Johannes Aavik ( – 18 March 1973) was an

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

n linguist and innovator of the

Estonian language Estonian ( ) is a Finnic language and the official language of Estonia. It is written in the Latin script and is the first language of the majority of the country's population; it is also an official language of the European Union. Estonian is sp ...

Early life and education

Aavik was born in Randvere, Saaremaa, in the

Governorate of Livonia The Governorate of Livonia, also known as the Livonia Governorate, was a province (''guberniya'') and one of the Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire, Baltic Governorate-General until 1876. Governorate of Livonia bordered Governorate of E ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

(now

). He studied history at the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.

and the University of Nezin in 1905. He was a member of the Young Estonia movement and obtained a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

degree in Romance languages at the

University of Helsinki The University of Helsinki (, ; UH) is a public university in Helsinki, Finland. The university was founded in Turku in 1640 as the Royal Academy of Åbo under the Swedish Empire, and moved to Helsinki in 1828 under the sponsorship of Alexander ...

in 1910. Aavik taught Estonian and French at the University of Tartu from 1926 to 1933. In 1934, he was appointed by the Estonian Ministry of Education as Chief Inspector of Secondary Schools, a position he held until 1940.'' The International Who's Who 1943-44''. 8th edition. George Allen & Unwin, London, 1943, p. 1. He fled from Estonia to escape from the Soviet invasion in 1944, became a refugee in Sweden and lived in Stockholm for the remainder of his life.

Estonian language innovation

In 1912, he started writing articles to literary journals, proposing ways to modernize the Estonian language. In his opinion, Estonian language needed innovation, as its sphere of usage widened rapidly with the emergence of a modern nation. Besides the need for standardization of grammar and orthography, Aavik also believed that the language needed to be versatile and euphonic. He suggested intensive borrowing from Finnish, and some of his suggestions were quickly accepted and became part of standard Estonian vocabulary. From 1914 he started to artificially create new new word stems to replace "awkward" compound words. Thus, he proposed ''relv'' ("weapon") instead of ''sõjariist'' (literally, "war tool"), ''roim'' ("crime") instead of ''kuritöö'' ("evil deed") and ''veenma'' ("convince") instead of ''uskuma panema'' ("put into believing"). He generally tried to avoid the sounds ''t'' and ''s'' and preferred shorter words to longer ones. He also favoured ''o'' in successive syllables to ''u'', as is common in the South Estonian dialects. Aavik considered many of his

neologisms In linguistics, a neologism (; also known as a coinage) is any newly formed word, term, or phrase that has achieved popular or institutional recognition and is becoming accepted into mainstream language. Most definitively, a word can be considered ...

as created out of nothing (see ex nihilo lexical enrichment). However, many of Aavik's neologisms were influenced by foreign languages and lexical items (Aavik had a broad classical education and knew

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and French). Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2003), Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew.

Palgrave Macmillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains offi ...

.

pp. 149-150. For example, his innovation ''roim'' ("crime") might have been influenced by the English language, English word ''crime''; ''relv'' ("weapon") might have been influenced by the English word ''revolver''; and ''taunima'' ("to condemn, disapprove") might have been influenced by the Finnish word ''tuomita'' ("to condemn, to judge"). Aavik also tried to modernize the grammar. He advocated the usage of i-plural instead of t(d)-plural (''keelis'' pro ''keeltes'') and the i-superlative instead of the ordinary superlative (''suurim'' pro ''kõige suurem''), as well as –''nd'' instead of –''nud'' in the active past participle. He proposed inflectional affixes to the ma-infinitive, and some of them entered into popular usage. He also tried to introduce a future form of verbs and a female personal pronoun, however these got little positive response. Aavik published numerous essays and translations to propagate his ideas; he had vocal supporters as well as opponents. In 1919, he published a dictionary of 2000 novelty words. About 30 words that he created are still in use as of today. These include for example ''laip'' ('corpse') or ''mõrv'' ('murder'). His principles (utility, aesthetics and native quality) were summarized in ''Keeleuuenduse äärmised võimalused'' (Extreme Perspectives of Language Innovation; Tartu, 1924). Language innovation slowly died away after the 1927 act that made it compulsory for schools to teach standard Estonian as put down in the Estonian Orthographic Dictionary (1925, chief editor Johannes Voldemar Veski) and Estonian Grammar (by Elmar Muuk, 1927). However, some words proposed by Aavik and fallen into oblivion have been picked up and re-introduced by more recent literati. An essay on linguistic innovation in Estonian by Paul Saagpakk can be found in his Estonian–English Dictionary.

Death and legacy

Aavik died in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. On 26 September 1992, the Johannes Aavik Society was established in

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

, Estonia. The society focuses on research of Estonian language and especially on those language aspects which are related to Johannes Aavik. The society has 107 members. The society publishes the publication "Keeleuuenduse Kirjastik".

References

External links

Johannes Aavik at Estonian Writers' Online Dictionary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aavik, Johannes 1880 births 1973 deaths People from Saaremaa Parish People from Kreis Ösel Linguists from Estonia Estonian male poets 20th-century Estonian poets Language reformers 20th-century Estonian male writers 20th-century linguists Young Estonia University of Tartu alumni Estonian World War II refugees Estonian emigrants to Sweden Recipients of the Order of the White Star, 3rd Class

Early life and education

Estonian language innovation

Death and legacy

References

Further reading

External links