# Estonian: German loan words



## hargh

Recently I read is wikipedia that the Estonian language has borrowed nearly a third of its vocabulary from Germanic languages, mainly from German. Is this really true? Does knowledge of German can be very helpful in studying Estonian vocabulary?


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## ger4

I am not sure about the percentage of German loanwords in Estonian, but for a German speaker it is surprising to find quite a lot of familiar words in an otherwise unrelated language such as Estonian. In many cases, though, I don't know whether a particular word is of (Low-)German or of Swedish origin - as Low German and Swedish have many words in common ("kitchen": "Köök" in Estonian, "kök" in Swedish and Low German, "Küche" in modern Standard German)

A few more examples (Estonian - English - German):

apelsin - orange - Apfelsine (this is probably a borrowing in German as well)
arst - doctor - Arzt
härra - mister, sir - Herr
jaa - yes - ja
kahvel - fork - Gabel (in many loanwords Estonian k- corresponds to German g-, Estonian -hv- corresponds to (Low)German -f- and Standard German -b-)
kartul - potato - Kartoffel
kast - box, case - Kasten
kirik - church - Kirche, Low German Kark, Swedish kyrka
kirs - cherry - Kirsche
kleit - skirt - Kleid
korsten - chimney - Schornstein (even closer to Swedish skorsten)
köök - kitchen - Küche (Low German köken, Swedish kök)
korv - basket - Korb
loss - palace - Schloss (Estonian tends to simplify consonant clusters word-initially)
nojaa - well, yes, okay - nun ja (similar to Latvian "nu jā")
pall - ball - Ball (this might be related to English as well, of course)
pank - bench - Bank (Estonian p- often corresponds to German b-)
pilt - picture - Bild
proovima - to try - probieren (-ma is one of the two infinitive endings in Estonian)
proua - lady, Mrs. - Frau (Estonian didn't have the letter f originally and replaced it with p in many cases)
püksid - trousers - Low German Büchsen, Swedish byxor (-d is the nominative plural in Estonian)
tass - cup -Tasse
tellima - to order - bestellen (this doesn't look similar but very often be- disappeared in Low German, st- became t- in Estonian and -ma again is the infinitive)
torn - tower - Low German Torn
tund - hour -Stunde
tuba - room - Stube
tükk - piece - Stück
vein - wine - Wein
üür - rent (for an apartment) - Low German Hüer

... and of course this one: politsei - police - Polizei

As I'm not a linguist I can't tell you anything more detailled about the etymology of these words.

Editing this list, I noticed Andras has given even more examples - these lists are getting longer and longer


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## AndrasBP

Well, "nearly a third" might be an exaggeration, but there is certainly a large number of Low German loanwords in Estonian (and in Latvian, too). Many of these words may not be immediately recognizable due to the phonetic changes (devoicing, loss of consonants in word-initial clusters) and the features of the Low (Northern) German dialect.
I'll add a few more to Holger's list: 

pruut - bride
peegel - mirror
lukk - lock
klaas - glass
müts - cap
praad - roast 
saag - saw (tool)
pilt - picture
kapp - cupboard, wardrobe
pall - ball
traat - wire (~ English 'thread')


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## ger4

Maybe I should add that even though a certain part of Estonian vocabulary might be of German origin, the basic language, if you can call it that way, and the structure of the language are probably not at all influenced by German. If you look at the 200+ words listed in the Estonian Swadesh List on www.wiktionary.org and compare them to the respective German list, there are hardly any similarities there. Some words in Estonian seem to be very similar to Latvian: mets=forest=mežs, maja=house=māja, sild=bridge=tilts, and so on (possibly Estonian/Livonian influence on the Latvian language? Or Latvian influence on Estonian?)

By the way, one feature I find helpful in learning Estonian is not so much a certain similarity with German in parts of its vocabulary, but rather the regularity and the logic of its grammar - there is no grammatical gender, no future tense, and most of the case endings are the same in the plural as in the singular - you just add them to the plural stem of nouns (and adjectives - adjectives normally add the same case endings as nouns). - The German language should have borrowed this regularity from Estonian


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## AndrasBP

"Some words in Estonian seem to be very similar to Latvian"

The similarities could perhaps be grouped into three categories: old Baltic loans in Finnish and Estonian (Lith. kirvis - Est. kirves - axe), some Finnic (Fin., Est., Liv.) loans in Latvian (Lat. puika - Finnish poika - boy) and some common German loans (Est. klaas - Lat. glāze - glass).


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## ger4

Interestingly, Estonian sometimes seems to create its own words in cases where other languages tend to borrow from English (or French):

tarkvara (tark = clever, intelligent) = software = German: Software
arvuti (arvama = to think, to speculate etc) = computer = German: Computer 
raamatukogu ("book collection") = library (many languages have borrowed "biblioteque" from French)

On the other hand, one similarity with Gerrman seems to be the word order. I don't know if that's a German influence or just coincidence:

"I go to the library twice a week" - in German and Estonian the word order here is: 
"I - go - two - times - in the week - in the library":
"Ma - käin - kaks - korda - nädalas - raamatukogus"
"Ich - gehe - zwei - Mal - in der Woche - in die Bücherei/Bibliothek"

Of course, the example above shows similarities with Latvian as well (in terms of vocabulary).


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## berndf

AndrasBP said:


> ...due to the phonetic changes (devoicing, loss of consonants in word-initial clusters)


Loss of inital clusters is a phonetic change. But devoicing did not occur. German doesn't have voiced plosives the could possibly be devoiced (except inter-vocalic in Low German and maybe some other dialects). The plosives represented by the letters "b", "d" and "g" correspond to the sounds represented by "p", "t" and "k" in Baltic languages, i.e. unvoiced and unaspirated.


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## DrWatson

I would also say that a third is exaggerated, but the number of German loans is definitely significant. According to an article from 2013 (_Eesti kirjakeele tüvevara päritolu arvudes_ by Metsmägi, Sedrik & Soosaar), word stems of Low German origin form the largest group among all loan stems (476–659). High German comes second with 356–506 stems. Then there is a smaller number of loans from Proto-Germanic, Old Scandinavian, Old Swedish, Swedish, Estonian/Finland Swedish and Baltic German. Altogether, stems of any Germanic origin may account for about 30 % of all word stems in Estonian.

Estonian also has the V2 word order (verb has the second place in a sentence), which is very likely German influence.


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## hargh

Thanks for the answers. I was also thinking that one third could be exaggerated, that's why I made this topic.
Many  of German loan words mentioned above are also found in Latvian  language. One Latvian scientist (Jānis Zēvers) has actually published  work where he has gathered German loan words in Latvian language and the  total number of them was 2750 I am not sure, how many word stems could  it be.

So actually Latvian and Estonian languages may be more similar (in terms of vocabulary) than its usually thought.


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## AndrasBP

Holger2014 said:


> Interestingly, Estonian sometimes seems to create its own words in cases where other languages tend to borrow from English (or French):
> 
> tarkvara (tark = clever, intelligent) = software = German: Software
> arvuti (arvama = to think, to speculate etc) = computer = German: Computer
> raamatukogu ("book collection") = library (many languages have borrowed "biblioteque" from French)



It is true that for 'library', most European languages use 'biblioteca', but apart from Estonian, derivations of the native word 'book' are used in Finnish, Icelandic, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian and Welsh.


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## ahvalj

Grammatically, German most probably has been involved in the emerging and shaping of the system of separable prefixes in Estonian — a trait that doesn't exist in other Baltic-Finnic languages. Interestingly, the only other Uralic language that has developed a comparable system is Hungarian, most probably for the same reasons.

Update. The literature tells that separable prefixes exist also in Obic languages (West Siberian relatives of Hungarian), so Hungarian must have inherited at least the basic ability to form prefixes, and German could only shape this system.


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## Angelo di fuoco

Holger2014 said:


> A few more examples (Estonian - English - German):
> 
> apelsin - orange - Apfelsine (this is probably a borrowing in German as well)



It's Dutch (appelsien, synonymous to sinaasappel: Chinese apple), in Estonian most probably via Russian (апельсин).



AndrasBP said:


> It is true that for 'library', most European languages use 'biblioteca', but apart from Estonian, derivations of the native word 'book' are used in Finnish, Icelandic, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian and Welsh.


German also has the less frequent Bücherei as a synonym to Bibliothek.
In Romance languages, words derived from the Latin liber (book) like libreria, librería and librairie mostly mean book store.
Russian has книгохранилище (store room for books, which is only a part of a library or a book store; so it's only a partial synonym) and читальня (building or place where you read books).


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## ger4

Angelo di fuoco said:


> German also has the less frequent Bücherei as a synonym to Bibliothek.
> In Romance languages, words derived from the Latin liber (book) like libreria, librería and librairie mostly mean book store.
> Russian has книгохранилище (store room for books, which is only a part of a library or a book store; so it's only a partial synonym) and читальня (building or place where you read books).


... and apart from that, "raamat" is a borrowing from Greek via Russian "грамота/gramota" (gr- > r-), so "raamatukogu" wasn't the best example for a "home-grown" Estonian term, I agree. 

One example I find quite interesting is that many languages use a borrowing for "nature", despite being such a basic concept - Estonian, by contrast, has "loodus", Latvian has "daba" (and of course Russian has "природа/priroda")


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## ahvalj

Angelo di fuoco said:


> German also has the less frequent Bücherei as a synonym to Bibliothek.
> In Romance languages, words derived from the Latin liber (book) like libreria, librería and librairie mostly mean book store.
> Russian has книгохранилище (store room for books, which is only a part of a library or a book store; so it's only a partial synonym) and читальня (building or place where you read books).


Russian has an ancient Romance borrowing _либерея_/_libereya_ for a library (more precisely, for the library of Ivan IV).


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## Angelo di fuoco

Very exotic and very specific, I didn't know that one...


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## Nellija Eva

Holger2014 said:


> A few more examples (Estonian - English - German):[...]


Oh my goodness, I could understand almost all of those, most of those words are loaned in latvian as well. I added latvian version at the end.

apelsin - orange - Apfelsine - _apelsīns _
arst - doctor - Arzt - _ārsts_
jaa - yes - ja - _jā _
kartul - potato - Kartoffel - _kartupelis_
kast - box, case - Kasten - _kaste_
kirs - cherry - Kirsche - _ķirsis_
kleit - skirt - Kleid - _kleita_
korsten - chimney - Schornstein (even closer to Swedish skorsten) - _skurstenis_
köök - kitchen - Küche (Low German köken, Swedish kök) - _ķēķis_
loss - palace - Schloss (Estonian tends to simplify consonant clusters word-initially) - pils (more similar to english though)
pall - ball - Ball - _balle_
pank - bench - Bank (Estonian p- often corresponds to German b-) - _beņķis_
pilt - picture - Bild - _bilde_
proovima - to try - probieren (-ma is one of the two infinitive endings in Estonian) - _provēt _
proua - lady, Mrs. - Frau (Estonian didn't have the letter f originally and replaced it with p in many cases) - _preilene/freilene _
püksid - trousers - Low German Büchsen, Swedish byxor (-d is the nominative plural in Estonian) - _bikses_
tass - cup -Tasse - _tase_
torn - tower - Low German Torn - _tornis_
tund - hour -Stunde - _stunda_
tuba - room - Stube - _istaba_
vein - wine - Wein - _vīns_
üür - rent (for an apartment) - Low German Hüer - _īre_


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## AndrasBP

Nellija Eva, thanks for adding the Latvian list. It's interesting to see how these German words create a 'bridge' of some sort between the two unrelated languages. A small correction, if you don't mind: Latvian '_pils_' doesn't come from German '_Schloss_' or English '_palace_', it's part of the original Baltic vocabulary (Lithuanian '_pilis_').


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## ahvalj

Judging from _i_-, _istaba_ is borrowed from Old East Slavic, where it was in its turn a Romance or Germanic loanword (http://www.classes.ru/all-russian/russian-dictionary-Vasmer-term-4318.htm below).


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## Sepia

Holger2014 said:


> On the other hand, one similarity with Gerrman seems to be the word order. I don't know if that's a German influence or just coincidence:
> 
> "I go to the library twice a week" - in German and Estonian the word order here is:
> "I - go - two - times - in the week - in the library":
> "Ma - käin - kaks - korda - nädalas - raamatukogus"
> "Ich - gehe - zwei - Mal - in der Woche - in die Bücherei/Bibliothek"
> 
> Of course, the example above shows similarities with Latvian as well (in terms of vocabulary).


I'd say, it takes more than that to prove direct influence. Show me how many variations of syntax you can make with a subject, an object, a verb, and an adverbial. It is so limited that they would all have to fit with hundreds of languages.


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## ger4

I agree. It just strikes me that Estonian word order often differs from closely  related Finnish and other neighbouring languages and that there seem to be similarities with German (and Latvian) sentence structures especially if you look at the position of the infinitive verb.

Some more examples (they aren't meant to 'prove' anything, of course ):

---
http://www.unilang.org/ulrview.php?res=192,183

'Could you please repeat that?'
Swedish: _Kan du säga om det?_ [ _can_ | _you_ | _say (inf)_| _again_ | _that_ ]
Finnish: _Voisitko toistaa tuon?_ [ _could you_ + _question particle_ | _repeat _(inf) | _that_ ]
Estonian: _Palun, kas sa võiksid seda korrata?_ [ _please_ | _question marker_ | _you_ | _could_ | _that_ | _repeat (inf) _]
Latvian: _Lūdzu, vai jūs to varētu atkārtot?_ [ _please_ | _question marker_ | _you_ | _that_ |_ could_ | _repeat (inf)_ ]
German: _Könntest du das bitte wiederholen?_ [ _could_ | _you_ | _that_ | _please_ | _repeat (inf)_ ]

'Can I print something?'
Swedish: _Kan jag skriva ut någonting?_ [ _can_ | _I_ | _write (inf)_ | _out_ | _something_ ]
Finnish: _Voinko tulostaa jotakin?_ [ c_an I + question marking suffix_ | _print (inf)_ | _something_ ]
Estonian: _Kas ma saan midagi printida?_ [ _question marker_ | _I_ | _am allowed_ | _something_ | _to print (inf)_ ]
Latvian: _Vai es varu kaut ko izdrukāt? _[ _question marker_ | _I _| _can_ | _some_ | _what_ | _print out (inf)_ ]
German: _Kann ich etwas ausdrucken?_ [ _can_ | _I_ | _something ('somewhat')_ | _print out (inf)_ ]

---
http://www.balticsealibrary.info/ (Tranströmer - Östersjöar/ Baltics)

'How much did they come to know one another?'
Swedish: _Hur mycket lärde de känna varann?_ [ _how_ | _much_ | _learned_ | _they_ | _to know (inf)_ | _each other_ ]
Finnish: _Minka verran he tutustuivat toisiinsa?_ [ ~ _to what extent (?)_ ~ | _they_ | _got to know_ | _each other_ ]
Estonian: _Kui palju õppisid nad üksteist tundma?_ [ _how_ | _much_ | _learned_ | _they_ | _each other_ | _to know (inf) _]
Latvian: _Cik tuvu viņi paspēja sapazīties?_ [ _how_ | _close_ | _they_ | _managed_ | _to know (reflexive [recipr.] infinitive)_ ]
German: _Wie gut lernten sie einander kennen?_ [ _how_ | _good_ | _learned_ | _they_ | _each other _| _to know (inf)_ ]

---


> http://203.250.148.79/upload/word/7-03-Martin%20E
> [...]
> 
> Further evidence is provided by the sentences with verbal complexes: the auxiliary verb is in the second position and the non-finite part at the end of the sentence
> as in (11):
> 
> (11) X O V
> a. Lapse-d on täna suppi söönud.
> child-PL have today soup.PART eaten <-- compare: _die Kinder haben heute Suppe __gegessen_
> b. ???Lapsed on söönud suppi täna.
> children have eaten soup today
> The alternative sentence ???Lapsed on söönud suppi täna is very unusual and it is hard to imagine the context where this sentence might sound acceptable. The same regularities hold for verbal particles.
> 
> In (12) the verbal particle üle is at the final position in the sentence while the finite verb is in the second position:
> 
> (12) X O V
> Lapse-d värvi-vadi täna maja üle.
> child-PL paint-3PL today house.GEN over <-- compare: _die Kinder streichen heute das Haus __über_
> ‘The children will overpaint the house today.’
> It is reasonable to assume that üle värvima ‘to overpaint’ is a single lexical unit which is located at the V node. Thus, when the verb is moved to the second position, the particle is left behind. That the verb is moved, not the particle is confirmed by changing the tense from present to perfect as in (13). The alternative *Lapsed on
> üle värvinud maja täna is ungrammatical, not just unusual.
> 
> (13) Lapse-d on täna maja üle värvinud.
> child-PL have today house.GEN over painted <-- compare: _die Kinder haben heute das Haus __über__gestrichen_
> ‘The children have overpainted the house today.’
> 
> [...]


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## ahvalj

Actually, in all three examples the standard Russian word order agrees in the final position of the Infinitive with the German-Estonian-Latvian one (_Не мог бы ты это повторить? / Могу я кое-что напечатать? / Насколько они успели познакомиться?_). I wonder whether the Teutons have managed to influence the Russian usage as well.


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## ger4

How about sentences (11), (12) and (13)? I think Russian word order would (normally) differ from the Estonian (and the German) one here, wouldn't it?


> (11)
> Lapse-d | on | täna | suppi | söönud.
> [ child-PL | have | today | soup.PART | eaten ]
> Die Kinder | haben | heute | Suppe | gegessen.
> The children | have | eaten | soup | today.
> 
> (12)
> Lapse-d | värvi-vadi | täna | maja | üle.
> [ child-PL | paint-3PL | today | house.GEN | over ]
> Die Kinder | streichen | heute | das Haus | über.
> The children | will | overpaint | the house | today.
> 
> (13)
> Lapse-d | on | täna | maja | üle | värvinud.
> [ child-PL | have | today | house.GEN | overpainted ]
> Die Kinder | haben | heute | das Haus | übergestrichen.
> The children | have | painted | over | the house | today.


Similarities don't prove influences, of course.


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## ahvalj

Russian doesn't have separable prefixes or compound Past anymore, so literal translations are useless. The final position of the verb in these sentences is possible if the speaker emphasizes the verb.

_Дети суп сегодня съели_ (i. e. have eaten instead of having refused to do so as usual).

_Дети сегодня дом покрасят_ (i. e. they are going to finally do this).

_Дети сегодня дом покрасили_ (i. e. either "they have finally done this" or "what a horror, the children have painted the house!").

I can reformulate the sentences into the Perfective Passive to separate the auxiliary verb and the participle, but again the participle placed in the end of the sentence will emphasize the verb:

_Детьми был вчера суп съеден_ 
etc.

Though I agree, in these cases the standard German-Estonian (but not Latvian as far as I can judge) construction differs from the Russian one.


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## berndf

Moderator note: Moved to EHL.


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## rushalaim

hargh said:


> Recently I read is wikipedia that the Estonian language has borrowed nearly a third of its vocabulary from Germanic languages, mainly from German. Is this really true? Does knowledge of German can be very helpful in studying Estonian vocabulary?


Modern Estonian have many Russian words too, for example:
jaam (bus-station) compare Russian *ям*щик [jamschik]
lusikas (teaspoon) ложка [lozhka]
pilet (ticket) билет
turg (market) *торг*овать [torgovat]
meri (sea) море [more]
mõtlema, mõte (to think) мыслить, мысль [myslit]

yet more and more


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## ahvalj

That's generally true, but _meri _is a Germanic (or Baltic, or Indo-European?) borrowing, whereas _mõtlema_ is casually similar to the Russian word: it is a Baltic-Finnic derivative from a Germanic loanword (http://www.eki.ee/dict/ety/index.cgi?Q=mõtlema&F=M&C06=et). Otherwise, the thread is about German borrowings ,-)


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## rushalaim

ahvalj said:


> That's generally true, but _meri _is a Germanic (or Baltic, or Indo-European?) borrowing, whereas _mõtlema_ is casually similar to the Russian word: it is a Baltic-Finnic derivative from a Germanic loanword (http://www.eki.ee/dict/ety/index.cgi?Q=mõtlema&F=M&C06=et). Otherwise, the thread is about German borrowings ,-)


http://www.eki.ee - funny _"office"_  because of politics they feel themselves more comfortable to investigate their language roots in German instead of obvious common with Russian, ha-ha..


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## ahvalj

_mõ*tl*ema_ is the _ma_-Infinitive form, the _da_-Infinitive is _mõ*t*e*l*da _(https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mõtlema#Conjugation). That there is no vowel between_ t_ and _l_ in the first form, is the Estonian peculiarity: in Finnish, which preserves unstressed vowels much better, this will correspond to _aja*tt*e*l*emaan — aja*t*e*l*la_ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ajatella#Conjugation). The Estonian root is actually _mõt-,_ whereas _-el/l-_ is the suffix, found in many verbs.


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## rushalaim

ahvalj said:


> _mõ*tl*ema_ is the _ma_-Infinitive form, the _da_-Infinitive is _mõ*t*e*l*da _(https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mõtlema#Conjugation). That there is no vowel between_ t_ and _l_ in the first form, is the Estonian peculiarity: in Finnish, which preserves unstressed vowels much better, this will correspond to _aja*tt*e*l*emaan — aja*t*e*l*la_ (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ajatella#Conjugation). The Estonian root is actually _mõt-,_ whereas _-el/l-_ is the suffix, found in many verbs.


Выше я так и сказал, что корень - это эст. слово _"mõte"_ т.е. _"мысль"_. (Ссылаться на Википедию или на русофобскую контору типа "института" эст.языка - это странно)


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## ahvalj

rushalaim said:


> Выше я так и сказал, что корень - это эст. слово _"mõte"_ т.е. _"мысль"_. (Ссылаться на Википедию или на русофобскую контору типа "института" эст.языка - это странно)


В википедии даны парадигмы (должны раскрываться по ссылке: если нет, там справа нужно нажать на треугольнички): они не меняются в зависимости от степени русофобскости ресурса. Из _мысли_ _mõte_ не получится, а к тому же там есть и другие производные. Если хотите ущучить эстонцев, напомните им лучше, что слово _vaba_ «свободный» заимствовано из дописьменного древнерусского.


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## DrWatson

According to _Suomen sanojen alkuperä_ ("The Origin of Finnish words"), the most up-to-date etymological dictionary of Finnish, _mõtlema _(which itself is derived from _mõõt _'measure', the -_le_- part is a derivational suffix) is probably of German origin (SSA: "< Germ *_mēt_- : Old Norse _mát_ ’measure, evaluation’, Old Swedish _mat_ ’measure’), but it may have been influenced by Russian, not by _мысль _but the verb _метить._


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## rushalaim

DrWatson said:


> According to _Suomen sanojen alkuperä_ ("The Origin of Finnish words"), the most up-to-date etymological dictionary of Finnish, _mõtlema _(which itself is derived from _mõõt _'measure', the -_le_- part is a derivational suffix) is probably of German origin (SSA: "< Germ *_mēt_- : Old Norse _mát_ ’measure, evaluation’, Old Swedish _mat_ ’measure’), but it may have been influenced by Russian, not by _мысль _but the verb _метить._


I don't see any logic in your assumption. 
There are two different words in Estonian: _mõtlema _and_ mõõtma. _
If a verb _mõtlema _would be derived from the root _mõõt, _why here are two verbs together now, _mõtlema _and_ mõõtma_?


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## berndf

rushalaim said:


> If a verb _mõtlema _would be derived from the root _mõõt, _why here are two verbs together now, _mõtlema _and_ mõõtma_?


Why not? Multiple imports of from the same ultimate root are not uncommon, e.g. _chase _and _catch _from Latin _captiare _through different French dialects.


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## DrWatson

rushalaim said:


> I don't see any logic in your assumption.
> There are two different words in Estonian: _mõtlema _and_ mõõtma._
> If a verb _mõtlema _would be derived from the root _mõõt, _why here are two verbs together now, _mõtlema _and_ mõõtma_?


You mean it would be logical if there were only one derived word per root stem? That makes no sense. Besides, the words have different meanings: _mõõtma _'measure', _mõtlema _'think'. Estonian has a rather rich derivational system, which means you can derive a lot of words from one stem using different means, e.g. suffixes.


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