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Estonian surnames
If you lack questions for small talk when meeting
Estonians, ask what their name means Mida teie
perekonnanimi tähendab? What
does your surname meanf (pi,
formal). You'll be surprised, as a lot of Estonian surnames (and also some
first names) have concrete meanings. For instance, there are more than 5,000
people called Tamm oak, which is the most
common surname in Estonia, and thousands more named after other types of tree,
like Kuusk spruce, Kask birch. Names of animals are also very common in
surnames, for example lives lynx, Rebane fox, Karu bear; or birds like Luik swan, Kurg stork, Pääsuke swallow. Another big group of surnames come from professions Sepp blacksmith, Mölder miller, Rätsep tailor; and geographical locations Saar island, Jõgi river. Mägi mountain, Järv lake, Men sea, etc.
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Saame tuttavaks! Let’s get acquainted!
The standard expression to start a
conversation with the aim of introducing yourself is Saame tuttavaks! Let’s get
acquainted! You can either say just your first name or the full name, depending
on the level of formality. It is not necessary to say your surname if the
situation is informal, especially with younger people and children. The surname
only without the first name is called, for instance, at the doctor’s or in
other formal situations.
On very formal occasions you can
say Kas ma tohin ennast tutvustada? May / introduce myself? or when introducing
two people to each other Kas ma tohin tutvustada ...? May I introduce ...? More
formality can be added by using the words proua madame or härra mister. The
abbreviations hr for härra and pr for proua are very common in letterheads and
addresses. The word preili miss for an unmarried woman is hardly ever used when
making introductions as it unnecessarily stresses the marital status.
Body language
Estonians do not kiss when greeting
and they definitely do not kiss when introduced to someone they do not know.
Instead they shake hands, especially when first introduced to someone. On
formal meeting, people can still shake hands even if they know each other well.
For instance on formal business meetings it is quite common that the chairman
shakes hands with everybody to make them feel welcome. If in doubt as to
whether to shake hands or not, it is usually better to offer your hand for
shaking as it is viewed as a friendly act. Younger Estonians have more or less
dropped the habit of the handshake but among the Russian-speaking population of
Estonia handshaking for greeting is very common even among the younger
generation.
a
Turist Vabandage,
kas te räägite saksa keelt?
Kohalik Räägin küll.
b
Turist Vabandage, kas te oskate inglise keelt?
Kohalik Ei, kahjuks ei oska.
c
Turist Kas te räägite prantsuse keelt?
Kohalik Vabandust, ma ei saa aru.
d
Kohalik Kas te oskate eesti keelt?
Turist Natukene.
Talking
about languages
Foreigners
often complain that it is very hard to practise Estonian in Estonia as the
local people usually can speak some foreign language that they want to practise
themselves. It Is somewhat true because all Estonians have learnt at least two
foreign languages at school starting in early grades. The most commonly learnt
languages are English, German, Russian and French but some schools also offer
classes of Finnish, Swedish, Spanish, Japanese and other languages. The
mentality is that being such a small nation one has to know other languages and
therefore it’s a norm that you know some languages other than your own.
Note that
names of languages in Estonian, unlike in English, are spelled with no capital
letters and also the word keel language has to be used:
vene keel Russian (language) jaapani keel japanese
hiina keel Chinese
(language) soome keel Finnish
hispaania keel
Spanish
(language) rootsi keel Swedish
itaalia keel Italian
(language) läti keel Latvian
portugali keel Portuguese (language) leedu keel Lithuanian
a
Naine Tere! Kuidas läheb?
Mees Tänan. Pole viga.
b
Õpetaja Tere hommikust. Kuidas elate?
Õpilane Tere. Väga hästi. Aga teie?
Õpetaja Mina ka.
c
Õpetaja Tere päevast. Kuidas läheb?
Õpilane Tänan küsimast. Normaalselt.
d
Jaan Kuidas läheb?
Peeter Hästi. Aga sul?
Jaan Ka hästi.
Asking How are you?
The
question Kuidas läheb? How are you? is not used as a short greeting in Estonian (as it can
sometimes be used in English). It is quite normal to give a short overview of
what you have been up to lately rather than just answering Hästi! Very well! and walking away. So if you ask Kuidas läheb? be prepared to exchange a few words.
If you
want to ask the other person how they are you can ask:
Kuidas läheb? How are you?
Kuidas elate? How
are you? (plural, formal)
Kuidas elad? How
are you? (singular,
informal)
Kuidas
käsi käib? How are you?
(lit. untranslatable phrase)
The last Is a
little old fashioned, but you will still hear it said.
If you are
fine, you answer Tänan, hästi! Fine, thank you! or Väga hästi! Very well!
Pole viga not too bad or normaalselt OK also mean you are doing well. If you want to ask how the
other person is doing then the phrase depends on the question you were asked:
Kuidas läheb? How are you? Agasul? What about you?
(singular, informal) Aga teil? What
about you? (plural, fonnal)
Kuidas elate? How are you? Aga sina? What about you?
(singular, informal) Aga teie? What
about you? (plural, formal)
If you don’t remember what exactly the question
was, it is safest to ask back Aga kuidas sul läheb? (singular) Aga kuidas teil läheb? (plural).
We will now take a closer look at the pronunciation of the
Estonian consonants. As you will see, many of them are similar to the English
ones.
Consonants,
just like the vowels, can appear in short or in long form. The short form is
usually represented by one consonant and the long form by two consonants.
h as in Hello!, not pronounced at the beginning of a word.
Helle (f*),
Riho (m*),
Eha (f), Ahto (m),
Helve (f)
hh the same as h but longer. Occurs in very few words.
j as in yes
Jaan (m), Juhan (m), Kaja (f), Juta (f), Jaanus (m) jj the same as j but longer. Occurs in very
few words,
0
is softer
than the English /
Lembit (m), Alo (m), Alar (m), Kalju (m), Kalev (m)
ll the same as I but longer
Ülle (f), Illimar (m), Vello (m), Helle (f),
Malle (f)
m is the same as in English
Mare (f), Siim (m), Urmas (m), Mart (m), Margit (f)
mm the same as m but longer
Lemmi (f), Immo (m), Timmo (m),
Tommj (m)
n is the same as in English
Naima (f), Ene (f), Liina (f),
Anu (f), Sven (m)
nn the same as n but longer
Henn (m), Anne (f), Lenna (f), Anneli (f), Õnne (f)
r is a rolling
sound in Estonian, quite different from English, you need to practise a lot!
Kristjan (m),
Kaarel (m),
Ardi (m), Kaur (m), Priit (m)
rr the same as r but longer Harri (m),
Harriet (f)
s as in school
Tõnis (m), Joosep (m), Esta (f),
Sirli (f), Siiri (f)
ss the same as s but longer
Sass (m), Juss (m), Kassandra (f), Jass
(m)
v as in video
Valve (f), Ulvi (f), Sulev (m),
Ivo (m), Evelin (f) w the same as v but longer. Occurs in very few words g as
in goat
Ago (m), Signe (f), Inge (f), Gert (m), Greete (f)
gg does not occur
in Estonian words b as in boat
Lembit (m), Imbi (f), Maibi (f), Tambet (m), Elbe (£) bb does
nor occur in Estonian words d as in door
raido (m), Linda
(f), Eda (f), Kadi (f), Diana (f) dd does not occur in Estonian words
k as in English
but without aspiration Heiki (m), Kärt (f), Uku (m), Kerli (f), Koidu (f)
kk the same as k
but longer. Does not occur in common first names but occurs in many other words
like lukk lock, pakk packet, nukk doll, kukkuma to fall, pakkumine offer
p as in English
but without aspiration
Piia (f),
Paavo (m), Pille (f), Aap (m), Kaupo (m), Joosep (m)
pp the same as p
but longer
Epp (f) and also
in many other words like lipp flag, supp soup, hüppama to jump, vapper brave
t as in English
but without aspiration
Taavi (m),
Terje (f),
Rita (f), Toivo (m), Mati (m)
tt the same as t
but longer
Ott (m), Rutt (f), Otto (m) and also in many other words like kott, bag patt sin, rattur biker
*f and m given in brackets
indicate whether it is a woman’s (f) or a man’s (m) name.
T, ‘you’, ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’, ‘we’ and ‘they’ are called
‘personal pronouns’. There are six of them in Estonian. Personal pronouns in
Estonian have a long form (the first in the following table) and a short form
(the second one). We tend to use the short forms in ordinary speech. If we use
the long form we’re showing that we want to give special emphasis to the person
we’re talking about. The short forms are used more often.
The sina/sa is used to mean you when you are speaking informally to someone you know well; teie/te is used to mean you in more formal situations. There is more about this later. Estonian doesn’t make a grammatical distinction between ‘he’ and ‘she’, so there is only one personal pronoun for tema he/she. If we want to make I am into the negative we place the word ei no.
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