- According to the Imperial census of 1897. In bold are languages spoken by more people than the state language.
| Language | number | percentage (%) | males | females |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Estonian | 365,959 | 88.67 | 176,972 | 188,987 |
| Russian | 20,439 | 4.95 | 12,441 | 7,998 |
| German | 16,037 | 3.88 | 6,991 | 9,046 |
| Swedish | 5,768 | 1.39 | 2,725 | 3,043 |
| Yiddish | 1,269 | 0.3 | 852 | 417 |
| Polish | 1,237 | 0.29 | 921 | 316 |
| Did not name their native language |
15 | >0.01 | 8 | 7 |
| Other | 1,992 | 0.48 | 1,499 | 493 |
| Total | 412,716 | 100 | 202,409 | 210,307 |
Read more about this topic: Governorate Of Estonia
Famous quotes containing the word language:
“Syntax and vocabulary are overwhelming constraints—the rules that run us. Language is using us to talk—we think we’re using the language, but language is doing the thinking, we’re its slavish agents.”
—Harry Mathews (b. 1930)
“What distinguished man from animals was the human capacity for symbolic thought, the capacity which was inseparable from the development of language in which words were not mere signals, but signifiers of something other than themselves. Yet the first symbols were animals. What distinguished men from animals was born of their relationship with them.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“We find that the child who does not yet have language at his command, the child under two and a half, will be able to cooperate with our education if we go easy on the “blocking” techniques, the outright prohibitions, the “no’s” and go heavy on “substitution” techniques, that is, the redirection or certain impulses and the offering of substitute satisfactions.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)