Estonian Language
It is important to note with regard to language protection and its legal regulation, including the provision of language-related information, that the preparation of the new version of the Language Act was launched in 2008. This version will focus mainly on ensuring the quality of the Estonian language, instead of the issue language use.
After a years worth of preparations, the national programme Value Development in the Estonian Society (2009–2013) was completed at the beginning of 2009. One of the aims of the programme is to support the development of values beneficial to the Estonian language in the society and the country.
In order to increase public appreciation of the Estonian language, the Ministry presents the Wiedemanni Language Award and the Language Deed of the Year Award. For the same purpose, the Ministry established a badge for the winners of the Wiedemanni Language Award, held an international conference Emakeelne Eesti, emakeelne Euroopa and distributed its collected presentations to all upper secondary schools. The student competition Keelevägi was prepared in the autumn of 2008 and aired on ETV at the beginning of 2009 and Estonian language days are being held in schools in the peripheral regions of Estonia. Information on Estonian is being distributed through the childrens portal www.lastekas.ee and children are trained to communicate with the computer in Estonian.
Support is provided for the magazines Oma Keel and Hea Laps as well as the Keele Infoleht published as part of the newspaper Sirp on a quarterly basis. The Ministry also subsidizes the national language and literature competitions Kirjandusraal, Kuldsuud, etc. A 12-poster series on the Estonian language was prepared in cooperation with the Mother Tongue Society and the Estonian Literary Museum (in five languages), the French version of which was presented at the beginning of 2009 in Paris at the Expolangues fair.
he Ministry of Education and Research is cooperating with the Ministry of Culture within the scope of the national programmes South Estonian Language and Culture (2005–2009) and the Setomaa Cultural Programme (2007–2009) with the aim of ensuring that the regional variations of Estonian are studied and used. The monitoring document, Development Strategy of the Estonian Language (2004–2010) Implementation (2007–2008), was compiled by the end of 2008 and was presented and analyzed at the language forum in January 2009. The Ministry is also developing a partnership with the organizers of the Sten fairy tale competition.
In order to promote the organization and maintenance of Estonian as a written language, the provision of free language advice by phone (by the Institute of Estonian Language) will continue as part of everyday language organization and maintenance and there will be a language maintenance centre operating in Tartu. The latter organizes continuing education for the employees of state and local government agencies in the field of Estonian, publishes informational material on the Estonian language and gathers information regarding official and public language use. The national programme Supporting Estonian Terminology (2008 – 2012) was launched in 2008. It is aimed at supporting terminology committees and terminology studies at institutions of higher education, the creation of a unified dictionary environment as well as targeted terminology stipends and stand-alone terminology projects, including a project for the creation of an education terminology dictionary. A national terminology conference was held in Estonia in January 2009. During 2008, the online version of the Dictionary of Definitions of the Estonian Literary Standard was created and preparations were made for the free distribution of the dictionary in schools in September 2009.
Estonian language research, compilation of collections of language items, and creating language technological support for the Estonian language
The development of the abovementioned fields is primarily carried out in the course of the state programmes Estonian Language and National Memory (2004–2008), Collections of Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences (2004–2008), and Language Technological Support for the Estonian Language (2006–2010).
The state programme Estonian Language and Cultural Memory (2009–2013) has been implemented since 2009.