Whenever I encounter Estonia or Estonians anywhere in my daily grind, I get a little kick of joy.
This, from my morning’s reading, gave me a nice little chuckle:
But languages are not like paintings. They do not develop via people applying their ingenuity or being creative. Languages develop via step-by-step driftings that operate below the level of consciousness, and this is not an opinion, but a fact, fundamental, to any introductory class on language change. How else, after all, did Estonian end up with fourteen cases?
[Here the author lists the fourteen Estonian cases, using the word book [raamat] to exemplify the declensions]
On top of that, Estonian is one of those langauge where irregularity is practically the rule. Does anyone plan such things? If this is creativity, I’m not sure we’re giving Estonians a complement.
From The Language Hoax: Why the World Looks the Same in Any Language by John H. McWhorter.