892 The earliest days of Estonian lexicography Madis Jürviste Keywords: historical lexicography, 17th century dictionaries, beginnings of Estonian lexicography. Abstract The first Estonian dictionaries were compiled by German pastors in the 17 th century, at a time when bilingual lexicography was already rather widely spread in Western Europe. Why were these dictionaries compiled and for whom? What are the main characteristics of these dictionaries? In the article, an overview is given of the aspects relevant to historical lexicography of three authors: Heinrich Stahl and his Anführung zu der Esthnischen Sprach (1637), Johannes Gutslaff’s Observationes grammaticae circa linguam esthonicam (1648), as well as Heinrich Göseken’s Manuductio ad Linguam Oesthonicam (1660). These bilingual German-Estonian dictionaries were not independent works, but were published as appendixes of German- and Latin-based grammars for Estonian. Their authors were native speakers of German, outstanding members of the local clergy, and at the same time the first Estonian lexicographers. Regardless of the limited number of entries and several inconsistencies in presenting the information about target language equivalents, in addition to evident mistakes in the choice of certain equivalents, the importance of these works should not be underestimated: not only were these grammars and dictionaries the first such publications in the region, but they also helped to fix the orthographic standards of written Estonian. Even if the fact that current Estonian language has extensive German influences both in vocabulary and syntax is most probably not due to a direct impact of these grammars and dictionaries, these three works were influential in their own time (partially due to the importance of their authors in the local church hierarchy) and had a role in the development of the Estonian language. 1. Introduction By the time the first dictionaries were published in Estonia, bilingual lexicography had a widely spread tradition in Western Europe. In spite of the rather limited size of these dictionaries, they provide a good illustration of the situation in the lexicographical landscape in these distant times, more than three and a half centuries ago. Being part of a larger context related to the spreading of Christian faith and especially Lutheranism, these works were intended to serve their authors, German pastors, as a better tool in their work as leaders of local parishes. In the following, the author aims to give an overview of the birth of Estonian lexicography in the 17 th century, focussing on the works of Heinrich Stahl, Johannes Gutslaff and Heinrich Göseken. 2. Historical background In the beginning of the 17 th century, Estonian territory was locally governed by Germans, even as the country was divided between Sweden (Northern Estonia), Poland (Southern Estonia) and Denmark (Saaremaa, the biggest island in Western Estonia). In the second half of the century, Lutheran Sweden gained power over all the Estonian territory. Despite the higher governments that changed over the course of time, the local Germans’ culture had a predominant influence in Estonia from the 13 th until the 20 th century. Linguistically, the country had two main dialects, each with its own writing tradition being developed: Northern Estonian and Southern Estonian. Later, in the end of the 19 th century, the former became the basis of standard Estonian. 1 / 5 1 / 5