The subtitle of this pere/film or family movie is “No guts. No glory.” In Estonia, they went the alliteration route: pähkel põske ja punuma = stick a nut in your cheek and go. Punuma means to weave, like patsi punuma – to braid hair, essentially weaving. But punuma is also slang for running fast (like liduma, plagama, jalga laskma, põgenema – that last one means to escape. Jänes pistis punuma – the rabbit took off.
It’s no secret that one great way of learning a new language or improving it, is to walk in step with little learners. Childrens’ books, movies and songs serve as fun and useful tools of language acquisition for everyone. If you want to read more about Päras pähkel and the Estonian actors giving the elukad (creatures) their Estonian voices and text, go to www.forumcinemas.ee
And a word of advice from the oravad (squirrels), vööt/oravad (chipmunks) and other närilised (rodents), from the word närima = to chew, the advice being – try to buy your nuts in the shell (koorega), since you never know how long ago they were kooritud (shelled) and many nuts, especially parapähklid or Brazil nuts, due to their particularly high fat content, can soon become rancid. Estonian squirrels call that rääsuma; rääsunud pähklid.
Riina Kindlam, Tallinn
