Names
Jakobsoni C.R.
(Carl Robert Jakobson, 1841-1882)
Writer, teacher and member of a group of successful Estonians known as ‘the Petersburg patriots’ who used their influence to better their compatriots’ lot. One of the important persons in Estonian national awakening. Depicted on the 500-krooni banknote where, interestingly, his beard improved with each printing (for information on Estonian currency, see Krooni). As a journalist, he contributed to Postimees but Jannsen disliked his anti-German, anti-clerical stance (the censor called him ‘the Robespierre of the Baltic’) and when Jakobson published his own newspaper in 1878, Sakala, a ‘War of Pens’ ensued. Jakobson’s funeral triggered a great demonstration of national feeling, despite dreadful weather and poor roads, more than 3500 people came to mourn their lost leader. Rumors spread that ‘Robespierre’ had been poisoned: a German doctor was accused but no guilt established. Prior to 1923, street known as Владимірская (Vladimirskaya) / Vladimiri in honor of an 1886 visit to Tallinn by Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia, uncle of Tsar Nicholas II, replacing the previous, 19th-C names of Слободская (Slobodskaya), Slobodi then the newer versions Uus-Slobodi or Neue Sloboden after the settlement initiated by Peter I and recorded as Uus Slobodaa (see Tobiase R.).
Jalaka (Jalakas)
Elm. Harilik jalakas, wych elm or scots elm, Ulmus glabra. Estonian etymology obscure, said to have Baltic-Finnish roots. While it’s uncertain that its Lith. and Latv. counterparts kalninė guoba (mountain elm) and parastā goba (common elm) share an unexplained guoba/goba root with Finn. vuorijalava (mountain elm) or even Polish wiąz górski (wych elm), the wych/wiąz duo, along with Est./Finn. jalakas/jalava converge on a different interpretation: wiąz means to tie or bind, to connect objects with rope, etc. (Polish peasantry seems to have used strips of elm bark for bundling), and wych derives from PIE *weig, ‘to bend or wind’, which also gives us ‘withy’ which, as all preppers and survivalists know, is another useful makeshift ‘cord’. Jalg:Jala, I hope, is clear by now. Est. pastlad are primitive shoes made from scraps of leather wrapped up around the feet and held in place by cord or laces, and other footwear such as viisud may be made from woven willow, linden, birch or even juniper bark but not, apparently, elm.
Jalgpalli (Jalgpall)
Despite a gentleman’s natural repugnance for the activity, one must include it: football. Historically (1958-1992), more of a footpath connecting Mäekalda and Vesivärava and running past the old ‘Dünamo’, now Kadrioru, stadium. No relation to the one once at Filmi. In 2019, the streetname was re-used to replace the western half of Kauba, and runs (or dribbles) alongside the Le Coq A. stadium and other pitches.
Jannseni J.V.
(Johann Voldemar Jannsen, 1819-1890)
Known affectionately as ‘Papa Jannsen’. First professional Estonian journalist and father of Lydia Koidula, he published the first Estonian-language newspaper, Perno Postimees ehk Näddalileht (Pärnu postman or weekly broadsheet, later plain old Postimees) in 1857, not an easy task with a watchful censor looking out signs of nationalism. But his simple, idiomatic style and motto of ‘For Czar and Christendom’ may have lulled the authorities. In 1865, the Jannsen family started the Vanemuine music society with male-only choirs (he considered mixing choirs immoral and ‘extremely dangerous’ which, judging by the Bee Gees, is a fair point), naming it after the bewhiskered Finnish god/hero Väinämöinen. Later, they organised the first All-Estonian Song Festival in Tartu, June 18-20 1869, where he presented ‘his’ song, Mu isamaa, mu õnn ja rõõm (My native land, my joy and delight, not to be confused with Mu Isamaa on Minu Arm, see Koidula, also presented that year), subsequently adopted as national anthem in 1920, and banned by the Soviets from 1945 to 1990.
Järve (Järv) 
Lake. The one in question being Ülemiste. Relationships unclear. Most FU languages have very similar cognates for lake: Finnish järvi, Livonian jōra, Sami jávri, etc., but järv could well be an early loan from Proto-Baltic *jaur-, a root involving liquids such as Lithuanian jauris (swamp) and jūra (sea), cognates with Albanian hurdë (pond), and Armenian ջուր (ǰur, water), and even English urine, itself cognate with Latin urinare (to dive). Aren’t we lucky!
