Estonian language

Estonian
eesti keel
Pronunciation[ˈeːsʲti ˈkeːl]
Native toEstonia
EthnicityEstonians
Native speakers
1.2 million (2022)[1]
Uralic
  • Finnic
    • Southern Finnic
      • Estonian
Dialects
  • North (Standard) Estonian
  • Northeastern coastal Estonian
  • South Estonian
Latin (Estonian alphabet)
Estonian Braille
Official status
Official language in
Estonia
European Union
Regulated byInstitute of the Estonian Language / Eesti Keele Instituut
Language codes
ISO 639-1et
ISO 639-2est
ISO 639-3est – inclusive code
Individual code:
ekk – (Northern/Standard) Estonian
Glottologesto1258
Linguasphere41-AAA-d
Estonian is official in Estonia (dark green) and in the European Union (light green)

Estonian (eesti keel [ˈeːsʲti ˈkeːl] ) 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 spoken natively by about 1.1 million people: 922,000 people in Estonia and 160,000 elsewhere.[2][3]

  1. ^ Estonian at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
    (Northern/Standard) Estonian at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
  2. ^ "Estonian in a World Context". Estonica. Archived from the original on 27 September 2018. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  3. ^ "The Estonian Language". Estonica.org. Retrieved 15 October 2022.