Monday, July 30, 2018
Southern Estonian features
Southern Estonian features
I decided to write this post to share with fellow learners some interesting points I came across whilst reading Jaan Kaplinskis childrens collection of short stories P�hjatuul ja l�unatuul. The first little tale is called Siga taevatamme all (Pig under the sky-oak) which tells the tale of a pig who escapes from his pen and goes wandering in the countryside and I want to reproduce some of the lines here and discuss them a little.
As a learner of Estonian I am quite certain you very familiar with the demonstrative pronoun see and all its forms: selle, seda, sellese, ses/selles etc. However, I wonder if you have come across too. While this pronoun is perfectly acceptable in standard Estonian its usage is far less common and gives the piece a more distinctive southern Estonian feel.
The second southern feature I would like to draw your attention to is the use of a double � versus the standard ae diphthong. Its archaic Estonian and as such is not a feature of the modern standard language but, again, is quite common amongst southern Estonians speaking the state language (riigikeel). Also, in running through the few shortish sentences I will point out other features that are of general interest and not stereotypically southern.
Misuke suur �un s��l puu otsas kasvab (Missugune suur �un seal puu otsas kasvab.)
What a big apple grows in that tree over there.
Misuke is colloquial for missugune. Notice that seal is rendered as s��l, a distinctly southern form. Puu otsas means in a tree, up a tree. There is an Estonian expression that incorporates this phrase: Mina olin puu otsas kui pauk k�is! I was up the tree when the bomb went off, i.e. I havent the foggist what happened/ I wasnt involved.
Peaks uurima, kus tolle tamme t�vi on.
(I) must investigate where this oaks trunk is.
Remember that the -ma form of a verb is used after peama (see here and here for a discussion). Tolle is the genitive singular of too just like selle is the genitive singular of see. The word t�vi can mean trunk as in tree trunk but it can also mean the root of a word as in: S�na t��lt t�vi on t�� The root of t��lt "at work" is t��.
Siga oleks tahtnud toda t�ru �les otsida, aga kust sa ikka otsid.
The pig would have wanted to search for this acorn but where would you look? Toda is the partitive singular form.
Taevas ei olnud �htegi t�ru, ainult �ks suur �mmargune tuline �un paistis s��lt [sealt].
There wasnt any acorn in the sky at all, only one big round firey apple shining from there. Here sealt is rendered as s��lt.
Peaks ikka sulgu tagasi minema: s��l ei ole k�ll �una ja t�rusid �levalt alla kukkumas...
I must indeed return to the pen: there isnt of course any apples nor acorns falling from above.
Here again seal is rendered as s��l. Notice the use of the inessive case marker -s at the end of the verb alla kukkuma to fall down to make alla kukkumas in the act of falling down. Estonian verb infinitives can take the inessive ending to state what action is currently happening.
Lapsed on laulmas The children are engaged in singing
Mul on k�ik olemas I have everything.
...aga kindlasti k�na juba ootamas, h��d rokka ja kartuleid t�is
but for certain the trough is waiting full of good feed and potatoes.
Here head, partitive singular (or nominative plural) of hea is rendered as h��d. For southerns it is common also to say p�� rather than pea head as in the town Otep�� Bears Head (the symbol of the town is a bears head).
I hope that you learned something from todays post and that the end one will come shortly (after after half a years wait!).
N�gemiseni! Until the next time!
