Delaney Michael Skerrett

1
The Estonian Language Past, Present, and Future
Perspectives

• Delaney Michael Skerrett
• d.skerrett_at_uq.edu.au

2
Map of the presentation

• Socio-Historical Perspective
• Introduction to Estonia(n)
• Estonia(n) the Soviet occupation
• Present Future Perspectives
• Overview of policy usage by domain
• Ethnicity of Estonian population
• Identity features of non-ethnic Estonians
• Language use
• Future perspectives

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ESTONIAN IN THE SOCIO-HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
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Introduction To Estonia(n)
5
Estonia

• One of three Baltic states
• North-East Europe on Baltic Sea
• Capital Tallinn (Taani Linn Danish
  Castle/City)
• 1.3m inhabitants
• Approx. size of Denmark, Netherlands (but bigger
  ?)
• Independent 1918-1939, 1991-
• Occupied by Soviet Union 1939
• Member of EU NATO since 2004

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Estonian

• Approx. 1.1m native speakers
• Estonia (950,000), border regions, immigrants
  in Russia, USA, Canada, Australia, Sweden,
  Finland
• Finno-Ugric language in the Uralic family
• Not genetically related to the Indo-European
  languages (e.g. Russian, Latvian, English)
• One of the three national FU languages of Europe
  (Finnish Hungarian)

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History of Estonian

• -19thc. only texts were religious
• All official documents in German plus briefly
  Russian at end of 19thc.
• 1857 weekly newspaper Perno Postimees
• 1st mention of Eesti rahvas (Estonian people)
  previously only maarahvas (people of the land
  also maakeel language of the language) used
• Eesti either a German or Swedish borrowing
• 1861 epic Kalevipoeg complied/composed
• 1906 language of education

9
Standardised Estonian

• National harmonisation 1914
• Based on Tallinn dialect
• Translation of whole Bible 1739 Tartu (southern)
  dialect had been used first but only for the New
  Testament
• During 1st independence (1920s, 30s)
• Standardisation, modernisation
• Replacement of German orthography with one
  similar to Finnish
• Replacement of much German vocab with
  international, Finnish, and new (ex nihilo) terms

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Features of Estonian

• Agglutinative (like Finnish, other FU languages)
• Although moving towards inflectional
• 14 grammatical cases
• Vowel-rich (VC 4555)
• Kuuuurijate töööö jäääärel
• Täppidega lipsud sobivad esinduslikele
  teatrijuhtidelegi
• Täppi-de-ga lipsu-d sobi-vad esinduslike-le
  teatri-juhti-de-le-gi
• Baltic Sprachbund Estonian Latvian (German
  Livonian)
• e.g. I have to/on me there is mul on
  (Est.) man ir (Lat.)
• Approx. 50 of Estonian vocab of non-FU origin
  (mostly from German) 1/3 if international terms
  (Greek Latin origin) not included

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Nuestro ruiseñor ha ido a otra parte este año
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Võro Kiil
Estonian Võro Finnish English Castellano
koer pini koira dog perro
lind tsirk lintu bird ave
saba hand häntä tail cola
kask kõiv koivu birch abedul
oder kesv ohra barley cebada
loom elläi eläin animal animal
Me ei saanud onu talus teed juua. (Est.) Saaq õs
miq lellä eloh tsäid juvvaq. (Võro) We could not
have a tea at the uncle's farm. (English) No
pudimos tomar un té en la granja del tío. (Cast.)
http//www.wi.ee/?id64
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Estonia(n) the Soviet occupation
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Estonian Soviet Ideology

• Language in every public situation acquired a
  symbolic meaning in relation to communist
  ideology
• the media were used for creating an
  alternative reality, an ideologically correct
  symbolic environment, filled with content
  designed to socialize the audience to the ideas
  and values of Communism
• Estonian continued to be used in parallel to
  Russian but significant prestige given to
  Russian
• the Russian language seems to me like a huge
  bridge of sunbeams over which the Latvian heart
  will climb to high horizons (Latvian poet)
• Myths created regarding past friendships between
  Estonians Russians/other Slavs
• Language myths to promote Russian the language
  of international communication, Russian as
  second national language, voluntarily adopted,
  common lexical fund, mutual enrichment of
  languages, convergence and fusion of peoples

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Linguistic Manipulation Estonia

• 10-20m publications destroyed
• 86 of books all periodicals from the
  independence period banned
• Ideological renaming of streets, publications
  (Rahva Hääl, Edasi, etc)
• New connotations
• Positive dictatorship (of the proletariat),
  revolution, communism, socialism, party,
  apolitical, plan
• Negative nationalist, nation, capitalist,
  bourgeois
• Direct borrowing or translating from Russian,
  especially for Soviet phenomena (kolhoos,
  kosmonaut, etc)
• No official linguistic Russification until 1978
  recommendations sent to each Republic on
  promoting Russian as the new native language
• Russian to increase in the media, cultural
  groups, education
• Russian the default language of administration in
  larger cities/North East

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Sociocultural Repression

• Over half of writers lost (fled, deported),
  others stopped writing
• the end of the 1950s was, as we all remember, a
  time where artists and poets no longer found
  themselves jobs in second-hand shops, and
  nightwatchmen or stoker poets were not yet in
  fashion (Kross)
• Cultural organisations closed, local branches of
  All-Union organisations opened
• Cultural publications included political material
• Only standardised, politicised forms of
  expression allowed (nationalist, abstract forms
  banned)
• Dull, vague, militaristic use of language in the
  press
• Less than 22 of Tartu Uni faculty remained

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Censorship Estonia

• Prohibited non-Soviet versions of history,
  national traditions, religion, presence of Soviet
  military, explicit discussion of sex,
  homosexuality, prostitution, various diseases,
  the exact populations of towns of less than
  10,000 people, the migratory routes of birds
• Books in exotic languages
• Permitted harmonious, happy, cohesive,
  progressive portrayal of the Soviet Union
• All publications censored at some level (but more
  local levels less controlled)

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Cultural Linguistic Maintenance

• Creativity what where to write
• Cultural forms of opposition
• Maintenance of language itself as a form of
  cultural/political opposition
• Census 1970 29 said could speak Rus 1979
  decreased to 24
• Loosening of censorship
• Private national world vs. public ideology

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Planned Migration

• Large numbers of immigrants
• Industrialisation but most likely also
  ethnolinguistic manipulation
• Estonian-speakers
• 88.2 in 1934 (close to 100 just before
  occupation) ? 61.6 in 1989

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Ethnodemographic changes (Baltic states)
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Ethnodemographic changes (Baltic states)
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Titular language proficiency in Baltic states
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Diglossia

• relationship in which a low variety (B) finds
  itself subordinated to a high variety (A)
  The high variety is used in formal situations
  and activities considered to be of high prestige,
  as in parliamentary debates, court proceedings,
  government business, and activities of high
  culture including education, high literature
  and periodical publications of high
  circulation
• Not fully diglossic (esp. in regional areas)
• Now somewhat reversed BUT Rus as a big language,
  spoken in many countries

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Results of the Regime

• Replacement of Estonian with Russian in most
  public spheres in interethnic communication
• Privileged social status of Russian(-speakers) in
  Estonia USSR in general
• Russian required for government, military,
  transport, industry, higher education
• Non-Estonians (inc. Ukrainians Belarusians)
  schooled in Russian
• Full set of social institutions in Russian
  partial set in Estonian
• Asymmetric bilingualism where Estonian as the
  (local) majority language was the less
  prestigious
• Minorised local language majorised immigrant
  language
• Minority complex of Estonian-speakers
• High level of linguistic tolerance of speakers
  of other languages, esp. Russian (but also
  Finnish)
• Expectation of Rus. speakers to be able to be
  monolingual

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Present FUTURE perspectiveS
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Overview of language usage policy by domain

• State language Est only
• Naturalisation requirement for citizenship for
  Soviet-era immigrants
• State institutions Est only except where a
  minority is a majority (e.g. Narva) interpreters
  provided in court
• It may not be the case in practice however e.g.
  tram drivers, corrections system. Also many
  public servants in Ida Virumaa
• Education Rus provided at primary 2ndary
  levels (chaning) universities Est only (extra
  Est courses provided)
• Service sector Est always available (in theory
  mostly in practice except e.g. Narva)
• Industry often Rus
• Agriculture Est

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Ethnicity of Estonian population
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Ethnic composition 2008

• Just over half of non-ethnic Estonians (16.3 of
  total population) are not citizens (mostly
  Russian citizens or stateless, approx. 50/50)

30
Immigrants by region 2008

• Immigrant in these statistics refers to
  foreign-born those with 1 foreign-born parent
• Distribution in Est different to Latvia each
  case has its own particular difficulties

31
Immigrant Estonian ability by region

• Refers to of immigrants in each region that can
  speak Est
• Figures are high in most areas

32
Changing ethnic composition of population

• Among school-aged children (7-16 years old)
  Estonians now make up 77-78 of the population
  (versus 68 overall)

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Identity features of non-ethnic Estonians
34
In-group identification

• Russian Russian-speaker (conceptually )
• Identification with Estonian low but category
  is quite exclusive
• Identification with physical Estonian space more
  so that national identity

35
Homeland affiliation

• Identification with Russia as homeland is quite
  low identity is Russian but not with Russia

36
Homeland by generation

• Figures significantly higher in the 2nd generation

37
Naturalisation

• 2007 8.5 stateless
• Most social legal rights same (inc. voting in
  local elections) but
• Cannot vote in national elections
• Cannot stand for election
• Geographical and linguistic separation
• Social exclusion
• Rate of naturalisation slowed
• EU saw increase Schengen decrease
• Approx. 4000 children under 15 years are
  stateless despite simplified procedures
• Most stateless residents wish to become citizens
  but only around 20 feel they have the language
  skills

38
Feeling part of the nation 2005-2007

• Non-ethnic Estonians yes 80 with
  citizenship, 59 non-citizens, 54 other
  citizenship
• Legal belonging does not equal social belonging
• Distrust on part of ethnic Estonians
• Increased after April 2007
• 34 -ve/28 ve increased participation of
  non-ethnic Estonian in politics
• Russias compatriot policy ethnic Russians are
  part of Russias sphere of interest
• Increases fear of Estonians

39
Identification with Est. society

• Figures are quite high potential for
  integration is high

40
Feeling of being welcome

• 2nd generation feels less welcome (versus more
  Soviet-style belonging of 1st generation)

41
Discrimination

• Quite high but reasonably moderate

42
Politics

• Estonians uniformly critical of Soviet period
• Non-ethnic Estonians tend to be for higher levels
  of income
• Majority of Russian-speakers support (Estonian)
  Centre Party
• Also supported by ethnic Estonians with feelings
  of (economic) exclusion
• 2005 24/63 members elected in Tallinn were
  Russian-speaking
• Their desire to distance themselves from ethnic
  party politics gives us reason to believe that
  the potential for the development of multiethnic
  worldview-based parties and a corresponding
  electorate in Estonia is high which is clearly
  more beneficial to ... separation along ethnic
  lines (Lauristin et al 2008)

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Language use
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Language skills 1987-2007

• Passive knowledge (fluent)
• Estonians
• English 39-73
• Finnish 32-62
• Both higher in younger grps
• Russian 88(23)-91(22)
• Significantly lower in younger grps more than
  half youngest group cannot understand Russian
• Russian-speakers
• Estonian 42-83
• English 20-53
• Both higher in younger grps

45
Interethnic language choices

• Most use mixing strategy
• BUT 30 Est only Est 40 others only Rus
• Overall Rus still more the lingua franca than Est
• Half Rus over 45yrs use only Rus (continued
  Soviet mentality)
• 49 Rus say they have no problems communicating
  only in Rus
• Max. Est only using Rus 8 (in oldest grp)
  decline of Soviet mentality
• Growing shift towards Est, however 45 of
  youngest Est grp uses only Est

46
Use of Estonian in public

• Use in last month
• General increase esp. so in informal areas but
  also some decline in more formal domains

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Proficiency acquisition behaviour
Name   Gender Age Estonian citizen Score /10 Gaps in Proficiency Acquistion Behaviour
Russian-speaking sub-sample Russian-speaking sub-sample Russian-speaking sub-sample Russian-speaking sub-sample Russian-speaking sub-sample Russian-speaking sub-sample Russian-speaking sub-sample
Mia     Female 22  Yes 7 or 8  None reported (states that not even native-speakers should received a perfect score of ten) Decided to attend an Estonian language high school Attended Estonian-language university Has Estonian friends Consumes Estonian media
Jill Female 26 Yes 8 Vocabulary Attended Estonian-language kindergarten
      Studied (Finnish) at Estonian-language university
      Has Estonian relatives
            Consumes Estonian media
Emily Female 22 Yes 9.5 Accent Went to Estonian kindergarten
      Able to consume Estonian media but generally does not
      Has Estonian friends
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Public language choice
 Name  Languages spoken Initial code choice when interlocutor's language is  Initial code choice when interlocutor's language is    Comments
 Name  Unknown Known   Comments
Russian-speaking sub-sample Russian-speaking sub-sample Russian-speaking sub-sample    
Mia RU, ET, EN Estonian/ Russian Estonian/ Russian Checks name for ethnicity in public places will generally choose Russian in areas such as Lasnamäe and Ida-Virumaa even for unknown
Jill RU, ET, FI, EN Estonian Estonian/ Russian/ Finnish Checks name for ethnicity in public places occasionally uses Finnish with colleagues
Emily RU, ET, EN, DE, (FR), (ES) Estonian/ Russian Estonian/ Russian Check name for ethnicity in public places occasionally insists on service in Russian, especially in expensive locations
49
Normalised public usage?

• sometimes I want to be served in Russian . If
  I go to a place where I know its a very you
  know, high quality (Emily)
• Really I dont understand that if I know
  that my friends know Estonian but choose Russian
  its not normal (Mia)
• Ah, sometimes I dont know is the person
  Russian or Estonian so I start with Estonian of
  course Because it is the state language
  (Jill)

50
Integrative value of Estonian

• I know what is happening around me. Others, they
  live like in their own small communities, like a
  small environment. They dont know language, they
  dont care about the country But they live
  poor lives, they have miserable lives (Emily)
• because if a Russian person doesnt know
  Estonian here, a young person, its not normal,
  because all his life depends on Estonian here
  (Mia) 

51
National paradigm

• If we go to live in another country we
  definitely learn the language I think
  Estonians are right. I mean, if some Russian
  people in Estonia or wherever go to France
  how would they live without French? (Emily)
• Because its very funny, you try to go to Russia
  and say you know now I think that the Arabian
  language is better, lets make this the state
  language. What would Russians say? You know?
  (Jill)
• because if you for example, you go to America
  and you go to the shop and speak for example
  Chinese (Jill)

52
Usefulness of Estonian

• Knowledge of Est increases job opportunities but
  53 ( increasing) Rus say its possible to get a
  good job without it
• Est useful but not necessary
• Estonians aware of this
• High ( increasing) Est believe that increase
  in Est skills will solve ethnic problems
• Increasing tendency to believe so for
  Russian-speakers too

53
Threat of English

• Under the age of 30
• Russian-speakers can speak Estonian English
• The increase has been the same since independence
  (approx. 100 for both)
• Estonians can speak English
• Lingua franca is either thus Estonian or English
• For all age groups 10 Est 5 Rus say they
  sometimes use a 3rd language (mostly Eng)
• 43 Rus say its normal to speak English to
  Estonians
• Overall Est still stronger than Eng among
  Russian-speakers
• Even in Ida-Virumaa, according to 2000 census in
  no city was the ability to speak Eng higher than
  Est closest was 56 in Sillamäe

54
Use of English

• I rang about a work issue and asked to be put
  through to the accountant. The person who
  answered the phone couldnt speak a word of
  Estonian and as my Russian is poor we couldnt
  get by and after a few minutes she just hung up
  without knowing what I wanted. As it was a
  hospital I find this completely unacceptable. An
  hour later I rang back and spoke English. The
  same woman said in Estonian in a strong accent
  oodake-oodake wait, wait and gave the phone
  to a man who could speak English who gave me the
  accountants number. The accountant was also a
  monolingual Russian so in the end I got help from
  a Russian-speaking colleague of mine
• Particular attention needs to be paid to Estonian
  acquisition efforts in Ida-Virumaa

55
Changes in Estonian Russian

• Post-independence changes in Rus spoken in
  Estonia suggest integrative tendencies
• Lexical morphosyntactic changes specific to
  Estonia (from Estonian)
• e.g. stavit v golovu from pähe panema (put to
  the head)
• impossible in monolingual Russian for a
  monolingual speaker of Standard Russian the
  meaning remains opaque (Verschik, 2007, p.
  91).

56
Use of Estonian in IT

• While IT products are available in Estonian they
  are not necessarily used
• Est usage is high in searches, using online
  services online communication

57
Use of Estonian in IT

• Estonians are more bothered by having to use IT
  products/services in English than Russians but
  younger age groups much less so
• i.e. young Estonians are willing to use English

58
Education reform

• From 2007/8 school year, at least one subject
  must be taught in Estonian
• Original plan to transfer all 2ndary schooling to
  Estonian in 2003
• More cautious approach
• Aim now to teach 60 of subjects in years 10-12
  from 2011

59
Changing schooling tendencies

• 1999-2006
• Est. 72-78
• Rus. 28-20
• 2 tendencies supporting Est
• Decreasing of Russian-speakers
• Increasing preference for Estonian-medium schools
• 1/6 students in Est schools

60
Media

• 1/5 reg follow Est media
• Local Rus lang press radio popular
• But no TV Baltic version of Russian national
  channel based in Riga 20min Est. news per day
• New state-funded cable channel with more Rus
  programming
• Otherwise TV programming from Russia
• Need for local Rus TV channel
• 60 Rus trust Est produced media vs 38 produced
  in Moscow

61
Võro Kiil

• Although Võro language is taught spoken in SE
  Estonia
• regional identity is effectively marginalized in
  Estonian education (Brown, 2005, p.79) because
  of a focus on (1) national and (2) European
  identities
• schools today utilize physical and social space
  to glorify Europeanness and qualities of Estonian
  nationalism (p. 82)
• European identity as an expression of national
  identity it unites us all as Europeans, as
  Estonians (Maahla teacher, p. 83)
• the vitality of the nation is expressed through
  the vitality of the national language. In this
  ideology there is little room for the study of
  regional languages (p. 84)
• Võro relegated to dialect status in school
  textbook The Estonian people can be considered
  lucky that one standard language manage to be
  developed. If the small nation had been
  fragmented on the basis of two standard
  languages, this could have presented a danger to
  both languages and the vitality of the nation
  (Õunpuu Õunpuu in Brown, p. 84)

62
Future perspectives
63
Proposed new language law

• Emphasis on purism, correctness of usage
  including fines for incorrect use in the media
  (now dropped)
• Business names would need to include Estonian
  e.g. Pank Swedbank
• the cornerstone of everything is the status of
  the Estonian language, thats why I cant be
  satisfied with the new draft policy (Mart Rannut)

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Purist discourse

• Here weve got, for example, Russians,
  Ukrainians who speak Estonian their own way. The
  mistakes will spread and get stronger. As result
  of our countrys integration policy, the language
  will become unrecognisable. From a language
  protection perspective, the best thing would not
  to have integrationRussians would speak their
  own language and Estonians would speak Estonian
  amongst themselves, without dealing with each
  other (Urmas Sutrop, Director, Estonian Language
  Institute, 2008)
• BUT impossible not to deal with each other
  interaction will occur the question is will it
  be in Estonian or English

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Analytical Framework

• Historical-Structural Approach (Tollefson, 1991)
• Neo-Classical vs. Historical-Structural
• Focus on individual (as autonomous) vs. focus on
  discursive environment
• in contrast to the neoclassical model it
  assumes that the primary goal of research and
  analysis is to discover the historical and
  structural pressures that lead to particular
  policies and plans and that constrain individual
  choice (p. 32)
• Behaviour is produced and constrained within a
  network of social relations (discourse), but not
  predetermined by it
• Cf. Foucault (1978) Power is not possessed or
  appropriated as a commodity or a piece of wealth
  but rather is exercised through a net-like
  organisation Individuals circulate between
  its threads and are always in the position of
  simultaneously undergoing and exercising this
  power (1980, p. 98).

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Critical LP Estonia

• Understanding present (attitudes towards)
  language use in Estonia
• Estonians operating within nation-state
  discursive framework
• Annexation was always occupation Soviet identity
  was myth
• (Esp. older) Russian-speakers operating within
  Soviet discursive framework
• Estonia was part of Soviet state not immigrants
  Soviet identity had meaning
• Rather than seeing Rus. as lazy or
  unmotivated need to understand why they behave
  the way they do to be able to promote integration
  acquisition of Estonian

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Where does this leave us?

• (Partial) ecological approach
• Knowledge within language is valuable (e.g.
  Nettle and Romaine 2000)
• Need to maintain diversity
• Doing different languages e.g. Estonian,
  Võro, Estonian Russian is worthy of
  promotion, protection
• Queer Theory/Poststructuralism
• Need to make Estonianness a queerer, more
  inclusive identity (i.e. poststructuralist
  approach) to achieve more equitable outcomes for
  a wider proportion of Estonian society

68
Summary of future perspectives

• Growing proportion of ethnic Estonians hopefully
  offset postcolonial fears defensive attitude
• Still need for more inclusive concept of
  Estonianness, acceptance of diversity
• Bronze Soldier events externalised caused by
  Russian policies actors
• Need for removal of barriers to social economic
  advancement esp. in Ida-Virumaa, fostering a
  discourse of mutual trust respect
• Positive potential for political integration
• Estonian Language Development Plan 2011-2017
• Changing ethnodemographics mean greater
  usefulness of Estonian in society (plus increased
  status education national paradigm) but Ida
  Virumaa will remain largely monolingual for the
  foreseeable future and needs closer attention to
  the specific needs of the region
• Great potential for integration on the basis of
  the Estonian language but problems of exclusion
  isolation remain

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• Gràcies
• Aitäh
• Thanks
• d.skerrett_at_uq.edu.au