Lõunaeesti keele tagasitulek proosasse
Return of the South Estonian language into literary prose

Summary/Abstract: Although the turn of the 20th century marked a retreat of the South Estonian literary language, also called Tartu language, from the printed word, the period brought some new ways to use dialects in fiction. The most prominent users of South Estonian dialects in the prose of the time were August Kitzberg, Jaan Lattik, Ernst Enno and Hermann Julius Schmalz, which makes the four authors responsible for bringing South Estonian back to literature. Kitzberg, who was the first of the four to start his literary career, offers various solutions. Nevertheless, his oeuvre demonstrates all those techniques regarded as typical of the literary use of dialects. The Mulgi dialect as used by Kitzberg mainly occurs in direct speech, providing cues of social status, education and background, often serving as a comic device. However, Kitzberg can as well be found using dialect speech in a serious text, without an emphasis on differences in social status. With Lattik, dialect use serves a mild comical effect, being avoided in more serious narratives. Võru dialect usually occurs in his memoir-based prose as direct speech uttered by persons of a lower social status or by uneducated people (often children). Enno also wrote sketches largely based on personal experience, using dialect in direct speech, but his use of the dialect is more natural than that of the rest. Enno has considered Tartu dialect eligible for serious texts as well, while the language of his characters is individualised. Here, too, there is some consideration of social status and education, but these were also ref lected in normal communicative situations of the early 20th century. As for the prose by Schmalz it contains dialect speech all the way through, both in direct and reported speech, which is not really typical of the period in question. What is typical, though, is his attempt to add comedy to his stories (standing out for their first intent of being funny) by using Setu dialect. The dialect use of the above four authors was groundbreaking for the time. The 20th century favoured Lattik’ approach, especially concerning the use of dialects in direct speech. Completely South Estonian texts did not start appearing again until the late 20th century. However, the stories by Kitzberg and Enno remain an early evidence of the diversity of literary options for dialect speech.

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