I read in a blog that today is Mother Tongue Day (emakeelepäev) in Estonia.
I feel my mother tongue slipping away, ever so slowly, as I get little daily exposure to Estonian. It used to be that I didn’t ever need to think about grammar or wording. Now I find myself unsure. Can I say this? Is this a real Estonian expression or am I just translating from Swedish or English?
And all those new words they come up with all the time. “Jätkusuutlik”, and “tasalülitus”. Or perhaps they always existed but I never read texts with such fancy words as a teenager?
Nevertheless, at some very deep level Estonian remains my mother tongue. I couldn’t speak any other language with Ingrid without it feeling forced and false. I am Estonian; it is natural that I speak Estonian with my child. I hope she grows to like Estonian and won’t find it frustrating that she has to speak a different language with me.
Resolution: I will start commenting regularly on the Estonian blogs I read. I will pipe up as soon as I can think of something (anything!) to say.
Just to clarify – do you live in the UK? I had a visitor to my site the other day from Tallinn, which I assumed was you.
As an expat I can sympathise with the language thing. Even though I use my mother tongue English all the time, I still find it getting infected by translated words and structures from French and Italian, and my wife is always complaining that her Italian is deteriorating…
Yep, I’m in London, and besides, I read your RSS feed and don’t visit the site. Any visitors from Tallinn are not me – although I guess they may have found your blog via this one.
siis ära keela ka siin eesti keeles kommenteerida:)
Ega ma oma pärast ei keela, vaid lugejate pärast. Eesti keele oskajad on lugejate seas selges vähemuses, ja nende suhtes pole see minu meelest viisakas. Iga kord, kui keegi pikema eestikeelse kommentaari on kirjutanud, on keegi teistest küsinud, millest seal jutt käis.
Võib-olla peaks mingi vahepealse lahenduse leidma… Et kirjutaks kord nädalas eesti keeles või nii.