Toomas Karmo (Part C): Practicalities of Studying Estonian

Quality assessment:

On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3/5 is "mediocre pass", 4.5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 3/5. Justification: Kmo had time to do a reasonable job, but did not have time for much double-checking of prose or (at the preliminary-research stage) deep digging in sources.                                        


Revision history:

• 20170228T1807Z/version 3.1.0: Kmo corrected or adjusted several small factual points, the worst of these being his misspelling of an author name (he had had "Kingsepp", where what was needed was "Kingisepp"). - He reserved the right to make minor, nonsubstantive, purely cosmetic tweaks over the coming 48 hours, as here-undocumented versions 3.1.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.3, ... . 
• 20170228T0531Z/version 3.0.0: Kmo finished converting his outline into coherent sentences. He reserved the right to make minor, nonsubstantive, purely cosmetic tweaks over the coming 48 hours, as here-undocumented versions 3.0.1, 3.0.2, 3.0.3, ... . 
• 20170228T0345Z/version 2.0.0: Kmo uploaded an improved outline. He was now ready to convert the outline into coherent sentences (being now a bit behind schedule, and hoping to finish his conversion in 2 or 3 hours).
• 20170228T00001Z/version 1.0.0: Kmo uploaded an outline. He expected to convert this into coherent sentencs over the coming 4 hours.

[CAUTION: A bug in the blogger server-side software has in some past weeks shown a propensity to insert inappropriate whitespace at some points in some of my posted essays. If a screen seems to end in empty space, keep scrolling down. The end of the posting is not reached until the usual blogger "Posted by Toomas (Tom) Karmo at" appears. - The blogger software has also shown a propensity to generate HTML that is formatted in different ways on different client-side browsers, perhaps with some browsers not correctly reading in the entirety of the "Cascading Style Sheets" which on many Web servers control the browser placement of margins, sidebars, and the like. If you suspect "Cascading Style Sheets" problems in your particular browser, be patient: it is probable that while some content has been shoved into some odd place (for instance, down to the bottom of your browser, where it ought to appear in the right-hand margin), all the server content has been pushed down into your browser in some place or other. - Anyone inclined to help with trouble-shooting, or to offer other kinds of technical advice, is welcome to write me via Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com.]

4. Nuts and Bolts of Systematic Estonian-Language Studies (Textbooks, ...)

4.1 Language Courses of Primary Interest (Free, Web-Format)

It is appropriate to highlight as "of primary interest" two items which, being published on the open Web, require no up-front financial commitment from the prospective student. I cannot claim anything more than a superficial acquaintance with either of them.

(a) The first (and perhaps the one to be given the most attention by prospective students, should their time prove limited) is https://www.keeleklikk.ee/. According to a link under https://www.keeleklikk.ee/en/welcome, this particular self-study course is financed by the European Social Fund and the Estonian Ministry of Education and Science, and has received the European Commission's Award for Contributions to the Development of Foreign Language Teaching. 

Its target audience is adult - helpfully, from the standpoint of my own (adult) readers here in Ontario.  

Its target standard is the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) level A2 ("Waystage or elementary"). CEFR, as documented at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Languages, describes students completing this level as able to "describe in simple terms aspects of their background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need". By contrast, it is upon completing the next CEFR level, B1 ("Threshold or Intermediate") that the student is able to "briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans". CEFR further envisages levels B2, C1, and C2, with the final, or C2, level constituting "Mastery or proficiency" (with the students completing C2 capable of "differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations"). 

Since the keeleklikk.ee target level of proficiency is the rather modest CEFR A2, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_European_Framework_of_Reference_for_Languages, with its cumulative-hours-of-study table, makes possible a guess at a rather modest time commitment: on the assumption that French as taught by the Alliance Française and German as taught by Deutsche Welle are roughly comparable with Estonian as taught by keeleklikk.ee, it wold be reasonable for students to budget just 200 desk hours. My own experience with Biblical Hebrew indicates that a mere three hours per week is enough to maintain momentum - perhaps especially if care is taken to do a diligent half hour on each of the six normal working days, without ever allowing the week's work to pile up. At that gentle pace, CEFR Estonian A2 could be achieved  in a little over a year. 

In a university, one is admittedly expected by the Dean to be more vigorous - working , for a not-very-demanding course in humanities, at a rate of around six desk hours per week, unless one happens to be content with poor grades. 

A glance at the keeleklikk.ee promotional materials further indicates the availability of ancillary sources on Estonian history and Estonian culture, specially prepared as part of this same project. I imagine that the ancillaries would call for an additional weekly time commitment, of perhaps one hour. 

(B) The second of my two is http://www.oneness.vu.lt/. Here I have little information to offer, beyond the modest fact that someone, somewhere, in my various 2015 Web and telephone investigations, did direct attention to this (Lithuania-based) server, finding its quality in some respects commendably high. 

4.2 Language Courses of Secondary Interest (Not Free)

It is appropriate to pick out as "of secondary interest" course materials requiring some kind of purchase commitment from the prospective student. 

(A) One might first note - I use merely alphabetic order of first-author surname - three recent book offerings. All three are to be thought of as essentially hard copy. But in at least one case (noted below), there might be a parallel e-book: 

• Mare Kitsnik and Leelo Kingisepp offer Complete Estonian with Two Audio CDs: A Teach Yourself Guide. When I previously researched the possibilities for Estonian available to our local young Toronto adults, in 2015, I made the encouraging discovery that this work had been selected by the University of Toronto Estonian-language course instructor for her 2015/2016 academic year. I cannot, without giving my fresh (2017-02-27) round of research more time than I have readily available, intelligently discuss purchase possibilities. The University of Toronto bookstore could, of course, be consulted, by phoning the appropriate query desk at the direct-line number 416-640-5336. Failing that query desk, one could try Amazon (who were in the 2015 spring quoting, perhaps as one price among others, 78.95 USD, and indicating that both new and used copies were available; admittedly, the difference between amazon.com and amazon.ca adds a level of complexity for Canadian residents, with shipment from the former of these two outlets - if possible at all - perhaps liable to trigger an imposition of duty at Canadian customs. - In the spring of 2015, I seemed to find the work available from Apple iTunes, for 24.99 USD. - In the spring of 2015, Amazon was showing six customer reviews, with an average score of 4.7 stars, out of a possible maximum of 5.0 stars. Those 2015-era reviews were to my mind interesting, being in many or all instances positive. But I did around UTC=20170227T2200ZZ find a customer complaint at http://www.amazon.ca/Complete-Estonian-Teach-Yourself-Guide/dp/0071767134, to the effect that amazon.ca had sold someone (in Canada?) the book (or a variant thereon, by the same authors), I think as hardcopy, without its so-necessary CDs. - A hasty Google check around UTC=20170228T0130Z suggests that Kitsnik and Kingisepp teach Estonian, either from this book or from related materials, to the impressive CEFRL level B2. 
• Mall Pesti and Helve Ahi offer E nagu Eesti. Eesti keele õpik algajatele A1+A2+B1 (this means "E-Like-Estonia: Estonian Language Text for Beginners, A1+A2+B1"; B1 marks just one CEFRL stage above the A2 which is the modest goal of keeleklikk.ee). - I have found, on hasty searching, a retailer at http://www.apollo.ee/e-nagu-eesti-eesti-keele-opik-algajatele-a1-a2.html. Further resources, including related textbooks, are sold under the "Books" link of http://enagueesti.ee. 
• Sirje Rammo, et al, offer Keel selgeks! Eesti keele õpik täiskasvanutele (this means "Getting the Language Clear! An Estonian Text for Adults"). The target audience is said to comprise adults, including adults without access to a teacher, who have already studied one or two foreign languages. The target CEFR levels are, here as with the just-mentioned Pesti-and-Ahi, A1, A2, and B1. Something which in some sense is the "base portion" is said to be Estonian-only, with the grammar notes, vocabularies, and supplements said to be bilingual (in Estonian-and-Russian, Estonian-and-English, and Estonian-and-Finnish). Three CDs seem to be part of the book package. Separately from this package, there is  a rather thick (176-page) supplement option, Keel selgeks! : eesti keele õpik täiskasvanutele. Lisad ("lisad" are "add-ons"). On hasty searching, I have found retailers at https://www.avita.ee/18758 for the main package, and at http://www.apollo.ee/keel-selgeks-eesti-keele-opik-taiskasvanutele-lisad.html for the supplement. 

(B) Second, I cite, in no particular order, two computer courses:

• Courseware not for smartphones is retailed at http://store.instantimmersion.com/learn-estonian/ (in the spring of 2015, and again around UTC=20170227T2200Z, at 34.95 USD for "Level 1" and 54.95 USD for "Levels 1-2-3"; but it is not immediately clear how these "Levels" relate to the so-important CEFRL classifications).
• Courseware suitable also for iPod and MP3-players is retailed at  http://www.amazon.com/Estonian-Visual-language-learning-player/dp/0982291205/ref=cm_cr_pr_sims_t/182-5686553-1232005 (in the spring of 2015, at 24.95 USD, but at UTC=20170227T2233Z, at 29.95 USD; customer reviews were absent in the spring of 2015, and were still absent when I re-checked on 2017-02-28). 

Courseware described at http://www.amazon.com/EuroTalk-Interactive-Talk-Learn-Estonian/dp/B00117UUGA, available in the spring of 2015,was said to be unavailable when I checked this site again at UTC=20170227T2232Z. 

Both in the spring of 2015 and around  UTC=20170227T2200Z, Web investigations left me with the impression that the highly regarded Rosetta Stone (™) was not offering Estonian. The promotional material at http://store.instantimmersion.com/learn-estonian/, on the other hand, today (2017-02-27) claims to achieve Rosetta Stone (™) quality levels, for lower prices than the Rosetta team typically charges. 

4.3 Auxiliary Study Materials (Not Self-Contained Language Courses)

(1) One portal (which I have not yet explored) for online dictionaries is http://www.keeleveeb.ee/. 

(2) Among the traditional hardcopy dictionaries, special mention might be made of the 1982 Estonian-to-English compilation from Paul F. Saagpakk (1910-1996): Eesti-inglise sõnaraamat (New Haven and London, 1982; second printing, Tallinn, 1992; third printing, Tallinn, 2000). This I used heavily around the years 1986-1991, annotating practically every page in my own bulky, expensive copy. It is helpful - and this is specially easy with traditional ink-on-paper hardcopy - to flag an entry with some prominent mark on first using it, and then to flag it again and again, as one keeps returning. Soon enough it becomes clear, from the proliferation of repeat-visit flags, that the Kitchen Estonian learned at one's parents' knees - in my case, over the five years preceding my 1958 entry into the Nova Scotian anglophone school system - had its gaps. 

Saagpakk's prefatory material incorporates a survey of Estonian grammar, to a length of many tens of pages, in Estonian and English. Here are found not only detailed morphological tables for declension types and conjugation types, but a discussion of the Johannes Aavik (1880-1973) linguistic reforms. Aavik's dramatic story recalls the labours of Hebrew philologist-cum-reformer  Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858-1922) - briefly mentioned here at toomaskarmo.blogspot.com on 2017-01-30 or 2017-01-31. 

(3) The following auxiliary Web pages (which I have not investigated) are also of possible interest to students, or at any rate to their teachers, as explorations of dialectal vocabularies, special-subject vocabularies, and the like: 

• https://keeleressursid.ee/en/resources
• http://portaal.eki.ee/keelekogud.html

4.4 Institutional Contacts Potentially Useful for Students

In merely alphabetical order:

• My personal 2015 experience shows that the Estonian Language Institute (http://portaal.eki.ee/) free-of-charge philological helpline at +011-372-631-3731 is happy to take also queries from Canada. The line operates on Mondays through Fridays, from 09:00 to 12:00 and from 13:00 to 17:00 on ordinary Tallinn civil time. (Overlooking possible vagaries of at the equinoxes, when clocks in the two countries are not necessarily guaranteed to make their winter-to-summer and summer-to-winter transitions on exactly the same respective weekends, it is as a general rule the case that Tallinn civil time leads Toronto civil time, in every season, by seven hours.) 
• The Tartu College Estonian Studies Library, described in Estonian at http://www.eesti.ca/library/, emphasizes current publshing, from Estonia, in literature and humanities. It is from here that I have been, for example, able to borrow the recent gripping Estonian-language biography of Estonia's 1930s-through-1970s London ambassador, August Torma (the English translation, on the other hand, is I believe to be had instead from the Robarts Libary at the University of Toronto). It is from here that I hope soon to borrow a hefty coffee-table volume on the Tartu Observatory. Although the street address is 310 Bloor Street West, Toronto, street access is from the adjoining Madison Avenue. Hours are (in Toronto civil time) MON 18:30-20:30, TUE 12:00-15:00, and THU 11:00-13:00. An annual subscription used to cost 5 CAD, but it is possible that this fee has now been waived. Loans are for three weeks, renewable by telephone through 416-925-9405, extension 261. A few years ago, the extension was, a little confusingly, 263. If, as on some rare occasions happens, one visits Madison Avenue and finds the street door accidentally locked, one may find this phone number, with the correct extension, helpful. - A rather subtle, useful feature of the library is its summer shutdown. Upon borrowing a pile of material in May, one can enjoy undisturbed reading, without need for renewals, until the library re-opens in September. 
• The University of Toronto not only has its own rather good holdings in Aesthonica (both in Estonian and in English; Saagpakk is held in three copies) but also offers various courses in language and literature. The promotional material for the September 2016 start-of-classes may still be viewed at http://vemu.ca/index.php/en/events-events/775-estonian-language-course-for-the-beginners-starts-this-fall-at-the-university-of-toronto. In recent years, as perhaps also at present, the language instructor has been Prof. Marju Toomsalu. Prof. Toomsalu is also on faculty in an English position at Ryerson University (http://uryerson.com/english/faculty-staff/directory/toomsalum.html; mtoomsal@ryerson.ca - not, contrary to one's possible expectation, mtoomsalu@ryerson.ca). When I last checked statistics, Prof. Toomsalu had, for the 2015/2016 academic year, an Estonian-course enrollment of eleven. I gather from the perhaps-2016 experience of a younger-generation friend that auditing, as opposed to enrollment for academic credit, is an available option. 
• I cannot think of VEMU (Väliseesti Muuseum; Museum of Estonians Abroad; http://vemu.ca/index.php/et/ and http://vemu.ca/index.php/en/) without an agreeable John-le-Carré adrenaline rush.  On the shelves which VEMU helps curate is one of the best collections of Cold-War-era Aesthonica outside Estonia - books from the major 1940s-through-1980s exile publishing houses in two or so copies; runs of the major exile newspapers, I think complete; and long runs (perhaps, admittedly, not complete) of periodicals from occupied Estonia. There are even gramophone records from exile ensembles or choirs. (I must remember to donate, if VEMU does not already hold it, my vinyl copy of the "Ki-Ki Kvartett", recorded in cold-war Toronto. Mum forbade the playing of its catchy first track, "Raha paneb rattad käima" - that title gives also the album its name -  on the family stereo, correctly noting its vulgarity. Raha paneb rattad käima/ Kas Sa seda ei tea/ Rahaga võib viina juua/ Küll on purjus hea - as I translate it, "Money makes the wheels go round/ Oh can't you understand?/ With money comes your glass of schnapps/ Oh, to be drunk is grand.")   Specially evocative, in a kind of horrid Auschwitz-Belsen-Ravensbrück-Perm-Magadan, Stalag-und-Gulag, sort of way, is a row of refugee suitcases. One could profitably spend a month in that vast so-to-speak bunker, and I think I have so far spent all of fifteen minutes.) - I gather that upon due application to info@vemu.ca it may be possible to borrow from the bunker some Cold-War-era book or other which one happens (despite one's pretty strenuous efforts at collecting) not to own, and which happens not to be on the University of Toronto Aesthonica shelves. - Additionally, I have a friend who was able to obtain, by due application to current VEMU authority Ms Piret Noorhani, a book for his own collection, to support his studies in Estonian: Ms Noorhani happened to hold her particular item in too many copies, and was therefore happy to make a donation to him. 

4.5 Resources for Course Developers

The following Web resources (which I have not investigated) might be among the starting points for professionals writing their own course materials, or in other ways planning their own educational outreach: 

• http://www.integratsiooniinfo.ee/et/kasulik-info/eesti-keele-kursused
• http://ekkm.estinst.ee/sisu/eesti-keel-voorkeelena/

[This concludes the present three-installment essay.] 

Toomas Karmo (Part B): Practicalities of Studying Estonian

Quality assessment:

On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3'5 is "mediocre pass", 4.5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 4/5. Justification: Kmo had time to do a reasonably complete and (within the framework of the version 2.0.1, 2.0.2, 2.0.3,  .. process) reasonably polished job.

Revision history:

• 20170208T1838Z/version 2.3.0: Kmo moved discussion of pub-or-campfire song from Viivi Luik upward, into the discussion of adessive case., and expanded it. - Kmo reserved the right to make minor, purely cosmetic, nonsubstantive tweaks over the coming 48 hours, as here-undocumented version 2.3.1, 2.3.2, 2.3.3, ... . 
• 20170208T0049Z/version 2.2.0: Kmo appended to the posting a call for reader feedback. - Kmo reserved the right to make minor, purely cosmetic, nonsubstantive tweaks over the coming 48 hours, as here-undocumented version 2.2.1, 2.2.2, 2.2.3, ... . 
• 20170207T2222Z/version 2.1.0: Kmo improved his discussion of the fourteen Estonian case,  and corrected a humiliating mistranslation (he had somehow written "peacetime summer", instead of "peacetime spring", for "rahukevad"), and perhaps made other small adjustements. - Kmo reserved the right to make minor, purely cosmetic, nonsubstantive tweaks over the coming 48 hours, as here-undocumented version 2.1.1, 2.1.2, 2.1.3, ... . He decided to deem even small possible upcoming adjustments in his treatment of Viivi Luik (for  instance, repairs involving the insertion of missing vocabulary explanations, or adjustments in the use of the block caps that signal major vocabulary items) "minor, purely cosmetic, nonsubstantive tweaks". 
• 20170207T0410Z/version 2.0.0: Kmo finished converting upload into coherent prose. He now embarked on a process of polishing. He reserved the right to make minor, purely cosmetic, nonsubstantive tweaks over the coming 48 hours, as here-undocumented versions 2.0.1, 2.0.2, 2.0.3, ... . 
• 20170207T0004Z/version 1.0.0: Kmo uploaded outline. He hoped to convert this into coherent prose over the coming 4 hours. 

[CAUTION: A bug in the blogger server-side software has in some past weeks shown a propensity to insert inappropriate doublespacing or inappropriate interparagraph whitespace at some points in some of my posted essays. If a screen seems to end in empty space, keep scrolling down. The end of the posting is not reached until the usual blogger "Posted by Toomas (Tom) Karmo at" appears. - The blogger software has also shown a propensity to generate HTML that is formatted in different ways on different client-side browsers, perhaps with some browsers not correctly reading in the entirety of the "Cascading Style Sheets" which on many Web servers control the browser placement of margins, sidebars, and the like. If you suspect "Cascading Style Sheets" problems in your particular browser, be patient: it is probable that while some content has been shoved into some odd place (for instance, down to the bottom of your browser, where it ought to appear in the right-hand margin), all the server content has been pushed down into your browser in some place or other. - Anyone inclined to help with trouble-shooting, or to offer other kinds of technical advice, is welcome to write me via Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com.]

3. A Possible Preliminary to Systematic Estonian-Language Studies

3.1 Principles

I wrote last week for a very mixed readership, including in its ranks individuals with some command of Estonian. Tonight's remarks, on the other hand, are directed mainly to prospective students who presently have no Estonian at all. Last week I wrote in Estonian, appending an English translation as I went along. In view of the shift in readership, I write tonight in English only. 

****

Students of psycholinguistics, take due and careful note: it is possible - in fact, it is easy - to think in a language which one has not yet started studying systematically. 

My object tonight is to lead prospective students of Estonian, who do not at present know our language at any level whatever, into thinking a sequence of a few dozen actual Estonian thoughts. I try to bring my readership into this alarming Yoga lotus position through a short set of exercises. They might perhaps be completed in one four-hour working session, or in two or three two-hour sessions. They could to advantage be completed, despite the press of nonphilological duties, by those members of the British Forces stationed in Estonia, or by appropriately enthusiastic (and yet busy) young people, of mixed Estonian and non-Estonian parentage, here in Ontario. 

With that exercise in Yoga lotus-contortions behind them, my readers can if they desire turn next to systematic study, with Web sites and grammar books, and with a dictionary - perhaps even using some of the various resources that I hope myself to be recommending in a later installment of this present multi-part essay. 

3.2 Some Phonetics

Estonian, like Finnish and Ciceronian Latin, and unlike English, is fortunate in having a nearly phonetic writing system.

At the core of Estonian is a rather short alphabet:

• Aa (always - even when doubled in a long or superlong syllable - like the "a" in English "father", and never like the "a" in English "cat")
• Bb
• Dd
• Ee (always - even when doubled in a long or superlong syllable - like the "e" in English "semi", and never like the "e" in English "we")
• Gg (always like "g" in English "godfather", and never like the "g" in English "nudge") 
• Hh
• Ii (always - even when doubled in a long or superlong syllable - like the "e" in English "we", and never like the "i" in the English "I am" 
• Jj (always like the "y" in English "you", and never like the "j" in English "judge")
• Oo (always - even when doubled in a long or superlong syllable - like the  ô in French "rôle" or the o in German "Hoffnung": so "oo" is never sounded like "oo" in English "food")  
• Pp
• Rr
• Uu (always - even when doubled in a long or superlong syllable - like the "oo" in English "food") 
• Õõ (always - even when doubled in a long or superlong syllable - like the first component in that diphthong in Standard English which is "õu" - as when HM the Q, in a televised Christmas Message some decades ago, solemnly stood on a bridge in or near St James's Park, overlooking some small body of water, and solemnly tossed her pebble down, and solemnly spoke of that outreach of ripples which one experiences once one has cast one's stõun into one's pool) 
• Ää (always - even when doubled in a long or superlong syllable - like the "a" in English "cat" or Swedish "Valhallavägen", and never like the "a" in English "father" - i.e., never (despite the occasional malpractice of Toronto classical-radio disk-jockeys introducing in English the work of composer Arvo Pärt) like the "ä" in the German "schläfst du gut")
• Öö (always - even when doubled in a long or superlong syllable - like the "ö" in German "Göttingen")
• Üü (always - even when doubled in a long or superlong syllable - like the "u" in French "Tu as tué nos célébrations"; i.e., like "ü" in German "Frühstück, Frühstück über alles") 

To this agreeably short list are, admittedly, added nine letters for loan-words and the like, yielding the overall alphabet Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Qq, Rr, Ss, Šš, Zz, Žž, Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww, Õõ, Ää, Öö, Üü, Xx, Yy. 

So far as the extended alphabet goes, comment is needed only regarding the pronunciation of two letters: 

• Šš always as in English "sugar"
• Žž as the voiced equivalent of "Šš" - i.e., like the final consonant in the French "Moulin Rouge" 

Care must be taken to avoid going Anglo on diphtongs: "oa" in "ilma loata" ("without permission") is like the "oa" in the Hawai'i placename "Mauna Loa", not like the "oa" in "country road"; similarly, "au" is like the "au" in the German "Maus" and "Haus", not like the "au" in the English "fraught with peril". 

****

It is striking that Estonian lacks the Icelandic thorn (þ/ð) sound, in other words the Greek theta sound - which in English is prominent in both an unvoiced form ("Thanks, Thaddeus, for thinking of thick thongs for thin things") and a voiced form ("rather thy bothersome, blathering brotherhood than Mother's lather, Smithers"). 

****

Accent in Estonian is more regular than in English, falling on the first syllable in truly native words, and going to some other syllable in only a subset of the imported words (the eatery is a "RES-to-ran", even as in a native Estonian word; but "Pa-RIIS" is the French capital). (Uncle R, in 1950s or 1960s occupied Tallinn, sent Dad a book of travel memoirs: the author was struck at dockside by the way inglise keel, English, sounds  hüplev, "jumpy".)

A more systematic study would linger over questions of secondary accent, in those long words which are the glory of Estonian as of German -  "TAgavaraREhepeksuMAsinateta" - "in the absence of reserve threshing machines". ("TAgavara" = "reserve"; "REhi" = "threshing floor"; "peks" = "beating"; "MAsin" = "machine", "MAsinad" = "machines", "MAsinateta" = "without machines".)

A more systematic study would additionally attend to palatization, which Estonian shares with Russian. The palatized "palk", or "board/beam", for instance, is a different word from the unpalatized "palk", or "pay/wages". (The difference might perhaps be marked crudely by writing, albeit in defiance of the established orthography, "paljk", for the palatized word, keeping for the unpalatized word the received spelling "palk".) 

And a more systematic study would also pay some attention to a rather exotic feature of Estonian (already hinted at in my reference to "superlong" syllables in the examination of the alphabet), involving a trio of syllable "durations". This stands in contrast with most languages. Latin, for instance, has a less elaborate two-way scheme, in which every syllable is deemed simply either "long" or "short".

****

We cannot think in Estonian unless we have a modest ability to read Estonian printed letters and turn them into approximately correct phonemes. Perfection is not to be sought at this early stage. The reader need seek only to avoid the lamentable situation I found myself in toward the end of the Cold War, chatting over cocktails and canapés, or something similar, with a Dean at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. 

Our conversation on that unhappy afternoon or evening ran more or less as follows:

DEAN: And so there is some diplomatic activity, despite the occupation?

ME: Oh yes actually, we have for instance a Consul in New York actually actually, Dr Aarand Roos. 

DEAN: How do you spell that?

ME: With four letters - R-like-Romeo, O-like-Oscar, O-like-Oscar, S-like-Sierra. 

DEAN: Ah yes. We would pronounce that "RUUS". 

(At this point I successfully suppressed the urge to make some biting remark, about Cultural Imperialism or something. I guess it was time to switch over to a topic the Dean might prove better at - as it might conceivably have been, to Catholicism, or to American-rules football.) 

For the reader's vocal practice, I adapt, taking on Estonian spelling and incorporating an appropriate ethnic reference to Estonia, an ethnically non-Estonian (in the original, perhaps ethnically German?) joke that I heard some years ago: 

Raadio disress kool is höörd at Estonian Kõustgaard onšoor fasilliti. Fromm šipp kamms öördžent messidž: "Help, help, vii aar SINKING."

Estoonian fasilliti votš-offiser sez into reidio, "Yes, gõu onn, pliiz."

Šipp reidio riplaiz, "Vii are SINKING."

Estoonian votš-offiser transmitts, "Kontinjuu, pliiz; tell as moor."

Šipp reidio häs traabl bii-ink peišent, änt kontinjuus nau in samm änger, "Vii are SINKING: MEI-dei, MEI-dei, juu idi-otts; vii are SINKING."

Estoonian offiser izz peišent. Viss-aut getting ät oll ängri, he sez into maikrofõun: "Jess, ziss is guud, ziss is konstraktiff - but tell us pliiz, vott aar juu sinking a-BAUT?"

Although this should be self-explanatory (the point of the joke is that Estonian phonetics lacks the Icelandic thorn, i.e., the Greek theta), I do take the precaution of gilding my lily, by writing my anekdoot also in the irrational spelling system of Anglosaxonia:

A radio distress call is heard at an Estonian Coastguard onshore facility. From the ship comes an urgent message: "Help, help, we are SINKING." 

The Estonian facility watch-officer says into his radio: "Yes, go on, please." 

The ship radio replies, "We are SINKING." 

The Estonian watch-officer transmits, "Continue, please; tell us more." 

The ship radio has trouble being patient, and continues now in some anger, "We are SINKING. MAYday, MAYday, you idiots; we are SINKING." 

The Estonian officer is patient. Without getting at all angry,  he says into the microphone, "Yes, this is good, this is constructive - but tell us please, what are you thinking ABOUT?" 

3.3 Some Syntax

Where Latin nouns have just five cases (including the rather inconspicuous vocative), or six if the archaic locative (contrary to common classroom practice) be added, Estonian has fourteen. 

To hope happily with the little thinking-in-Estonian exercise I am about to present, the reader need possess only the dim awareness that multiple cases do exist. 

Nevertheless, I do add a list here, showing in a rough-and-ready way how the cases run:

1. Nominative ----- nimetav:  leib   = bread; leivad = breads
2. Genitive ---- omastav:  leiva = of-the-bread; leibade = of-the-breads
3. Partitivfe ---- osastav:  leiba = some bread (as when one eats some bread); leibu = some breads
....
4. Illative ----- sisseütlev: leivasse/leiba = into (the) bread; leibadesse = into (the) breads
5. Inessive ---- seesütlev: leivas = within (the) bread; leibades = within (the) breads
6. Elative ---- seestütlev: leivast = from within (the) bread; leibadest = from within (the) breads
....
7. Allative ---- alaleütlev: leivale = onto (the) bread; leibadele = onto (the) breads
8. Adessive ----alalütlev: leival = on (the) bread; leibadel = on (the) breads
9. Ablative ---- alaltütlev: levalt = from on (the) bread; leibadelt = from on (the) breads
....
10. Translative ---- saav: leivaks = for, as, into (the) bread ; leibadeks = for, as, into (the) breads
11. Essive ---- olev: leivana = as (the) bread; leibadena = as (the) breads
12. Terminative ---- rajav: = leivani up to (the) bread; leibadeni =  up to (the) breads
13. Abessive ---- ilmaütlev: leivata = without (the) bread; leibadeta = without (the) breads
14. Comitative ---- kaasaütlev: leivaga = with (the) bread; leibadega = with (the) bread

This will inevitably be more than a little cryptic. What is going on with "some" and "the" and "(the)"? A full explanation will have to wait on a systematic study of the Estonian case system, such as a formal textbook provides. For the present inexact purposes, it suffices to make just a handful of remarks:

• Estonian resembles Latin (and diverges from Hebrew) in lacking a definite article. Estonian partly compensates for this semantic gap by distinguishing "partial object" from "total object". English distinguishes "They are buying bread" from "They are buying the bread." Estonian, in a loosely analogous way, distinguishes the "partial object" construction "Nemad ostavad LEIBA" (in which the object of the verb is in the partitive case) from the "total object" construction "Nemad ostavad LEIVA" (in which the object of the verb, being singular, is in the genitive case: singular total objects are in the genitive, and  plural total objects are in the nominative: for the admittedly rather odd "They are buying breads/They are buying the breads," Estonian has "Nemad ostavad LEIBU/Nemad ostavad LEIVAD"). 
• The correspondence with English absence-of-definite-article and English presence-of-definite article is admittedly inexact. Strictly speaking, Estonian uses the total object for an action which is presented as in some sense complete and well demarcated. So, for instance, the partial-object construction "Nemad söövad [are eating] LEIBA" reflects the usual situation, in which people are being polite enough, making their consumption of bread an indefinitely demarcated activity. Perhaps they are nibbling on bread sticks, awaiting the waiter's approach with soup. "Nemad söövad LEIVA" (total object), on the other hand, means "They are engaged in eating up the bread." This would mean that the diners have embarked on some furious project of gobbling the available bread consignment up in its entirety, in the spirit of the sausage-loving dog in my upcoming philological joke, or in the spirit of the USA-television "Cookie Monster".

Surely the stickiest feature of the Estonian case system is this distinction between total and partial object. Most other features of the case system are easy. For the present, inexact, purposes, it suffices to give a mere list of illustrations:

1. Nominative ----- nimetav: Leib on siin (The bread is here)

2. Genitive ---- omastav: leiva hind (the price of some bread/the price of the (particular, indicated) bread; leibade hinnad (the prices of breads-in-general/the price of the (particular, indicated) breads)

3. Partitive ---- osastav: Siin on leiba; veokis on leibu (There is some bread here; there are some breads (some crates of baguettes, some crates of panini) in the lorry/truck)

....

4. Illative ----- sisseütlev: Uss ronis leivasse; hiired jooksid leibadesse (The worm crawled into the bread (or into some bread); the mice ran into the breads, i.e. into the pile of bread crates in the lorry - or, alternatively, ran into some pile-of-breads or other); a  famous song ends with the sentence Raiusin kõik raamatusse = "I chiselled it all into a book" (cf in YouTube "Veikko Ahvenainen Lauliku lapsepõli", upload of user "saurus000000" - the singer recalls her/his childhood, and how (s)he wrote it all down for posterity) 

5. Inessive ---- seesütlev: Uss on leivas; hiirte salk varjus ennast leibades (The worm is inside the bread, or inside some bread; the band of mice concealed itself inside the breads/inside some breads - e.g., in the interstices of the pile of bread crates in the warehouse)

6. Elative ---- seestütlev: Uss tuli leivast; leivast sai kanatoit/leibadest sai Vanadema kanatoit (The worm came from, emerged from, some bread or the bread/From some bread or the bread came - was produced - Gran's chickenfeed); Soomest tuli üks nõid (One wizard came out of Finland - emerging, so to speak, from the dark and brooding interior); James Thurber'i jutus nõid väänab verd kaalitakest ja kaalikaid verest (In the James Thurber story, the wizard squeezes blood out of  turnips, and turnips out of blood) 

 ....

7. Allative ---- alaleütlev: Ta paneb võid leivale (He/she/it puts some butter onto some bread, or onto the bread)

8. Adessive ----alalütlev: Leival on paks koor (On the bread is a thick crust); or again Harjumaal on uus nädalaleht ("On Harju County is a new weekly newspaper" - i.e., "Harju County has, possesses, a new weekly newspaper"). A third, now twofold, illustration of usage is furnished by the campfire-or-pub song which runs,  See oli ennemuistsel a'al/ Kui heeringas elas kuival maal [(i) poetic contraction for ennemuistsel ajal - nominative singular, genitive singular, and nominative plural ennemuistne aeg ("prehistoric time"), ennemuistse aja ("of a prehistoric time"), ennemuistsed ajad ("prehistoric times"); (ii) nominative singular, genitive singular, and nominative plural are kuiv maa ("dry land"), kuiva maa ("of dry land"), and kuivad maad ("dry lands")]. The rhyming couplet in its entirety translates, "That was on/upon a prehistoric time [English analogously says "once UPON a time"]/ When the herring lived on dry land." - The next couplet explains that herrings in that epoch had an aversion to water, and that people kept them in the manner of cats:  See oli ennemuistsel a'al,/ Kui heeringas elas kuival maal./ Ta hoidis ennast eemal veest/ Ja teda peeti kassi eest.

9. Ablative ---- alaltütlev: Levalt tilgub sulavõid (From on some bread, or from the bread, is dripping some melted butter); Soomelt tuleb üks purjelaev (One sailing ship is coming from from - from, so to speak, the surface or edge of - Finland) 

....

10. Translative ---- saav: Taigen saab leivaks (The dough is becoming bread - as when the duly kneaded loaf is heating up in the oven); kivid said leibadeks (The stones turned into "breads" (into a number of loaves))

11. Essive ---- olev: Me pidime kooki sööma leivana ("We had to eat bread as cake" - perhaps the year is 1789, and Marie Antoinette has just said, with reference to the hungryr, Qu'ils  mangent de la brioche) 

12. Terminative ---- rajav: Õllelomp ulatus leivani; õllelomp ulatus leibadeni (Tartu student fraternity, in a beery celebration of Brüderschaft in the German academic tradition, with heavy mugs (steins) on the table - "The beer puddle reached right up to the bread/The beer puddle reached right up to the breadloaves": in a student fraternity, one's Cantusbuch , or songbook - this German loanword itself incorporates a bit of Latin - is on occasion equipped with studs on one cover, so that Cantusbuch can be laid horizontally on  beer puddle without the beer wetting its pages)

13. Abessive ---- ilmaütlev: Taluomanikud olid leivata, olid koguni tagavararehepeksumasinateta (The owners-of-farms were without bread (singular), were without even reserve threshing machines (plural)) 

14. Comitative ---- kaasaütlev: Helpful illustration of multiple possibilities, in a philological joke told me by Mum when I was  small - Ema, ema, koer sõi mu leiva ära! - Oi, mu laps: kas MEELEGA? - Ei, Ema, VORSTIGA.  "Mum, Mum, the dog totally ate up my bread! - O my child: with maliciouis intent? - No, Mum, with sausage."

3.4 An Exercise in Estonian Thinking

For our exercise in Estonian thinking, I take a passage from (roughly) the twelfth and thirteenth pages of a dark classic of the occupation, Viivi Luik's  Seitsmes rahukevad  ("The Seventh Peacetime Spring"). This exercise in historical critique, cast as a child's naive memoir, was published in Tallinn at the house "Eesti Raamat" in 1985, to a total length of around 190 pages. In quoting from it, I hope and believe I am staying safely within the "Fair Use" terms of copyright law. I make this legally optimistic assumption because my quoted material is just one tiny portion - comprising under two-thirds of one page - from a hefty whole.

I gather that although some partial translation of this book into English exists, somewhere, there is presently no full English translation.

For author Viivi Luik generally, the English-language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viivi_Luik supplies just a few tantalizing biographical details. No doubt more helpful - but I have not yet had time to examine it - is the Estonian-German-English site http://www.viiviluik.ee/.

**** 

A few additional prefatory remarks:

• For each sentence from Viivi Luik, my reader will want first (1) to glance over my offered initial vocabulary; then (2) to read aloud the sentence as I write it out in a mixture of Estonian and English, in so-to-speak "eestlish" ("eestlane" = "Estonian individual"; "eesti keel" = "Estonian language") - reading aloud repeatedly, until the always-so-plastic brain begins thinking in "eestlish"); and finally (3) to read Viivi Luik's actual sentence, aloud, repeatedly, in Estonian, until the neurons in their plasticity nudge "eestlish" thinking out in favour of fully eesti thinking. 
• To help the reader in possible subsequent systematic studies, I have taken the liberty of typesetting some specially useful words, such as forms of the verb "to be", in ALL-CAPS.
• Estonian sometimes typesets unusual, exotic, words and turns of phrase   l i k e    t h i s, in sõrendamine", or "thinning-out". It is really a rather pretentious device, suitable for discussing in scholarly print such things as the Japanese tea ceremony, or again the rites de passage of adolescent Papua New Guinea highlanders, or perhaps again some concept in differential topology - we find ourselves defining integrals on m a n i f o l d s, with a restriction in the case of flux integrals to those specially-well-behaved manifolds that, in contradistinction from the dreaded Möbius strip, are o r i e n t a b l e. Viivi Luik uses the so-scholarly typesetting device to comedic effect, conveying the idea that to her child-narrator not only is the refrigerator an exotic, never-to-be-seen anthropological construct, but so also are toasted bread, orange juice, and bedtime baths.
• In reading aloud the ending, with its haunting references to the final red glow in the western sky and to darkening greenery,  one should picture an August evening at the high latitudes - in the British case, in the Orkneys; in the Canadian case, at the port of Churchill. The twilight at 58-or-59-degrees-north lingers for a long time, since the Sun is for a long time gliding just a few degrees below the horizon. The summer has seen eerily long days, with the late-June dusk almost merging into pre-dawn twilight. Now, however, the nights that are getting long, and even children know the still-luxurious greenery is in due course going to be replaced with snow. 
• Viivi Luik's final "Fiftieth Year" is puzzling: is her reference to the year 1950 (given that her book ends in, if my arithmetic is right, the year 1952), or to the Fiftieth Year of the grandmother's housekeeping in an unwelcoming environment? Are the readers themselves, perhaps, supposed to suffer pangs of uncertainty regarding Viivi Luik's exact chronological reference?

****

sein, seina, seinad
= wall, of-a-wall, walls

tuba, toa, toad
= room, of-a-room, rooms

ees =
front

mina/ma olen
Sina/Sa oled
tema/ta on
meie/me oleme
Teie,teie/Te,te olete
nemad/nad on
= I am
thou art
he/she/it is
we are
ye are
they are;
mina/ma olin
Sina/Sa olid
tema/ta oli
meie/me  olime
Teie,teie/Te,te olite
nemad/nad olid
= I was
thou wert
he/she/it was
we were
ye were
they were

mina/ma löön
Sina/Sa lööd
tema/ta lööb
meie/me lööme
Teie,teie/Te,te lööte
nemad/nad löövad
= I pound
thou poundest
he/she/it poundeth
we pound
ye pound
they pound;
löödud
= pounded, pounded in

pikk, pika, pikad =
long, of-a-long, long (plural)

jäme, jämeda, jämedad =
thick, of-a-thick, thick (plural)

nael, naela, naelad
= nail, of-a-nail, nails

ots, otsa, otsad
= end, of-an-end, ends

rätik, rätiku, rätikud
= cloth, of-a-cloth, cloths

pea, pea/pää, pead/pääd
= head, of-a-head, heads

põld, põllu, põllud
= apron, of-an-apron, aprons

ja =
and


üks, ühe =
one, of-one;
kaks, kahe =
two, of-two;
kolm, kolme =
three, of-three;
neli, nelja =
four, of-four;
viis, viie =
five, of-five


saag, sae, saed
= saw, of-a-saw, saws

vibu, vibu, vibud
= bow, of-a-bow, bows

/.../ into the seinad of the eestuba OLI löödud some PIKAD jämedad naelad; on their otsad hung some rätikud of the pea type, some põllud JA ÜKS saag of the vibu type.

/.../ eeestoa seintesse OLI löödud PIKKI jämedaid naelu, nende otsas ripnes pearätikuid, põllesid JA ÜKS vibusaag.

+ 

painduv, painduva, painduvad

= flexible, of-a-flexible, flexible (plural)

mees, mehe, mehed

= man, of-a-man, men

üks, ühe; kaks, kahe; kolm, kolme; neli, nelja; viis, viie

= one, of-one; two, of-two; three, of-three; four, of-four; five, of-five

pink, pingi, pingid

= bench, of-a-bench, benches;

kruu- = equipped with (or of pertaining to) a carpenter's vise

nurk, nurga, nurgad

= corner, of-a-corner, corners

tasakesi =
quietly

PIKAD painduvad saed of the kahemehe type were standing in the eestuba behind the kruupink in the nurk and jingled tasakesi when people walked around in the tuba.

PIKAD painduvad kahemehelised saed seisid eestoas kruupingi taga nurgas ning kõlisesed tasakesi, kui toas käidi.

+

tala, tala, talad

= beam, of-a-beam, beams

lagi, lae, laed
= ceiling, of-a-ceiling, ceilings

mina/ma paistan
Sina paistad
tema/ta paistab
meie/me paistame
Teie,teie/Te,te paistate
nemad paistavad
=
I appear
thou appearest
he/she/it appeareth
we appear
ye appear
they appear;
mina/ma paistsin
Sina paistsid
tema/ta paistis
meie/me paistsime
Teie,teie/Te,teie paistsite
nemad paistsid
=
I appeared
thou didst appear
he/she/it appeared
we appeared
ye appeared
they appeared

kangasoad
= weaver's reeds

From between the talad of the lagi paistsid kangasoad.

Laetalade vahelt paistsid kangasoad.

+ 

kandiline, kandilise, kandilised
= square-edged/angular, of a square-edged, square-edged (plural)

ise
= themselves;
mina ise olen = I myself am;
Sina ise paistad =
thou dost thyself appear

pruun, pruuni, pruunid
= brown, of-a-brown, brown (plural)


Talad ise OLID kandilised, jämedad JA pruunid.

+ 

kogu =
the entire

Kogu lagi OLI pruun.

+ 

ema, ema, emad =
mother, of-a-mother, mothers

köök, köögi, köögid =
kitchen, of-a-kitchen, kitchens

I followed EMA into the köök.

Läksin EMA järele kööki.

+ 

väljas =
outside

pime, pimeda, pimedad

= dark, of-a-dark, dark (plural)

mina/ma ei ole/pole

Sina/Sa ei ole/pole

ta ei ole/pole

meie/me ei ole/pole

Teie,teie/Te/te ei ole/pole

nemad/nad ei ole/pole

= I am not

thou are not

he/she/it is not

we are not

ye are not

they are not

latern, laterna, laternad =

lantern, of-a-lantern, lanterns (plural)

mina/ma põlen

Sina/Sa põled

nemad/nad põlevad

meie/me põleme

teie/te põlete

nemad/nad põlevad

= I burn

thou burnest

he/she/it burneth

we burn

ye burn

they burn

thou burnest;

mina/ma põlesin

Sina/Sa põlesid

nemad/nad põlesid

meie/me põlesime

Teie,teie/Te,te põlesite

nemad põlesid =
I burned
thou didst burn
he/she/it burned
we burned
ye burned
they burned 

aga =
but

juba =

already

VÄLJAS  POLNUD pime, AGA in the köök a latern JUBA põles.

VÄLJAS POLNUD pime, AGA köögis põles JUBA latern.

+

vana, vana, vanad =

old, of-the-old, old (plural);

vanaema, vanavanaema, vanavanavanaema =

  grandmother, great-grandmother, great-great grandmother

kartul, kartuli, kartulid =

potato, of-a-potato, potatoes

piht, pihu, pihud

= palm, of-a-palm, palms

peo, peo, peod =

hand, of-a-hand, hands

siga, sea, sead =

pig, of-a-pig, pigs

söök, söögi, söögid =

food, of-a-food, foods

pada, paja, pajad =

pot, of-a-pot, pots

aur, auru, aurud =

vapour/steam , of-a-vapour, vapours

mina pigistan

Sina/Sa pigistad

tema/ta pigistab

meie/me pigistame

Teie,teie/Te,te pigistate

nemad/nad pigistavad =

I squeeze

thou squeezest

he/she/it squeezed

we squeeze

ye squeeze

they squeeze;

mina pigistasin

Sina/Sa pigistasid

tema/ta pigistas

meie/me pigistasime

Teie,teie/Te,te pigistasite

nemad/nad pigistasid =

I squeezed

thou didst squeeze

he/she/it squeezed

we squeezed

ye squeezed

they squeezed

mina higistan

Sina/Sa higistad

tema/ta higistab

meie/me higistame

Teie,teie/Te,te higistate

nemad/nad higistavad =

I sweat

thou sweatest

he/she/it sweated

we sweat

ye sweat

they sweat;

mina higistasin

Sina/Sa higistasid

tema/ta higistas

meie/me histasime

Teie,teie/Te,te higistasite

nemad/nad higistasid =

I sweated

thou didst sweat

he/she/it sweated

we sweated

ye sweated

they sweated

Vanaema squeezed boiled kartulid to pieces with her peo into the seasöök, from the padad arose aur and the seinad higistasid.

Vanaema pigistas keedetud kartuleid peoga seaöögi sisse puruks, padadest tõusis auru ja seinad higistasid.

+

kümme, kakskümmend, kolmkümmend, nelikümmend, viiskümmend =
ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty

aasta, aasta, aastad =
year, of-a-year, years


Viiskümmend aastat oli vanaema siin kartulid of the siga type pigistanud to pieces.

Viiskümmend aastat oli vanaema siin seakartulid puruks pigistanud. 

+

kitsas, kitsa, kitsad =

narrow, of-the-narrow, narrow (plural)

kõrge, kõrge, kõrged =

high, of-the-high, high (plural)

ruum, ruumi, ruumid =

room, of-a-room, rooms

nõgine, nõgise, nõgised =

sooty (or sometimes, by extension, just grimy, soiled), of-a-sooty, sooty (plural)

uks, ukse, uksed =

door, of-a-door, doors

labidas, labida, labidad =

shovel, of-a-shovel, shovels

leib, leiva, leivad =

bread, of-a-bread, breads

luud, luua, luuad =

broom, of-a-broom, brooms

ahju, ahju, ahjud =
oven, hearth, wood-burning stove, wood-burning heater  

puss, pussi, pussid =

hunting-knife, of-a-hunting-knife, hunting-knives

sigadetapp = killing of pigs

(kanatapp = slaughter of a chicken (kana), enesetapp = suicide)

The kitsas kõrge ruum with a nõgine lagi, behind the UKS the labidas of LEIB type and luud of ahju type, on the sein the pussid of type sigadetapp.

Kitsas kõrge ruum nõgise laega, ukse taga nurgas leivalabidas ja ahjuluud, seina peal seatapupussid.

+

pink, pingi, pingid =

bench, of-a-bench, benches

vesi, vee, veed =

water, of-a-water, waters

pang, pangi, pangid =

pail (bucket), of-a-pail, pails

pakk, paku, pakud =

chopping-block, of-a-chopping-block, chopping-blocks

mina raiun

Sina/Sa raiud

tema/ta raiub

meie/me raiume

Teie,teie/Te,te raiute

nemad raiuvad =

I chop

thou choppest

he/she/it choppeth

we chop

ye chop

they chop;

raiumine = chopping (also chiselling, as when making an inscription in stone) 

kauss, kausi, kausid =

bowl, of-a-bowl, bowls

mina pesen

Sina/Sa pesed

tema/ta peseb

meie/me peseme

Teie,teie/Te,te pesete

nemad/nad pesevad =

I wash

thou washest

he/she/it washeth

we wash

ye wash

they wash;

pesemine = washing

silm, silma, silmad =

eye, of-an-eye, eyes

The pink for the pang of vee type, the pakk for raiumine and the KAUSS for the pesemine of SILMAD.

Veepangepink, raiepakk ja silmapesukauss.

+

pitsiline, pitsilise, pitsilised =

lacy, of-a-lacy, lacy (plural)

serv, serva, servad =

edge, of-an-edge, edges

paber, paberi, paberid =

paper, of-a-paper, papers

kus =

where

mina/ma seisan

Sina/Sa seisad

tema/ta seisab

meie/me seisame

Teie,teie/Te,te seisate

nemad/nad seisavad =

I stand

thou standest

he/she/it standeth

we stand

ye stand

they stand;

mina/ma seisin

Sina/Sa seisid

tema/ta seisis

meie/me seisime

Teie, teie/Te,te seisite

nemad/nad seisid =

I stood

thouu didst stand

he/she/it stood

we stood

ye stood

they stood

toos, toosi, toosid =

tin, of-a-tin, tins

kompvek, kompveki, kompvekid =

candy, of-a-candy, candies

kööme, köömne, köömned =

caraway, of-a-caraway, caraways

piparmünt, piparmündi, piparmündid =

peppermint, of-a-peppermint, peppermints (plural) [noun and adjective]

vars, varre, varred =

stem, of-a-stem, stems

õis, õie, õied =

blossom, of-a-blossom, blossoms

pärn, pärna, pärnad =

linden, of-a-linden, lindens

The PABER on the riiulid, with pitsilised servad, KUS SEISID rusty old toosid of kompvek type with köömned, piparmundi varred and õied of pärn.

Pitsiliste servadega paber riiulitel, kus seisid vanad roostetanud kompvekitoosid köömnete, piparmündivarte ja pärnaõitega.

+ 

aken, akna, aknad =

window, of-a-window, windows

ruut, ruudi, ruudud =

square, of-a-square, squares

külm, külma, külmad =

cold, of-a-cold, cold (plural)

põrand, põranda, põrandad =

floor, of-a-floor, floors

tsement, tsemendi, tsemendid =
cement, of-a-cement, cements
[a foreign term which takes its accent on the final syllable,
in contrast with the normal stress-the-first-syllable rule]  

An AKEN with KAKS ruutu and a KÜLM põrand of tsement type.

Kahe ruuduga AKEN ja KÜLM tsementpõrand.

++

nõu, nõu, nõud =

dish, of-a-dish, dishnes

pesu, pesu, pesud =

washing, of-a-washing, washings

masin, masina, masinad =

machine, of-a-machine, machines

külmutus =

chilling, cooling

kapp, kapi, kapid =

cupboard, of-a-cupboard, cupboards

sinine, sinise, sinised =

blue, of-a-blue, blue (plural)

hele, heleda, heledad =

light-or-bright, of-a-light-or-bright, light-or-bright (plural) 

valge, valge, valged =
white, of-a-white, white (plural)

laud, laua, lauad =

table, of-a-table, tables

mahl, mahla, mahlad =

juice, of-a-juice, juices

pehme, pehme, pehmed =

soft, of-a-soft, soft

muna, muna, munad =

egg, of-an-egg, eggs

hommik, hommiku, hommikud =

morning, of-a-morning, mornings

ainult = only;

meist ainult kilomeeter =

away from us at a distance of just one kilometre

mõni = some;

sada = hundred;

mõnisada = a few hundred

mina/ma äratan

Sina/Sa äratad

tema/ta äratab

meie/me äratame

Teie,Te/teie,te äratate

nemad äratavad =

I awaken

thou awakenest

he/she/it awakeneth

we awaken

ye awaken

they awaken;

äratav

äratava

äratavad =

of a character to awaken

of of-a-character-to-awaken

of a character to awaken (plural)

hirm, hirmu, hirmu =

fear, of-a-fear, fears

kujutav, kujutava, kujutavad =

depictable, of-depictable, depictable (plural);

ette = in front, ahead of oneself;

ettekujutav, ettekujutava, ettekujutavad =

imaginable, of-imaginable, imaginable (plural);

ettekujutamatu, etteujutamatu, ettekujutamatud =

unimaginable, of-unimaginable, unimaginable (plural)

Nõudepesumasinad, külmutuskapid, a helesinine ceramic heater and a valge ceramic heater, LAUAD with plastic covers, / ... / , toasted LEIVAD, mahl from oranges, PEHMED 3-minuti MUNAD of HOMMIKU type olid meist AINULT mõnisada kilometeetrit, hirmuäratavad JA ettekujutamatud.

N õ u d e p e s u m a s i n a d, k ü l m u t u s k a p i d, helesinine k a h h h e l JA VALGE k a h h e l, p l a s t i k k a t t e g a LAUAD /.../ r ö s t i t u d LEIVAD, a p e l s i n i mahl, PEHMED 3-minuti HOMMIKUMUNAD olid meist AINULT mõnesaja kilomeetri kaugusel, hirmuäratavad JA ettekujutamatud.

+

kusagil =

somewhere

mina/ma elan

Sina/sa elad

tema/ta elab

meie/me elame

Teie,teie/Te,te elate

nemad elavad =

I live

thou livest

he/she/it liveth

we live

ye live

they live;

mina/ma elasin

Sina/sa elasid

tema/ta elas

meie/me elasime

Teie,teie/Te,te elasite

nemad elasid =

I live

thou didst live

he/she/it lived

we lived

ye lived

they lived

inimene, inimese, inimesed =

person, of-a-person, persons -
what I recall, without having time to get words exact, of  

most famous line in Estonian cinema from this 1970s-thru-1980s period

(said by a sleek Tallinn matron visiting the island of Muhu,

and seeking accommodations): "John, ütle talle, et meie maksame;

meie oleme Tallinnast; meie oleme NÕUKOGUDE inimesed";

"John, tell her that we are going to pay; we are from Tallinn;

we are SOVIET persons")

heeringas, heeringa, heeringad =

herring, of-a-herring, herrings
(cf rhyming-couplet  illustration of Adessive, i.e., of alalütlev, case, above)

enne =
before

kui =

when

ta, tema, teda =

it, of-it (also as total object), it (partial object)

enne kui =

before ("before when")

ma hakkan sööma

Sina/Sa hakkad sööma

tema/ta hakkab sööma

meie/me hakkame sööma

Teie/te hakate sööma

nemad hakkavad sööma =

I am starting to eat

thou art starting to eat

he/she/it is starting to eat

we are starting to eat

ye are starting to eat

they are starting to eat;

ma hakkasin sööma

Sina/Sa hakkasid sööma

tema/ta hakkas sööma

meie/me hakkasime sõõma

Teie,teie/Te,te hakkasite sööma

nemad/nad hakkasid sööma =

I was starting to eat

thou wert starting to eat

he/she/it was starting to eat

we were starting to eat

ye were starting to eat

they were starting to eat

KUSAGIL lived inimesed who would skin their heeringas ENNE KUI starting to eat it. /.../

kuSAGIL elasid ininmesed, kes nülgisid heeringa ENNE ära, KUI nad teda sööma hakkasid.

+ 

mina/ma jooksen
Sina/Sa jooksed
tema/ta jookseb
meie/me jookseme
Teie,teie/Te,te jooksete
nemda jooksevad =
I run
thou runnest
he/she/it runneth
we run
ye run
they run;
jooksmas =
running

vann, vanni, vannid =

bath, of-a-bath, baths

aeg, aja, ajad =

time, of-time, times

laps, lapse, lapsed =

child, of-a-child, children

minema = to go;

minemas = going

mina/ma magan

Sina/Sa magad

tema/ta magab

meie/me magame

Teie,teie/Te,te magate

nemad magavad =

I sleep

thou sleepest

he/she/it sleepeth

we sleep

ye sleep

they sleep;

magama = to sleep

minemine, minemise, minemised =

a going, of-a-going, goings

peegel, peegli, peeglid =

mirror, of-a-mirror, mirrors

udune, uduse, udused =

foggy, of-a-foggy, foggy (plural)

paks, paksu, paksu =

thick, of-a-thick, thick (plural)

varn, varna, varnad =

hook, of-a-hook, hooks

mina/ma ootan

Sina/Sa ootad

tema/ta ootab

meie/me ootame

teie/te oodate

nemad ootavad =

I wait

thou waitest

he/she/it waiteth

we wait

ye wait

they wait;

mina/ma ootasin

Sina/Sa ootasid

tema/ta ootas

meie/me ootasime

Teie,Te/teie,te ootasite

nemad ootasid =

I waited

thou didst wait

they waited

we waited

ye waited

they waited

voodi, voodi, voodid =

bed, of-a-bed, beds

särk, särgi, särgid =

shirt-or-town, of-a-shirt-or-gown, shirts-or-gowns

öö, öö, ööd =

night, of-a-night, nights

KUSAGIL vesi was already jooksmas into the vann, it was the AEG for the LAPSED to be MINEMAS to magama, the peeglid were turning udused, PAKSUD bath towels hung on the varn and OOTASID, the VOODID were made, the SÄRGID of ÖÖ type were being put onto the LAPSED.

KUSAGIL jooksis vesi juba v a n n i, oli LASTE magaMINEKUAEG, peeglid muutusid uduseks, PAKSUD vannilinad rippusid varnas ja OOTASID, VOODID olid üles tehtud, ÖÖSÄRGID aeti lastele selga. /.../ 

+ 

võib =

it is permitted, it could be;

võib-olla =

it could be that

see, selle, need =
this, of-this, these

hetk, hetke, hetked =
moment (instant), of-the-moment, moments

mina/ma vannitan

Sina/sa vannitad

tema/ta vannitab

meie/me vannitame

Teie,teie/Te,te vannitate

nemad/nad vannitavad =

I give-a-bath-to

thou givest-a-bath-to

he/she/it giveth-a-bath-to

we give-a bath-to

ye give-a-bath-to

they give-a-bath-to;

vannitati =

were-being-given-a-bath

vabadus, vabaduse, vabadused =

freedom, of-freedom, freedoms;

tee, tee, teed =

thoroughfare, of-a-thorougfare, thoroughfare;

puu, puu, puud =

tree, of-a-tree, trees;

puiestee, puiestee, puiesteed =

boulevard, of-a-boulevard, boulevards;

Vabaduse puiestee =

"Boulevard of Freedom" (a 6-kilometre Tallinn boulevard)

päris =
fairly, pretty definitely

kindlel, kindla, kindlad =
certain (secure), of-a-certain, certain (plural);
kindlasti =
for sure, certainly

ka =
also

Sarkanarmija iela =

an analogue of Vabaduse puiestee, in Riga

Lönnrotinkatu =

an analogue of Vabaduse puiestee, in Helsinki

Valhallavägen =

an analogue of Vabaduse puiestee, in Stockholm

Perhaps at SEE HETK some (a-bunch-of; indefinite) LAPSED were being vannitatud KA on Sarkanarmijas iela JA on the Vabaduse puiestee, AGA PÄRIS KINDLASTI on Lönnrotinkatu and Valhallavägen.

Võib-olla vannitati SEL HETKEL LAPSI KA Karkanarmijas ielal ja Vabaduse puiesteel, AGA Lönnrotinkatul ja Valhallvägenil PÄRIS KINDLASTI.

+ 

seesama =
the very same

punane, punase, punased =

red, of-a-red, red (plural);

puna, puna, punad =

red blush (as in the West at dusk), of-a-red-blush, red blushes

tuhat, tuhande, tuhanded =

thousand, of-a-thousand, thousands

maja, maja, majad =
house, of-a-house, houses

roheline, rohelise, rohelsed =

green, of-a-green, green (plural);

rohelus, roheluse, rohelused =

expanse of greenery, of-an-expanse-of-greenery, expanses of greenery

õhtu, õhtu, õhtud =

evening, of-an-evening, evenings

ÜKS ja seesama  KÜLM puna over hundreds of tuhanded of majad, a growing-dim rohelus, in an ÕHTU in august in the Fiftieth aasta.

Üks ja seesama külm puna sadade tuhandete majade kohal, tumenev rohelus, viiekümnenda aasta augustiÕHTU.

++++

To pull this all together, I reproduce the passage in full, appending also my own full English translation: 

/.../ eeestoa seintesse oli löödud pikki jämedaid naelu, nende otsas ripnes pearätikuid, põllesid ja üks vibusaag. Pikad painduvad kahemehelised saed seisid eestoas kruupingi taga nurgas ning kõlisesed tasakesi, kui toas käidi. Laetalade vahelt paistsid kangasoad. Talad ise olid kandilised, jämedad ja pruunid. Kogu lagi oli pruun.

Läksin ema järele kööki. Väljas polnud pime, aga kõõgis põles juba latern. Vanaema pigistas keedetud kartuleid peoga seaöögi sisse puruks, padadest tõusis auru ja seinad higistasid. Viiskümmend aastat oli vanaema siin seakartuleid puruks pigistanud. Kitsas kõrge ruum nõgise laega, ukse taga nurgas leivalabidas ja ahjuluud, seina peal seatapupussid. Veepangepink, raiepakk ja silmapesukauss. Pitsiliste servadega paber riiulitel, kus seisid vanad roostetanud kompvekitoosid köömnete, piparmündivarte ja pärnaõitega. Kahe ruuduga aken ja külm tsementpõrand.

N õ u d e p e s u m a s i n a d, k ü l m u t u s k a p i d, helesinine k a h h h e l ja valge  k a h h e l, p l a s t i k k a t t e g a lauad /.../ r ö s t i t u d leivad, a p e l s i n i mahl, pehmed 3-minuti hommikumunad olid meist ainult mõnesaja kilomeetri kaugusel, hirmuäratavad ja ettekujutamatud. Kusagil elasid ininmesed, kes nülgisid heeringa enne ära, kui nad teda sööma hakkasid. /.../  Kusagil jooksis vesi juba v a n n i, oli laste magamaminekuaeg, peeglid muutusid uduseks, paksud vannilinad rippusid varnas ja ootasid, voodid olid üles tehtud, öösärgid aeta lastele selga. /.../ 

Võib-olla vannitati sel hetkel lapsi ka Sarkanarmijas ielal ja Vabaduse puiesteel, aga Lönnrotinkatul ja Valhallavägenil päris kindlasti. Üks ja seesama külm puna sadade tuhandete majade kohal, tumenev rohelus, viiekümnenda aasta augustiõhtu.

/.../ Long, thick nails had been pounded into the walls of the front room: on them hung headscarves, aprons and a bowsaw. Long, flexible two-man saws stood in the front room behind the carpenter's bench, in the corner, and jingled softly when people walked in the room. Weaver's reeds showed from between the rafters. The rafters themsevles were square-cut, thick, and brown. The entire ceiling was brown. 

I followed Mum into the kitchen. It was not dark outdoors, but a lantern was already burning in the kitchen. Gran squeezed boiled potatoes to bits in her hand for pig-food; from the pots rose steam, and the walls sweated. For fifty years Gran had been squeezing pig-potatoes to bits here. A narrow, high room with a sooty ceiling, behind the door in the corner a bread-baking shovel and the hearth-whisk, and on the wall the knives for butchering pigs. A bench for the water bucket, a chopping block and the bowl for washing one's eyes. Lacy-edged paper on the shelves, on which stood rusty old candy-tins with caraway seeds, peppermint stems, and linden blossoms. A window with two panes, and a cold cement floor. 

Dishwashers, refrigerators, a light blue ceramic heater, and a white ceramic heater, tables with plastic covering,  /.../ toasted bread, orange juice, soft-boiled three-minute morning eggs - were only a few hundred kilometres away from us, fearful and unimaginable. Somewhere lived people who would skin their herring before starting to eat it. /.../ Somewhere the water was already running into a bath, it was the children's bedtime, the mirrors were fogging up, thick bath towels hung on hooks and waited, beds were made, nightgowns got put onto children. /.../ 

Perhaps at that instant children were being given baths also on the Sarkanarmija iela and on the Freedom Boulevard, but most certainly on the Lönnrotinkatu and the Valhallavägen. One and the same cold red twilight over hundreds of thousands of houses, and over dimming greenery, on an August evening in the Fiftieth Year. 

--Has this experiment worked for the reader? Does it indeed prove possible to think in Estonian, before embarking on systematic studies of the language? And if the experiment has worked, then would someone be helped by my uploading other such bits of vocabulary-plus-Eestlish? Any private e-mail feedback would be gratefully received via Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com. - Readers are herewith respectfully reminded that explicit comments in the blogger formalism, as opposed to mere private e-mails, are vetted, under the rules published here in 2016 April. In brief, the rules are the following: there is no censorship of content, but also no anonymity: anyone posting via blogger is asked to incorporate in the body of the posting true name, verifiable e-mail address, and a disclosure of municipality-plus-country of current residence.  

[This essay to be continued, I hope, next week, in the four-hour UTC interval 20170214T0001Z/20170214T0401Z.]