Sõnastajad

Sõnastajad are lexicographers who compile dictionaries and other reference works. They document a language’s vocabulary, recording meanings, grammatical information, etymology, pronunciation and usage. Their work can concern monolingual dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, learner's dictionaries, and specialized term dictionaries.

In the workflow, they select lemmas (the headwords) and distinguish senses, create clear definitions, provide grammatical information, note pronunciation, and include etymological notes and example sentences. They verify entries against language corpora, literature and native-speaker consultation. They establish editorial conventions, harmonize spellings, mark regional variants, and decide on sense segmentation. The process involves drafting, peer review, editing and updating entries as language use evolves. Sõnastajad often collaborate with editors, translators and proofreaders, and may work for publishing houses, language institutes or universities.

Output types: monolingual dictionaries describe the language for native speakers; bilingual dictionaries translate between Estonian and other languages; learner's dictionaries explain usage for learners; specialized dictionaries cover domains like science, law or technology. In recent decades, digital dictionaries have become dominant. Sõnastajad use corpus tools, sense-tagging, data management, and user feedback to maintain up-to-date content and to improve searchability and usability, including audio pronunciations and cross-references.

The profession supports education, standardization and communication, and requires training in linguistics, research, and careful editing, with an emphasis on objectivity and documentation.

See also: Lexicography, Dictionary.