Estonian voice overs: what you need to know

Estonian is a Finnic language and the official language in the Republic of Estonia as well as the European Union.

Estonian is spoken by only around 1.1 million people, mostly in Estonia. There are small Estonian speaking communities in Finland, Sweden, Russia, and the USA. It’s also the second most spoken Finnic language after Finnish.

Language History

Estonian developed from the Finno-Uralic languages that were spoken by the Uralic tribes as early as 7000 BCE. The first written texts in old Uralic – the parent language of Estonian – date back to the 13th century.

In more recent history, the Estonian language suffered a decline in its status and influence during the Soviet occupation. Since Russian was made the official language of the state, Estonian was pushed aside and used only for nonofficial communication.

After Estonia gained back its independence in 1991, Estonian became the official language of the country and is now protected by language laws.

Close Relations

Estonian is closely related to Finnish. While Estonian speakers can’t fully understand Finnish, both languages share a big part of the vocabulary.

Despite popular belief, the Estonian language is not related to its neighbors Latvian and Lithuanian. The neighboring languages are Indo-European, while Estonian is a Uralic language.

Estonian vocabulary has many borrowings, most prominently – from German. It’s estimated that a whopping 25% of all Estonian words are of German origin. Estonian also borrowed from Russian and Finnish, and more recently – from English (mostly technological and lifestyle terms).

Accents and Voice Over Tips

Estonian has two dialect groups: Northern and Southern. Both of these dialect groups contain dozens of different regional sub-dialects. The Northern dialect is associated with the capital Tallinn, while the Southern dialect  – with the second-biggest city of Tartu.

The Northern dialect serves as the basis of the standard Estonian. Standard Estonian is the official variation of Estonian, used by the media, education system, and the government.

When it comes to Estonian recordings, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, the Estonian language has 14 noun cases! That’s definitely a challenge as nouns can have dozens of different variations.

Second, Estonian has 28 diphthongs that are native to Estonian, complicating the proper pronunciation for non-native speakers.

Words per minute

Because of the complex diphthongs and consonant clusters, Estonian is definitely not a smooth and fast-spoken language.

As always, when recording, it’s important to keep in mind your target audience. The listeners should always dictate how fast the language should be spoken.

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