Editing Estonian language (section)

==Vocabulary==
{{main|Estonian vocabulary}}
Although Estonian and the [[Germanic languages]] have very different origins and the vocabulary is considered quite different from that of the Indo-European family,<ref name=":0" /> one can identify many similar words in Estonian and English, for example. This is primarily because Estonian has borrowed nearly one-third of its vocabulary from Germanic languages, mainly from Low Saxon ([[Middle Low German]]) during the period of [[History of Estonia#Estonian Crusade: The Middle Ages|German rule]], and [[High German]] (including [[standard German]]). The percentage of Low Saxon and High German loanwords can be estimated at 22–25 percent, with Low Saxon making up about 15 percent.<ref>{{cite web |title=Eesti kirjakeele sõnavara ajalugu |trans-title=History of Estonian Vocabulary |url=http://www.fillu.edu.ee/sisu.php?teema=2&id=30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070721113833/http://www.fillu.edu.ee/sisu.php?teema=2&id=30 |archive-date=2007-07-21 |website=FILLU |language=et}}</ref> Prior to the wave of new loanwords from English in the 20th and 21st centuries, historically, Swedish and Russian were also sources of borrowings but to a much lesser extent.<ref>{{cite web |title=Eesti keele käsiraamat 2007 |url=http://www.eki.ee/books/ekk09/index.php?link=L_10 |access-date=2020-09-30 |website=Eesti Keele Instituut |language=et}}</ref> In borrowings, often 'b' and 'p' are interchangeable, for example 'baggage' becomes 'pagas', 'lob' (to throw) becomes 'loopima'. The initial letter 's' before another consonant is often dropped, for example 'skool' becomes 'kool', 'stool' becomes 'tool'.

===''Ex nihilo'' lexical enrichment===
Estonian [[language planner]]s such as [[Ado Grenzstein]] (a journalist active in Estonia from the 1870s to the 1890s) tried to use formation ''[[Estonian vocabulary#Ex nihilo lexical enrichment|ex nihilo]]'' (''Urschöpfung'');<ref name="Zuckermann 2003 p149">{{cite book |last=Zuckermann |first=Ghil'ad |title=Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew |title-link=Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew |date=2003 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4039-1723-2 |location=New York, NY |pages=[https://archive.org/details/languagecontactl00zuck/page/n159 149] |author-link=Ghil'ad Zuckermann}}</ref> i.e. they created new words out of nothing.

The most well-known reformer of Estonian, [[Johannes Aavik]] (1880–1973), used creations ''ex nihilo'' (cf. 'free constructions', Tauli 1977), along with other sources of lexical enrichment such as derivations, compositions and loanwords (often from Finnish; cf. Saareste and Raun 1965: 76). In Aavik's dictionary (1921) lists approximately 4000 words. About 40 of the 200 words created by Johannes Aavik allegedly ''ex nihilo'' are in common use today. Examples are * ''ese'' 'object', * ''kolp'' 'skull',  * ''liibuma'' 'to cling',  * ''naasma'' 'to return, come back', * ''nõme'' 'stupid, dull'.<ref name="Zuckermann 2003 p149" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Eesti entsüklopeedia|trans-title=Aavik, Johannes |url=http://entsyklopeedia.ee/artikkel/aavik_johannes2
 |language=et}}</ref>   

Many of the coinages that have been considered (often by Aavik himself) as words concocted ''ex nihilo'' could well have been influenced by foreign lexical items; for example, words from [[Russian language|Russian]], [[German language|German]], [[French language|French]], [[Finnish language|Finnish]], [[English language|English]] and [[Swedish language|Swedish]]. Aavik had a broad classical education and knew [[Ancient Greek]], [[Latin]] and [[French language|French]]. Consider ''roim'' 'crime' versus [[English language|English]] ''crime'' or ''taunima'' 'to condemn, disapprove' versus [[Finnish language|Finnish]] ''tuomita'' 'to condemn, to judge' (these Aavikisms appear in Aavik's 1921 dictionary). These words might be better regarded as a peculiar manifestation of morpho-phonemic adaptation of a foreign lexical item.<ref>{{cite book |last=Zuckermann |first=Ghil'ad |url=https://archive.org/details/languagecontactl00zuck |title=Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew |date=2003 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4039-1723-2 |location=New York, NY |pages=[https://archive.org/details/languagecontactl00zuck/page/n160 150] |url-access=limited}}</ref>