learning Estonian through advertising (2)

I will avoid translating and providing details for every word in this picture, as to do so would make the post too long. However, provided below is a translation for every sentence and a discussion of some of the more interesting words and expressions. (Click on picture to enlarge.)

Kui emme tahab kinno, siis emme läheb kinno!

If/when mom wants [to go] to the cinema, mom goes to the cinema!

Võta beebi kaasa, sõbrannad ligi ja Solaris Kino ootab teid!

Bring the baby along and have your girlfriends close. Solaris Cinema awaits your visit!

NB! Emme ja Beebi Kinopäevale on ka issid väga teretulnud!

NB! Dads are also very welcome at the Mom and Baby Cinema Days.

Imelises Kehrwiederi Jäätisekohvikus kinopileti esitamisel saavad emmed ja nende beedid 2 teed või 2 mahla ühe hinnaga, samuti pakutakse 10% soodustust teistele jookidele ja kookidele.

In the marvellous Kehrwieder Ice-cream café moms and babies get 2 teas or 2 juices for the price of 1, as well as a 10%  discount on other drinks and cakes [slices of cakes], on the presentation of a cinema ticket.

Kohvikus Komeet ootab teid spetsiaalne BEEBIMENÜÜ – klientidele vanuses 1-17 kuud. Valmistame erinevaid värskeid aed- ja puuviljamehusid ning püreesid kõige pisematele.

In Komeet café a special BABY MENU awaits - for customers aged 1-17 months. We prepare various fresh vegetable and fruit juices* and purées for all little ones.

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ligi 'near, close; nearly', Eestis on ligi 6000 mesinikku 'There are close to/ nearly 6,000 beekeepers in Estonia', present in the compound ligipääs 'access', as in Õiglane ligipääs kõrgharidusele Eestis 'Equitable [just/fair/unbiased] access to vocational education in Estonia.'

kinopileti esitamisel = kino 'cinema' + pilet 'ticket' + -i gen. suffix + esitamise < esitamine 'act of presenting' + -l ade. case = on presentation of a cinema ticket

ühe hinnaga = ühe gen. of üks 'one' + hinna gen. of hind 'price' + -ga com. case. = for the price of one (lit. with the price of one).

vili - 'fruit, crop'. Beware in Estonian that the English words vegetable and fruit are translated as aedvili 'garden crop'/ juurvili 'root crop' and puuvili 'tree crop' respectively. Thus värskeid aed- ja puuviljamehusid - fresh vegetable and fruit juice (lit. fresh garden and tree crop juice).  A carrot porgand would be an example of a juurvili but a courgette (zucchini) would be an example of a aedvili. There is also the word köögivili 'cooking crop'.

mehu - in Finnish this is the simple word for juice, as in appelsiinimehu 'orange juice'. Here however, in Estonian, it refers specifically more to a juice with pulp. EKSS (Explanation dictionary of the Estonian language) defines mehu as viljalihaga mahl 'juice with fruit meat' (meat here as in nutmeat), mahl being the simple word for juice, which we have seen above in 2 teed või 2 mahla '2 teas or 2 juices' (teed here is in the singular partitive, not the nominative plural (forms are identical), cf. kaks mahla '2 juices', singular partitive of mahl, and mahlad 'juices', nominative plural).

pisematele = pisem < pisike 'tiny, minute' + -a- gen. affx + -te- gen. pl. affix + -le all. case = for little ones (lit. on to the tinier ones)

* with pulp

follow now also on tumblr!

You can now follow, like and share the Estonian language blog on Tumblr!

I will be posting lots of short and snappy Tumblr-sized Estonian language posts: favourite words, phrases, words of wisdom, breakdowns of the language on signs and in advertising.

The content on the two blogs will be different, so the Tumblr blog will not simply be a mirror of this blog but on a different blogging platform. On this blog I will continue to post longer posts, which aren't really suitable for the short and snappy re-blogging Tumblr format.

learning Estonian through advertising (1)

Lase oma sisemine sportlane välja. - Release your inner athlete.

lase - vb., 2nd person sg. imperative of laskma (da-inf. = lasta): let, allow!

oma – reflexive poss. adj. (refers back to preceding pronun).

cf.  Õpetaja ütles õpilasele, et ta loeks oma raamatut. 'The teacher told the student to read his own [the student's] book.'

Õpetaja ütles õpilasele, et ta loeks tema raamatut. 'The teacher told the student to read his [the teacher's] book.'

Ma loen oma raamatut! - I am reading (some of) my book. Sa loed oma raamatut! - You are reading (some of) your book.

sisemine – adj. inner (ending mine should not be confused with suffix -mine, the latter signifying 'act of doing', as in luge+mine 'reading' (from lugema 'read'), söö+mine 'eating' (sööma 'eat'), etc. You know -mine attaches to the stem of the ma-infinitive and not the da-infinitive, because it's söömine and not süümine* (da-infinitive is süüa)). The breakdown of sisemine is actually sisemi+ne, -ne being an adjectival ending, with sg. genitive -se and sg. partitive -st.

sportlane – n. sportsperson. It can stand for both male 'sportsman' and female 'sportswoman', though if one wishes to specify 'sportswoman' one can use the female form of the suffix -lane (sg. gen. -lase, sg. part. -last), which is -lanna (sg. gen. -lanna, sg. part. -lannat). However, it must be said that this is a rare usage, especially in the singular. A female athlete would call herself sportlane, just like in English where more and more actresses refer to themselves as 'actor'.

Where I have most heard the use of the -lanna suffix is in the word sõbranna 'female friend', what straight women in English call a 'girlfriend'. It can also be used with nationalities: cf. eestlane, eestlased 'Estonian person, Estonians'; eestlanna, eestlannad 'Estonian woman, Estonian women'. The stand alone noun maa ('land') used in compound nouns and the suffix -lane are very productive. Ex. Iiri+maa, iir+lane 'Ireland, Irish person', Vene+maa, vene+lane 'Russia, Russian person', etc. (Be careful of the dropped final vowel in the first part of iirlane - not iirilane*. Cf. Soome, soomlane 'Finland, Finn' and Eesti, eestlane 'Estonian, Estonian person').

välja – adv. 'out' as in Lind lendas aknast välja. 'The bird flew out through (lit. 'from') the window' and väljapääs 'exit' (pääs 'escape' < pääsemine/pääsema 'escape n./vb.' ; 'way, passage'. Cf. sisepääs 'entrance' as in sisepääs kaubamajja 'entrance to the department store'. The double j here is not a mistake, majja is the sg. illative case form of maja 'house, building' – the illative is often expressed by a lengthening of a vowel or consonant of the word, and may not be indicated in the orthography. For example kool 'school' (nom. long o), kooli 'of the school' (gen., long o), but kooli 'to the school' (ill., overlong o in speech, but not in orthography)).

Not to be confused with the orthographically identical, but phonetically different välja, the genitive form of the noun väli 'field, empty space, expanse'. The latter has a long l, which you will notice is not indicated by the orthography. Estonian has a few nice, little, juicy gems like this. For example, take the two orthographically identical words palk 'wage' and palk 'log'. The latter has a palatalised l. Their genitive and partitive forms are also different: wage: palk, palga, palka ; log: palk, palgi, palki. And so you know, the palatalised l continues also through the case forms of log. There is also the partitive case form of väli, which is also välja, but with a short l.

Handy reminder of the above: välja (short l) = 1) adverb meaning 'out' ; 2) partitive case form of väli 'field, empty space, expanse'. välja (long l) = genitive case form of väli.