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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Altaica Triglot Newbie Estonia Joined 4799 days ago 9 posts - 13 votes Speaks: Estonian*, EnglishC2, French Studies: German, Russian | Message 25 of 25 19 March 2011 at 4:15pm | IP Logged |
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South-Estonian consists of four dialects - Võro, Seto, Mulgi and Tarto. Võro is spoken by approximately 50,000 people (and counting down). Tarto is extinct but actually it was the dialect that was used as a literary language at the end of the 16th century. The Great Nothern War and the demolition of Tartu by Russion forces in 1708 put the end to southern Estonian developing into the standard language of Estonia. Mulgi is also almost extinct (and how beautiful poems have been written in this language!). Võro and Seto people try to give their best to keep the language alive (by standardising it). I think they have done well considering the fact that during the Soviet occupation our own intelligentsia wanted to see the whole Estonia speaking the one language - Estonian (the only means of identity, a form of resistance etc). So, during the 60s children were forced to speak standard Estonian by their Võro and Seto speaking parents. At the moment, these languages (or, as many linguists from the 60s still highlight - "di-a-lects"; oh, you can't imagine the arguments I have had about the words "language" and "dialect") serve as a cultural badge for the people living in the border areas. And as the previous post noted, some linguists really see soutern Estonian as a language that is considerably older that northern Estonian.
Unfortunately, at the moment is seems that the Võru and Seto language are on the brink of extinction as the young people who could carry the language move to Tallinn and Tartu or leave Estonia entirely. But you'll never know - look what's happening to Livonian! It seems that I/ we have digressed from the original subject. I'm sorry. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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