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Throughout Estonian history, the language ideologies prevailing in Europe have had great influence on Estonian language planning. Language planners, in turn, have influenced the views of Estonian society. In this paper we analyse how language ideologies have supported myths and beliefs throughout the history of cultivating Standard Estonian. The privileged status of Standard Estonian (compared to local dialects) strengthened considerably from the early 20th century. Although Estonian language planning became more tolerant and democratic since the 1980s, a totalitarian understanding of the language still remains in the background. Using foreign words and the mixing of languages and registers is considered especially objectionable due to the ideology of a small nation, which has to defend itself and its language. In the 2020s, discussions about language change and the principles of language planning re-emerged. These have been interesting, because language planning wishes to make the “top-down” language norms of Standard Estonian closer to actual language use, while language maintenance experts still see any potential changes as a threat to the Estonian language and even the nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]