Estonian_language

context: Estonian (eesti keel [ˈeːsti ˈkeːl] ( listen)) is the official language of Estonia, spoken natively by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various migrant communities. It belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic language family.
qas: answers: text: Estonian
question: What is the official language of Estonia?

answers: text: about 1.1 million
question: How many people in Estonia speak Estonian?

answers: text: tens of thousands
question: How many people in different migrant communities speak Estonian?

answers: text: Finnic
question: What branch of the Uralic language family does Estonian belong to?

answers: text: Uralic
question: What language family does Estonian belong to?

answers: text: Estonian
question: What country has Estonian as its official language?

answers: text: 1.1 million
question: In Estonia how many people speak Estonian as their native language

answers: text: Uralic
question: Of what language family is Estonian a part of?

answers: text: Finnic
question: On which branch of Uralic language family can Estonian be found?

answers: text: tens of thousands
question: How many estimated non native speakers of Estonian are there in Estonia?

context: One distinctive feature that has caused a great amount of interest among linguists is what is traditionally seen as three degrees of phonemic length: short, long, and "overlong", such that /sɑdɑ/, /sɑˑdɑ/ and /sɑːdɑ/ are distinct. In actuality, the distinction is not purely in the phonemic length, and the underlying phonological mechanism is still disputed.[citation needed]
qas: answers: text: linguists
question: Who is interested in the degrees of phonemic length?

answers: text: short, long, and "overlong"
question: What are the phonemic length's three degrees?

answers: text: the underlying phonological mechanism
question: What is a matter of dispute among linguists regarding the distinction?

context: Estonian belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages, along with Finnish, Karelian, and other nearby languages. The Uralic languages do not belong to the Indo-European languages. Estonian is distantly related to Hungarian and to the Sami languages.
qas: answers: text: Finnic
question: What Uralic language branch contains Estonian?

answers: text: Finnish, Karelian
question: What are two other languages in the Finnic branch?

answers: text: Indo-European languages
question: What language group is Estonian not a part of?

answers: text: Hungarian and to the Sami languages
question: What languages are related to Estonian but not closely?

context: Estonian has been influenced by Swedish, German (initially Middle Low German, which was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League and spoken natively in the territories of what is today known as Estonia by a sizeable burgher community of Baltic Germans, later Estonian was also influenced by standard German), and Russian, though it is not related to them genetically.
qas: answers: text: Baltic Germans
question: Who spoke German in what came to be known as Estonia?

answers: text: Middle Low German
question: Aside from standard German what German language influenced Estonian?

context: Like Finnish and Hungarian, Estonian is a somewhat agglutinative language, but unlike them, it has lost vowel harmony, the front vowels occurring exclusively on the first or stressed syllable, although in older texts the vowel harmony can still be recognized. Furthermore, the apocope of word-final sounds is extensive and has contributed to a shift from a purely agglutinative to a fusional language.[citation needed] The basic word order is subject–verb–object.
qas: answers: text: vowel
question: What kind of harmony has Estonian lost?

answers: text: agglutinative
question: What language feature does Estonian, Finish and Hungarian share? 

answers: text: subject–verb–object
question: In what order are words put in sentences in the Estonian language?

context: The two different historical Estonian languages (sometimes considered dialects), the North and South Estonian languages, are based on the ancestors of modern Estonians' migration into the territory of Estonia in at least two different waves, both groups speaking considerably different Finnic vernaculars. Modern standard Estonian has evolved on the basis of the dialects of Northern Estonia.
qas: answers: text: two
question: What was the minimum number of waves through which modern Estonians migrated into Estonia?

answers: text: North and South Estonian languages
question: What are the names of the two separate Estonian languages?

context: The domination of Estonia after the Northern Crusades, from the 13th century to 1918 by Denmark, Germany, Sweden, and Russia delayed indigenous literacy in Estonia.[citation needed]
qas: answers: text: 13th century to 1918
question: When did the Northern Crusades happen?

answers: text: Denmark, Germany, Sweden, and Russia
question: Which countries took part in the Northern Crusades?

answers: text: Estonia
question: Following the crusades which country was dominated?

answers: text: indigenous literacy
question: What did the aftermath of the crusades end up delaying in Estonia?

context: The oldest written records of the Finnic languages of Estonia date from the 13th century. Originates Livoniae in Chronicle of Henry of Livonia contains Estonian place names, words and fragments of sentences.
qas: answers: text: 13th century
question: How far back do the first written records of Estonia's Finnic languages go?

answers: text: Originates Livoniae
question: Where can records of Estonian place names be found?

answers: text: Chronicle of Henry of Livonia
question: Which Chronicle contains the Originates Livoniae?

answers: text: words and fragments of sentences.
question: Aside from place names what else from the Estonian language can be found in the Originates Livoniae in Chronicle of Henry of Livonia?

context: The earliest extant samples of connected (north) Estonian are the so-called Kullamaa prayers dating from 1524 and 1528. In 1525 the first book published in the Estonian language was printed. The book was a Lutheran manuscript, which never reached the reader and was destroyed immediately after publication.
qas: answers: text: a Lutheran manuscript
question: What was the first Estonian language book to be published?

answers: text: 1524 and 1528
question: When were the Kallamaa prayers written?

answers: text: destroyed
question: What was the fate of the Lutheran manuscript printed in 1525?

answers: text: immediately after publication
question: At what point in its existence was the Lutheran manuscript destroyed?

context: The first extant Estonian book is a bilingual German-Estonian translation of the Lutheran catechism by S. Wanradt and J. Koell dating to 1535, during the Protestant Reformation period. An Estonian grammar book to be used by priests was printed in German in 1637. The New Testament was translated into southern Estonian in 1686 (northern Estonian, 1715). The two languages were united based on northern Estonian by Anton thor Helle.
qas: answers: text: S. Wanradt and J. Koell
question: What two people are responsible for the first still in existence book in the Estonian Language?

answers: text: 1535
question: In what year was S. Wanradt and J. Koell's book written?

answers: text: bilingual German-Estonian translation of the Lutheran catechism
question: What type of book was it?

answers: text: An Estonian grammar book
question: What book specifically for the use of priests was printed in Estonian?

answers: text: 1637
question: What year was the priests' grammar book put into print?

context: The birth of native Estonian literature was in 1810 to 1820 when the patriotic and philosophical poems by Kristjan Jaak Peterson were published. Peterson, who was the first student at the then German-language University of Dorpat to acknowledge his Estonian origin, is commonly regarded as a herald of Estonian national literature and considered the founder of modern Estonian poetry. His birthday on March 14 is celebrated in Estonia as the Mother Tongue Day. A fragment from Peterson's poem "Kuu" expresses the claim reestablishing the birthright of the Estonian language:
qas: answers: text: Kristjan Jaak Peterson
question: Which Estonian poet's works were printed from 1810 to 1820?

answers: text: patriotic and philosophical
question: What subjects were Kristjan Jaak Peterson poems on?

answers: text: March 14
question: When was Peterson born?

answers: text: Mother Tongue Day
question: What is another name given for Peterson's birthday?

answers: text: German-language University of Dorpat
question: What university did Peterson attend?

context: From 1525 to 1917 14,503 titles were published in Estonian, as opposed to the 23,868 titles which were published between 1918 and 1940.[citation needed]
qas: answers: text: 23,868
question: In the years between 1918 and 1940 how many Estonian language books were printed?

answers: text: 14,503
question: In the roughly four centuries previous to 1918 how many Estonian language books were printed?

answers: text: Estonian
question: In what language were 14,503 books published prior to 1918?

context: Writings in Estonian became significant only in the 19th century with the spread of the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment, during the Estophile Enlightenment Period (1750–1840). Although Baltic Germans at large regarded the future of Estonians as being a fusion with themselves, the Estophile educated class admired the ancient culture of the Estonians and their era of freedom before the conquests by Danes and Germans in the 13th century.
qas: answers: text: Age of Enlightenment
question: What Age's ideas allowed Estonian writings to gain significance?

answers: text: Baltic Germans
question: Who thought their future would be fused with Estonians?

answers: text: Estophile educated class
question: Who had admiration for the ancient Estonian culture?

answers: text: Danes and Germans
question: Who conquered the ancient Estonians?

answers: text: 13th century
question: When did the ancient Estonian era of freedom come to an end?

context: After the Estonian War of Independence in 1919, the Estonian language became the state language of the newly independent country. In 1945, 97.3% of Estonia considered itself ethnic Estonian and spoke the language.
qas: answers: text: 1919
question: What year did Estonia's War of Independence take place?

answers: text: Estonian
question: After Estonia achieved independence what was made their state language?

answers: text: 97.3%
question: What percentage of Estonians thought of themselves as ethnic Estonian's in 1945?

answers: text: Estonian
question: What language was spoken by ethnic Estonians?

context: When Estonia was invaded and occupied by the Soviet Union in World War II, the status of the Estonian language changed to the first of two official languages (Russian being the other one). As with Latvia many immigrants entered Estonia under Soviet encouragement. In the second half of the 1970s, the pressure of bilingualism (for Estonians) intensified, resulting in widespread knowledge of Russian throughout the country. The Russian language was termed as ‘the language of friendship of nations’ and was taught to Estonian children, sometimes as early as in kindergarten. Although teaching Estonian to non-Estonians in schools was compulsory, in practice learning the language was often considered unnecessary.
qas: answers: text: invaded and occupied
question: What happened to Estonia during WWII?

answers: text: Soviet Union
question: Who invaded Estonia?

answers: text: Russian
question: After the Soviet invasion what other language became the second official Estonian language?

answers: text: Latvia
question: What was another country with similar immigration patterns to post Soviet Estonia?

answers: text: pressure of bilingualism
question: What became more intense in the 1970's in Estonia?

context: During the Perestroika era, The Law on the Status of the Estonian Language was adopted in January 1989. The collapse of the Soviet Union led to the restoration of Republic of Estonia's independence. Estonian went back to being the only state language in Estonia which in practice meant that use of Estonian was promoted while the use of Russian was discouraged.
qas: answers: text: collapse of the Soviet Union
question: What historical event once again freed Estonia?

answers: text: Estonian
question: Following the Soviet collapse what became the only official Estonian Language?

answers: text: Russian
question: What language was no longer promoted as one of Estonia's main languages?

answers: text: The Law on the Status of the Estonian Language
question: What came into being in January 1989?

context: The return of Soviet immigrants to their countries of origin has brought the proportion of Estonians in Estonia back above 70%. And again as in Latvia, today many of the remnant non-Estonians in Estonia have adopted the Estonian language; about 40% at the 2000 census.
qas: answers: text: above 70%
question: Following the departure of the Soviet immigrants what was the percentage of Estonians in Estonia?

context: The Estonian dialects are divided into two groups – the northern and southern dialects, historically associated with the cities of Tallinn in the north and Tartu in the south, in addition to a distinct kirderanniku dialect, that of the northeastern coast of Estonia.
qas: answers: text: two
question: How many groups of Estonian dialects are there?

answers: text: the northern and southern dialects
question: What are the names of the Estonian dialect groups?

answers: text: Tallinn
question: What is the northern city to which the northern dialect is associated?

answers: text: the northeastern coast of Estonia
question: Where is the kirderanniku dialect spoken?

answers: text: Tartu
question: What is the city where the southern dialect was historically spoken?

context: The northern group consists of the keskmurre or central dialect that is also the basis for the standard language, the läänemurre or western dialect, roughly corresponding to Läänemaa and Pärnumaa, the saarte murre (islands') dialect of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa and the idamurre or eastern dialect on the northwestern shore of Lake Peipsi.
qas: answers: text: the keskmurre
question: What dialect is also known as the central dialect?

answers: text: the idamurre or eastern dialect
question: What is the dialect from Lake Peipsi?

answers: text: Saaremaa and Hiiumaa
question: What dialects of the northern group are spoken on the saarte murre?

answers: text: the läänemurre
question: What is another name for Estonian's northern group's western dialect?

context: The southern group (South Estonian language) consists of the Tartu, Mulgi, Võru (Võro) and Setu (Seto) dialects. These are sometimes considered either variants of a South Estonian language, or separate languages altogether. Also, Seto and Võro distinguish themselves from each other less by language and more by their culture and their respective Christian confession.
qas: answers: text: the Tartu, Mulgi, Võru (Võro) and Setu (Seto) dialects
question: What dialects comprise the southern group?

answers: text: their culture
question: More importantly than their language aspect how do the Seto and Võro dialects set themselves apart from each other?

answers: text: separate languages altogether
question: Aside from being thought of as variants of Estonian's southern group what else are the Tartu, Mulgi, Võru (Võro) and Setu (Seto) dialects sometimes considered?

answers: text: Christian
question: What religion is associated with Seto and Võro?

context: Like Finnish, Estonian employs the Latin script as the basis for its alphabet, which adds the letters ä, ö, ü, and õ, plus the later additions š and ž. The letters c, q, w, x and y are limited to proper names of foreign origin, and f, z, š, and ž appear in loanwords and foreign names only. Ö and ü are pronounced similarly to their equivalents in Swedish and German. Unlike in standard German but like Finnish and Swedish (when followed by 'r'), Ä is pronounced [æ], as in English mat. The vowels Ä, Ö and Ü are clearly separate phonemes and inherent in Estonian, although the letter shapes come from German. The letter õ denotes /ɤ/, unrounded /o/, or a close-mid back unrounded vowel. It is almost identical to the Bulgarian ъ /ɤ̞/ and the Vietnamese ơ, and is used to transcribe the Russian ы.
qas: answers: text: Latin
question: From what script does the Estonian language get its alphabet?

answers: text: Finnish
question: What is another language that uses Latin for its alphabet?

answers: text: [æ], as in English mat
question: In the Estonian language how is the letter A pronounced?

context: Although the Estonian orthography is generally guided by phonemic principles, with each grapheme corresponding to one phoneme, there are some historical and morphological deviations from this: for example preservation of the morpheme in declension of the word (writing b, g, d in places where p, k, t is pronounced) and in the use of 'i' and 'j'.[clarification needed] Where it is very impractical or impossible to type š and ž, they are substituted with sh and zh in some written texts, although this is considered incorrect. Otherwise, the h in sh represents a voiceless glottal fricative, as in Pasha (pas-ha); this also applies to some foreign names.
qas: answers: text: phonemic principles
question: What principles usually govern the Estonian orthography?

answers: text: one
question: To how many phoneme's does each grapheme correspond?

answers: text: some historical and morphological deviations
question: What type of deviations are there from the single phoneme to each grapheme general principle?

answers: text: Where it is very impractical or impossible to type š and ž
question: On what occasions are š and ž replaced with sh and zh?

answers: text: Pasha (pas-ha)
question: What is an example of a word containing a voiceless glottal fricative?

context: Modern Estonian orthography is based on the Newer Orthography created by Eduard Ahrens in the second half of the 19th century based on Finnish orthography. The Older Orthography it replaced was created in the 17th century by Bengt Gottfried Forselius and Johann Hornung based on standard German orthography. Earlier writing in Estonian had by and large used an ad hoc orthography based on Latin and Middle Low German orthography. Some influences of the standard German orthography — for example, writing 'W'/'w' instead of 'V'/'v' persisted well into the 1930s.
qas: answers: text: Newer Orthography
question:  In what Orthagraphy does Modern Estonian orthography have its basis?

answers: text: Eduard Ahrens
question: Who is responsible for the creation of the Newer Orthography?

answers: text: 19th century
question: In what century was the Newer Orthography created?

answers: text: Older Orthography
question: Previous to the Newer Orthography what orthography was in place?

answers: text: standard German orthography
question: From what other country's orthography did the Older Orthography get its basis?

context: It should be noted that Estonian words and names quoted in international publications from Soviet sources are often back-transliterations from the Russian transliteration. Examples are the use of "ya" for "ä" (e.g. Pyarnu instead of Pärnu), "y" instead of "õ" (e.g., Pylva instead of Põlva) and "yu" instead of "ü" (e.g., Pyussi instead of Püssi). Even in the Encyclopædia Britannica one can find "ostrov Khiuma", where "ostrov" means "island" in Russian and "Khiuma" is back-transliteration from Russian instead of "Hiiumaa" (Hiiumaa > Хийума(а) > Khiuma).
qas: answers: text: Russian
question: In Soviet international publications what language's transliteration are Estonian words and names often back-transliterations from?

answers: text: Encyclopædia Britannica
question: What famous encyclopedia contains a Russian back-transliteration of Estonian?

answers: text: "ostrov Khiuma"
question: What is the Russian back-transliteration from Encyclopædia Britannica?

context: Typologically, Estonian represents a transitional form from an agglutinating language to a fusional language. The canonical word order is SVO (subject–verb–object).
qas: answers: text: transitional
question: What is the typological form of Estonian?

answers: text: an agglutinating language
question: What is Estonian typologically transitioning from?

answers: text: a fusional language
question: What sort of form is Estonian transitioning into?

answers: text: subject–verb–object
question: How are words ordered in Estonian canonically?

context: In Estonian, nouns and pronouns do not have grammatical gender, but nouns and adjectives decline in fourteen cases: nominative, genitive, partitive, illative, inessive, elative, allative, adessive, ablative, translative, terminative, essive, abessive, and comitative, with the case and number of the adjective(s) always agreeing with that of the noun (except in the terminative, essive, abessive and comitative, where there is agreement only for the number, the adjective being in the genitive form). Thus the illative for kollane maja ("a yellow house") is kollasesse majja ("into a yellow house"), but the terminative is kollase majani ("as far as a yellow house"). With respect to the Proto-Finnic language, elision has occurred; thus, the actual case marker may be absent, but the stem is changed, cf. maja – majja and the Pohjanmaa dialect of Finnish maja – majahan.
qas: answers: text: Estonian
question: What language lacks gendered nouns and pronouns?

answers: text: adjectives
question: In the nominative, genitive, partitive, illative, inessive, elative, allative, adessive, ablative, translative cases what always agrees with the noun in number and case?

context: The direct object of the verb appears either in the accusative (for total objects) or in the partitive (for partial objects). The accusative coincides with the genitive in the singular and with nominative in the plural. Accusative vs. partitive case opposition of the object used with transitive verbs creates a telicity contrast, just as in Finnish. This is a rough equivalent of the perfective vs. imperfective aspect opposition.
qas: answers: text: Finnish
question: What other language has a telicity contrast?

answers: text: partitive
question: Aside from the accusative, where can the direct object of the verb be found?

answers: text: total objects
question: What is the accusative used for?

context: The verbal system lacks a distinctive future tense (the present tense serves here) and features special forms to express an action performed by an undetermined subject (the "impersonal").
qas: answers: text: verbal system
question: From what system is a distinctive future tense lacking?

answers: text: present tense
question: What is used in place of the future tense?

answers: text: special forms
question: What does Estonian use to show actions performed by an undecided subject?

context: Although the Estonian and Germanic languages are of very different origins, one can identify many similar words in Estonian and English, for example. This is primarily because the Estonian language has borrowed nearly one third of its vocabulary from Germanic languages, mainly from Low Saxon (Middle Low German) during the period of German rule, and High German (including standard German). The percentage of Low Saxon and High German loanwords can be estimated at 22–25 percent, with Low Saxon making up about 15 percent.[citation needed]
qas: answers: text: Germanic languages
question: Close to 33 percent of Estonian's vocabulary belong to what group of languages?

answers: text: Low Saxon
question: What is the main Germanic language from which Estonia gets the Germanic portion of its vocabulary?

answers: text: during the period of German rule
question: When did Low Saxon make its appearance as part of the Estonian language?

answers: text: High German
question: From what other Germanic language does Estonian derive its vocabulary?

answers: text: High German
question: Standard German is part of what Germanic language?

context: Often 'b' & 'p' are interchangeable, for example 'baggage' becomes 'pagas', 'lob' (to throw) becomes 'loopima'. The initial letter 's' is often dropped, for example 'skool' becomes 'kool', 'stool' becomes 'tool'.
qas: answers: text: 'b' & 'p'
question: What two letters can be replaced with each other a lot of the time in Estonian?

answers: text: The initial letter 's' is often dropped
question: What happens in many cases when a word starts with an 's'?

answers: text: pagas
question: In an example of replacing 'b' with 'p' how is 'baggage' pronounced?

context: Estonian language planners such as Ado Grenzstein (a journalist active in Estonia in the 1870s–90s) tried to use formation ex nihilo, Urschöpfung; i.e. they created new words out of nothing.
qas: answers: text: Ado Grenzstein
question: Who was the journalist who was also a language planner?

answers: text: 1870s–90s
question: In what years did Ado Grenzstein do journalism work in Estonia?

answers: text: formation ex nihilo
question: What is another term for making up words from nothing?

answers: text: Ado Grenzstein
question: Who in the course of their language planning attempted to use the formation ex nihilo technique?

context: The most famous reformer of Estonian, Johannes Aavik (1880–1973), used creations ex nihilo (cf. ‘free constructions’, Tauli 1977), along with other sources of lexical enrichment such as derivations, compositions and loanwords (often from Finnish; cf. Saareste and Raun 1965: 76). In Aavik’s dictionary (1921), which lists approximately 4000 words, there are many words which were (allegedly) created ex nihilo, many of which are in common use today. Examples are
qas: answers: text: Johannes Aavik
question: Of all of Estonian's language reformers who is the most well known?

answers: text: 1880–1973
question: What was the period of time in which Johannes Aavik was alive?

answers: text: creations ex nihilo
question: What is the technique Aavic used to create Estonian words out of nothing?

answers: text: Aavik’s dictionary
question: In what publication can examples of ex nihilo words be found?

answers: text: approximately 4000
question: How many words did Aavik put in his dictionary?

context: Many of the coinages that have been considered (often by Aavik himself) as words concocted ex nihilo could well have been influenced by foreign lexical items, for example words from Russian, German, French, Finnish, English and Swedish. Aavik had a broad classical education and knew Ancient Greek, Latin and French. Consider roim ‘crime’ versus English crime or taunima ‘to condemn, disapprove’ versus Finnish tuomita ‘to condemn, to judge’ (these Aavikisms appear in Aavik’s 1921 dictionary). These words might be better regarded as a peculiar manifestation of morpho-phonemic adaptation of a foreign lexical item.
qas: answers: text: Ancient Greek, Latin and French
question: What languages did Aavik know?

answers: text: 1921
question: When was Aavik's dictionary published?

answers: text: Aavikisms
question: What is another term for words created by Aavik?

answers: text: foreign lexical items
question: Instead of being created from nothing Aavik's ex nihilo terms are thought to actually possibly have been influenced by what?