Estonian Language Translation Services

 

An Accent on Accuracy

The highest quality translations, brisk turnaround schedules, competitive rates, and sharing of our knowledge, are all requisites for ALT's success. The complete and accurate translation of your company's communications is vital to your success. That's why ALT is obsessed with providing the best translators for YOUR project. High-quality translations are the product of a highly talented and experienced translation team with expertise in your industry. ALT puts all the pieces together to make it happen.

Why choose us for English to Estonian or Estonian to English Translation?

Advanced Language Translation’s Professional Estonian translation services utilize only native speakers to ensure quality and precision translations for your target audience. The ability to translate from/into Estonian requires not only a strong knowledge of the Estonian language, but also the diverse cultures of the Estonian-speaking world, as well as an understanding of the target audience, purpose of the source text and technical aspects of written Estonian.

When doing business in Estonian, professional, human translation is a must. Do not expect to close a business deal or impress your clients with spotty software translation. Only through human translation, edited and customized to your target audience, can your meaning be honestly conveyed and your audience not be offended.

We are proud of our excellent reputation for reliable and high quality Estonian to English and English to Estonian translation services. We have assembled teams of translators from around the world, with an array of skills and specialties and can custom fit the knowledge and strengths of our teams to your specific projects. To demonstrate our commitment to quality and our dedication to our clients, we offer free consultations and provide an industry leading 180-day warranty on translation!

We provide quick and easy custom quotes for your Estonian translation and localization needs.

Need to get the “gist” of Estonian?

Although professional translation is highly recommended for any business, legal or sincere correspondence in Estonian, sometimes it’s necessary to use machine translation (via software or the internet) to get the gist of an e-mail or web page. By no means is machine translation an acceptable substitute for professional translation—the technology is not there yet. But it is great for quickly getting the general idea of an article, e-mail, or web site.

Interesting Facts about the Estonian Language

Estonian is the official language of Estonia, as well as one of the official languages of the European Union.

Estonian is one of the few languages that has the “three-quantity system” when speaking. Simply put, the length of time that a vowel or consonant in a given word determines the meaning of the word. This is sometimes signaled in the spelling of the word, while other times, it is up to the speaker to know the difference. A similar system has been found in North German dialects and it is assumed that both the North German dialects and Estonian developed simultaneously.

Estonian has fourteen cases, but does not have grammatical gender, personal pronouns or definite and indefinite articles.

History of the Estonian Language

Ancient Estonian was influenced by Germanic, Baltic and ancient Slavonic languages. One of the first appearances of an Estonian word dates back to the 8th century. The oldest surviving text, the Kullamaa Manuscript, dates to the first quarter of the 16th century, which contains several religious texts, including the Lord’s Prayer.

During the middle of the 19th century, Estonian changed from a local spoken language into a national and cultural language. Its use extended into the literary world as well as for scientific investigation. According to the Estonian Institute, Estonian is considered to be one of the smallest languages that completes all the functions necessary for an independent state to ‘perform’ linguistically, being used in literature, research, education and government.

The first normative dictionary for Estonian appeared in 1918, which helped to standardize the language. Then, between 1940 and 1991, using the standardized language and adhering to the norms served as a form of national resistance to Soviet rule.

Written Language

Estonian uses the Latin alphabet, and adds to it four special characters to represent sounds that are not described in the Latin alphabet: ä, ö, ü, õ.

Estonian Language Statistics

• Approximately 1.1 million people speak Estonian. 950,000 of them live in Estonia, while the remaining 150,000 speakers are in Sweden, Canada, USA, Russian, Australia, Finland and Germany.
• 67.3% of the population in Estonia speaks Estonian, while other languages in the region include Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian.
• Estonia boasts a literacy rate of 99.8%.

 

Translation / Localization Issues with Estonian

Advanced Language Translation Inc has extensive experience with the in and outs of the Estonian Language and we have a long and flawless record of success with complicated Estonian translation projects. 

During the translation process, there is a substantial textual expansion when translating from English into Estonian, which should be taken into consideration during the authoring stages.

Estonian has several dialects broken into geographic regions, northern and southern. While most deviations are minor, there are still orthographic differences between them. The most prominent deviation from standard Estonian occurs in the southern dialect of Võro, which has changes in syntax, vocabulary and word alteration. Other southern dialects, such as Mulgi, Tartu and Seto also can be easily distinguished from standard Estonian. These dialects also should be considered, although standard Estonian is the standard language used in journalism, print media and by the government.

Estonian Language Vital Information

Speaking Population:  1.1 Million 
Where Spoken: Estonia, Sweden, Canada, USA, Russia, Australia, Finland, Germany 
Writing Systems: Latin 1 
Code Pages: 
       ANSI - 1257 
      Windows - Baltic 
Unicode Supported: Yes 
Common Phrases: (phonetic pronunciations in parentheses) 
      Estonian: eesti (EH-stee) 
      Hello: tere (teh-reh) 
      Good-bye: hüvasti (hoo-VAS-ti) 
      Please: palun (pal-oon) 
      Thank you: Tänan väga (tahn-ahn vah-gah) 
      English: inglise (ing-lee-suh) 
      Yes: jah (yah) 
      No: ei (eigh)