Estonian (eesti keel) is a Finnic language. It is spoken in Estonia as well as outside of Estonia, and it is one of the official languages of the European Union. It is similar to Finnish and German, with a hint of Russian; this is primarily due to the fact that nearly one third of the vocabulary was borrowed from Germanic languages (particularly Low Saxon and High German). The Estonian language also borrows its vocabulary from Russian and Swedish, to some extent.
The Estonian alphabet is based on the Latin script, with the letters ä, ö, ü, and õ shoved in there. The letters f, š and ž only appear in loanwords and foreign names, while c, q, w, x and y only appear in proper names of foreign origin.
| Vowel phonemes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Back | |||
| unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | |
| Close | i | y | ɤ | u |
| Mid | e | ø | o | |
| Open | æ | ɑ | ||
| Consonant phonemes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Velar/ palatal |
Glottal | |||
| plain | palatalized | ||||||
| Nasal | m | n | nʲ | ||||
| Plosive | short | p | t | tʲ | k | ||
| geminated | pː | tː | tʲː | kː | |||
| Fricative | voiceless short | f | s | sʲ | ʃ | h | |
| voiced short | v | ||||||
| geminated | fː | sː | sʲː | ʃː | hː | ||
| Approximant | l | lʲ | j | ||||
| Rhotic | r ~ ɾ | ||||||
NOTE: This page doesn't list diphthongs and additional information. You can find more information on the Wikipedia article about Estonian phonology. Be sure to check its references.