Estonian is a Finnic language, written in the Latin script. It is the official language of Estonia and one of the official languages of the European Union, spoken natively by about 1.1 million people; 922,000 people in Estonia and 160,000 outside Estonia.
Votic, or Votian [ˈvɑːdʔda ˈtʃɨlɨ, mɑːt.ʃɨlɨ], is the language spoken by the Votes of Ingria, belonging to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages. Votic is spoken only in Krakolye and Luzhitsy, two villages in Kingiseppsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, and is close to extinction. In the 2020-2021 Russian census, 21 people claimed to speak Votic natively. Arvo Survo also estimated that around 100 people have knowledge of the language to some degree.
Karelian is a Finnic language spoken mainly in the Russian Republic of Karelia. Linguistically, Karelian is closely related to the Finnish dialects spoken in eastern Finland, and some Finnish linguists have even classified Karelian as a dialect of Finnish, though in the modern day it is widely considered a separate language. Karelian is not to be confused with the Southeastern dialects of Finnish, sometimes referred to as karjalaismurteet in Finland. In the Russian 2020-2021 census, around 9,000 people spoke Karelian natively, but around 14,000 said to be able to speak the language.
Võru County is a county in southern Estonia. It is bordered by Valga County and Põlva County and is the only Estonian county bordering two countries - Latvia in the south and Russian Federation in the east.
Võro is a language belonging to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages. Traditionally, it has been considered a dialect of the South Estonian dialect group of the Estonian language, but nowadays it has its own literary standard and efforts have been undertaken to seek official recognition as an indigenous regional language of Estonia. Võro has roughly 75,000 speakers (Võros) mostly in southeastern Estonia, in the eight parishes of the historical Võru County: Karula, Harglõ, Urvastõ, Rõugõ, Kanepi, Põlva, Räpinä and Vahtsõliina. These parishes are currently centred in Võru and Põlva counties, with parts extending into Valga and Tartu counties. Speakers can also be found in the cities of Tallinn and Tartu and the rest of Estonia.
Setos are an indigenous Finnic peoples and linguistic minority that have historically lived in the borderlands between modern day Estonia and Russia. Setos have historically spoken the Seto language and been Orthodox Christians. The Seto language belongs to the Finnic group of the Uralic language family. Since the early 2000s, the Setos have sought greater recognition, rather than having their language considered a dialect of Estonian. Eastern Orthodox Christianity, with influences from local folk religions is widely practiced by the Seto peoples.
Setomaa is a region south of Lake Peipus and inhabited by the Seto people. The Seto dialect is a variety of South Estonian. The historic range of Setomaa is located in the territories of present-day Estonia and Russia. Estonian Setomaa presently consists of lands in Võru County located in southeastern Estonia and bordering Russia. Petseri has been the historic and cultural centre for the Setos.
Seto is a dialect of Estonian or a separate language spoken by 12,549 people. It is sometimes identified as a dialect of Võro, or the two are described as one language, Võro-Seto. Setos mostly inhabit the area near Estonia's southeastern border with Russia in Setomaa, and are primarily Eastern Orthodox, while Võros are traditionally Lutherans and live in historical Võru County.
The two main official languages of Finland are Finnish and Swedish. There are also several official minority languages: three variants of Sami, as well as Romani, Finnish Sign Language and Karelian.
Kosmikud are an Estonian alternative rock group founded in 1999. They released their first album Ei roosid in 2000, after their singer Taavi Pedriks died. The remaining three members of the band – Aleksander Vana (guitar), Kristo Rajasaare (drums) and Kõmmari (bass) – decided to take a time out, rehearse and try new singers. They finally chose Meelis Hainsoo (Hainz), violinist in Eriti Kurva Muusika Ansambel and also a friend of their previous singer.
Võro Institute is an Estonian state research and development institution dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the Võro language and culture.
The Ludza Estonians are a group of ethnic Estonians living in and around Ludza, south-eastern Latvia.
The official language of Estonia is Estonian, a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, which is related to Finnish. It is unrelated to the bordering Russian and Latvian languages, both of which are Indo-European.
South Estonian, spoken in south-eastern Estonia, encompasses the Tartu, Mulgi, Võro and Seto varieties. There is no academic consensus on its status, as some linguists consider South Estonian a dialect group of Estonian whereas other linguists consider South Estonian an independent Finnic language. Diachronically speaking, North and South Estonian are separate branches of the Finnic languages.
Petseri County was a county of Estonia established in 1918. Since 1944, however, most of the county has been administered as Pechorsky District of Pskov Oblast, first by the Russian SFSR and then, from 1991, by Russia. Estonia retains territories that today constitute Setomaa Parish in modern Võru County.
Meremäe Parish was a rural municipality of Estonia, in Võru County. It had a population of 1,140 and an area of 131.97 km2.
Saatse is a village in Setomaa Parish, Võru County in southeastern Estonia. It has a population of 89.
The Ludza dialect or Lutsi is a dialect of South Estonian spoken in Latvia by the Ludza Estonians near the town of Ludza in Latvia. Ludza is the most similar to the Seto dialect of South Estonian. The Ludza dialect has been on a decline and is now extinct. It was estimated that around 800 people spoke Ludza in the year 1894, and in 1936 this number had decreased to only around 30-40 people. The last native speaker of Ludza died in the year 2006 but some people still have small knowledge of the dialect. The last native speaker of the Ludza dialect was Nikolājs Nikonovs, who was from the village of Lielie Tjapši. The last knowledgeable passive speaker Antonīna Nikonova, died later in 2014.
The Leivu dialect is an extinct South-Estonian dialect that was spoken in North Latvia around the Gauja river spoken by the Gauja Estonians, who became extinct in the year 1988 when the last speaker Anton Bok died. However there are many recordings of the dialect. The Leivu dialect most closely resembles the Hargla sub-dialect of Võro but was influenced by the Latvian language and possibly even Livonian. In the year 1782, the dialect was spoken by thousands of people, in 1849 around 2600 knew the dialect and in 1935 only about 131 knew or spoke it. In 1911, Finnish linguist Heikki Ojansuu went to document the Leivu dialect along with the Ludza and Kraasna dialects.
