Võro Institute (, ) is an

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

n state research and development institution dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the

Võro language Võro ( ; , ) is a South Estonian language. It has its own literary standard and efforts have been undertaken to seek official recognition as an indigenous regional language of Estonia. Võro has roughly 75,000 speakers (Võros), mos ...

and culture.

History

Võro ( , ) is a language belonging to the Finnic branch of the

Uralic languages The Uralic languages ( ), sometimes called the Uralian languages ( ), are spoken predominantly in Europe and North Asia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian. Other languages with speakers ab ...

. Traditionally, it has been considered a dialect of the South Estonian dialect group of the

Estonian language Estonian ( ) is a Finnic language and the official language of Estonia. It is written in the Latin script and is the first language of the majority of the country's population; it is also an official language of the European Union. Estonian is sp ...

, but nowadays it has its own literary language and is in search of official recognition as an autochthonous

regional language * A regional language is a language spoken in a region of a sovereign state, whether it be a small area, a federated state or province or some wider area. Internationally, for the purposes of the European Charter for Regional or Minority La ...

of Estonia. Võro has roughly 75,000 speakers (

Võros Võros ( Võro: ''võrokõsõq,'' pronounced , , ) are the indigenous inhabitants of historical Võromaa (''Vana Võromaa''), a region in Southeastern Estonia (Võru and Põlva Counties with parts extending into Valga and Tartu Counties). Th ...

) mostly in southeastern Estonia, in the eight parishes of the historical

Võru County Võru County ( or ''Võrumaa''; ) is a county in southern Estonia. It is bordered by Valga and Põlva counties, Latvia's Alūksne and Ape municipalities, and Russia's Pskov Oblast (making it the only Estonian county to border two countries) ...

( Karula, Harglõ, Urvastõ, Rõugõ, Kanepi, Põlva, Räpinä, Vahtsõliina) and the rest of Estonia. The institute was founded by the Estonian government in 1995 and is located in the Southern Estonian town of

Võru Võru (; ; ) is a town and a municipality in south-eastern Estonia. It is the capital of Võru County and the centre of Võru Parish. History Võru was founded on 21 August 1784, at the request of the Empress Catherine II of Russia, by the o ...

. The directors of the institute have been Enn Kasak, Kaido Kama and Külli Eichenbaum. The present director of the institute is Rainer Kuuba. Researchers at the institute include the toponymist Evar Saar and the lexicographer Sulev Iva.

Activities

The institute is engaged in a wide range of activities to meet the challenges facing lesser-spoken languages, including establishing school programs, conducting linguistic and regional research, preserving place-names and their corresponding stories (mostly by Evar Saar), publishing Võro-language scholarship and school textbooks, and organizing annual language conferences. The aim of these activities is to encourage the Võro people to speak their own language and to preserve their characteristic life-style.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Voro Institute Võro South Estonian language Research institutes in Estonia Linguistic research institutes Language advocacy organizations 1995 establishments in Estonia Võru