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		VOCABULARY DATABASE > ESTONIAN > INFORMATION
						Estonian is a Finnic language spoken by about one million people in Estonia, which represents two thirds of its total population. Early literature in Estonian dates back to the 13th c. and was strongly influenced by German. The most important genre of this literature is lyric poetry. During the 19th c., it flourished under the influence of European movements, and it declined after World War II. A remarkable trait of Estonian in comparison to other Finnic languages is that the vowel harmony phenomenon does not exist, and that it developed a syllable-accent system instead. In addition, it features consonant gradation, in which consonants alternate in certain contexts. Estonian borrowed many words from German.
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