ESTONIAN ITEMS IN THE INTERNET DISCOURSE OF THE RUSSIAN SPEAKING POPULATION OF ESTONIA

Abstract

The Estonian influence on the discourse of the Russian speaking population of Estonia has drawn the attention of many researchers. The insertion of elements of Estonian in the discourse of Russian speakers is analysed and systematised from different points of view. Research has been conducted on formal aspects of code switching and on more pragmatic language aspects on the basics of different material (e.g. spoken language, jargons and dialects, advertisements, journalistic texts). However, the influence of the Estonian language in the discourse of Russian speaking groups of Estonia has not been fully studied, especially with internet sources, which can give an idea of the currently relevant processes of spoken language. This paper is part of a larger research project in which we plan to compare the functions of foreign language items in the internet discourse of the Russian speaking population of Italy and Estonia. In this paper, however, the main focus is on the lexical content of Estonian insertions in the internet discourse of the Russian speaking population of Estonia and on two of its main functions. Namely, the identifying reference function and the figurative speech function. Data was collected from different forums and Facebook groups. The analysis of the collected material shows that the insertion of Estonian items occurs very frequently when the communicants discuss bureaucratic-administrative spheres, space, and time. Those Estonian insertions are very often used in order to clearly identify the object of their conversation. Longer insertions are often used within the figurative speech function, which conveys the characteristics of the speech, of the speaker and the evaluative characteristics. The study of the influence of the Estonian language on the internet discourse of the Russian speaking population of Estonia in the future will allow a deeper understanding of formal and functional aspects of the Estonian language, such as the morphological and syntactic features of the language and the semantic and pragmatic meaning of certain Estonian words and particles. Furthermore, this research will contribute to the study of the problems connected with language contacts.