LL-L "Language attitudes" 2007.12.25 (01) [E]

Tue Dec 25 19:46:31 UTC 2007

L O W L A N D S - L  -  25 December 2007 - Volume 01
Song Contest: lowlands-l.net/contest/ (- 31 Dec. 2007)
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From: Mari Sarv <mari at haldjas.folklore.ee>
Subject: LL-L "Language attitudes" 2007.12.21 (03) [E]

> From: Marcus Buck <list at marcusbuck.org>
> Subject: Miss beautiful language

> There is an anecdote circulating in Estonia that once (some say it was
> at the world fair 1900 in Paris) there was a contest about which
> language
> sounds best. Italian won and Estonian was second with the sentence
> *Sõida
> tasa üle silla *(Drive over the bridge slowly). Well, the Finnish claim
> the same with their corresponding sentence *Aja hiljaa sillalla.

> *Whoever did win then ...

Marcus,
it is most probably a folkloric piece, just a joke to tell ...

At my work, in the cellar, where we do preserve folklore materials,
I met once a story about Napoleon driving with his estonian servant at
nighttime and with bad weather. The servant said to horse "S&ida tasa yle
silla" -- what a beautiful language, said Napoleon.

> it's an integral part of New Year's Eve). However, googling for this
> contest I can only find many many newspapers and news portals mirroring
> be nice, if there would be some minority languages present. Does anybody
> know more about this contest or maybe somebody on the list can read
> Estonian and look on the website of the Estonian Ministry of Education
> on what are the conditions for that contest?

I could find nothing more than that http://www.estemb.org/news/aid-986

> PPS: Has anybody a tip for a
> nice book on the becoming of the Estonian language? While googling I
> found

Editor: M. Erelt
Estonian Language.
Supplementary series of the journal Linguistica Uralica Volume No 1
In English.
Format 165x240, 414pp., hard back
ISSN 0868-4731
ISBN 9985-50-359-7
Tallinn, 2003.

> out some interesting facts about the language. There was a very active
> group of language activists who wanted to set the language in full
> right.
> They went so far as to invent words on pure sound (*roim *is the
> Estonian word for crime. J. Aavik invented it on the basis that the
consonants r
> and m sound harsh to his ears and the vocal oi clinks fearsome. pure
> sound, no etymological base. But the Estonians did adopt it).

It's true, there are lots of words in Estonian from those times.
You see! Estonians have made their language less beautiful  ;)

Mari Sarv
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