Estonian
Lists: Natural languages | Language families | Conlangs | Other Lists
Fact corner
- Language: Estonian
- Alternate names: Eesti, Viro, eesti keel
- SIL-code: Ethnologue:est
- Language family: Uralic, Finnic
- Number of speakers: 1,075,497
- Script: Latin script
On this page... (hide)
Introduction
Estonian is the official language of Estonia. It is a Finnic language and is closely related to Finnish.
A feature that sets Estonian apart from most languages is the vowel õ ([ɤ]), a close-mid near-back unrounded vowel, which is farther back than the schwa ([ə]), but unrounded unlike [o].
The Verb
Verb conjugation of Estonian follows to a great extent that of Finnish.
The verbal system lacks a distinctive future tense (the present tense serves here) and features special forms to express an action performed by an undetermined subject (the "impersonal").
Sample verb: elada 'to live'
| INDICATIVE | CONDITIONAL | IMPERATIVE | ||
| Present | Past | |||
| Sg.1 | elan | elasin | elaksin | - |
| Sg.2 | elad | elasid | elaksid | ela |
| Sg.3 | elab | elas | elaks | elagu |
| Pl.1 | elame | elasime | elaksime | elagem |
| Pl.2 | elate | elasite | elaksite | elage |
| Pl.3 | elavad | elasid | elaksid | elagu |