The linguistic innovation spurred by the pandemic was remarkable, drawing significant attention in language studies. Although this phenomenon has been studied to some extent in Estonian, the research has primarily been published in Estonian, limiting its accessibility to a broader, non-Estonian-speaking audience. To address this gap, this article identifies the most essential Estonian COVID-19 pandemic-related vocabulary of the public domain 2020–2022. Data was gathered from the Combined Dictionary of Estonian and the Estonian National Corpus 2023, analysis employed mixed methods. A total of 182 lexical items were examined, 91 identified as neologisms, and 22 classified as the ‘core lexicon’. 10 semantic categories were established to delineate the main components of Estonian corona discourse. Keyness scores were calculated to monitor changes in the relevance and shifts in thematic focus. This study illustrates how smaller language communities modify their lexicon in response to global crises, aiming to enhance the comprehension of linguistic resilience and language evolution.
Kokkuvõte. Mai Raet: Leksikoloogiline vaade pandeemiale: juhtumiuuring Eesti näitel. Koroonapandeemia tõi kaasa mitmeid uusi sõnu ja väljendeid, mis loodi spetsiaalselt sellega seotud nähtuste nimetamiseks ja kirjeldamiseks. Lisaks sai üldkeeles tavapäraseks kasutada meditsiini ja viroloogia erialakeelde kuuluvaid termineid, mis olid varasemalt laiemale elanikkonnale vähetuntud. Ehkki pandeemiaga seotud sõnavara on maailmas laialdaselt uuritud, puudub eesti keele kohta põhjalikum ülevaade. Seetõttu on siinse töö eesmärk see lünk täita: artiklis identifitseeritakse ja analüüsitakse Eesti koroonadiskursuse kõige iseloomulikumad keelendid aastatel 2020–2022. Andmete kogumiseks kasutati Eesti keele ühendkorpust 2023 ja EKI ühendsõnastikku 2023. Kokku analüüsiti 182 leksikaalset elementi, neist 22 moodustasid eesti koroonaaja tuumsõnavara, 91 kategoriseeriti koroonaneologismidena. Eesti koroonadiskursuse põhikomponentide tuvastamiseks loodi 10 semantilist kategooriat ning vaatlusaluse perioodi jooksul toimunud temaatiliste nihete kaardistamiseks kasutati Sketch Engine’i esilduvusskoori (keyness score). Siinne artikkel annab ühelt poolt sissevaate Eesti koroonakogemusse, teisalt illustreerib, kuidas väiksema kõnelejate arvuga keel suudab globaalsetele muutustele adekvaatselt ja kiiresti reageerida.
Southwestern Khanty is a dialect documented only in the 2008 PhD dissertation by Olga Vaysman. This paper attempts to place Southwestern Khanty among other Khanty dialects. Metadata available on Southwestern Khanty are presented and interpreted: based on these, it remains obscure where Southwestern Khanty is spoken. Additionally, data on the lexicon of Southwestern Khanty are compared with the data of the largest dialectal and etymological dictionary of Khanty. Comparison shows that Southwestern Khanty, despite its name, is closest to the northernmost dialect, Obdorsk Khanty.
Kokkuvõte. László Fejes: “Edelahandi” paiknemine handi murrete hulgas: tõendid metaandmetest ja sõnavarast.Edelahandi murre on dokumenteeritud ainult Olga Vaysmani 2008. aasta doktoritöös. See artikkel püüab asetada edelahandi teiste handi murrete hulka. Esitatakse ja tõlgendatakse edelahandi murde kohta saadaolevaid metaandmeid, mille põhjal jääb segaseks, kus edelahandi murret kõneldakse. Lisaks võrreldakse edelahandi leksikoni andmeid handi suurima murde- ja etümoloogilise sõnaraamatu andmetega. Võrdlus näitab, et edelahandi murre on erinevalt nimetusest kõige lähemal põhjapoolseimale dialektile, obdorski murdele.
The present study describes the poetics of two contemporary multilingual writers, one born in Finland (Sabira Ståhlberg) and one in Bulgaria (Tzveta Sofronieva). Besides being prolific writers in literary genres such as poetry, prose, drama, both also translate and edit world literature. Early in their career each of them achieved a PhD. Sofronieva and Ståhlberg carry out academic activities through their research studies. After visiting a multitude of places, they have become not only literary figures of both their birth countries’ literature and the literatures of several other countries, but real literary citizens of the ‘new’ world literature (McDougall, 2014). Their philosophical and ecological aestheticism voices the most urgent problems of humanity by incorporating the latest insights of brain studies, quantum physics, psychology, migration and cultural studies. Their oeuvre addresses any reader irrespective of language(s), background(s), and location(s).
After looking into the monolingually multilingual (using hidden code-switching) as well as multigraphic and multilingual (using overt code switching) artistic production of Sofronieva and Ståhlberg, this study compares two poems, one by each of them, sharing the common metaphor of the sea horse. The aim of this comparative study is to point out how their highly topical poetries activate the multilinguality of any reader, as well as how the linguistic, alphabetic code-switching and shifts of interpretation paradigms loosen formal and conceptual borders. By their act, the reader is empowered to take part in not only piecing together but creating a better ‘new’ world.
Artiklis analüüsitakse, kas automaatselt valitud autentsed korpuslaused sobivad Eesti Keele Instituudi leksikograafide ning Tartu ja Tallinna ülikooli eesti keelt teise keelena rääkivate üliõpilaste hinnangul eesti keele B2–C1-keeleoskustaseme õppesõnastiku näitelauseks. Selleks viidi läbi uurimus, kus leksikograafid ja keeleõppijad hindasid nelja tüüpi lauseid: tööriista GDEX ehk Good Dictionary Example eesti mooduli versiooni 1.4 parameetrite järgi head ja halvad korpuslaused, filtreerimata korpuslaused ning leksikograafide koostatud näitelaused.
Artiklis antakse esmalt ülevaade e-leksikograafia hetkeseisust Euroopas ja Eestis, sealhulgas sellest, kui palju autentset korpusmaterjali veebisõnastikes kasutatakse. Seejärel kirjeldatakse hindamisülesande ülesehitust ja läbiviimist ning analüüsitakse tulemusi. Leksikograafide ja keeleõppijate hinnangu põhjal kontrollitakse kolme hüpoteesi: korpuslausete filtreerimine on vajalik, GDEXi eesti mooduli versioon 1.4 suudab korpusest tuvastada optimaalsed näitelausete kandidaadid ning välja filtreerida sobimatud, leksikograafi koostatud näitelaused on head näitelaused.
The article discusses a study exploring teacher concerns related to implementing the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach to subject teaching, using English as the medium of instruction. Responses to a questionnaire study conducted among English and geography teachers reveal a reluctance to apply the approach in their own classrooms. The reason is the widespread belief that the approach benefits the development of language skills rather than subject knowledge advancement, marginalising the latter and thus undermining the overall achievement of curricular goals. Coupled with the English teachers’ admitted lack of subject-specific content knowledge, the subject teachers’ generally low estimate of their English language proficiency renders the prospect of incorporating the approach in the mainstream classrooms quite challenging. The latter is enhanced by the perceived lack of appropriate teaching materials, the temporal concerns related to developing a new course with accompanying materials and insufficient command of the respective methodology.
The Romanian Journal for Baltic and Nordic Studies devotes the first half of this issue to novel social analyses and paradigms tailored on societies on the interference of pre-modernity and modernity. A well-known researcher of the phenomenon, especially as it is reflected in an East-Central European setting, Nerijus Babinskas maintains that feudalism, in contrast to the classical Marxist-Leninist interpretation that had become a canon during the Communist regime, “was not an inevitable stage of pre-modern development of all European societies”. By breaking apart of this ideological conception, Babinskas investigates the pros and cons of four Marxist alternative notions such as Asiatic mode of production, African mode of production, early Central European model or tributary mode of production, and a non-Marxist approach based on Max Weber’s patrimonialism. The author contends that a blending of these interpretations is the way out of the conceptual ossification which over the past decades has led social research in the matter into a deadlock.
Helle Metslang, Külli Habicht, Tiit Hennoste
et al.
Eesti komitatiiviga väljendatavad koosesinemisfunktsioonid moodustavad võrgustiku, mille keskmes on kaks prototüüpset funktsiooni, KAASNEMINE ja VASTASTIKUSUS. 17.–18. sajandi kirjakeele komitatiivi funktsioonid esindavad KAASNEMISE haru, 20. sajandi materjalis domineerib VASTASTIKUSUS. Komitatiivi funktsioonid on sajandite jooksul järjest laienenud. Tänapäeva kirjakeele materjalis on esindatud nii KAASNEMISE kui ka VASTASTIKUSUSE haru, mõlema kasutustendentsid seostuvad tekstiliigi funktsionaalse ja sisulise eripäraga. Kontaktkeeltest sarnaneb eesti komitatiivi funktsioonivõrgustik enim saksa keele ja vähim soome keele võrgustikuga.
Abstract. Helle Metslang, Külli Habicht, Tiit Hennoste, Anni Jürine, Kirsi Laanesoo, David Ogren: Functions of the comitative in different periods and registers of written Estonian. The various types of concomitance expressed by the Estonian comitative form a network, at the center of which are the two prototypical functions of the comitative, ACCOMPANYING and RECIPROCALITY. In the 17th–18th century written language, the comitative primarily expressed ACCOMPANYING and similar meanings, while the RECIPROCALITY function dominates in 20th-century texts. The functions of the comitative have grown broader over time. In more peripheral functions, the comitative even performs the functions of grammatical cases, encoding non-foregrounded core arguments – the semantics of the comitative have become blurred, and the grammatical relations it expresses have become less well defined. In the modern written language, both the COMPANION and the RECIPROCALITY branches are well-represented. Usage tendencies are tied to the functional and contentrelated characteristics of different text types: RECIPROCALITY is particularly common in fiction texts, while print media texts extensively utilize the INSTRUMENT function and often feature phrase-internal comitatives, illustrating their high textual density. In online comment sections the INSTRUMENT function is particularly prominent, while in MSN dialogues the COMPANION function stands out. Among contact languages, the network of functions of the Estonian comitative most closely resembles that of German and least closely resembles that of Finnish.
Keywords: comitative; concomitance; variation; register; written language; Estonian
Kokkuvõte. Artiklis on vaatluse all episteemilise modaalsuse leksikaalsete väljendusvahendite (markerite) arvatavasti, võib-olla ja äkki tõenäosuse tajumine. Vaadeldakse, kui palju oleneb markerite tõenäosuse tajumine kontekstist, näiteks tugevast või nõrgast eeldusest ehk olemasoleva informatsiooni rohkusest, markeriga lause agendi soost ja keelevälistest teguritest ehk vastajate soost ja vanusest. Markerite tõenäosuse taju uurimiseks koostati internetikatse, millele vastas 328 eesti keelt kõnelevat inimest, kellest noorim oli alla 18-aastane ja vanim üle 60. Tulemustest selgus, et kolmest markerist tajutakse kõige tugevamat tõenäosust väljendavana markerit arvatavasti, pisut nõrgemana tunnetatakse võib-olla ja äkki tõenäosust. Kontekstil on markerite tõenäosuse tajumisel oluline roll: tõenäolisemana tajutakse lauseid, mille kontekst on tugevama eeldusega, mitmetähendusliku kontekstiga lauseid tajutakse aga hoopis nõrgema tõenäosusega. Markerite tõenäosuse tajumist mõjutavad ka keelevälised tegurid, nagu vastaja sugu ja vanus.
Abstract. Laura Tüüts and Reili Argus: The comprehension of lexical epistemic markers: the Estonian adverbs arvatavasti (‘probably’), äkki (‘perhaps’) and võib-olla (‘maybe’). The paper analyses the comprehension of epistemic modality markers arvatavasti ‘probably’, võib-olla ‘maybe’ and äkki ‘perhaps’. The study focuses on the connections between the nature and the amount of context in the comprehension of epistemic markers which belong to the class of markers with average degree of certainty. In addition to the influence of context, factors like the gender of the agent in the context sentence, as well as the respondent’s gender, age, education and foreign language skills have been analysed according to different markers and context types. Answers of 328 Estonian-speaking respondents (aged 18–60) revealed that the marker arvatavasti ‘probably’ has the strongest epistemic value, while the other two markers under observation have a somewhat weaker epistemic value. Context has a big impact on the comprehension of all three markers: sentences with stronger premises were comprehended as expressing stronger certainty, and the sentences with ambiguous context were comprehended as expressing the weakest certainty. Factors like the gender of the agent in the context sentence as well as the respondent’s gender have some influence on the comprehension of epistemic markers, while factors like foreign language skills and education do not have such a strong effect on the comprehension of epistemic modality markers.
Keywords: epistemic modality; lexical markers; comprehension of probability; Estonian
Artiklis tutvustatakse uurimust, mille eesmärk on selgitada välja lauselõpulist kitsast fookust laiast fookusest eristava emfaatilise primaarse lauserõhu akustilised korrelaadid eesti keeles. Tähenduseristust kandvat emfaasi vaadeldakse ka lause eelviimasel sõnal, kus selle realiseerumist ei mõjuta prosoodilise piiri korrelaadid. Uurimus täiendab varasemat uurimust, milles testiti emfaasi korrelaate piirieelses positsioonis. Uurimuse tulemusena leitakse, et piirieelses positsioonis ebaoluliseks osutunud põhitooniga seotud korrelaadid on mittepiirieelses kontekstis osaliselt olulised. Mõlemas kontekstis on oluline sihtsõna suhteline intensiivsus lauses. Lisaks vaadeldakse, kuidas emfaasi peamiseks korrelaadiks osutunud pikenemine sõnas realiseerub ning suhestub väldet signaliseerivate kestussuhetega jalas. Leitakse, et mittepiirieelses kontekstis toimub pikenemine kestussuhetele vastavalt (esimeses ja teises vältes) või seda suurendades ja vältetunnust võimendades (kolmandas vältes). Piirieelses positsioonis on emfaatiline pikenemine esimeses vältes kestussuhtele vastav, teises ja kolmandas vältes aga suurendab seda.
Abstract. Heete Sahkai, Meelis Mihkla, and Mari-Liis Kalvik: Emphasis and focus in Estonian. The paper examines the acoustic correlates of the emphatic nuclear accent that differentiates sentence-final narrow focus from broad focus in Estonian. The emphatic accent is also examined in pre-final position, where it is not affected by a prosodic boundary. The study complements a previous study testing the potential correlates of emphasis in pre-boundary context. The results show that F0-related correlates, which are not significant in final position, are partly significant pre-finally. A significant feature in both contexts is the relative intensity of the emphatic word in the clause. The study confirms lengthening as the primary correlate of emphasis and examines its realisation and interaction with the duration relations in the foot, which are the correlates of the Estonian three-way quantity distinction. The lengthening is mostly found either to correspond to the characteristic duration ratio of the quantity degree, or to increase it.
Keywords: Estonian, focus, sentence stress, emphasis, duration, fundamental frequency, intensity, the Estonian quantity
Data visualization is an integral part of scientific inquiry in order to represent data and communicate findings. Recent developments such as the rise of large-scale corpora show that techniques to relate linguistically informed analysis and spatial data visualization have become increasingly important for quantitative analysis. Although spatial data visualization has gained momentum, these techniques may not be readily available for small or understudied languages. Here, we give an introduction to spatial data visualization using publicly available resources.
We use case studies on Estonian and Votic data to illustrate certain basic tasks in quantitative dialectology. We give solutions to create spatial maps based on either self-extracted coordinates or Google Maps. These maps can be used as a base layer and additional information, such as metadata and frequency distributions, can be represented on top of them. This approach can also be applied to statistical analysis. We illustrate this by carrying out a cluster analysis and its visualization using Google Maps. Thus, a toolkit is provided for quantitative analysis and spatial visualization in dialectology.
The paper introduces the worldwide phenomenon of language death, and briefly elaborates on the arguments for saving endangered languages. The main focus of the paper is revived Cornish. Cornish is a Celtic language that was spoken in Cornwall, UK between the 7th and 16th century. Due to Anglicisation, it became gradually endangered and finally died out as a community language during the 18th century. The revival of Cornish started with the publication of Henry Jenner's Handbook of the Cornish Language in 1904. Today Cornish is recognised by UNESCO as a 'critically endangered' language. The paper presents an analysis of revived Cornish along Fishman's Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (GIDS).
<p>Uurimus on osa laiemast projektist, milles võrreldakse õppijakeelt eesti keele fraseoloogilise ainese ja standardkirjakeelega. Artiklis käsitletakse objekti ja tegevust iseloomustavate leksikaalsete markeritega (markeeritud) ning ilma markeriteta (Ø-markeeritusega) objektifraase ja kirjeldatakse nende kasutuspiiranguid. Objektifraasid on leitud erinevatest keelekasutusvariantidest teksti- ja sõnastikusageduse põhjal: valitud on vaid lauses verbist paremale jäävad objekti sisaldavad kontekstid. Objektifraasid on reastatud verbivormide sageduse alusel, misjärel on välja arvutatud iga tüvemorfeemi osakaal eesti õppijakeeles ja fraseoloogilises aineses. Erinevate valimite põhjal saadud andmete võrdlusest nähtub, et nii sagedaste tuumverbide kui ka harva esinevate täistähenduslike verbide esindumus on samalaadne. Käesoleva uurimuse tarbeks on valitud nelja kõige sagedasema verbi (andma, tegema, võtma ja saama) objektifraasid. Järgnenud kvalitatiivses analüüsis ning tulemuste interpreteerimisel ei tugineta fraasistruktuuri grammatikale ega semantilistele rollidele, vaid objektifraasi markeerituse metamõistele, mille abil on lingvistikas tavaliselt kirjeldatud foneetiliste tunnuste ja morfoloogiliste kategooriate opositsioone. Artiklis on vastandatud leksikaalsete markeritega (markeeritud) ning leksikaalsete markeriteta (Ø-markeeritusega) objektifraasid. Objekti on eesti õppijakeeles määratletud tavaliselt kvaliteedi- ja kvantiteedisõnadega, tegevust adressaadi ning kvantiteedi- ja rõhusõnadega. Uurimus võimaldab vastata küsimusele, miks on objekti ja tegevust leksikaalselt markeeritud (määratletud), miks jäetud markeerimata; missugused on objektifraasi markeerituse/markeerimatuse semantilised, leksikaalgrammatilised, morfosüntaktilised ja struktuursed piirangud.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5128/LV22.01
In this paper, we study a particular case of language planning in Diaspora through the activities of the Committee for Standardization of Kurdish Kurmanji dialect spoken by the majority of Kurds living in Turkey, in Syria and by part of the Kurds living in Iran and in Iraq. Despite its sizeable speaker community, Kurmanji is not officially recognized and public education is not provided in this dialect in the countries where it is spoken. The absence of official recognition and structural variation within Kurmanji led Kurdish intellectuals and researchers living in exile to form the Committee in 1987. Holding two meetings per year in a European city, the Committee tries to standardize and to revitalize the Kurmanji dialect without relying on government support. We examine the activities of the committee in the light of its research in the field of language policy and planning. The activities will be assessed by three typologies of language planning: 1) Haugen’s classical model of language planning (1991 [1983]); 2) Hornberger’s integrative framework of language planning (1988); 3) Nahir’s Language Planning Goals (2000). Our contribution focuses on two aspects of the activities: corpus planning and dissemination of results in exile. We study the practices of collection of vocabulary and neology in different scientific domains as well as the influences of these activities on the development of Kurmanji
At the end of last year the Romanian historical academic community has had the pleasure of witnessing the publication of a first ever monograph of the history of Finland in the Romanian language. The volume is authored by Associate Professor PhD Silviu Miloiu from the “Valahia” University of Târgovişte, and researcher and PhD (ABD) Elena Dragomir from the University of Helsinki, appropriately under the aegis of the Romanian Association for Baltic and Nordic Studies (RABNS).
The paper deals with one of the aspects of metalinguistic awareness: raising consciousness about learners' first language during the learning process of foreign and/or second languages. The aim of the study was to explore what kind of observations learners make and what views they have about their first language, Estonian and Finnish. To study these views data was gathered from students of Jyväskylä and Tallinn Universities. The participants of the study were asked to write essays to discuss whether the L1 of the learner supports or impedes the learning of L2. The first languages of the learners were Estonian and Finnish; the target languages they had studied Estonian, Finnish, Finnish sign language; English, German, Swedish, Norwegian; French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian; Russian, Polish, and Bulgarian. The study focuses mainly on the relations between actual and assumed crosslinguistic similarity and difference: one aim of the study was to find out if the learners' views are in correspondence with typological similarities and differences.
<p>Kognitiivses narratoloogias mõistetakse ilukirjandusliku narratiivi interpreteerimist lugeja poolt kui loomaailmast mentaalsete representatsioonide konstrueerimist tekstis leiduvate keeleliste markerite põhjal. Käesolevas artiklis uuritakse aspektikategooria rolli selles protsessis, võrreldes hispaaniakeelseid narratiive nende eestikeelsete tõlgetega. Lähtutakse sotsiokognitiivsest käsitlusest, mille kohaselt kirjanduslikku narratiivi vaadeldakse sotsiokultuurilise praktikana, mis eeldab teatud konventsioonide järgimist tähenduse loomisel. Analüüsitakse nn narratiivse imperfekti rolli narratiivi ajalise mõõtme kujundamisel ning samuti ruumi ja eelkõige vaatepunkti konstrueerimisel hispaania keeles ning käsitletakse võimalusi samasuguste modifikatsioonide väljendamiseks eestikeelses tõlkes.</p><p>DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5128/ERYa6.10</p>
During the second decade of the century of the Enlightenment, a short interesting episode occurred between the Kingdoms of Britain, Sweden and the Russian Empire. In the context of Sweden’s downfall as an imperial power, Charles XII, after the return from his stay in the Ottoman Empire, instructed his minister, Görtz, to surreptitiously journey to the Netherlands in search of finances. The purpose was to revitalize what was left of Sweden’s maritime power. The only ones interested in funding Charles XII’s fleet were the Jacobites. They were those English, Scots, Irish and Welsh who were still loyal to the dynasty of James II Stuart of England, exiled during the Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689. James II having died in 1701, they now gathered around his son, Francis Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender). In 1715-1716, the Pretender attempted to invade Britain in order to prevent the succession of George I of Hanover, but failed. Through the Swedish envoys in London and Paris (Gyllenborg and Sparre, respectively), Görtz tried to obtain an agreement from the Jacobites that money would be secretly loaned to Charles XII in exchange for Sweden helping a new Jacobite invasion. British counterintelligence was well aware of these negotiations. Eventually the government of George I arrested Gyllenborg, furthermore publishing his documents. This was done in the hope of internationally isolating Sweden, as the British Hanoverian monarch feared a Russian-Swedish-Jacobite alliance. The topic cannot be fully understood without taking in consideration the position of the Russian Empire, so a section of the article is also dedicated to the role played by Russia in this affair.