Where have the words come from?
More than a hundred stems date back 4000-5000 years, e.g.:
-
keel - 'tongue', 'language',
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elama - 'to live', minema - 'to go',
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päev - 'day', etymologically from päike - 'Sun'
-
kala - 'fish',
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suvi - ''summer',
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silm - 'eye',
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numerals: kaks - 'two',
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adverbs: all - 'down', vasak - 'left', parem - 'right', ees - 'in front',
taga - 'behind',
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pronouns: see -'it', me - 'we'.
While thousands of stems have Finno-Ugric origin, Estonian has borrowed
from many languages.
Two sources were used to draw material for this compilation:
Estonian
Language FAQ and
Estonian
Language fact sheet by the Estonian Institute.