The Accentual Structure of Estonian Syllabic-Accentual Iambic Tetrameter

This paper is part of a project aimed to analyse the rhythm of Estonian binary verse metres. It is the first complex analysis of Estonian syllabic-accentual iamb. The analysis is comprised of poetry by 20 prominent authors from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, and, all in all, more than 9000 verse lines. In order to find out which regularities are specific to poetry in general or to a particular poet, these data were compared with pseudoiambic segments extracted from prose. Differently from the earlier studies, stress is treated as a phenomenon of gradation, with altogether five different degrees of stress distinguished. The performed study showed that the rhythmical structure of iambic poems allows the clear distinction between two groups of poets, whom we conditionally call Traditionalists and Modernists

Lost and found in translation: the case of alliteration

The paper examines the transmission of alliteration in Estonian and Russian translated verse. The main focus is on the translation of alliterative epic, on the one hand, and more recent literary alliteration, on the other hand. Various alliterative techniques in different genres are observed, as well as various strategies in conveying alliteration: rejection of alliteration, transmission of alliteration, compensatory translation, for example, with functional equivalent and eventually, saturation with alliteration, to signal alliteration in a tradition without corresponding framework

Sonnet as Closed Form and Open Process

The article attempts to highlight two aspects of the sonnet’s semiotic mechanisms from which the dynamics and openness of this form emerge. Firstly, in the production of meaning from the synchronic aspect and secondly, diachronically viewing the sonnet as a process that has a tendency towards the constant opening of this canonical form. So the boundaries of the sonnet are not only closing the form but also lead every single sonnet towards opening. The paper aims to indicate through the history of the sonnet and some exemplary cases the essential characteristics of this canonical form of poetry, suggesting that inner openness and flexibility is in the very core of the sonnet. It is suggested that experimenting with the form is very essential to the sonnet; stretching the limits of the sonnet helps to mark its boundaries and at the same time these dynamics stand for its longevity. This is the reason why the sonnet has remained a challenge over centuries in so many cultures

The patterns of the Estonian sonnet: periodization, incidence, meter and rhyme

The first sonnets in Estonian language were published almost 650 years after this verse form was invented by Federico da Lentini in Sicily, in the late of 19th century. Sonnet form became instantly very popular in Estonia and has since remained the most important fixed form in Estonian poetry. Despite its widespread presence over time the last comprehensive research on Estonian sonnet was written in 1938.This article has a twofold aim. First, it will give an overview of the incidence of Estonian sonnets from its emergence in 1881 until 2015. The data will be studied from the diachronic perspective; in calculating the popularity of the sonnet form in Estonian poetry through the years, the number of the sonnets published each year has been considered in relation to the amount of published poetry books. The second aim is to outline through the statistical analyses Estonian sonnets formal patterns: rhyme schemes and meter. The sonnet’s original meter, hendecasyllable, is tradionally translated into Estonian as iambic pentameter. However, over the time various meters from various verse systems (accentual, syllabic, syllabic-accentual, free verse) have been used. The data of various meters used in Estonian sonnets will also be examined on the diachronic axis. I have divided the history of Estonian sonnets into eight parts: the division is not based only on time, but also space: post Second World War Estonian sonnet (as the whole culture) was divided into two, Estonian sonnet abroad, i. e in the free world, and sonnet in Soviet Estonia.The material for this study includes all the published sonnets in Estonian language, i.e almost 4400 texts