Eesti fonoloogia teisenemised Keeles ja Kirjanduses
Development of Estonian Phonology as Reflected in Keel ja Kirjandus

Summary/Abstract: This article gives an overview of the history of Estonian phonology drawing mostly on relevant papers published in Keel ja Kirjandus. The foundation of Estonian phonology was laid in the 1930s, mainly by the studies of Paul Ariste. The 1960s marked the advent of structural and generative phonology in Estonia with Valmen Hallap, Mati Hint and Tiit-Rein Viitso as the leading figures. In the 1970s the number of researchers focusing on the study of Estonian sound system increased, and the influence of Ilse Lehiste’s work became noticeable. Phonological theory was developed following mainly the views of Morris Halle. During this period the focus of phonological research was above all on the Estonian word prosody. A comprehensive view of the phonological structure of Estonian was reached in the late 1970s. From its very beginning Estonian phonology, being to a large degree experimental phonology, has had a strong connection with phonetics. A considerable influence of Ilse Lehiste as well as Georg Liiv, Arvo Eek and other phoneticians can be traced. However, the connection between phonology and morphology has been no less important. Several Estonian phonologists have also contributed to the study of morphology, and in the 1970s, Estonian scholars produced more than one innovative morphophonological study. Since the 1990s the methods of optimality theory and autosegmental-metrical approach have been introduced in Estonian phonological studies. Besides word prosody, more attention is paid to sentence prosody. Up to now, most knowledge about the Estonian sound system has been gained from experimental studies of controlled data. Spontaneous Estonian speech still largely awaits phonological interpretation. New research methods coupled with recent study of the regularities of spontaneous speech have certainly led to a deeper understanding of the complexities of the Estonian sound system.

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