Krabisev ja kõlisev eestikeelses aegruumis
Money in the space-time of the estonian language

Summary/Abstract: The article describes the semantic structure and history of usage of the Estonian noun raha ’money’ and its semantic network. in its basic meanings raha is systematically polysemous, denoting an abstract system as well as objects necessary for its operation. besides this, raha is at the same time a count noun and a mass noun. Probably the meaning has developed from count noun to mass noun, but the uncountable use has become primary. Raha is a Germanic loanword borrowed into Finnic languages about 1000 bC. its first occurrence in written texts goes back to 1524–1532. a comparison of the raha-compounds in the Estonian-German dictionary by F. J. Wiedemann (1869, 1893) and the Explanatory Dictionary of Standard Estonian (2009) points to some of the big changes that have taken place in people’s everyday life. The slang words and idioms denoting money come from the field of valueless things, thus suggesting a superior attitude. There are many different adjectives for big money; little money is often referred to by outdated small currencies. in the corpus of written Estonian the words connected with money are nearly six times more frequent in media texts than in fiction. in media texts, the most frequent of those words was kroon referring to the main currency, while in fiction, it was the general word raha and also the Soviet-time currency rubla ’rouble’. Old Estonian folksongs deal with all kinds of themes related to money, especially in connection with wedding ceremony. Later, along with changes in the functions of singing, those themes recede a great deal: typically, money is mentioned only in songs about drinking and feasting.

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