nc33/MultiSpan_SQUAD huggingface dataset:
Estonian_language

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.

Question: What is the official language of Estonia?
Answer: Estonian

Question: How many people in Estonia speak Estonian?
Answer: about 1.1 million

Question: How many people in different migrant communities speak Estonian?
Answer: tens of thousands

Question: What branch of the Uralic language family does Estonian belong to?
Answer: Finnic

Question: What language family does Estonian belong to?
Answer: Uralic

Question: What country has Estonian as its official language?
Answer: Estonian

Question: In Estonia how many people speak Estonian as their native language
Answer: 1.1 million

Question: Of what language family is Estonian a part of?
Answer: Uralic

Question: On which branch of Uralic language family can Estonian be found?
Answer: Finnic

Question: How many estimated non native speakers of Estonian are there in Estonia?
Answer: tens of thousands
Estonian_language

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]

Question: Who is interested in the degrees of phonemic length?
Answer: linguists

Question: What are the phonemic length's three degrees?
Answer: short, long, and "overlong"

Question: What is a matter of dispute among linguists regarding the distinction?
Answer: the underlying phonological mechanism
Estonian_language

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.

Question: What Uralic language branch contains Estonian?
Answer: Finnic

Question: What are two other languages in the Finnic branch?
Answer: Finnish, Karelian

Question: What language group is Estonian not a part of?
Answer: Indo-European languages

Question: What languages are related to Estonian but not closely?
Answer: Hungarian and to the Sami languages
Estonian_language

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.

Question: Who spoke German in what came to be known as Estonia?
Answer: Baltic Germans

Question: Aside from standard German what German language influenced Estonian?
Answer: Middle Low German
Estonian_language

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.

Question: What kind of harmony has Estonian lost?
Answer: vowel

Question: What language feature does Estonian, Finish and Hungarian share? 
Answer: agglutinative

Question: In what order are words put in sentences in the Estonian language?
Answer: subject–verb–object
Estonian_language

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.

Question: What was the minimum number of waves through which modern Estonians migrated into Estonia?
Answer: two

Question: What are the names of the two separate Estonian languages?
Answer: North and South Estonian languages
Estonian_language

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.

Question: How far back do the first written records of Estonia's Finnic languages go?
Answer: 13th century

Question: Where can records of Estonian place names be found?
Answer: Originates Livoniae

Question: Which Chronicle contains the Originates Livoniae?
Answer: Chronicle of Henry of Livonia

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

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.

Question: What was the first Estonian language book to be published?
Answer: a Lutheran manuscript

Question: When were the Kallamaa prayers written?
Answer: 1524 and 1528

Question: What was the fate of the Lutheran manuscript printed in 1525?
Answer: destroyed

Question: At what point in its existence was the Lutheran manuscript destroyed?
Answer: immediately after publication
Estonian_language

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.

Question: What two people are responsible for the first still in existence book in the Estonian Language?
Answer: S. Wanradt and J. Koell

Question: In what year was S. Wanradt and J. Koell's book written?
Answer: 1535

Question: What type of book was it?
Answer: bilingual German-Estonian translation of the Lutheran catechism

Question: What book specifically for the use of priests was printed in Estonian?
Answer: An Estonian grammar book

Question: What year was the priests' grammar book put into print?
Answer: 1637
Estonian_language

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:

Question: Which Estonian poet's works were printed from 1810 to 1820?
Answer: Kristjan Jaak Peterson

Question: What subjects were Kristjan Jaak Peterson poems on?
Answer: patriotic and philosophical

Question: When was Peterson born?
Answer: March 14

Question: What is another name given for Peterson's birthday?
Answer: Mother Tongue Day

Question: What university did Peterson attend?
Answer: German-language University of Dorpat
Estonian_language

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]

Question: In the years between 1918 and 1940 how many Estonian language books were printed?
Answer: 23,868

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

Question: In what language were 14,503 books published prior to 1918?
Answer: Estonian
Estonian_language

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.

Question: What Age's ideas allowed Estonian writings to gain significance?
Answer: Age of Enlightenment

Question: Who thought their future would be fused with Estonians?
Answer: Baltic Germans

Question: Who had admiration for the ancient Estonian culture?
Answer: Estophile educated class

Question: Who conquered the ancient Estonians?
Answer: Danes and Germans

Question: When did the ancient Estonian era of freedom come to an end?
Answer: 13th century
Estonian_language

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.

Question: What year did Estonia's War of Independence take place?
Answer: 1919

Question: After Estonia achieved independence what was made their state language?
Answer: Estonian

Question: What percentage of Estonians thought of themselves as ethnic Estonian's in 1945?
Answer: 97.3%

Question: What language was spoken by ethnic Estonians?
Answer: Estonian
Estonian_language

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.

Question: What happened to Estonia during WWII?
Answer: invaded and occupied

Question: Who invaded Estonia?
Answer: Soviet Union

Question: After the Soviet invasion what other language became the second official Estonian language?
Answer: Russian

Question: What was another country with similar immigration patterns to post Soviet Estonia?
Answer: Latvia

Question: What became more intense in the 1970's in Estonia?
Answer: pressure of bilingualism
Estonian_language

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.

Question: What historical event once again freed Estonia?
Answer: collapse of the Soviet Union

Question: Following the Soviet collapse what became the only official Estonian Language?
Answer: Estonian

Question: What language was no longer promoted as one of Estonia's main languages?
Answer: Russian

Question: What came into being in January 1989?
Answer: The Law on the Status of the Estonian Language
Estonian_language

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.

Question: How many groups of Estonian dialects are there?
Answer: two

Question: What are the names of the Estonian dialect groups?
Answer: the northern and southern dialects

Question: What is the northern city to which the northern dialect is associated?
Answer: Tallinn

Question: Where is the kirderanniku dialect spoken?
Answer: the northeastern coast of Estonia

Question: What is the city where the southern dialect was historically spoken?
Answer: Tartu
Estonian_language

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.

Question: What dialect is also known as the central dialect?
Answer: the keskmurre

Question: What is the dialect from Lake Peipsi?
Answer: the idamurre or eastern dialect

Question: What dialects of the northern group are spoken on the saarte murre?
Answer: Saaremaa and Hiiumaa

Question: What is another name for Estonian's northern group's western dialect?
Answer: the läänemurre
Estonian_language

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.

Question: From what script does the Estonian language get its alphabet?
Answer: Latin

Question: What is another language that uses Latin for its alphabet?
Answer: Finnish

Question: In the Estonian language how is the letter A pronounced?
Answer: [æ], as in English mat
Estonian_language

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.

Question: What principles usually govern the Estonian orthography?
Answer: phonemic principles

Question: To how many phoneme's does each grapheme correspond?
Answer: one

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

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

Question: What is an example of a word containing a voiceless glottal fricative?
Answer: Pasha (pas-ha)
Estonian_language

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.

Question:  In what Orthagraphy does Modern Estonian orthography have its basis?
Answer: Newer Orthography

Question: Who is responsible for the creation of the Newer Orthography?
Answer: Eduard Ahrens

Question: In what century was the Newer Orthography created?
Answer: 19th century

Question: Previous to the Newer Orthography what orthography was in place?
Answer: Older Orthography

Question: From what other country's orthography did the Older Orthography get its basis?
Answer: standard German orthography
Estonian_language

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).

Question: In Soviet international publications what language's transliteration are Estonian words and names often back-transliterations from?
Answer: Russian

Question: What famous encyclopedia contains a Russian back-transliteration of Estonian?
Answer: Encyclopædia Britannica

Question: What is the Russian back-transliteration from Encyclopædia Britannica?
Answer: "ostrov Khiuma"
Estonian_language

Typologically, Estonian represents a transitional form from an agglutinating language to a fusional language. The canonical word order is SVO (subject–verb–object).

Question: What is the typological form of Estonian?
Answer: transitional

Question: What is Estonian typologically transitioning from?
Answer: an agglutinating language

Question: What sort of form is Estonian transitioning into?
Answer: a fusional language

Question: How are words ordered in Estonian canonically?
Answer: subject–verb–object
Estonian_language

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.

Question: What other language has a telicity contrast?
Answer: Finnish

Question: Aside from the accusative, where can the direct object of the verb be found?
Answer: partitive

Question: What is the accusative used for?
Answer: total objects
Estonian_language

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").

Question: From what system is a distinctive future tense lacking?
Answer: verbal system

Question: What is used in place of the future tense?
Answer: present tense

Question: What does Estonian use to show actions performed by an undecided subject?
Answer: special forms
Estonian_language

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]

Question: Close to 33 percent of Estonian's vocabulary belong to what group of languages?
Answer: Germanic languages

Question: What is the main Germanic language from which Estonia gets the Germanic portion of its vocabulary?
Answer: Low Saxon

Question: When did Low Saxon make its appearance as part of the Estonian language?
Answer: during the period of German rule

Question: From what other Germanic language does Estonian derive its vocabulary?
Answer: High German

Question: Standard German is part of what Germanic language?
Answer: High German
Estonian_language

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'.

Question: What two letters can be replaced with each other a lot of the time in Estonian?
Answer: 'b' & 'p'

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

Question: In an example of replacing 'b' with 'p' how is 'baggage' pronounced?
Answer: pagas
Estonian_language

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.

Question: Who was the journalist who was also a language planner?
Answer: Ado Grenzstein

Question: In what years did Ado Grenzstein do journalism work in Estonia?
Answer: 1870s–90s

Question: What is another term for making up words from nothing?
Answer: formation ex nihilo

Question: Who in the course of their language planning attempted to use the formation ex nihilo technique?
Answer: Ado Grenzstein
Estonian_language

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

Question: Of all of Estonian's language reformers who is the most well known?
Answer: Johannes Aavik

Question: What was the period of time in which Johannes Aavik was alive?
Answer: 1880–1973

Question: What is the technique Aavic used to create Estonian words out of nothing?
Answer: creations ex nihilo

Question: In what publication can examples of ex nihilo words be found?
Answer: Aavik’s dictionary

Question: How many words did Aavik put in his dictionary?
Answer: approximately 4000
Estonian_language

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.

Question: What languages did Aavik know?
Answer: Ancient Greek, Latin and French

Question: When was Aavik's dictionary published?
Answer: 1921

Question: What is another term for words created by Aavik?
Answer: Aavikisms

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