Johannes Aaviku keeleliste uuenduste levik
Diffusion of Linguistic Innovations Suggested by Johannes Aavik

Summary/Abstract: the estonian language reform movement (1912–1944) led by Johannes Aavik introduced quite a lot of radical linguistic innovations into standard estonian. So far, Aavik's innovations have been studied mainly from the point of view of their methods of formation and theoretical justifications. the process of their coming into use, although it is probably their most striking aspect, has aroused little scholarly attention. the „normal” way to study the process of diffusion would be to carry out a statistical survey of a large part of estonian literature from the launching of the innovation up to now. At present, this quantitative method cannot possibly be put into practice, since the existing digital corpora of estonian texts are not comprehensive enough for the period of the language reform. the article, after having analysed the methodological requisites of such a study and the models provided by the sociologists of innovation, elaborates an indirect, qualitative method for studying the diffusion of artificial root-words created by J. Aavik. the author first works out a 4-grade scale of diffusion. he then examines 6 types of clues, which enable to locate a word on the scale at different moments of time and to draw an approximate diffusion curve. the application of the method reveals 4 main diffusion patterns: 1) continuous diffusion; 2) abandoned diffusion; 3) discontinuous diffusion; 4) delayed diffusion. the article ends in a classification of the 57 artificial root-words accepted by estonian dictionaries into these four categories, and with a quantitative study of the diffusion of the roots selmet and õõv in the estonian press during the last 15 years.

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