Wiktionary:About Estonian

This is a Wiktionary policy, guideline or common practices page. Specifically it is a policy think tank, working to develop a formal policy. Policies – Entries: CFI - EL - NORM - NPOV - QUOTE - REDIR - DELETE. Languages: LT - AXX. Others: BLOCK - BOTS - VOTES.

The aim of this page is to explain the norms used in Estonian language entries. It is intended to complement, not supersede, WT:CFI and WT:ELE.

Taxonomy

Estonian belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic language family. It is predominantly an agglutinative language, although the inflectional morphology is a bit more fusional.

Pronunciation

The template {{et-IPA}} automatically creates IPA pronunciations. Rhymes (and the amount of syllables) and hyphenation should also be added to entries.

Compounds and affixes

The format for compound words and affixes conforms to WT:ETY.

Suffixes

To get suffixed words in the appropriate categories, such as [[Category:Estonian terms suffixed with -lane]] editors can use the template {{suffix|et}}. For example, on mesilane:

===Etymology===
{{suffix|et|mesi|lane}}

mesi +‎ -lane

Prefixes

To get suffixed words in the appropriate categories, such as [[Category:Estonian terms prefixed with eba-]] editors can use the template {{prefix|et}}. For example, on ebaaus:

===Etymology===
{{prefix|et|eba|aus}}

eba- +‎ aus

Compounds

To get compound words into [[Category:Estonian compound terms]] editors can use the template {{compound|et}}. For example, on ajalugu:

===Etymology===
{{compound|et|aeg|lugu|t1=time|t2=story}}

aeg (“time”) +‎ lugu (“story”)

Inflection

Inflection goes under the inflection headings ====Conjugation==== and ====Declension====, NOT under ====Inflection====. Inflection templates are available for Estonian words. Nominals, which include nouns, adjectives, numerals and pronouns, are declined. Verbs are conjugated. Use the inflection templates found under: Appendix:Estonian conjugation and Appendix:Estonian nominal inflection. For example:

====Conjugation====
{{et-conj-elama|maga}}

If no inflection template is available, or if you're not sure how to use it, you can leave a request for someone else to add the template later, like this:

====Conjugation====
{{rfinfl|et}}

Part-of-speech

The part-of-speech section goes under a part-of-speech heading, such as ===Verb===. For words that can be declined, you can use {{et-noun}} and {{et-adj}}. Both of these templates take two parameters, which specify the genitive and partitive singular forms. If you don't know those forms, you can leave them out and it will show a message so that someone else who knows can add it later. For example, on õpik:

===Noun===
{{et-noun|õpiku|õpikut}}

For adjectives, the template {{et-adj}} automatically generates the comparative and superlative forms, but the parameter c= can be used to add an alternative comparative form and s=, an alternative superlative. For vana this can be done like this:

===Adjective===
{{et-adj|vana|vana|c=vanem|s=vanim}}

For other kinds of declinable words, such as pronouns, numerals and determiners, there is another template {{et-nom}} which takes the same two parameters as {{et-noun}}, but also one before it to specify the part of speech. This can be used for sina like this:

===Pronoun===
{{et-nom|pronoun|sinu|sind}}

For verbs, you can use {{et-verb}}. It has one parameter, which specifies the da-infinitive. If you don't know this, you can leave it out and it will show a message so that someone else who knows can add it later. For example, for tulema:

===Verb===
{{et-verb|tulla}}

Default lemma

Since Estonian words can have a lot of possible inflections, they are organised under lemmas, or headwords. Estonian words are inflected as either nominals or verbs, and the lemmas for each are:

• For nominals, or declinable words, the lemma is the nominative singular. These include nouns, adjectives, determiners, pronouns, and numerals.
• For verbs, or conjugable words, the lemma is ma-infinitive.

In all cases, entries for non-lemma forms should use the appropriate form-of template to link to the lemma. For example, on suuta:

==Estonian==

===Noun===
{{head|et|noun form}}

# {{noun form of|et|suu||abe|s}}

===Verb===
{{head|et|verb form}}

# {{et-verb form of|t=da|suutma}}

Letters

Estonian uses these letters:

• (Latin-script letters) täht; A a, B b (C c), D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, O o, P p (Q q), R r, S s, Š š, Z z, Ž ž, T t, U u, V v (W w), Õ õ, Ä ä, Ö ö, Ü ü (X x, Y y)