Estonian orthography facts for kids

The Estonian language uses its own special way of writing, called orthography. It's based on the Latin alphabet, just like English. The cool thing about Estonian writing is that usually, each letter (or group of letters) stands for just one sound.

Alphabet

The Estonian alphabet (called Estonian: eesti tähestik) has some letters that might look a bit different if you're used to English. Because of influences from German and Swedish, it includes letters like Ä, Ö, and Ü. These letters have two dots above them (called a diaeresis) and make unique vowel sounds. Unlike in German, these letters are seen as completely separate letters in the Estonian alphabet.

A very special letter in Estonian is Õ (an O with a wavy line, called a tilde). It was added in the 1800s by Otto Wilhelm Masing and makes a sound that's a bit like the 'u' in 'but'.

The alphabet also has Š and Ž (S and Z with a little hook, called a caron or háček). Another interesting thing is that the letter Z is placed differently in the Estonian alphabet, not at the end.

The official Estonian alphabet has 27 letters: A, B, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, Š, Z, Ž, T, U, V, Õ, Ä, Ö, Ü. The letters F, Š, Z, Ž are called "foreign letters" (võõrtähed). You'll only find them in words borrowed from other languages or in foreign names. Sometimes, people even say the alphabet without these four letters, making it 23 letters long.

Letters like C, Q, W, X, and Y are also used, but only for writing foreign names. They are not usually found in regular Estonian words and are not officially part of the main alphabet. If you include all these, the alphabet has 32 letters:

When you see double letters, like aa or nn, it means the sound is either "half-long" or "overlong." This is a special feature of Estonian pronunciation.

The letters 'b', 'd', 'g' are often pronounced like 'p', 't', 'k' in Estonian. To help tell them apart, 'b' and 'd' are sometimes called "weak B" and "weak D," while 'p' and 't' are called "strong P" and "strong T."

How Estonian Words Are Written

Estonian writing usually follows a rule where one letter means one sound. But there are a few exceptions, often because of how words have changed over time or how they are built. For example, the letter 'h' at the beginning of some words might not be pronounced, but it's still written. Also, if you can't type š and ž, people sometimes use sh and zh, but this is not the correct way to write them.

Here are some important rules for writing Estonian words:

• Words that start with b, d, g are usually borrowed from other languages. They are often pronounced like 'p', 't', 'k'. For example, pank (meaning 'bank') is an old borrowed word. In the middle or at the end of words, b, d, g are short sounds. p, t, k are half-long, and pp, tt, kk are overlong.
• Before and after certain letters (like b, p, d, t, g, k, s, h, f, š, z, ž), the sounds 'p', 't', 'k' are written as p, t, k.
• The letter h at the start of a word is often not said when people speak, but you should always write it.
• The letter j is used at the beginning of a syllable (a part of a word), but i is used at the end of a diphthong (two vowel sounds together).
• Vowels and some consonants (like h, j, l, m, n, r, s, v) are written once if they are short. They are written twice if they are half-long or overlong. For example, lina (meaning 'sheet') has a short 'n', but linna (meaning 'town') has a long 'n'.
• Two vowels together (diphthongs) and groups of consonants are usually written with single letters.
• The single letters f and š in the middle or at the end of a word are half-long sounds. If they are written as ff and šš, they are overlong.
• Estonian has a feature called palatalization, where a sound is made with the middle of your tongue touching the roof of your mouth. This sound is not shown in writing. For example, kann can mean 'jug' or 'toy', and you can only tell the difference by how it's pronounced or by other words around it.
• The stress (which part of the word you say louder) is usually on the first part of the word. It's not shown in writing.

Breaking Words into Syllables

Knowing how to break words into syllables helps with reading and writing.

• If there's one consonant between two vowels, it usually goes with the second vowel. For example, kala (fish) is broken into ka-la.
• If there are groups of consonants, they are usually broken before the last consonant. For example, linna (town) is lin-na.
• When you're writing and need to split a word at the end of a line, you use these rules. You should never leave a single letter alone on a line.

Foreign Words

When words from other languages come into Estonian, they are usually changed to fit Estonian spelling. For example, 'web' becomes veeb and 'jazz' becomes džäss. However, some foreign words or phrases might keep their original spelling, especially if they are from Latin or are musical terms. When this happens, they are often written in italic letters and use an apostrophe when you add Estonian endings to them. For example, croissant'id (meaning 'croissants').

Foreign names, like people's names or city names, are usually written just as they are in their original language. So, you'd write Margaret Thatcher or Bordeaux. But names from languages that don't use the Latin alphabet (like Russian) are written using Estonian sounds. Some famous places or historical figures have special Estonian names, like Viin for Vienna.

When you make new words from foreign names (like adding suffixes), they usually keep their original spelling. But some very common ones have changed over time, like marksism (Marxism).

Capital Letters

Capital letters are used in Estonian just like in English:

• At the beginning of the first word in a sentence.
• For proper names (like people's names, city names).
• For official names that act like proper names.
• Sometimes, the words for 'you' (Sina for singular, Teie for plural or formal) are capitalized to show respect.

Things that are NOT capitalized in Estonian include:

• Names of months and days of the week.
• Holidays.
• Job titles like professor.

Titles of books, movies, and similar things are put in quotation marks. Only the first word and any proper names inside the title are capitalized.

Compound Words

In Estonian, words that are made up of two or more smaller words are usually written as one word. For example, peatükk means 'chapter' (made from 'pea' meaning 'head' and 'tükk' meaning 'piece'). But if you write pea tükk (two words), it means 'part of a head'. So, writing them together changes the meaning!

A hyphen (-) is used in compound words in a few situations:

• When one part is a letter (like C-vitamiin for 'vitamin C').
• When one part is an abbreviation (like teksti-TV for 'text TV').
• In compound adjectives where the first part is a proper name.
• In geographical names like Lõuna-Eesti (South Estonia).
• To connect two words that share a common part, like kuld- ja hõbeesemed (gold and silver things).

Abbreviations

You can use a period (full stop) after an abbreviation, but it's not always required. Many common abbreviations don't use a period, like vt for vaata (see). If an abbreviation might be confused with another word, it's a good idea to use a period. For example, joon. for joonis (figure) to avoid confusion with joon (line).

A hyphen is sometimes used in abbreviations of compound words, especially when an abbreviation is combined with a full word.

Numbers

Numbers can be written out in words (üks for 'one', kaks for 'two') or as figures (1, 2, 3). In Estonian, a comma (,) is used for decimals, and a space is used to separate thousands (like 1 000 000). For dates, times, prices, and sports results, a period (.) is used as a separator. For example, 16.15 or 16:15 for time.

When numbers are written in words:

• Numbers from 11 to 19, tens (20, 30), and hundreds (100, 200) are written as one word (e.g., viisteist for 'fifteen').
• Other compound numbers are written as separate words (e.g., kakskümmend viis for 'twenty-five').

For ordinal numbers (like 'first', 'second'), a period is used after the figure: 16. for 'the sixteenth'. Sometimes, Roman numerals are used for ordinal numbers without a period.

You can add Estonian endings to numbers, either with or without a hyphen. For example, 16s or 16-s. If the ending starts with 'l', a hyphen is always used to avoid confusion with the digit 1 (e.g., 16-le).

Punctuation

Punctuation marks help make sentences clear.

• The period (.) ends sentences. It's also used for ordinal numbers and sometimes for abbreviations or in numbers.
• The comma (,) separates parts of sentences, items in a list (but not the last two items), and clauses. It's also used in addresses and between surnames and given names if the surname comes first.
• The colon (:) introduces lists, direct speech, or explanations. It's also used in times and ratios.
• The semicolon (;) separates parts of a sentence that are related but could stand alone, especially if they already contain commas.
• The hyphen (-) is used in compound words (see above). It also helps split words at the end of a line.
• The dash (—) can show a pause, introduce a surprise, or mean "from...to." It's also used in dialogues.
• The exclamation mark (!) and question mark (?) end excited or questioning sentences. They can also be put in parentheses to show doubt or surprise. An exclamation mark is used when addressing someone in a letter, like Austatud professor Pirk! (Dear Professor Pirk!).
• Quotation marks („ ”) are used for direct speech, quotes, and titles of books or movies.
• The apostrophe (') is used to add Estonian endings to foreign names or words that keep their original spelling. It can also be used in Estonian names to make the original form clear, or in poetry to show a missing sound.
• Parentheses ( ) are used for extra information or optional parts of words.
• Square brackets [ ] are used for notes added by the person quoting something, or to show pronunciation in language books.
• The slash (/) is used in fractions, to connect choices, or to show line breaks in poetry.
• The ellipsis (...) shows a pause or an unfinished thought. It's surrounded by spaces.

History of Estonian Writing

The way Estonian is written today is based on the "Newer Orthography," which was created in the second half of the 1800s by Eduard Ahrens. It was inspired by how Finnish is written. Before that, there was an "Older Orthography" from the 1600s, which was based more on German writing. In the old system, writing was a bit different: for example, kala (fish) was written as kalla. The special letter õ was introduced by Otto Wilhelm Masing in the early 1800s. Before that, its sound wasn't clearly written down.

Sometimes, when Estonian words or names were written in international publications from Soviet times, they were changed from Russian spellings. This could make them look very different from their actual Estonian spelling. For example, Pärnu might have been written as Pyarnu.

See also

• Estonian Braille
• Finnish alphabet