Mother Language Day in Estonia (14/03)

Every year on March 14, Estonia has celebrated Mother Language Day since 1996 (Est. Emakeelepäev). If we translate this word literally, then the holiday can also be called the Day of «mother» of the language.

The date of the holiday was chosen in honor of the birthday of the poet and writer Kristjan Jaak Peterson (est. Kristjan Jaak Peterson, 1801–1822), which marked the beginning of the development of the Estonian literary language.

The purpose of Day — is to preserve the Estonian people, language and culture. After all, it is not for nothing that there is a generally accepted opinion that the language — is the main bearer of national and cultural self-awareness. On this occasion, national flags are hung throughout the country and thematic events are held.

Estonian belongs to the Uralic languages and represents the Finno-Ugric languages, being part of the southern group of Baltic-Finnish languages. According to the number of speakers, this is one of the small languages — spoken by about 1.1 million people, of which 950 thousand live in Estonia.

The Estonian language has three dialectical groups:

— North Estonian, which includes island, western, central and eastern dialects; — South Estonian, which includes Mulk, Tartu and Võru dialects; — is a northeastern coastal dialect that shares many features with the Baltic-Finnish languages.

Estonian writing is based on the Latin alphabet, consisting of 32 letters.

The main rule to remember when reading in Estonian is — read as written. As for Estonian grammar, first of all, a foreigner is usually struck by the number of cases — there are 14 of them. However, the language does not have a gender category.

According to tradition, on Mother Language Day, Estonian schools and other educational, educational and cultural institutions host various language proficiency competitions, exhibitions, concerts, theatrical performances and thematic round tables dedicated to the development of the Estonian language. Also on this day, it is customary to lay flowers and wreaths at the monument to Kristjan Jaak Peterson.

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