emakeele

Emakeele is the Estonian term for a person’s mother tongue or native language. It refers to the language a person grows up speaking and uses most fluently, and it is a central concept in Estonian linguistics, education, and policy. The word is formed from ema, meaning mother, and keel, meaning language.

In educational contexts, emakeeleõpetus denotes the subject that teaches the language and its literature. It typically includes instruction in grammar, spelling, vocabulary, and style, and it is a core component of the Estonian-language school curriculum.

In sociolinguistic and policy discussions, emakeele is used to describe linguistic identity and to distinguish the native language from second or foreign languages. Official data and language-rights debates often refer to a person’s emakeele for purposes of census, education rights, and cultural policy.

The concept also intersects with debates on language maintenance in multilingual societies and the role of Estonian as the state language. See also Estonian language, language policy, and mother tongue.