ABSTRACT
A m em ber of the Balto-Finnic group of Finno-Ugric, Estonian is the official language of the Estonian Republic, where it is spoken by about 1 million people. There are several thousand speakers in other parts of the CIS, and some large emigre groups - for example around 70,000 in North America. The language is divided into two markedly divergent dialect groups: Northern (Tallinna keel) and Southern (Tartu keel). In their extreme forms these come close to being mutually unintelligible. The modern literary standard is based on the Northern (Tallinn) form. Centuries of German influence are reflected in the vocabulary of Estonian.
