March 14 is Emakeelepäev / Mother Tongue Day. A day in which we celebrate our beautiful language and perhaps think about our favourite words.
You might have heard the joke "Estonian has no sex and no future", referring to the fact that there are no genders and no future tense in the Estonian language, but did you know that it doesn't have a longest word either?
Here's an Estonian palindrome - 'kuulilennuteetunneliluuk' it can be read from both ends and it looks exactly the same. The word means - 'the hatch a bullet flies out of when exiting a tunnel'. A long vowel only word is 'äiaõeoaaiaoaõieau', it translates as 'bean-flower honour in father-in-law's sisters' beangarden'.
Head Emakeelpäeva!
