Category
Topic
Year
The forms chosen for the expression of negation in the 17th- and 18th-century North Estonian texts
Keywords: old literary language, negation, variation, usage-based method
This article deals with the expression of clausal negation and its variation in the 17th– and 18th-century North Estonian ecclesiastical and didactical texts. The aim of this study is to find out which forms convey clausal negation, how their usage changes during the two centuries, and how large the extent of variation is in the scope of particle-like negation forms. The broader goal is to observe how the literary standard develops during that time.
This study is usage-based and explores 600 different negation clauses (300 tagged examples from either century). The negation forms were…
This article deals with the expression of clausal negation and its variation in the 17th– and 18th-century North Estonian ecclesiastical and didactical texts. The aim of this study is to find out which forms convey clausal negation, how their usage changes during the two centuries, and how large the extent of variation is in the scope of particle-like negation forms. The broader goal is to observe how the literary standard develops during that time.
This study is usage-based and explores 600 different negation clauses (300 tagged examples from either century). The negation forms were…
The changing meaning of the term ‘modernism’ in the Estonian literary space
Keywords: ideology of modernism, periodization, history of Estonian literature, ideology of style
Fredric Jameson has suggested in “A Singular Modernity” (2002) and elsewhere in his works that every interpretive act in culture includes in itself an act of periodization and implicit historical narratives are at work everywhere where a claim is made to assert the final meaning of a work of literature. The aim of this article is to take up Jameson’s challenge and reread various disputes over modernism in Estonian literature in the light of the periodizing function of the term modernism. This means reconstructing what has been considered modern…
Fredric Jameson has suggested in “A Singular Modernity” (2002) and elsewhere in his works that every interpretive act in culture includes in itself an act of periodization and implicit historical narratives are at work everywhere where a claim is made to assert the final meaning of a work of literature. The aim of this article is to take up Jameson’s challenge and reread various disputes over modernism in Estonian literature in the light of the periodizing function of the term modernism. This means reconstructing what has been considered modern…
The prologue of the ius primae noctis stereotype in Estonia
Keywords: Enlightenment, Johann Christoph Petri, Garlieb Helwig Merkel, Christian Hieronymus Justus Schlegel, August Wilhelm Hupel, Estonian peasants
The article was inspired by interest in how the stereotype of the right of the first night (ius primae noctis) arrived in Estonia. The first publication introducing the meaning of ius primae noctis to the Estonian reader is a translator’s footnote in the Estonian translation of the first part of “Ehstland und die Ehsten” by Johann Christoph Petri (1901). The translator was Adam Peterson, who had cut a figure in the Estonian society in the 1860s. It was certainly arbitrary of him to attach his commentary…
The article was inspired by interest in how the stereotype of the right of the first night (ius primae noctis) arrived in Estonia. The first publication introducing the meaning of ius primae noctis to the Estonian reader is a translator’s footnote in the Estonian translation of the first part of “Ehstland und die Ehsten” by Johann Christoph Petri (1901). The translator was Adam Peterson, who had cut a figure in the Estonian society in the 1860s. It was certainly arbitrary of him to attach his commentary…
roobas – a word describing the condition of ancient roads
Keywords: lexical history, Estonian language, Finnic languages
The aim of the article is to demonstrate that the Estonian word roobas ~ rööbas associates with a numerous family of descriptive words belonging to a common Finnic tradition, a family that owes its considerable growth to morphological and semantic derivation. It is indicated that the semantic difference, so far considered a practically insurmountable obstacle in the way to associating the Estonian examples with those occurring in the Northern Finnic group, is but superficial as proved by an analysis of the older and less transparent semantic layers of the word family. This analysis includes, inter alia, a description…
The aim of the article is to demonstrate that the Estonian word roobas ~ rööbas associates with a numerous family of descriptive words belonging to a common Finnic tradition, a family that owes its considerable growth to morphological and semantic derivation. It is indicated that the semantic difference, so far considered a practically insurmountable obstacle in the way to associating the Estonian examples with those occurring in the Northern Finnic group, is but superficial as proved by an analysis of the older and less transparent semantic layers of the word family. This analysis includes, inter alia, a description…
Hidden changes in the prosodic structure of Estonian
Keywords: moraic theory, consonant gradation, Estonian quantity, history of Estonian, tone accent, weight by position
The article discusses the phonological development of the Estonian language. Ilse Lehiste has claimed that Estonian is changing from a quantity language to an accent language. This undergoing change has never been explained theoretically. Based on Moraic Theory, several steps of the change can be distinguished. First, Estonian has deactivated a process that adds moras to syllable codas. As a result, even main-stressed CVC syllables may be monomoraic. According to phonetical measurements, this may be the situation right now, yet the data is somewhat ambiguous as…
The article discusses the phonological development of the Estonian language. Ilse Lehiste has claimed that Estonian is changing from a quantity language to an accent language. This undergoing change has never been explained theoretically. Based on Moraic Theory, several steps of the change can be distinguished. First, Estonian has deactivated a process that adds moras to syllable codas. As a result, even main-stressed CVC syllables may be monomoraic. According to phonetical measurements, this may be the situation right now, yet the data is somewhat ambiguous as…
Do women and men really translate differently?
Keywords: literary translation, gender, Buratino, female, male
Today the role of the translator’s gender is quite actively researched in linguistics as well as in translation studies. However, in Estonian theory and practice of translation this topic has not yet received enough attention. In the current article four Estonian translations of the story “The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Buratino” by A. Tolstoy are compared and analysed. Two of the translations (from 1946 and 1964) belong to female translators and two (from 1996 and 2016) to male translators.
Different researchers have suggested some characteristics that distinguish “female” translations from “male” ones:
(1) in…
Today the role of the translator’s gender is quite actively researched in linguistics as well as in translation studies. However, in Estonian theory and practice of translation this topic has not yet received enough attention. In the current article four Estonian translations of the story “The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Buratino” by A. Tolstoy are compared and analysed. Two of the translations (from 1946 and 1964) belong to female translators and two (from 1996 and 2016) to male translators.
Different researchers have suggested some characteristics that distinguish “female” translations from “male” ones:
(1) in…
Marriage of a cleric and some anti-Catholic motifs in 17th-century poems for pastors’ weddings
Keywords: 17th century, occasional poetry, anticatholicism, priests
Occasional poetry flourished in the early 17th-century Tallinn and Tartu. In Tallinn, wedding songs prevailed, while Tartu was more inclined to academic congratulations. About a third of the wedding song collections printed in either town were dedicated to acting clergy. As can be expected, congratulations for clergymen are richer in Christian motifs than the wedding poems written for representatives of other estates, yet the Christian motifs fail to overshadow the abundance of those of classical antiquity. As a matter of fact, the Christian and pagan motifs are intertwined no less closely in congratulations for…
Occasional poetry flourished in the early 17th-century Tallinn and Tartu. In Tallinn, wedding songs prevailed, while Tartu was more inclined to academic congratulations. About a third of the wedding song collections printed in either town were dedicated to acting clergy. As can be expected, congratulations for clergymen are richer in Christian motifs than the wedding poems written for representatives of other estates, yet the Christian motifs fail to overshadow the abundance of those of classical antiquity. As a matter of fact, the Christian and pagan motifs are intertwined no less closely in congratulations for…
About the Baltic German reception of English poetry and drama, based on the Library of the Estonian Literary Society
Keywords: Library of the Estonian Literary Society, Baltic German, English, poetry, drama, reception
Based on the subclass XII (poetry and drama) of the Library of Estonian Literary Society, a Baltic German learned society (1842–1940) in Tallinn, this paper takes a look at the emergence of English literature in (Northern) Estonia. A more continuous reception of English literature in this area began in the second half of the 18th century. Although the most often mentioned publication place was London and some direct contacts can be traced with the help of inscriptions, the main part (4/5) of English literature reached the Baltic German reader via German…
Based on the subclass XII (poetry and drama) of the Library of Estonian Literary Society, a Baltic German learned society (1842–1940) in Tallinn, this paper takes a look at the emergence of English literature in (Northern) Estonia. A more continuous reception of English literature in this area began in the second half of the 18th century. Although the most often mentioned publication place was London and some direct contacts can be traced with the help of inscriptions, the main part (4/5) of English literature reached the Baltic German reader via German…
Ado Grenzstein’s pursuit to launch a daily of his own
Keywords: Estonian press, late 19th century, formation of political currents, censorship, nationalism
In 1881 Ado Grenzstein started the weekly paper Olevik, which complemented Estonian press with various innovative features concerning language, contents and form. The article provides a survey of Grenzstein’s journalistic innovations, including one of the earliest Estonian evidences documenting an attempt to regulate the relations between a newspaper and its correspondents. Since the end of 1885 Grenzstein began to sense the need for a daily paper, which was expressed in his discussion over the possibilities of creating an integrated Estonian press. Karl August Hermann’s Postimees was released, since the end…
In 1881 Ado Grenzstein started the weekly paper Olevik, which complemented Estonian press with various innovative features concerning language, contents and form. The article provides a survey of Grenzstein’s journalistic innovations, including one of the earliest Estonian evidences documenting an attempt to regulate the relations between a newspaper and its correspondents. Since the end of 1885 Grenzstein began to sense the need for a daily paper, which was expressed in his discussion over the possibilities of creating an integrated Estonian press. Karl August Hermann’s Postimees was released, since the end…
What is the role of mora in Estonian?
Keywords: phonology, Estonian quantity, moraic consonant, lenis, fortis, foot
The article introduces the main principles of moraic theory and the role of mora in Estonian phonology, also addressing the history of the concept ‘mora’ in theoretical linguistics. In traditional studies of metrics, the term ‘mora’ used to refer to a minimal unit of metrical time (equivalent to a short syllable). Yet according to moraic theory, mora is a unit of phonological structure, a part of the syllable, not just a measure of length. This approach allows to explain the ternary system of Estonian quantity as well as the distinction between syllable-final…
The article introduces the main principles of moraic theory and the role of mora in Estonian phonology, also addressing the history of the concept ‘mora’ in theoretical linguistics. In traditional studies of metrics, the term ‘mora’ used to refer to a minimal unit of metrical time (equivalent to a short syllable). Yet according to moraic theory, mora is a unit of phonological structure, a part of the syllable, not just a measure of length. This approach allows to explain the ternary system of Estonian quantity as well as the distinction between syllable-final…