The most famous reformer of Estonian, Johannes Aavik (1880–1973), used creations ex nihilo (cf. ‘free constructions’, Tauli 1977), along with other sources of lexical enrichment such as derivations, compositions and loanwords (often from Finnish; cf. Saareste and Raun 1965: 76). In Aavik’s dictionary (1921), which lists approximately 4000 words, there are many words which were (allegedly) created ex nihilo, many of which are in common use today. Examples are COUNT 5
QSN1 Of all of Estonian's language reformers who is the most well known? ANS1 Johannes Aavik QSN2 What was the period of time in which Johannes Aavik was alive? ANS2 1880–1973 QSN3 What is the technique Aavic used to create Estonian words out of nothing? ANS3 creations ex nihilo QSN4 In what publication can examples of ex nihilo words be found? ANS4 Aavik’s dictionary QSN5 How many words did Aavik put in his dictionary? ANS5 approximately 4000