Historically, there have been two strands and literary versions of the Estonian language: North Estonian and South Estonian. Modern Standard Estonian is largely based on North Estonian, specifically the variety spoken in the area of Tallinn, while the different varieties of South Estonian are currently experiencing a rise in popularity. While dialects once had a bad reputation in Estonia, there is a mounting interest (especially among young people) in regional varieties and customs. Under Soviet rule (1949 – 1991), Russian had been the official language in Estonia and Estonian cultural heritage was prohibited. The so-called Singing Revolution of 1988 included the public singing of Estonian songs, which ultimately led to Estonia’s independence in 1991. Estonia regularly conducts national language censuses, with the last one taking place in 2021. In this census, 223 950 people reported that they speak Estonian as a foreign language, while 895 493 reported to speak it as their mother tongue, bringing the total speaker number up to 1 119 443. Estonia is an exception when it comes to official data on sign language users – the last census specifically included an option for “Sign Language Speakers”, which 1 464 people selected. For Estonian Sign Language in particular, 444 native speakers and 480 L2 speakers were recorded. Among the local languages not established by the chosen sources so far is Seto – a language that was at the focus of the RISE UP Project. It is a South Estonian variety related to Võro, Mulgi, and Tartu; more research on Seto can be found in the links below.