Estonian grammar between Finnic and SAE

Some comparisons

Bibliographic Data

ID23147798
AuthorsHelle Metslang (0000-0002-6397-6532, Institute of the Estonian Language, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume62
Issue1-2
Pages49-71
Publication date2009-05-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage Typology and Universals (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1867-8319 • E-ISSN: 2196-7148
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1524/stuf.2009.0004
OpenAlexW2021489269
LanguageEN
Citations received10

Estonian has in the course of historical changes become more distant from the other Finnic languages and has acquired some features of Indo-European and/or Standard Average European. The article compares some structural features between Estonian, Finnish, Standard Average European, and German and Russian. Estonian and Finnish have grown apart typologically while retaining their main structure and are to the same extent peripheral with regard to SAE. At the same time there are some morpho-syntacic features where Estonian has become more distant from Finnish not in the direction of SAE but in the direction of German or Russian. In both languages the central SAE features are represented on a more moderate scale than the secondary features. Both languages, especially Estonian, reveal some tendencies towards SAE features.

Czech · Estonian · Geography · German · Grammar · Linguistics · Polish · Political science · History · Linguistics and Cultural Studies · Linguistics and language evolution · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Philosophy

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