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Jahimehe (Jahimees)
Hunter, huntsman, gunner. Job-center street-name group. Jaht comes from the MLG jacht, chase or hunt, which was also a short form of jachtschip or fast pirate ship, lit. a ship for chasing, hunting, upon which hangs the following cautionary tale: A father and son were walking along a beach: “Oh look at that beautiful boat”, says sonny Jim. “That’s not a boat”, replies Dad, “it’s a yacht”. “Oh, how do you spell that?” Father clears throat: “Y, A, erm... Y, er, um... You know, Son, I think you’re right, it is a boat”. One of an occupational street-name group. See Jäägri.
Jahu (Jahu)
Flour, meal. After the military flour stores. Interesting anagram: mixed with yeast and water, it goes into an Ahju.
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.
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.
