Estonian: A voyage to understanding (Language Learning Log) Language Learning Forum

Estonian: A voyage to understanding
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Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log

11 messages over 2 pages: 1 2

Chung
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Message 9 of 11

13 February 2012 at 1:39am | IP Logged

aabram wrote:

I haven't seen those books you're speaking about but here's a quick tip to figure out
declension forms for any particular word. Look the nominative form up in
http://www.eki.ee/dict/qs/ and see if there's
hyperlinked number behind the headword (there should be). This number shows word type
and clicking on it shows you main forms for that particular type of words. There are 69
types and once you figure out type number you should be able to decline the word you
just looked up, at least in theory.

For example, suppose you're looking for "sammas". It's type 33 "ratas/kallas". Just as
you'd form
kallas, kalda, kallast, kaldasse, kallaste, kaldaid, kallastesse, kaldaisse
you can form
sammas, samba, sammast, sambasse, sammaste, sambaid, sammastesse, sambaisse

I can't believe that I overlooked Eesti õigekeelsussõnaraamat ÕS 2006. With a bit of practice and comparison to the glossaries in "Teach Yourself Estonian" or "Estonian Textbook" you can figure out which case corresponds to the inflected words in the entry.
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Chung
Diglot
Senior Member
Joined 7159 days ago
4228 posts - 8259 votes

20 sounds
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish

Message 10 of 11

13 February 2012 at 1:44am | IP Logged

Tecktight wrote:

May I just say, I am so thrilled that you decided to make this log, as I have started learning Estonian, as well! I'm
only in the very beginning stages, because a) I haven't had time and b) I've been discouraged by the lack of
materials and the constant barrage of petty "why is this useful?" questions from friends fellows.

I've only really had an introduction to the language through some German course for Estnisch I found online. I just
ordered 'Teach Yourself,' though, and I'm eagerly awaiting its arrival from Amazon.

I'll be following this log with disturbing intensity, so please don't be alarmed by my enthusiasm. And good luck to
you, as well!

Don't forget also about ONENESS' Estonian course for English-speaking beginners.
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gdoyle1990
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian, Serbian, Estonian

Message 11 of 11

13 February 2012 at 2:41am | IP Logged

Wow, I'm glad someone posted! I knew I hadn't updated it for a while, but I didn't realize it had been 10 days!

I have been having a lot of fun playing around with the Eesti õigekeelsussõnaraamat. I've been looking up all of the words I know and comparing them with the paradigms they list to see if they match up. I've actually been having a little too much fun with it, I need a more active social life!

I haven't updated for a while because I've recently had a bout of exams and I was busy trying to catch up on all of the material I missed, because I'm a lazy senior and I decided class wasn't too important. I've also been looking into graduate schools and job opportunities in Estonia/Finland and in the Balkans. I've found several interesting graduate programs in Anthropology, Cultural semiotics, Finno-Ugric linguistics, general linguistics, and even Slavic linguistics at universities in Tallinn and Tartu, but the ones I'm most interested in are taught exclusively in Estonian, and it would be impossible to be ready for that by the application deadlines, I even have my doubts about being ready for admission next fall. At any rate, I think I'm going to focus on becoming at least moderately financially independent and stable before entering graduate study.

Anyway, that was a long and useless aside. I've been studying most intensively recently, and I spent between 4 and 5 hours studying on Wednesday. I was sitting in the library with my friends and I just got in the zone, haha! I've been dealing mainly with vocabulary though, so my grammar may be horrendous right now. "E nagu Eesti" is really a godsend because I'm able to memorize the vocabulary without translating it into English first.

Also, I know word count is a pretty pointless way of measuring progress, but I got bored waiting for some friends recently and decided to list all of the words I could remember (including all of the important forms) and I came up with around 120-130 that I knew completely, plus many more that I could only remember certain case/tense forms for. I'm not sure where that "puts me" in terms of progress, but I just thought it was fun. *I seriously need to reevaluate what "fun" means, haha.*

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