Loetavus

Loetavus is a measure of how easily a text can be read and understood by its intended audience. In linguistics and education, loetavus combines factors such as sentence length, word difficulty, typography, and layout to estimate how accessible a text is to readers.

In practice, loetavus is quantified using readability formulas. Internationally known formulas include the Flesch Reading Ease, which uses sentence length and syllable counts, and its related Flesch-Kincaid grade level; the SMOG index; the Gunning fog index; and the Dale-Chall formula. When applied to Estonian or other languages, these methods are often adapted to reflect language-specific features such as morphology, compounding, and typical word lengths.

Loetavuse assessment is used in education to select suitable materials for students, in publishing to match a text to a target reading level, and in web content creation to improve accessibility. It also informs typography and layout decisions, since font choice, line length, and headings can influence readability beyond what formulas capture.

Limitations and criticisms: readability formulas mainly capture surface features and do not measure actual comprehension, interest, or prior knowledge. They may be less reliable for specialized or creative texts, and cross-language comparisons can be problematic. For Estonian, as for other languages with rich morphology, formulas may require language-aware adjustments to yield meaningful results.

See also: Readability, Flesch Reading Ease, SMOG, Gunning Fog, Dale-Chall, Estonian language studies, accessible design.