However, even acknowledging the value of AI as a tool for some, there remain resources that have not made an adequate impression on the internet and that no writer, translator, or person interested in the Estonian language should be without. For any Google search is only as good as the data that has been inputted. GIGO: garbage in, garbage out. Search algorithms play a huge role. As do referential sequencing and assumptions. These are certainly not encountered with an old-fashioned printed dictionary or encyclopedia.
Vincent Teetsov’s recent—and may I say exceptional—article about the well of knowledge that is Paul Saagpakk’s Estonian-English Dictionary (EE no. 41, October 16th, 2026) underlined the fact that a quality dictionary is an invaluable resource. Reference works, by definition, need to be indisputable and set the standard. Alas, few of us look up words in our Funk & Wagnalls (the Canadian edition should be on every serious writer’s and reader’s shelf) or the venerable OED. The Oxford English Dictionary is rightfully considered the definitive record of a very difficult language, to my mind irreplaceable.
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