Languages
Many languages are spoken in Estonia, including Estonian (official), Russian, Ukrainian, English, Finnish, German and others. According to the census of 2000, 109 languages were spoken natively in Estonia. By 2011, the number of languages spoken natively had increased to 157, mainly due to new immigrants. However, most of these languages were used only between relatives or compatriots, while only 30 languages were spoken on a daily basis in families.
Estonian and Finnish are closely related, belonging to the same Finnic branch of the Uralic language family. Nevertheless, the two languages are not mutually intelligible, although educated native speakers can read the other language with a greater or lesser degree of understanding. Estonian and Finnish are only distantly related to the Hungarian language.
Written with the Latin alphabet, Estonian is the language of the Estonian people and the official language of the country. One-third of the standard vocabulary is derived from adding suffixes to root words. The oldest known examples of written Estonian originate in 13th century chronicles. During the Soviet era, the Russian language was imposed in parallel to, and often instead of, Estonian in official use.
Read more about this topic: Religion In Estonia
Famous quotes containing the word languages:
“No doubt, to a man of sense, travel offers advantages. As many languages as he has, as many friends, as many arts and trades, so many times is he a man. A foreign country is a point of comparison, wherefrom to judge his own.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigree of nations.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“The less sophisticated of my forbears avoided foreigners at all costs, for the very good reason that, in their circles, speaking in tongues was commonly a prelude to snake handling. The more tolerant among us regarded foreign languages as a kind of speech impediment that could be overcome by willpower.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)