Etteütlemise

Etteütlemise is a linguistic and educational term used in Estonian to describe the act of spelling a word aloud by naming its letters. It is a form of orthographic practice that hinges on the correspondence between phonemes (sounds) and graphemes (letters) within the Estonian alphabet, which includes diacritic letters such as ä, ö, ü, and õ.

In practice, et­teütlemine appears in two common forms. One is a listening-based exercise in which a teacher or audio source provides a word or sentence and the learner writes it down, testing listening, memory, and spelling accuracy. The other is a live spelling exercise, where a participant spells a given word aloud by enumerating its letters, often with feedback on correct letter order and pronunciation. Both forms aim to develop literacy skills, accuracy in spelling, and familiarity with word formation.

Etteütlemine is a standard component of early literacy education in Estonia and is used in various assessments to gauge spelling ability and orthographic knowledge. It reinforces phoneme–grapheme correspondences, attention to detail, and the ability to apply standard orthographic rules to unfamiliar words, including loanwords and proper nouns. Challenges can arise from irregular spellings, dialectal pronunciation, or the incorporation of borrowed terms, which educators address through targeted instruction and practice.