ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Estonian exonyms

Okay, so let's start by explaining what "exonyms" mean. When we talk about places, we usually refer to them by their local name, right? For example, people who live in France call their country "France," but people who live in Germany call it "Frankreich." These are two different names for the same place, depending on who you ask.

Now, when we talk about a place in a different language, we might not use the local name. Instead, we might use a name that we're more familiar with in our own language. These are exonyms.

So, when we talk about Estonian exonyms, we're talking about the different names that people use for places in Estonia depending on their own language. For example, people in Finland might call the Estonian capital "Tallinna," while people in Sweden might call it "Reval." These are both exonyms for the same place, "Tallinn," which is the local name for the Estonian capital.

Exonyms can be really interesting because they tell us a lot about how different languages and cultures interact. They also remind us that there are lots of ways to talk about the same thing, and that's okay!