Anastassia ZabrodskajaTallinn University / University of Tartu, Estonia

30 September 2010, BarcelonaUniversity of Barcelona

Main challenges faced by

Estonian as a Medium-Sized Language Community

in urban areas:

On the example of Tallinn and Ida-Virumaa

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Estonian is a Finno-Ugric language spoken by approximately 1 million people, mostly in theRepublic of Estonia.

Varieties of Estonian:70 000 – Võru keel, Võro kiil

5000 – Setu keel, Seto kiil’

Nationalities in Estonia based on census data (%)

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Based on the census of 1989 – the last to be conducted during the era of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic – the number of nationalities represented in Estonia was 121.

• The biggest groups were Estonians (963 300); Russians (474 800); Ukrainians (48 273) and Belarusians (27 700). • The smallest groups were Romanians (88); Kyrgyz people (81), Avars and Gagauzes (69) and Buryats (53).

Historical background

• Being a part of the Russian Empire;• Independence 1918-1940; • Soviet occupation 1940-1941, 1944-1991;• Re-established independence in 1991;

– Estonian became the only official language. Russian-speaking settlers and their descendents had to master it.

• ‘Extrinsic’ linguistic minority: Russians– The linguistic rights of local Russian-speakers are the challenge

currently faced by Estonia in balancing the needs of the majority and minority populations. They are descendants of Soviet-time newcomers in Estonia who considered this country as their own territory.

– ‘transitional minority’ (Ehala 2008) – a notion of conditional rights which means that the more Russian-speakers integrate into Estonian society, the more rights they will get.

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Comparison of population groups in 1989 and 2000

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Soviet language policy

• Soviet language policy (monolingualism for Russians, bilingualism and subsequent shift to Russian for others);

• Overt and covert encouragement of migration into the Baltic region;

• Linguistic assimilation into Russian of third ethnicities.

• Strong national and linguistic identity prevented the displacement of Estonian from higher education and academia.

Present day Estonia A country with a population of 1.3 million people:

Estonians - 67.9 %Altogether about 430 000 people belong to various ethnic groups other than Estonians:

142 different nationalities and ethnic groups are represented in Estonia according to the census of 2000.

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Russians 25.7%

Latvians 0.17%

Ukrainians 2.1% Poles 0.16%

Byelorussians

1.2% Jews 0.15%

Finns 0.8% Lithuanians

0.15%

Tatars 0.2% Germans 0.14%

How language situation differs?

• It is a post-colonial situation• More and more Russian-speakers acquire Estonian:

44 % of Russian-speakers claimed some knowledge of Estonian in 2000; cf. 15 % in 1989.

• Given that many Estonians have some command of Russian, code-switching was initially an out-group device (Russian-Estonian communication) that is gradually becoming internalized (Russian-Russian communication)

• Variation: –regional (Tallinn – bilingual, North East – predominantly Russian, the rest – predominantly Estonian); –generational (younger people are more likely to know Estonian); –individual (self-identification, proficiency in Estonian, conversational goals, social networking etc).

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Number of inhabitants in major Estonian towns based on 2000 census

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Interethnic contacts

• Recent (2007) surveys have shown that everyday contacts with other ethnic groups are minimal for two thirds of ethnic Estonians and one third of Estonian Russians.

• Even in Tallinn, nearly half of the ethnic Estonian population and over a third of the Estonian Russians report their contacts with the other ethnic group to be either nonexistent or minimal.

• While the frequency of communication with the other group is somewhat higher among the younger age groups of Russian language speaking residents of Tallinn, the percentage is correspondingly lower among young ethnic Estonians.

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Region Family Friends Colleagues Services

E R E R E R E R

Rural areas

94 42 73 24 71 18 70 14

Major towns

90 55 54 28 50 24 55 13

Tallinn 86 78 42 44 44 41 29 18

East Estonian towns

59 93 18 86 10 82 6 79

In Table, just an illustration is given on language usage in four communicative situations: family, friends, colleagues and services. Columns marked by E indicate Estonians, R indicates Russian-speakers.

Table. Percentages of respondents using only and mainly their first language in four domains

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Region Family Friends Colleagues Services

E R E R E R E R

Rural areas

94 42 73 24 71 18 70 14

Major towns

90 55 54 28 50 24 55 13

Tallinn 86 78 42 44 44 41 29 18

East Estonian towns

59 93 18 86 10 82 6 79

Only in Estonian

Mainly in Estonian

More in Estonian than in Russian

Equally in Estonian and Russian

More in Russian than in Estonian

Mainly in Russian

Only in Russian

In other language

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

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Regional variation: Tallinn – bilingual, North East – predominantly Russian, the rest – predominantly Estonian

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Language Legislation (from above)

The Constitution provides the basis for the language policy in Estonia. It combines Estonian legal tradition from the first period of independence with developments on the international level.

Language issues are regulated by several articles of the Constitution. – Article 1 of the Language Law stipulates that the only official

language in Estonia is Estonian.

– Article 2 classifies all other languages as foreign.

– Moreover, the Language Law imposes mandatory use of the Estonian language for employees at the state, municipal and private institutions.

Language policy from below

• The discrepancy between the sometimes quite strict Estonian language legislation and its gradual softening during the last 20 years.

– the accommodation for the usage of Russian in businesses and offices is much larger than could be expected on the basis of legislation.

– The deadlines for language requirements have been postponed several times as a response to the silent resistance of the Russian speaking community.

– Also, the Russian language school reform has been softened significantly and several times postponed to accommodate to the pace of integration of the Russian speaking community.

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• Accommodating to Russian in the medicine, shops and services.

– Although there are no such requirements, all medical institutions have the policy that the language of the patient is respected, thus the Russian-speakers have medical service in Russian.

– The same applies for services and shops in areas where there is significant number of Russians (Tallinn and Ida-Virumaa).

– Sometimes in interpersonal communications both interlocutors use their own language, but understand the other, thus making a working communication possible.

– There are cases where English is used if the communicators do not understand each other language.

• Thus, it could be said that despite the uniform requirements in language legislation, the speech communities have negotiated a variety of practical language policies.

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Language policy from below (cont.)

• The main conclusion is that the functional goal of the current legislation is to create a multilingual Estonia and that the legislative bias towards Estonian, so clear and visible in 1990ies, is gradually softening as the Russian community integrates into the Estonian society and bilingualism is emerging in this previously monolingual community.

• As the language learning patterns show, Russian is actively learned by young Estonians, indicating that Estonia is opting for a trilingual mode of operation (Estonian, Russian, and English).

• Projecting this development to the future, it could be expected that the official language policy would gradually become more admitting to the usage of Russian, as Russians acquire better knowledge of Estonian and the intergroup relations become more relaxed.

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Language policy from below (cont.)

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Linguistic Landscape

Linguistic Landscape: “The language of public road signs, advertising billboards, street names, place names, commercial shop signs, and public signs on government building combines to form the LL of a given territory, region, or urban agglomeration”

(Landry & Bourhis 1997: 25)

LL regulation from above

In Estonia, language of public signage is regulated mainly by Estonian Language Act (1995), Place Names Act (2003) and Advertising Act (2008).

Place Names Act (2003) deals with place names, decreeing them to be in Estonian and in the Estonian-Roman alphabet, whereas Estonian Language Act (1995) and Advertising Act (2008) look at the language of information.

Public signs, signposts, announcements, notices and advertisements etc must be in Estonian whereas information in a regional variety of Estonian or a foreign language translation may be added in a less visible script (came into force in March 2007).

Thus, officially all street and other place names must be in Estonian only.

The Language Inspectorate has to ensure that the Language Act and other legal acts regulating language use are actually observed. In case of its non-observance fines can be issued.

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20Sillamäe, March 2007

Bilingual sign

Cf. with Language Act: “the Estonian language shall have precedence ‘atelier’

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‘bottom-up’

Sillamäe, Summer 2007

Narva, November 2008

‘porridge, rolled oats’

22Tallinn, Lasnamäe (Russian-speaking district), Summer 2009

Estonian non-target forms and orthography

Cf. Estonian mänguautomaadid ‘fruit machines’

23Narva, Summer 2009

Estonian non-target forms and orthography

Cf. Estonian kotid ‘bags’Cf. Estonian katted ‘(soft) covers’

24Sillamäe, Spring 2007

Estonian non-target forms and orthography

Cf. Estonian alkohol ‘alcohol, spirits’

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Estonian non-target forms and orthography

Narva, November 2008

Sillamäe, Summer 2007

Narva, November 2008

juuksur ‘hairdresser’

pannkook‘pancake’

tomat‘tomato’

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Estonian non-target forms and orthography

Sillamäe, Summer 2007

juuksur - ‘hairdresser’

Tallinn, January 2009

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Undecidable...

Narva, November 2008

RUS лимонEST sidrunENG lemon

Bottom-up + street name sign

Kohtla-Järve, Winter 2008-2009

‘renewal’

RUS РЕМОНТEST REMONT

Kohtla-Järve, Winter 2008-2009

Street name sign

Increasing role of English in society and its increasing impact on Estonian

• The influence of English is evident in law and administration, economy, business and banking, information and advertising.

• It has been the dominant and influential language in information technology from the very beginning.

• Even entertainment is becoming increasingly English-language in nature.

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Increasing role of English in society and its increasing impact on Estonian (cont.)

• Language use in banking is influenced by the fact that Estonian banks are tied to foreign shareholders or have expanded their activities into neighbouring countries.– Since communication with foreign holders usually affects bank

managers (with management and supervisory boards usually working in English), in the case of subsidiary banks operating in other countries there are also employees who have to use e.g. English or Russian to a relatively greater degree in addition to Estonian.

– Estonian banks have two working languages – Estonian and English. In Estonia the working language is Estonian, but English is used when communicating with the parent company or as an international working language.

– The local websites of the banks are in three languages: Estonian, Russian and English.

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Poor Estonian language knowledge

• The state must ensure the following: everyone’s right to receive instruction in Estonian; everyone’s right to address state agencies, local governments and their officials in Estonian and to receive responses in Estonian; and that the official language of state agencies and local governments is Estonian.

• It should be possible to use Estonian in every sphere of life and in throughout Estonia. The actual situation is somewhat different. There are regions in Estonia in which the inhabitants are monolingual (Russian) who have no knowledge or insufficient knowledge of Estonian.

• In 2005, between 63% and 72% of Estonian Russians under 30 years claimed to be able to communicate ‘well’ or ‘moderately well’ in Estonian. These percentages compare with 38-41% for those over thirty years and under sixty years.

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Tallinn and Ida-Virumaa

• In the public sphere, Russian is often used in advertising and in shop transactions.

• All major companies, banks, chain-stores, cell-phone operators, and numerous municipalities issue information in Russian and often have a Russian version of their websites.

• Flyers and information sheets have a Russian version and are easily accessible.

• A working knowledge of Russian is considered an asset or is even required in some companies in Tallinn. In the northeast, the knowledge of Russian continuously remains crucial for everyday communication.

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Promoting Estonian and the development of language teaching

• The 2008 Integration Foundation survey asked – “What language should your children /grandchildren be able to speak?” Estonians chose English (91%), Russian (70%), German (27%) and Finish (20%). Russian speakers chose English (85%), Estonian (84%), German (17%) and Finnish (7%).

• Estonian is the official language of Estonia and has been an official language of the EU since 1 May 2004. At the same time, the number of speakers of Estonian and limited knowledge of the language place it among the group of less used languages with a small number of users, as a result of which its reputation, teaching and use as a study language require purposeful development.

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Gràcies! Aitäh!

The sample

• 460 Russian-speakers

language environment proportion of Russian speakers

Number of informants

Rural settlements  1–10% 50Towns and settlements 

10–20% 70

West-Tallinn  30–50% 70Harju county and Lasnamäe 

50–80% 120

Towns of East-Viru 80–100% 150

Results of the cluster analysis

• Cluster analysis is a statistical tool that groups together respondents who have given similar answers.

• Five clusters emerged in cluster analysis:

Medium Low

(10%)

Stable Low

Esteem(28%)

Stable Integrated

(22%)

Stable Traditional

(26%)

Discordant(14%)

V2.5…3.5

-.31 -.15 -.08 -.05 .10

Medium Low Vitality

• male (49%; 1.16), • over 40 y.o. (54%; 1.10), • Estonian national (65%; 1.20), • higher education (26%; 1.86),• private sector employee (49% 1.63),• above average income (21%; 2.33), • lives in an Estonian dominant town or in

countryside (60%; 2.31).

Stable Low Esteem

• over 60 y.o. (17%; 1.21),• retired (21%; 1.31),• stateless (28%; 1.27),• higher education (17%; 1.21),• slightly below average income (34%;

1.42),• lives in East Estonia (46%; 1.31).

Stable Integrated

• under 40 y.o. (64%; 1.25),• Estonian national (79%; 1.46),• public sector employee (34%; 1.17) or

student (13%; 1.63),• average income (68%; 1.26),• lives in an Estonian dominant town or in

countryside (66%; 1.61).

Stable Traditional

• 40-60 y.o. (52%; 1.49),• Russian citizen (40%; 1.74), • below average income (43%; 1.16);• lives in East Estonia (50%; 1,43).

Discordant

• under 40 y.o. (70%; 1.37),• stateless (33%; 1.50),• significantly below average income (18%;

1.38),• lives in East Estonia (45%; 1.29).