Paul Goble
Staunton, July 16 – Even in a country as small as Estonia, people in different regions speak differently, with many seeing these differences as constituting the basis of different languages and others arguing that they are simply dialects of Estonian. Now speakers of four of the South Estonian languages are seeking legal recognition as regional languages.
For most of the time since Estonia recovered its de facto independence in 1991, a debate has been going on between speakers of Viru, Setu, Mulki, and Tartu branches of the language who insist they are regional languages and other Estonians who say they are dialects (mariuver.com/2025/07/16/juzhnoestoncy-trebuyut-priznat-svoi-jazyk-regionalnym/).
The balance of expert opinion has now shifted in favor of the position of the speakers of these tongues, especially because the European Union of which Estonia is a member has a long tradition of supporting regional languages. In addition, the experience of neighboring Finland with regional languages also has had an impact.
Now the Council of Elders of the Viru Congress and the Council of Elders of the Setu Congress have appealed to Tallinn to change the law so that they can be declared languages and thus have higher status and a better chance to gain access to the educational system and thus survive into the future.
Some in the Estonian government and some Estonians more generally fear that such a change could allow Russians to exploit it and demand more benefits for the Russian language than most Estonians support, especially given how many rights speakers of Russian currently enjoy.
The Estonian parliament plans to consider changing the law this fall and giving the speakers of Southern Estonian languages the status they seek.
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