Estonian (eesti keel [esti kel] ( 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.

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 /sd/, /sd/ and /sd/ are distinct. In actuality, the distinction is not purely in the phonemic length, and the underlying phonological mechanism is still disputed.[citation needed]

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.

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.

Now, provide a numbered list of answers to these questions:

1. Approximately how many people speak the language in focus?
2. What language branch does it belong to?
3. What is the distinctive aspect to linguists?
4. What language family is it a part of?
5. What specific languages is it excluded from?
6. Which three countries influenced the language?
7. Which two language are distant relatives?
8. Which other languages are also Uralic?
9. Name the three degrees of phonemic length?
10. What is the distinction in the example given?

Numbered answers:
1. Around 1.1 million people.
2. The Finnic branch.
3. Three degrees of phonemic length.
4. Uralic language family.
5. German and Russian.
6. Swedish, German, and Russian.
7. Estonian is related to Hungarian and Sami languages.
8. Finnish and Karelian.
9. Short, long, and overlong.
10. /sd/, /sd/ and /sd/