Some questions about Estonian

[Ambrisio]

I am learning Estonian and I have some questions:

1) Is the Estonian word "just" used in the same way as its English homophone? That is, does it make sense to say something like "See tundub just nagu õunakook" for "This feels just like apple cake"? Or would you rather say "See tundub täpselt nagu õunakook"?

2) If I wanted to say "four more years", would it be "neli aastat enam", "neli enam aastat", or "enam neli aastat"?

[Drydic]

are you entirely sure it's a homophone

that seems unlikely to me

[Click]

are you entirely sure it's a homophone

that seems unlikely to me

I think Ambrisio meant homograph.

[Ambrisio]

Sorry for the typo.

[Noriega]

1) Is the Estonian word "just" used in the same way as its English homophone? That is, does it make sense to say something like "See tundub just nagu õunakook" for "This feels just like apple cake"? Or would you rather say "See tundub täpselt nagu õunakook"?

Let's put them to a very crude Google fight:
"just nagu" site:.ee - 332,000 hits
"täpselt nagu" site:.ee - 276,000

"tundub täpselt nagu" site:.ee - 10,200
"tundub just nagu" site:.ee - 1,320

Without checking contexts etc. it may be easy to be misled, but it seems that you can use just like English 'just' in comparisons.

2) If I wanted to say "four more years", would it be "neli aastat enam", "neli enam aastat", or "enam neli aastat"?

Here, the Google fight was quite unfruitful, so I did some searches with phrases in Swedish (my native language) and Estonian. I found the program of a film festival, in which one movie was called "Veel neli aastat", with a Swedish title corresponding to English "four more years". I entered "veel neli aastat" into Google, and got tons of hits related to the U.S. election! When I search for "veel üks aasta", "veel kaks aastat" etc. I also get a lot of hits.

(You could also just search for an English phrase within citation marks, and the basic Estonian words without. The search neli aasta "four more years" also brings you the election-night hits. Given aasta without citation marks, Google also finds aastat.)

All in all it's pretty crude, but you often get a hint, from which you can proceed. The most effective strategy is probably to get a grammar book and a dictionary, but, provided that the language has a big online presence, it's also fun to try and figure it out for yourself

[Astraios]

Does anyone know a resource which actually marks in IPA or similar all the pronunciation of Estonian?

[Ambrisio]

There is always http://www.omniglot.com/writing/estonian.htm, but I would warn you that some details are not entirely accurate:

1) Single "a" is /ɒ/ and single "e" is open-mid /ɛ/, while double "ee" is more like /e̞:/. Double "aa" may be unrounded, but it is never fronted to /a:/.
2) "b", "d", "g" are voiceless lenis /p/, /t/ and /k/ while "p", "t" and "k" are semi-lengthened and fortis: /pˑ/, /tˑ/, and /kˑ/. (Note however that "b", "d" and "g" are voiced between vowels in rapid speech.)
3) "ng" and "nk" have engmas (i.e. /ŋk/, /ŋkˑ/).

There may be dialect/accent differences, however.

[Astraios]

I mean words.