The Northeastern coastal dialect (Estonian: kirderannikumurre) is a dialect (or dialect group) of the Estonian language. The coastal dialects of the Estonian language were spoken on the coastal strip of Estonia from Tallinn to river Narva. It has very few speakers left nowadays.
Treating the Northeastern coastal dialect as a single unit dates back to Arnold Kask's classification of Estonian dialects from the year 1956). According to some authors, the coastal dialects form one of the three major dialect groups of Estonian (the other two being the North Estonian dialect group and the South Estonian dialect group).
Features
The characteristics of the dialect group are mostly shared with the Northern group of the Finnic languages.
In contrast to , where -de- plural and -si- preterite are usual, the coastal dialects have -i- plural and -i- preterite. According to some authors, the 'Finnish-like' features of the coastal Estonian dialects are archaisms, rather than Finnish or Ingrian influence.
The Northeastern coastal dialect of Estonian is nowadays alternatively split into two dialects: Coastal dialect and Alutaguse dialect, the former being more closely related with Southern Finnish dialects (note the non-presence of õ [ɤ]), Izhor and Votic languages, whereas the latter has also been influenced by the central dialect of the Northern Estonian dialects.