styles were differentiated by 38 statistically significant parameters. To improve vividness, synthesizers aimed at reading fiction books could be trained to perform all three styles.
Kokkuvõte. Hille Pajupuu, Rene Altrov ja Jaan Pajupuu: Teel audioraamatute sünteeskõne elavdamisele. Uurimuse eesmärk oli teada saada, milli sed olulisemad akustilised parameetrid eristavad audioraamatu lugeja hääles jutustaja kõnet ning mees- ja naistegelaste otsekõnet. Uurimuse tingis vajadus parandada sünteeshäälega loetavate juturaamatute väljendus rikkust ja kõnestiilide eristatavust. Uurimismaterjalina kasutati professionaalse meeshäälega loetud audioromaani „Tõde ja õigus I“ põhjal loodud korpust. Et teada saada, kas audioraamatu lugeja hääle põhjal on kuulaja võimeline eristama eri kõnestiile (jutustaja kõnet, mees- ja naistegelaste otsekõnet), koostati 48 lausest koosnev tajutest. Testi tulemused näitasid, et kuulajad tundsid ära kõik kolm kõnestiili. Akustiliseks analüüsiks kasutati kogu korpuse materjali. openSMILE’i tööriistaga ekstraheeriti kõnest iga lause jaoks 88 eGeMAPSis defineeritud parameetrit. Statistiliselt oluliselt eristasid kõnestiile 38 parameetrit, millest 18 oli seotud hääle kvaliteedi ja tämbriga, 11 hääle valjusega, 8 hääle kõrgusega ja 1 tempoga. Kuna tajutest ja akustiliste parameetrite analüüs näitasid, et audioraamatus eristusid nii jutustaja kõne, naistegelaste otsekõne kui ka meestegelaste otsekõne, võib pidada otstarbekaks õpetada juturaamatuid ettelugevaid süntesaatoreid esitama kõiki kolme kõnestiili.
Märksõnad: audioraamatud, kõnestiil, otsekõne, karakteri kõne, GeMAPS, kõneanalüüs, ekspressiivne kõnesüntees
"Data protection issues relating to the development and utilisation of language resources"
Copyright issues related to language resources have received considerable attention. Personal data protection in the field of language research is an area which is not thoroughly explored yet. This topic is very relevant since the General Data Protection Regulation is applicable from 25 May 2018. The authors analyse the issues relating to personal data protection in the context of the development and utilization of language resources. Firstly, the authors analyse the cases where there is a consent which allows processing of personal data to develop and use language resources for research purposes. Secondly, the processing of personal data without consent for language research purposes is explored. The article is meant to provide practical information to language research community and create a foundation for further discussion.
This paper deals with adnominal possessive constructions in Moksha, Erzya, Meadow Mari, Hill Mari, Izhma Komi and Udmurt. The two main constructions that encode possessive relations in all the languages of the sample are the same: Dependentmarking and Double-marking. Izhma Komi also uses Head-marking and Juxtaposition. However, a more fine-grained analysis helps to find out many differences between the languages of the sample. Firstly, restrictions on the use of the genitive case and possessive markers can be slightly different in these languages. Secondly, there are factors that influence marking of NP elements (both the Head and the Dependent) in different ways. These factors are semantic relations, animacy hierarchy and syntactic function of an NP.
Аннотация. Полина Плешак: Посессивные конструкции в мордовских, марийских и пермских языках. В данной статье обсуждаются результаты исследования приименных посессивных конструкций в мокшанском, эрзянском, луговом марийском, горномарийском, ижемском коми и удмуртском. Две основные стратегии, кодирующие посессивные отношения во всех рассматриваемых языках, – зависимостное маркирование и двойное маркирование, а также дополнительно вершинное маркирование и конструкция с соположением в ижемском коми. Однако более детальный анализ позволяет выявить большое количество различий между языками выборки. Во-первых, как генитив, так и посессивные показатели имеют разные области применения в разных языках. Во-вторых, существуют факторы, по-разному влияющие на маркирование членов ИГ (как вершины, так и зависимого). Таковыми являются семантические отношения, иерархия одушевлённости и синтаксическая позиция ИГ.
Ключевые слова: внутригенетическая типология, посессивные конструкции, зависимостное маркирование, двойное маркирование, генитив, посессивный показатель, семантические отношения, иерархия одушевлённости, финно-угорские языки
Kokkuvõte. Polina Pleshak: Adnominaalsed possessiivkonstruktsioonid mordva, mari ja permi keeltes. Artikkel käsitleb adnominaalseid possessiivkonstruktsioone mokša, ersa, niidumari, mäemari, ižmakomi ja udmurdi keeltes. Kaks põhikonstruktsiooni, mis possessiivseid suhteid väljendavad, on kõikides käsitletud keeltes samad: laiendi markeerimine ja topeltmarkeering. Ižmakomi keeles kasutatakse ka põhja markeerimist ja jukstapositsiooni. Peenekoelisem analüüs aitab aga käsitletavate keelte vahel leida rohkelt erinevusi. Esiteks võivad nendes keeltes mõneti erineda genitiivi ja possessiivmarkerite kooskasutuse piirangud. Teiseks on faktoreid, mille mõju tõttu markeeritakse NP elemente erinevalt (seda nii põhisõna kui ka laiendi puhul). Need faktorid on semantilised suhted, elususe hierarhia, ja NP süntaktiline funktsioon.
Märksõnad: intrageneetiline tüpoloogia, possessiivkonstruktsioonid, laiendi markeering, topeltmarkeering, genitiiv, possessiivmarker, semantilised suhted, elususe hierarhia, soome-ugri keeled
"Multidimensional similarity: Estonians and comprehension of Finnish text"
Previous studies have proven that Finns reading an Estonian text use many different strategies to find the meanings of cognate words. In this article, the factors affecting the Estonians’ ability to understand Finnish are described. It is well known that external similarity promotes intelligibility, but on the other hand, “false friends” can cause misinterpretations if the context does not prevent them. On the other hand, certain concepts connected on the basis of different semantic relationships can contribute to the emergence of correct translation. When dealing with phraseological units the first word primes the occurrence of the second word (target). It is assumed that in the foreign language text the prime, if recognizable in L1, helps to infer the target.
In order to test these assumptions, Estonian informants had to translate a short Finnish text into Estonian and explain their choices of translation equivalents for certain words. Most test participants are aged over 20, some of them were 1st year high school students. None of them had had formal instruction in Finnish.
he results show that, on the one hand, the relation between hyponyms and hypernyms and, on the other hand, the chain of cause and consequence facili- tates the finding of the meaning of unknown word. However, the translation is mostly based on external similarity of unconnected lexical items which can result in success or failure. The informants justify their proposals for transla- tion equivalents with that kind of similarity but they also rely on the structure of semantic fields and conceptions of coherent texts. The qualities of semantic relations are not bound to the affinity of Estonian and Finnish but to some uni- versal “regularities”, another sort of similarity.
Artikli eesmärgiks on esile tuua, milliste inimloomusest tulenevate tõsiasjadega peaks arvestama, kui on plaanis hakata sünteeskõnele emotsioone matkivat prosoodiat lisama. Sel eesmärgil on kokku koondatud lähenemised erinevatest inimest puudutavates teadusharudest nagu neuroloogia, kirjandusteadus, sotsiaalpsühholoogia, filosoofia jne. Eri perspektiividena käsitletakse kuulaja, teksti peategelase, autori ja lugeja emotsioonide kujunemist. Seejärel kirjeldatakse, kuidas lisab vokaalseid emotsioone inimesest ettelugeja ning kuidas lähenetakse teksti ja emotsioonide vahekorrale afektirehkenduse valdkonnas. Artikli lõpuosas esitatakse visioon keskmise lugeja emotsionaalset reageeringut jäljendavast virtuaalsest Emonculus’est kui võimalikust tulevikuperspektiivist emotsionaalse prosoodia lisamisel sünteeskõnele.
Artiklis antakse ülevaade 2013. aasta kevadel Tartu ülikoolis kaitstud bakalaureusetööst, milles uuriti eesti kirjakeele kasutust 19. sajandi teisel poolel. Lisaks oli töö eesmärgiks anda selgem ülevaade eesti kirjakeele keskmurdepärasusest. Uurimismaterjaliks olid Peetri kihelkonna kohtuprotokollid aastatest 1869.–1870. ja 1884. Analüüsiti kohtuprotokollide ortograafiat, häälikulisi jooni ja morfoloogiat. Iga uurimisaspekti käsitleti mõlema perioodi kohtuprotokollides eraldi ning seejärel võrreldi kahe perioodi keelekasutust. Selgus, et mõlema perioodi kirjapanekutes on sarnasusi Peetri murrakuga, aga neid ilmneb rohkem 1869.–1870. aasta protokollides. Esimese perioodi kohtuprotokollide kirjapanemisel on lähtutud vanast kirjaviisist ning neid iseloomustavad rohked paralleelvormid ja häälikuline varieeruvus. Teise perioodi kohtuprotokollides oli kasutusel uus kirjaviis ning need on keeleliselt ühtlasemad ja tänapäeva eesti kirjakeelega sarnasemad. See näitab eesti kirjakeele seisundi tugevnemist juba 1880. aastatel.
Transition from the old orthography to the new during the second half of the 19th century based on the court protocols of Peetri parish. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the research which examined how the old orthography was replaced by the new during the second half of the 19th century. In addition, this study illustrated the resemblance of the 19th century’s Estonian written language and the Estonian central dialect. The data from the court protocols of the parish Peetri were analysed for that purpose. The practical section focused on the study of orthography, phonetic features and the morphology were studied. The research revealed that the court protocols from the first period were written using the old orthography and the court protocols from the second period were mostly written using the new orthography. In the court protocols from the first period there are more parallel forms and phonetic variety. In conclusion, protocols from both period there were typical features of the Peetri dialect.
This article explores the way in which loanwords become incorporated into a recipient language. It concentrates on the interim period, the time between the borrowing of a new word from a donor language and its incorporation into a recipient language. During this period the new word still retains some of its “foreignness”, its associations with another language and culture, therefore its stylistic potential is enhanced. The material is taken from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, an English poem written in the latter half of the 14th century, at the time of the greatest influx of French words into English. This article shows that the Gawain-poet uses gallicisms as an expressive part of his poetic technique due to their stylistic potential as what were at the time recent borrowings.
<p>Artikkel käsitleb eestikeelsete tekstide arvutianalüüsi alamprobleemi: ajaväljendite automaatset tuvastamist tekstist. Ülesanne on püstitatud kaheosalisena: tekstist tuleb üles leida ajaväljendid (piiritleda ajaväljendifraasid) ning normaliseerida leitud ajaväljendite semantika (st esitada semantika eeldefineeritud märgenduskeele raamides). Artiklis kirjeldatakse ajaväljendite tuvastamisel kasutatavat märgenduskeelt ning piiritletakse vaadeldavate ajaväljendite hulk lähtuvalt märgenduskeele (aga ka praktilise analüüsi) võimalustest. Antakse ülevaade loodud reeglipõhise ajaväljendite tuvastaja tööpõhimõtetest ajaväljendite leidmisel ning semantika normaliseerimisel kasutatavatest strateegiatest. Programmi testimiseks moodustatakse Tartu Ülikooli koondkorpuse tekstidest u 70 000-sõnaline korpus, millel parandatakse käsitsi automaatse tuvastamise vead ning hinnatakse tuvastaja töö kvaliteeti.</p><p>DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5128/ERYa8.10</p>
<p>Artikli eesmärk on anda ülevaade kausatiivsuse omandamisest eesti keeles. Uurimuse keskmes on küsimus, millal ja milliseid kausatiivsuse väljendusvahendeid lapsed varase keeleomandamise perioodil kasutavad, kas eelistused on seotud kasutatavate kausatiivsete struktuuride läbipaistvusega (analüütilised kausatiivid on läbipaistvamad kui sünteetilised ehk morfoloogilised), produktiivsusega või pigem sisendkeele sagedustega. Eri tüüpi kausatiivsete struktuuride omandamise juures on vaadeldud ka seda, kuivõrd on võimalik eesti keele kausatiivsuse omandamisel eristada omandamisetappe või õpimudeleid. Kasutatud keeleandmeteks on pikiuuringuga kogutud kahe eesti keelt omandava lapse spontaanse kõne lindistused vanusest 1;8–3;0.</p><p>DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5128/ERYa8.01</p>
In this paper we compare five Finno-Ugric languages – Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Udmurt and Komi-Zyrian – and the Estonian Sign Language (unclassified) in different aspects: established basic colour terms, the proportion of basic colour terms and different colour terms in the collected word-corpora, the cognitive salience index values in the list task and the number of dominant colour tiles in the colour naming task. The data was collected, using the field method of Davies and Corbett, from all languages under consideration, providing a distinctive foundation for linguistic comparison. We argue that Finno-Ugric languages seem to possess relatively large colour vocabularies, especially due to their rich variety of word-formation types, e.g. the composition of compound words. All of the languages under consideration have developed to Stage VI or VII, possessing 7 to 11 lexicalised basic colour terms. The cognitive salience index helps to distinguish primary and secondary basic colour terms, showing certain comprehensive patterns which are similar to Russian and English.
Artiklis analüüsitakse eesti uue meedia keelekasutuse e internetikeele leksikaalseid ja ortograafilisi eripärasusi ning nendest tulenevaid automaatsel morfoloogilisel analüüsil kerkivaid raskusi. Esitatakse meetodid nende probleemide lahendamiseks: sagedased kõrvalekalded normeeritud kirjakeelest lahendatakse kasutajasõnastiku abil ning harvem esinevad, kuid regulaarsed kõrvalekalded automaatseid teisendusreegleid rakendades. Korpusespetsiifilise leksika analüüsiks pakutakse välja kasutajasõnastiku automaatse täiendamise meetod. Artikli autorid on seisukohal, et internetisuhtluses kasutatava keelevariandi erinevused normeeritud kirjakeelest on valdavalt kirjutajate teadliku keelemängu tulemus, mitte kehva kirjaoskuse väljendus.<p><img src="/ajakirjad/public/site/images/mariamaren/citation_linking_graphic_12x54_white1.png" alt="" /> http://dx.doi.org/10.5128/ERYa7.07</p>
The paper deals with the reason for the decline of theVotic language and neo-renaissance and revitalization of the Votic.The reason for the decline of the Votic language are the small number of people, traditionally sparse population and the assimilation – the speakers of Votic have always lived in the sphere of influence of the Russian language and culture. The reasons for neo-renaissance are the collapse of the Soviet Union, a general trend to look for one’s roots, enthusiastic votophiles and the local activities. In the earlier times Votic national movement originated from local people, but recently there has been interest in the Votic affairs on the state level.The plans for the near future are under common title the Votic project
<p>Artiklis uuritakse mõtlemise, mõistmise ja mäluga seotud intellektuaalsete võimete rolle eesti keele maailmapildis. Uurimisobjektiks on intellektuaalseid võimeid tähistavad sõnad eesti keeles: <em>aju(d)</em>, <em>ajukäärud</em>, <em>aru</em>, <em>hallollus</em>, <em>intellekt</em>, <em>meel</em>, <em>mõistus</em>, <em>pea</em>, <em>taip</em>, <em>teadvus</em>. Uurimuse eesmärk on tabada sõnakasutuses peituvaid “naiivseid” ettekujutusi inimese intellektist. Uurimismaterjal pärineb Tartu Ülikooli kirjakeele korpusest, otsingumootorist Google, kasutatud on ka “Eesti kirjakeele seletussõnaraamatut”. Intellektuaalsed protsessid ja seisundid eesti keele maailmapildis esitatakse kontseptuaalsete metafooride kujul. Ehitatakse üles mõtlemise, mõistmise ja mälu metafoore.</p><p>DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5128/ERYa6.04</p>
The Estonian folk song is usually divided into two main historical-stylistical strata: the runo songs (songs in runo verse form, also called Kalevala-metre songs, alliterative songs etc.) and the newer songs with an end-rhyme and strophic form. Both are characterised by a special musical style. The first one belongs to the old Balto-Finnic culture and derives probably from the last millennium B.C., the latter one is related to the European traditional songlore of the last centuries. Besides runo songs (which are represented in the Estonian tradition first of all by lyrical songs and by working songs, ritual songs, game songs, etc., less by the narrative ones) there exist a number of ancient non-runo genres which are characterised by a special intonation mode depending on the contents and function and which do not denote music in the accustomed meaning.Ancient non-runo vocal genres. Here belong:1. Cries, shouts, calls with the function to signal, communicate or co-ordinate rhythm (herding andhunting calls, signals for co-ordinating working processes, ritual calls, etc.) 2. Imitations of natural sounds: either natural or artificial. The first have generally practical, utilitarian function (they are used by hunters for alluring birds or animals even today); the others might have had primarily magic significance and were later used for amusement (e.g. the so called birds' songs containing a poetic text whereas the respective bird sounds are imitated both as phonic compositions and by intonation). Here belong also "conversations" of animals, birds, as well as spinning wheels, carts, church bells etc. The significant expressive means alongside with imitation is the tonal and temporal contrasting of certain phrases or words (high - low, fast - slow).3. Incantations and spells used for influencing and inducing natural forces, animals or human beings, for inciting the working process, for healing, sauna charms, etc. which occur as verse incantations in Estonia. While in Finland and Karelia they are predominantly in the Kalevala metre, then in Estonia a large part of them are either in the accentual metre or in the heterosyllabic free verse. These were performed either as a half-whispering mutter, a recital with free rhythm (half-singing, half-speaking), as a monotonous scansion with fixed measure, or while shouting. 4. Laments (death dirges, wedding laments, later also lamentations for recruits and for other occasions). In Estonia they preserved longer mostly in Setu 1986). Death dirges are noted also in other parts of East Estonia. Laments were known also by the Karelians, Vepsians, Votians, Izhorians and other Finno-Ugrians.5. Songs in fairy tales. Besides explicit songs which are dissimilar in verse metre and musical characteristics, there occur also recitative monologues and dialogues which hardly differ from the rest of the text (as is the case with tales and shamanistic performances of Siberian peoples).6. Children songs. Hereto refer1) songs performed for children (lullabies or simple asemantic lullings, nursery songs performed with respective gestures and movement to amuse the baby, incantations for children, songs in a restricted sense);2) children's own repertoire (traditional addressings to birds, animals and objects of nature with an initial magic background, banter words and other jesting verses, songs in a restricted sense etc. ). 7. Chain songs (which initially had a magic background but have later become a part of children songs).These genres occur also by those Balto-Finnic peoples who do not know the Kalevala-metre songs.They represent rather universal phenomena in archaic cultures. In many cases the question arises whether we are dealing with songs altogether, or rather with phenomena preceding songs? What is a song after all? This conception has different interpretations in different cultures.The Balto-Finnic peoples regard as song (laulu) in general a vocal genre which consists of a poetic text and a melody with a certain structure. The word laulu is common to all Baltic Finns whoknow the runo song, and to Livonians (by whom the runo-song form is not documented). This conception expresses the consistency of poetic texts and melodies. Runo-songs have always beenperformed while singing but originally there existed no special word for denoting the melody (the Estonian word viis is of Germanic origin).