The kindergarten, located in Värska, Võru County, is being set up on the initiative of parents, and the venture is now seeking a Seto-speaking teacher.

The local language, even in Setomaa itself – located in the farthest southeast corner of Estonia, with Seto communities also to be found on the other side of the border with the Russian Federation – is, while widely-spoken, not always taught to children, a task some parents feel too challenging for them, AK reported.

Local parent Meel Valk told AK (in standard Estonian) that: "At the beginning of winter, we mothers met up and came up with the idea that, while we live in such a rich cultural and linguistic environment, this hasn't been percolating through to our children."

Valk noted that since she could not speak Seto herself: "Kindergarten is a place where a child spends a lot of time, and we have good language speakers and cultural experts in Setomaa. If we brought these [language teachers] to kindergarten, our children would have the opportunity to grow up in this cultural environment."

"With this group, we would really be making history. It has never been possible to study in a Seto language educational institution before," she added.

Seto (in Estonian, Setu) has around 12,000 native speakers and is related to Estonian and even more closely to Võro language, spoken in a the region immediately to the west and north of Setomaa – the two languages are sometimes identified as dialects of the South Estonian dialect also.

The original AK segment (in Estonian), including a vox pop of Värska children's pre-existing Seto language knowledge, is here.

-- 

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!