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Estonians

January 08, 2024

Estonians or Estonian people (Estonian: eestlased) are a Baltic Finnic ethnic group who speak the Estonian language. Their nation state is Estonia.

Estonians
eestlased
Countries with significant Estonian population and descendants.
Total population
c. 1.1 million[1]
Regions with significant populations
 Estonia 919,711 (2021)[2]
Other significant population centers:
 Finland49,590–100,000[a][3][4]
 United States29,128[5]
 Sweden25,509[6]
 Canada24,000[7]
 United Kingdom10,000–15,000[8]
 Russia7,778[9]
 Australia7,543[10]
 Germany6,286[11]
 Norway5,092[12]
 Ukraine2,868[13]
 Ireland2,560[14]
 Belgium2,000[15]
 Latvia1,676[16]
 Denmark1,606[17]
 Netherlands1,482[18]
Languages
Primarily Estonian
also Võro and Seto
Religion
Majority irreligious
Historically Protestant Christian (Lutheranism)[19][20]
Currently Lutheran and regional Eastern Orthodox (Estonian Apostolic Orthodox) minority
Related ethnic groups
Other Baltic Finns
Especially Livonians, Setos, Võros, and Votians

The Estonian language is spoken as the first language by the vast majority of Estonians; it is closely related to other Finnic languages, e.g. Finnish, Karelian and Livonian. The Finnic languages are a subgroup of the larger Uralic family of languages, which also includes e.g. the Sami languages. These languages are markedly different from most other native languages spoken in Europe, most of which have been assigned to the Indo-European family of languages. Estonians can also be classified into subgroups according to dialects (e.g. Võros, Setos), although such divisions have become less pronounced due to internal migration and rapid urbanisation in Estonia in the 20th century.

There are approximately 1 million ethnic Estonians worldwide, with the vast majority of them residing in their native Estonia. Estonian diaspora communities formed primarily in Finland, the United States, Sweden, Canada, the United Kingdom and other European Union member states.

History edit

Prehistoric roots edit

Estonia was first inhabited about 10,000 years ago, soon after the ice from the Baltic Ice Lake had melted. Living in the same area for more than 5,000 years would put the ancestors of Estonians among the oldest permanent inhabitants in Europe.[21] On the other hand, some recent linguistic estimations suggest that Finno-Ugric language speakers arrived around the Baltic Sea considerably later, perhaps during the Early Bronze Age (ca. 1800 BCE).[22][23] It has also been argued that Western Uralic tribes reached Fennoscandia first, leading into the development of Sami people, and arrived to the Baltic region later during the Bronze Age[24] or its transition to Iron Age at the latest,[25] which lead into the formation of Baltic Finnic population who would later become such groups as Estonians and Finns.[24]

The oldest known endonym of the Estonians is maarahvas,[26] literally meaning "land people" or "country folk". It was used until the mid-19th century, when it was gradually replaced by Eesti rahvas "Estonian people" during the Estonian national awakening.[27][28] Eesti, the modern endonym of Estonia, is thought to have similar origins to Aestii, the name used by the ancient Germanic tribes for the neighbouring people living northeast of the mouth of the river Vistula. The Roman historian Tacitus in 98 CE was the first to mention the "Aestii" people in writing. In Old Norse the land south of the Gulf of Finland was called Eistland and the people eistr. The first known book in the Estonian language was printed in 1525, while the oldest known examples of written Estonian originate in 13th-century chronicles.

National consciousness edit

 
Estonian national costumes:
1. Kadrina 2. Mihkli 3. Seto 4. Paistu
 
Estonian national costumes:
5. Muhu 6. Karja 7. Tõstamaa 8. Pärnu-Jaagupi

Although Estonian national consciousness spread in the course of the 19th century during the Estonian national awakening,[29] some degree of ethnic awareness preceded this development.[30] By the 18th century the self-denomination eestlane spread among Estonians along with the older maarahvas.[26] Anton thor Helle's translation of the Bible into Estonian appeared in 1739, and the number of books and brochures published in Estonian increased from 18 in the 1750s to 54 in the 1790s. By the end of the century more than a half of adult peasants could read. The first university-educated intellectuals identifying themselves as Estonians, including Friedrich Robert Faehlmann (1798–1850), Kristjan Jaak Peterson (1801–1822) and Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (1803–1882), appeared in the 1820s. The ruling elites had remained predominantly German in language and culture since the conquest of the early 13th century. Garlieb Merkel (1769–1850), a Baltic-German Estophile, became the first author to treat the Estonians as a nationality equal to others; he became a source of inspiration for the Estonian national movement, modelled on Baltic German cultural world before the middle of the 19th century. However, in the middle of the century, the Estonians became more ambitious and started leaning toward the Finns as a successful model of national movement and, to some extent, toward the neighbouring Latvian national movement. By the end of 1860 the Estonians became unwilling to reconcile with German cultural and political hegemony. Before the attempts at Russification in the 1880s, their view of Imperial Russia remained positive.[30]

Estonians have strong ties to the Nordic countries stemming from important cultural and religious influences gained over centuries during Scandinavian and German rule and settlement.[31] According to a poll done in 2013, about half of the young Estonians considered themselves Nordic, and about the same number viewed Baltic identity as important. The Nordic identity among Estonians can ovelap with other identities, as it is associated with being Finno-Ugric and their close relationship with the Finnish people and does not exclude being Baltic.[32] In Estonian foreign ministry reports from the early 2000s Nordic identity was preferred over Baltic one.[33][34]

After the Treaty of Tartu (1920) recognised Estonia's 1918 independence from Russia, ethnic Estonians residing in Russia gained the option of opting for Estonian citizenship (those who opted were called optandid – 'optants') and returning to their fatherland. An estimated 40,000 Estonians lived in Russia in 1920. In sum, 37,578 people moved from Soviet Russia to Estonia (1920–1923).[35][failed verification]

Emigration edit

During World War II, when Estonia was invaded by the Soviet Army in 1944, large numbers of Estonians fled their homeland on ships or smaller boats over the Baltic Sea. Many refugees who survived the risky sea voyage to Sweden or Germany later moved from there to Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States or Australia.[36] Some of these refugees and their descendants returned to Estonia after the nation regained its independence in 1991.

Over the years of independence, increasing numbers of Estonians have chosen to work abroad, primarily in Finland, but also in other European countries (mostly in the UK, Benelux, Sweden, and Germany), making Estonia the country with the highest emigration rate in Europe.[37] This is at least partly due to the easy access to oscillating migration to Finland.

Recognising the problems arising from both low birth rate and high emigration, the country has launched various measures both to increase the birth rate and to lure migrant Estonians back to Estonia. Former president Toomas Hendrik Ilves has lent his support to the campaign Talendid koju! ("Bringing talents home!")[38] which aims to coordinate and promote the return of Estonians who have particular skills needed in Estonia.

Estonians in Canada edit

One of the largest permanent Estonian communities outside Estonia is in Canada, with about 24,000 people[7] (according to some sources up to 50,000 people).[39] In the late 1940s and early 1950s, about 17,000 arrived in Canada, initially in Montreal.[40] Toronto is currently the city with the largest population of Estonians outside of Estonia. The first Estonian World Festival was held in Toronto in 1972. Some notable Estonian Canadians are Endel Tulving, Elmar Tampõld, Alison Pill, Uno Prii, Kalle Lasn, and Andreas Vaikla.

Genetics edit

Haplogroups edit

Y-chromosome haplogroups among Estonians include N1c (35.7%),[41] R1a (33.5%)[42] and I1 (15%).[41] R1a, common in Eastern Europe,[43] was the dominant Y-DNA haplogroup among the pre-Uralic inhabitants of Estonia, as it is the only one found in the local samples from the time of the Corded Ware culture and Bronze Age. Appearance of N1c is linked to the arrival of Uralic-speakers.[25] It originated in East Eurasia[44] and is commonly carried by modern Uralic-speaking groups but also other North Eurasians, including Latvians and Lithuanians. Estonians belong mostly to a variant that is typical among Finns and different from the one that is common within Latvians and Lithuanians.[41]

When looking at maternal lineages, nearly half (45.8%) of the Estonians have the haplogroup H . About one in four (24.3%) carry the haplogroup U, and the majority of them belong to its subclade U5.[45]

Autosomal DNA edit

 
Estimated ancestry components among modern Eurasian populations.[46]

Autosomally Estonians are close with Latvians and Lithuanians.[47][48] However, they have considerably more Finnish-like ancestry than Baltic-speakers.[49] They are shifted towards the Finns, who are isolated from most European populations.[50][51][49] Like other Uralic-speaking peoples, Estonians have some Siberian-related admixture, more than Hungarians but less than others.[48][52] Estonians have a high sharing of IBD (identity-by-descent) segments with other studied Balto-Finnic groups (Finns, Karelians and Vepsians) and the Sami people, as well as with the Polish people.[48]

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ Statistics Finland does not record ethnicity and instead categorizes the population by their native language; in 2017, Estonian was spoken as a mother tongue by 49,590 people, not all of whom may be ethnic Estonians.[3]

References edit

  1. ^ Estai
  2. ^ "Population by ethnic nationality". Statistics Estonia. June 2020. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  3. ^ a b "Population". Statistics Finland. 4 April 2018. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
  4. ^ "Up to 100 000 Estonians work in Finland". Baltic News Network. 27 December 2010. Retrieved 4 October 2018.
  5. ^ "Table B04006 - People Reporting Ancestry - 2021 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates". United States Census Bureau. from the original on 17 September 2022. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  6. ^ . Archived from the original on 17 February 2015. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
  7. ^ a b . Archived from the original on 20 November 2013. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  8. ^ "United Kingdom". Ethnologue. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  9. ^ "Национальный состав населения". Federal State Statistics Service. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  10. ^ "2054.0 Australian Census Analytic Program: Australians' Ancestries (2001 (Corrigendum))" (PDF). Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2001. Retrieved 17 September 2011.
  11. ^ "Pressemitteilungen – Ausländische Bevölkerung – Statistisches Bundesamt (Destatis)". www.destatis.de.
  12. ^ "Immigrants and Norwegian-born to immigrant parents, 1 January 2016". Statistics Norway. Accessed 01 May 2016.
  13. ^ . State Statistics Committee of Ukraine. 2001. Archived from the original on 5 December 2008.
  14. ^ . Central Statistics Office Ireland. Archived from the original on 6 August 2011.
  15. ^ . Archived from the original on 21 February 2015. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  16. ^ "Usually resident population by ethnicity at the beginning of the year – 2018". csb.gov.lv.
  17. ^ "Statistikbanken". www.statistikbanken.dk.
  18. ^ Official CBS website containing all Dutch demographic statistics. Cbs.nl. Retrieved on 4 July 2017.
  19. ^ Ivković, Sanja Kutnjak; Haberfeld, M.R. (10 June 2015). Measuring Police Integrity Across the World: Studies from Established Democracies and Countries in Transition. Springer. p. 131. ISBN 9781493922796. Estonia is considered Protestant when classified by its historically predominant major religion (Norris and Inglehart 2011) and thus some authors (e.g., Davie 2003) claim Estonia belongs to Western (Lutheran) Europe, while others (e.g., Norris and Inglehart 2011) see Estonia as a Protestant ex-Communist society.
  20. ^ Ringvee, Ringo (16 September 2011). "Is Estonia really the least religious country in the world?". The Guardian. For this situation there are several reasons, starting from the distant past (the close connection of the churches with the Swedish or German ruling classes) up to the Soviet-period atheist policy when the chain of religious traditions was broken in most families. In Estonia, religion has never played an important role on the political or ideological battlefield. The institutional religious life was dominated by foreigners until the early 20th century. The tendencies that prevailed in the late 1930s for closer relations between the state and Lutheran church [...] ended with the Soviet occupation in 1940. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  21. ^ Unrepresented Nations and peoples organization By Mary Kate Simmons; p141 ISBN 978-90-411-0223-2
  22. ^ Petri Kallio 2006: Suomalais-ugrilaisen kantakielen absoluuttisesta kronologiasta. — Virittäjä 2006. (With English summary).
  23. ^ Häkkinen, Jaakko (2009). "Kantauralin ajoitus ja paikannus: perustelut puntarissa. – Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Aikakauskirja" (PDF). p. 92.
  24. ^ a b Lang, Valter: Homo Fennicus – Itämerensuomalaisten etnohistoria, pp. 335–336. Finnish Literature Society, 2020. ISBN 9789518581300.
  25. ^ a b Saag, Lehti; Laneman, Margot; Varul, Liivi; Malve, Martin; Valk, Heiki; Razzak, Maria A.; Shirobokov, Ivan G.; Khartanovich, Valeri I.; Mikhaylova, Elena R.; Kushniarevich, Alena; Scheib, Christiana Lyn; Solnik, Anu; Reisberg, Tuuli; Parik, Jüri; Saag, Lauri; Metspalu, Ene; Rootsi, Siiri; Montinaro, Francesco; Remm, Maido; Mägi, Reedik; D’Atanasio, Eugenia; Crema, Enrico Ryunosuke; Díez-del-Molino, David; Thomas, Mark G.; Kriiska, Aivar; Kivisild, Toomas; Villems, Richard; Lang, Valter; Metspalu, Mait; Tambets, Kristiina (May 2019). "The Arrival of Siberian Ancestry Connecting the Eastern Baltic to Uralic Speakers further East". Current Biology. 29 (10): 1701–1711.e16. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.026. PMC 6544527. PMID 31080083.
  26. ^ a b Ariste, Paul (1956). "Maakeel ja eesti keel. Eesti NSV Teaduste Akadeemia Toimetised 5: 117–24; Beyer, Jürgen (2007). Ist maarahvas ('Landvolk'), die alte Selbstbezeichnung der Esten, eine Lehnübersetzung? Eine Studie zur Begriffsgeschichte des Ostseeraums". Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung. 56: 566–593.
  27. ^ Beyer, Jürgen (April 2011). "Are Folklorists Studying the Tales of the Folk?". Folklore. 122 (1): 35–54. doi:10.1080/0015587X.2011.537132. S2CID 144633422.
  28. ^ Paatsi, Vello (2012). ""Terre, armas eesti rahwas!": Kuidas maarahvast ja maakeelest sai eesti rahvas, eestlased ja eesti keel". Akadeemia (in Estonian). 24 (2): 20–21. ISSN 0235-7771. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  29. ^ Gellner, Ernest (1996). "Do nations have navels?". Nations and Nationalism. 2 (3): 365–70. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8219.1996.tb00003.x.
  30. ^ a b Raun, Toivo U (2003). "Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Estonian nationalism revisited". Nations and Nationalism. 9 (1): 129–147. doi:10.1111/1469-8219.00078.
  31. ^ Piirimäe, Helmut. Historical heritage: the relations between Estonia and her Nordic neighbors. In M. Lauristin et al. (eds.), Return to the Western world: Cultural and political perspectives on the Estonian post-communist transition. Tartu: Tartu University Press, 1997.
  32. ^ "How Nordic is Estonia?: An overview since 1991". nordics.info. 28 December 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  33. ^ Estonian foreign ministry report 25 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine, 2004
  34. ^ Estonian foreign ministry report 7 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine, 2002
  35. ^ Лоткин И.В. (PDF). library.krasu.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 October 2006.
  36. ^ Past, Evald, By Land and By Sea, Booklocker, 2015, ISBN 978-0-9867510-0-4
  37. ^ . cia.gov. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
  38. ^ . talendidkoju.ee. Archived from the original on 20 December 2017. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
  39. ^ . Archived from the original on 5 July 2015. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  40. ^ . Archived from the original on 12 March 2012. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  41. ^ a b c Lang, Valter: Homo Fennicus – Itämerensuomalaisten etnohistoria, pp. 93–95. Finnish Literature Society, 2020. ISBN 9789518581300.
  42. ^ Tambets, Kristiina; Rootsi, Siiri; Kivisild, Toomas; Help, Hela; Serk, Piia; Loogväli, Eva-Liis; Tolk, Helle-Viivi; Reidla, Maere; Metspalu, Ene; Pliss, Liana; Balanovsky, Oleg; Pshenichnov, Andrey; Balanovska, Elena; Gubina, Marina; Zhadanov, Sergey (2004). "The Western and Eastern Roots of the Saami—the Story of Genetic "Outliers" Told by Mitochondrial DNA and Y Chromosomes". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 74 (4): 661–682. doi:10.1086/383203. PMC 1181943. PMID 15024688.
  43. ^ "Haplogroup R1a". Eupedia. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  44. ^ Tambets, Kristiina; Yunusbayev, Bayazit; Hudjashov, Georgi; Ilumäe, Anne-Mai; Rootsi, Siiri; Honkola, Terhi; Vesakoski, Outi; Atkinson, Quentin; Skoglund, Pontus; Kushniarevich, Alena; Litvinov, Sergey; Reidla, Maere; Metspalu, Ene; Saag, Lehti; Rantanen, Timo (2018). "Genes reveal traces of common recent demographic history for most of the Uralic-speaking populations". Genome Biology. 19 (1): 139. doi:10.1186/s13059-018-1522-1. ISSN 1474-760X. PMC 6151024. PMID 30241495.
  45. ^ "Distribution of European mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups by region in percentage". Eupedia. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
  46. ^ Feng, Qidi; Lu, Yan; Ni, X.; Yuan, K.; Yang, Ya-jun; Yang, Xiong; Liu, Chang; Lou, H.; Ning, Zhilin; Wang, Yuchen; Lu, Dongsheng; Zhang, Chao; Zhou, Ying; Shi, Meng; Tian, L. (2017). "Genetic History of Xinjiang's Uyghurs Suggests Bronze Age Multiple-Way Contacts in Eurasia". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 34 (10): 2572–2582. doi:10.1093/molbev/msx177. PMID 28595347. S2CID 28730957.
  47. ^ Lang, Valter: Homo Fennicus – Itämerensuomalaisten etnohistoria, pp. 93–95. Finnish Literature Society, 2020. ISBN 9789518581300.
  48. ^ a b c Tambets, Kristiina; Yunusbayev, Bayazit; Hudjashov, Georgi; Ilumäe, Anne-Mai; Rootsi, Siiri; Honkola, Terhi; Vesakoski, Outi; Atkinson, Quentin; Skoglund, Pontus; Kushniarevich, Alena; Litvinov, Sergey; Reidla, Maere; Metspalu, Ene; Saag, Lehti; Rantanen, Timo (2018). "Genes reveal traces of common recent demographic history for most of the Uralic-speaking populations". Genome Biology. 19 (1): 139. doi:10.1186/s13059-018-1522-1. ISSN 1474-760X. PMC 6151024. PMID 30241495.
  49. ^ a b Khrunin, Andrey V.; Khokhrin, Denis V.; Filippova, Irina N.; Esko, Tõnu; Nelis, Mari; Bebyakova, Natalia A.; Bolotova, Natalia L.; Klovins, Janis; Nikitina-Zake, Liene; Rehnström, Karola; Ripatti, Samuli; Schreiber, Stefan; Franke, Andre; Macek, Milan; Krulišová, Veronika (7 March 2013). "A Genome-Wide Analysis of Populations from European Russia Reveals a New Pole of Genetic Diversity in Northern Europe". PLOS ONE. 8 (3): e58552. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...858552K. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058552. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3591355. PMID 23505534.
  50. ^ Nelis, Mari; Esko, Tõnu; Mägi, Reedik; Zimprich, Fritz; Zimprich, Alexander; Toncheva, Draga; Karachanak, Sena; Piskáčková, Tereza; Balaščák, Ivan; Peltonen, Leena; Jakkula, Eveliina; Rehnström, Karola; Lathrop, Mark; Heath, Simon; Galan, Pilar (8 May 2009). "Genetic Structure of Europeans: A View from the North–East". PLOS ONE. 4 (5): e5472. Bibcode:2009PLoSO...4.5472N. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0005472. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 2675054. PMID 19424496.
  51. ^ Kushniarevich, Alena; Utevska, Olga; Chuhryaeva, Marina; Agdzhoyan, Anastasia; Dibirova, Khadizhat; Uktveryte, Ingrida; Möls, Märt; Mulahasanovic, Lejla; Pshenichnov, Andrey; Frolova, Svetlana; Shanko, Andrey; Metspalu, Ene; Reidla, Maere; Tambets, Kristiina; Tamm, Erika (2 September 2015). Calafell, Francesc (ed.). "Genetic Heritage of the Balto-Slavic Speaking Populations: A Synthesis of Autosomal, Mitochondrial and Y-Chromosomal Data". PLOS ONE. 10 (9): e0135820. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1035820K. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0135820. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 4558026. PMID 26332464.
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Further reading edit

  • Petersoo, Pille (January 2007). "Reconsidering otherness: constructing Estonian identity". Nations and Nationalism. 13 (1): 117–133. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8129.2007.00276.x.

External links edit

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to People of Estonia.
 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Estonians.
  • From Estonia to Thirlmere (online exhibition)
  • Our New Home Meie Uus Kodu: Estonian-Australian Stories (online exhibition)

January 08, 2024
estonians, estonian, people, estonian, eestlased, baltic, finnic, ethnic, group, speak, estonian, language, their, nation, state, estonia, eestlasedcountries, with, significant, estonian, population, descendants, total, populationc, million, regions, with, sig. Estonians or Estonian people Estonian eestlased are a Baltic Finnic ethnic group who speak the Estonian language Their nation state is Estonia EstonianseestlasedCountries with significant Estonian population and descendants Total populationc 1 1 million 1 Regions with significant populations Estonia 919 711 2021 2 Other significant population centers Finland49 590 100 000 a 3 4 United States29 128 5 Sweden25 509 6 Canada24 000 7 United Kingdom10 000 15 000 8 Russia7 778 9 Australia7 543 10 Germany6 286 11 Norway5 092 12 Ukraine2 868 13 Ireland2 560 14 Belgium2 000 15 Latvia1 676 16 Denmark1 606 17 Netherlands1 482 18 LanguagesPrimarily Estonianalso Voro and SetoReligionMajority irreligious Historically Protestant Christian Lutheranism 19 20 Currently Lutheran and regional Eastern Orthodox Estonian Apostolic Orthodox minorityRelated ethnic groupsOther Baltic FinnsEspecially Livonians Setos Voros and VotiansThe Estonian language is spoken as the first language by the vast majority of Estonians it is closely related to other Finnic languages e g Finnish Karelian and Livonian The Finnic languages are a subgroup of the larger Uralic family of languages which also includes e g the Sami languages These languages are markedly different from most other native languages spoken in Europe most of which have been assigned to the Indo European family of languages Estonians can also be classified into subgroups according to dialects e g Voros Setos although such divisions have become less pronounced due to internal migration and rapid urbanisation in Estonia in the 20th century There are approximately 1 million ethnic Estonians worldwide with the vast majority of them residing in their native Estonia Estonian diaspora communities formed primarily in Finland the United States Sweden Canada the United Kingdom and other European Union member states Contents 1 History 1 1 Prehistoric roots 1 2 National consciousness 2 Emigration 2 1 Estonians in Canada 3 Genetics 3 1 Haplogroups 3 2 Autosomal DNA 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External linksHistory editPrehistoric roots edit Estonia was first inhabited about 10 000 years ago soon after the ice from the Baltic Ice Lake had melted Living in the same area for more than 5 000 years would put the ancestors of Estonians among the oldest permanent inhabitants in Europe 21 On the other hand some recent linguistic estimations suggest that Finno Ugric language speakers arrived around the Baltic Sea considerably later perhaps during the Early Bronze Age ca 1800 BCE 22 23 It has also been argued that Western Uralic tribes reached Fennoscandia first leading into the development of Sami people and arrived to the Baltic region later during the Bronze Age 24 or its transition to Iron Age at the latest 25 which lead into the formation of Baltic Finnic population who would later become such groups as Estonians and Finns 24 The oldest known endonym of the Estonians is maarahvas 26 literally meaning land people or country folk It was used until the mid 19th century when it was gradually replaced by Eesti rahvas Estonian people during the Estonian national awakening 27 28 Eesti the modern endonym of Estonia is thought to have similar origins to Aestii the name used by the ancient Germanic tribes for the neighbouring people living northeast of the mouth of the river Vistula The Roman historian Tacitus in 98 CE was the first to mention the Aestii people in writing In Old Norse the land south of the Gulf of Finland was called Eistland and the people eistr The first known book in the Estonian language was printed in 1525 while the oldest known examples of written Estonian originate in 13th century chronicles National consciousness edit nbsp Estonian national costumes 1 Kadrina 2 Mihkli 3 Seto 4 Paistu nbsp Estonian national costumes 5 Muhu 6 Karja 7 Tostamaa 8 Parnu JaagupiAlthough Estonian national consciousness spread in the course of the 19th century during the Estonian national awakening 29 some degree of ethnic awareness preceded this development 30 By the 18th century the self denomination eestlane spread among Estonians along with the older maarahvas 26 Anton thor Helle s translation of the Bible into Estonian appeared in 1739 and the number of books and brochures published in Estonian increased from 18 in the 1750s to 54 in the 1790s By the end of the century more than a half of adult peasants could read The first university educated intellectuals identifying themselves as Estonians including Friedrich Robert Faehlmann 1798 1850 Kristjan Jaak Peterson 1801 1822 and Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald 1803 1882 appeared in the 1820s The ruling elites had remained predominantly German in language and culture since the conquest of the early 13th century Garlieb Merkel 1769 1850 a Baltic German Estophile became the first author to treat the Estonians as a nationality equal to others he became a source of inspiration for the Estonian national movement modelled on Baltic German cultural world before the middle of the 19th century However in the middle of the century the Estonians became more ambitious and started leaning toward the Finns as a successful model of national movement and to some extent toward the neighbouring Latvian national movement By the end of 1860 the Estonians became unwilling to reconcile with German cultural and political hegemony Before the attempts at Russification in the 1880s their view of Imperial Russia remained positive 30 Estonians have strong ties to the Nordic countries stemming from important cultural and religious influences gained over centuries during Scandinavian and German rule and settlement 31 According to a poll done in 2013 about half of the young Estonians considered themselves Nordic and about the same number viewed Baltic identity as important The Nordic identity among Estonians can ovelap with other identities as it is associated with being Finno Ugric and their close relationship with the Finnish people and does not exclude being Baltic 32 In Estonian foreign ministry reports from the early 2000s Nordic identity was preferred over Baltic one 33 34 After the Treaty of Tartu 1920 recognised Estonia s 1918 independence from Russia ethnic Estonians residing in Russia gained the option of opting for Estonian citizenship those who opted were called optandid optants and returning to their fatherland An estimated 40 000 Estonians lived in Russia in 1920 In sum 37 578 people moved from Soviet Russia to Estonia 1920 1923 35 failed verification Emigration editDuring World War II when Estonia was invaded by the Soviet Army in 1944 large numbers of Estonians fled their homeland on ships or smaller boats over the Baltic Sea Many refugees who survived the risky sea voyage to Sweden or Germany later moved from there to Canada the United Kingdom the United States or Australia 36 Some of these refugees and their descendants returned to Estonia after the nation regained its independence in 1991 Over the years of independence increasing numbers of Estonians have chosen to work abroad primarily in Finland but also in other European countries mostly in the UK Benelux Sweden and Germany making Estonia the country with the highest emigration rate in Europe 37 This is at least partly due to the easy access to oscillating migration to Finland Recognising the problems arising from both low birth rate and high emigration the country has launched various measures both to increase the birth rate and to lure migrant Estonians back to Estonia Former president Toomas Hendrik Ilves has lent his support to the campaign Talendid koju Bringing talents home 38 which aims to coordinate and promote the return of Estonians who have particular skills needed in Estonia Estonians in Canada edit One of the largest permanent Estonian communities outside Estonia is in Canada with about 24 000 people 7 according to some sources up to 50 000 people 39 In the late 1940s and early 1950s about 17 000 arrived in Canada initially in Montreal 40 Toronto is currently the city with the largest population of Estonians outside of Estonia The first Estonian World Festival was held in Toronto in 1972 Some notable Estonian Canadians are Endel Tulving Elmar Tampold Alison Pill Uno Prii Kalle Lasn and Andreas Vaikla Genetics editHaplogroups edit Y chromosome haplogroups among Estonians include N1c 35 7 41 R1a 33 5 42 and I1 15 41 R1a common in Eastern Europe 43 was the dominant Y DNA haplogroup among the pre Uralic inhabitants of Estonia as it is the only one found in the local samples from the time of the Corded Ware culture and Bronze Age Appearance of N1c is linked to the arrival of Uralic speakers 25 It originated in East Eurasia 44 and is commonly carried by modern Uralic speaking groups but also other North Eurasians including Latvians and Lithuanians Estonians belong mostly to a variant that is typical among Finns and different from the one that is common within Latvians and Lithuanians 41 When looking at maternal lineages nearly half 45 8 of the Estonians have the haplogroup H About one in four 24 3 carry the haplogroup U and the majority of them belong to its subclade U5 45 Autosomal DNA edit nbsp Estimated ancestry components among modern Eurasian populations 46 Autosomally Estonians are close with Latvians and Lithuanians 47 48 However they have considerably more Finnish like ancestry than Baltic speakers 49 They are shifted towards the Finns who are isolated from most European populations 50 51 49 Like other Uralic speaking peoples Estonians have some Siberian related admixture more than Hungarians but less than others 48 52 Estonians have a high sharing of IBD identity by descent segments with other studied Balto Finnic groups Finns Karelians and Vepsians and the Sami people as well as with the Polish people 48 See also editDemographics of Estonia Estonian Americans Estonian Argentines Estonian Australians Estonian Canadians Estonian national awakening Gauja Estonians List of Estonian Americans List of notable EstoniansNotes edit Statistics Finland does not record ethnicity and instead categorizes the population by their native language in 2017 Estonian was spoken as a mother tongue by 49 590 people not all of whom may be ethnic Estonians 3 References edit Estai Population by ethnic nationality Statistics Estonia June 2020 Retrieved 6 June 2021 a b Population Statistics Finland 4 April 2018 Retrieved 6 June 2018 Up to 100 000 Estonians work in Finland Baltic News Network 27 December 2010 Retrieved 4 October 2018 Table B04006 People Reporting Ancestry 2021 American Community Survey 1 Year Estimates United States Census Bureau Archived from the original on 17 September 2022 Retrieved 17 September 2022 Eestlased Rootsis Archived from the original on 17 February 2015 Retrieved 7 June 2015 a b Canada Estonia Relations Archived from the original on 20 November 2013 Retrieved 17 March 2015 United Kingdom Ethnologue Retrieved 12 May 2016 Nacionalnyj sostav naseleniya Federal State Statistics Service Retrieved 30 December 2022 2054 0 Australian Census Analytic Program Australians Ancestries 2001 Corrigendum PDF Australian Bureau of Statistics 2001 Retrieved 17 September 2011 Pressemitteilungen Auslandische Bevolkerung Statistisches Bundesamt Destatis www destatis de Immigrants and Norwegian born to immigrant parents 1 January 2016 Statistics Norway Accessed 01 May 2016 The distribution of the population by nationality and mother tongue State Statistics Committee of Ukraine 2001 Archived from the original on 5 December 2008 Persons usually resident and present in the State on Census Night classified by place of birth and age group Central Statistics Office Ireland Archived from the original on 6 August 2011 Estemb in Belgium and Luxembourg Archived from the original on 21 February 2015 Retrieved 17 March 2015 Usually resident population by ethnicity at the beginning of the year 2018 csb gov lv Statistikbanken www statistikbanken dk Official CBS website containing all Dutch demographic statistics Cbs nl Retrieved on 4 July 2017 Ivkovic Sanja Kutnjak Haberfeld M R 10 June 2015 Measuring Police Integrity Across the World Studies from Established Democracies and Countries in Transition Springer p 131 ISBN 9781493922796 Estonia is considered Protestant when classified by its historically predominant major religion Norris and Inglehart 2011 and thus some authors e g Davie 2003 claim Estonia belongs to Western Lutheran Europe while others e g Norris and Inglehart 2011 see Estonia as a Protestant ex Communist society Ringvee Ringo 16 September 2011 Is Estonia really the least religious country in the world The Guardian For this situation there are several reasons starting from the distant past the close connection of the churches with the Swedish or German ruling classes up to the Soviet period atheist policy when the chain of religious traditions was broken in most families In Estonia religion has never played an important role on the political or ideological battlefield The institutional religious life was dominated by foreigners until the early 20th century The tendencies that prevailed in the late 1930s for closer relations between the state and Lutheran church ended with the Soviet occupation in 1940 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a Missing or empty url help Unrepresented Nations and peoples organization By Mary Kate Simmons p141 ISBN 978 90 411 0223 2 Petri Kallio 2006 Suomalais ugrilaisen kantakielen absoluuttisesta kronologiasta Virittaja 2006 With English summary Hakkinen Jaakko 2009 Kantauralin ajoitus ja paikannus perustelut puntarissa Suomalais Ugrilaisen Seuran Aikakauskirja PDF p 92 a b Lang Valter Homo Fennicus Itamerensuomalaisten etnohistoria pp 335 336 Finnish Literature Society 2020 ISBN 9789518581300 a b Saag Lehti Laneman Margot Varul Liivi Malve Martin Valk Heiki Razzak Maria A Shirobokov Ivan G Khartanovich Valeri I Mikhaylova Elena R Kushniarevich Alena Scheib Christiana Lyn Solnik Anu Reisberg Tuuli Parik Juri Saag Lauri Metspalu Ene Rootsi Siiri Montinaro Francesco Remm Maido Magi Reedik D Atanasio Eugenia Crema Enrico Ryunosuke Diez del Molino David Thomas Mark G Kriiska Aivar Kivisild Toomas Villems Richard Lang Valter Metspalu Mait Tambets Kristiina May 2019 The Arrival of Siberian Ancestry Connecting the Eastern Baltic to Uralic Speakers further East Current Biology 29 10 1701 1711 e16 doi 10 1016 j cub 2019 04 026 PMC 6544527 PMID 31080083 a b Ariste Paul 1956 Maakeel ja eesti keel Eesti NSV Teaduste Akadeemia Toimetised 5 117 24 Beyer Jurgen 2007 Ist maarahvas Landvolk die alte Selbstbezeichnung der Esten eine Lehnubersetzung Eine Studie zur Begriffsgeschichte des Ostseeraums Zeitschrift fur Ostmitteleuropa Forschung 56 566 593 Beyer Jurgen April 2011 Are Folklorists Studying the Tales of the Folk Folklore 122 1 35 54 doi 10 1080 0015587X 2011 537132 S2CID 144633422 Paatsi Vello 2012 Terre armas eesti rahwas Kuidas maarahvast ja maakeelest sai eesti rahvas eestlased ja eesti keel Akadeemia in Estonian 24 2 20 21 ISSN 0235 7771 Retrieved 21 January 2020 Gellner Ernest 1996 Do nations have navels Nations and Nationalism 2 3 365 70 doi 10 1111 j 1469 8219 1996 tb00003 x a b Raun Toivo U 2003 Nineteenth and early twentieth century Estonian nationalism revisited Nations and Nationalism 9 1 129 147 doi 10 1111 1469 8219 00078 Piirimae Helmut Historical heritage the relations between Estonia and her Nordic neighbors In M Lauristin et al eds Return to the Western world Cultural and political perspectives on the Estonian post communist transition Tartu Tartu University Press 1997 How Nordic is Estonia An overview since 1991 nordics info 28 December 2021 Retrieved 12 October 2023 Estonian foreign ministry report Archived 25 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine 2004 Estonian foreign ministry report Archived 7 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine 2002 Lotkin I V Optacionnaya kampaniya i evakuaciya 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Pshenichnov Andrey Balanovska Elena Gubina Marina Zhadanov Sergey 2004 The Western and Eastern Roots of the Saami the Story of Genetic Outliers Told by Mitochondrial DNA and Y Chromosomes The American Journal of Human Genetics 74 4 661 682 doi 10 1086 383203 PMC 1181943 PMID 15024688 Haplogroup R1a Eupedia Retrieved 12 October 2023 Tambets Kristiina Yunusbayev Bayazit Hudjashov Georgi Ilumae Anne Mai Rootsi Siiri Honkola Terhi Vesakoski Outi Atkinson Quentin Skoglund Pontus Kushniarevich Alena Litvinov Sergey Reidla Maere Metspalu Ene Saag Lehti Rantanen Timo 2018 Genes reveal traces of common recent demographic history for most of the Uralic speaking populations Genome Biology 19 1 139 doi 10 1186 s13059 018 1522 1 ISSN 1474 760X PMC 6151024 PMID 30241495 Distribution of European mitochondrial DNA mtDNA haplogroups by region in percentage Eupedia Retrieved 13 October 2023 Feng Qidi Lu Yan Ni X Yuan K Yang Ya jun Yang Xiong Liu Chang Lou H Ning Zhilin Wang Yuchen Lu Dongsheng Zhang Chao Zhou Ying Shi Meng Tian L 2017 Genetic History of Xinjiang s Uyghurs Suggests Bronze Age Multiple Way Contacts in Eurasia Molecular Biology and Evolution 34 10 2572 2582 doi 10 1093 molbev msx177 PMID 28595347 S2CID 28730957 Lang Valter Homo Fennicus Itamerensuomalaisten etnohistoria pp 93 95 Finnish Literature Society 2020 ISBN 9789518581300 a b c Tambets Kristiina Yunusbayev Bayazit Hudjashov Georgi Ilumae Anne Mai Rootsi Siiri Honkola Terhi Vesakoski Outi Atkinson Quentin Skoglund Pontus Kushniarevich Alena Litvinov Sergey Reidla Maere Metspalu Ene Saag Lehti Rantanen Timo 2018 Genes reveal traces of common recent demographic history for most of the Uralic speaking populations Genome Biology 19 1 139 doi 10 1186 s13059 018 1522 1 ISSN 1474 760X PMC 6151024 PMID 30241495 a b Khrunin Andrey V Khokhrin Denis V Filippova Irina N Esko Tonu Nelis Mari Bebyakova Natalia A Bolotova Natalia L Klovins Janis Nikitina Zake Liene Rehnstrom Karola Ripatti Samuli Schreiber Stefan Franke Andre Macek Milan Krulisova Veronika 7 March 2013 A Genome Wide Analysis of Populations from European Russia Reveals a New Pole of Genetic Diversity in Northern Europe PLOS ONE 8 3 e58552 Bibcode 2013PLoSO 858552K doi 10 1371 journal pone 0058552 ISSN 1932 6203 PMC 3591355 PMID 23505534 Nelis Mari Esko Tonu Magi Reedik Zimprich Fritz Zimprich Alexander Toncheva Draga Karachanak Sena Piskackova Tereza Balascak Ivan Peltonen Leena Jakkula Eveliina Rehnstrom Karola Lathrop Mark Heath Simon Galan Pilar 8 May 2009 Genetic Structure of Europeans A View from the North East PLOS ONE 4 5 e5472 Bibcode 2009PLoSO 4 5472N doi 10 1371 journal pone 0005472 ISSN 1932 6203 PMC 2675054 PMID 19424496 Kushniarevich Alena Utevska Olga Chuhryaeva Marina Agdzhoyan Anastasia Dibirova Khadizhat Uktveryte Ingrida Mols Mart Mulahasanovic Lejla Pshenichnov Andrey Frolova Svetlana Shanko Andrey Metspalu Ene Reidla Maere Tambets Kristiina Tamm Erika 2 September 2015 Calafell Francesc ed Genetic Heritage of the Balto Slavic Speaking Populations A Synthesis of Autosomal Mitochondrial and Y Chromosomal Data PLOS ONE 10 9 e0135820 Bibcode 2015PLoSO 1035820K doi 10 1371 journal pone 0135820 ISSN 1932 6203 PMC 4558026 PMID 26332464 Lamnidis Thiseas C Majander Kerttu Jeong Choongwon Salmela Elina Wessman Anna Moiseyev Vyacheslav Khartanovich Valery Balanovsky Oleg Ongyerth Matthias Weihmann Antje Sajantila Antti Kelso Janet Paabo Svante Onkamo Paivi Haak Wolfgang 27 November 2018 Ancient Fennoscandian genomes reveal origin and spread of Siberian ancestry in Europe Nature Communications 9 1 5018 Bibcode 2018NatCo 9 5018L doi 10 1038 s41467 018 07483 5 ISSN 2041 1723 PMC 6258758 PMID 30479341 Further reading editPetersoo Pille January 2007 Reconsidering otherness constructing Estonian identity Nations and Nationalism 13 1 117 133 doi 10 1111 j 1469 8129 2007 00276 x External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to People of Estonia nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to Estonians Office of the Minister for Population and Ethnic Affairs Estonians abroad From Estonia to Thirlmere online exhibition Our New Home Meie Uus Kodu Estonian Australian Stories online exhibition Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Estonians amp oldid 1192935394, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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