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Wiedemanni F.J.
(Ferdinand Johann Wiedemann, 1805-1887)
Linguist of Swedish-German descent, the first to describe Estonian’s peculiar opposition of three phonological quantities (for more details, ask a native, they probably won’t be able to explain either); compiler of various dictionaries (e.g. Ehstnisch-deutsches Wörterbuch (1869), Estonian-German dictionary) and grammars of northern coastal Estonian, Võru, Livonian, Syjranisch (aka Siranian, Sirenian, Sirjenic, Syrjenic also written Zirianian, a perhaps now extinct Finnish dialect of the Vologda Oblast, Russia)... Street (in Kadriorg) known until 1923 as Lutheri under various guises (Lutri, Lutre, Luteri, Lutherstraße and Лютерская ул.) after Alexander Martin Luther, mayor of Tallinn (1848-1864) and founder of the Lutheri Vabrik on Lutheri (see this for more details) in Veerenni, Johannes Aavik lived for a while at No.6, see Aaviku.
Wismari (Wismar):
Named after the city wall’s former Wismar Ravelin, itself after the Baltic Sea port in Germany dating back to pre 12th C, one of the earliest towns of the Hanseatic League. City used as setting for the 1922 Dracula film Nosferatu. Renamed (1950-1987/9) as Mitšurini I. during the Soviet occupation.
Võtme (Võti)
Key. Next to Luku. Street created in 2013, ominously, on October 2nd, beside the street ‘serving’ Magasini (see Introduction). Its name, and that of its immediate neighbor, were clearly chosen for its soon-to-be other former neighbor, the local nick. Built as a prisoner-of-war camp in 1944 and converted to a prison in the 1990s, renamed Parandusliku Töö Koloonia nr 5, or Correctional Work Colony No.5, the prison closed in 2018 when more modern facilites were built in Soodevahe about 10 km east of Tallinn. For further details, see Suur-Patarei. Following a period owned by the Estonian Defense Forces, the plot was sold and will be demolished and redeveloped.
Võrsiku (Võrsik)
Offshoot, scion, term tending to be used in association with grafting. According to the Eesti Entsüklopeedia: “a branch or shoot which has developed roots before being isolated from the mother plant; mainly a means of vegetative propagation of shrubs”. Hope that helps…
