Letter Õ

The people from Saaremaa have been a very peaceful, yet conservative nation through times. The visitors are always welcome, but they never are to impose their rules. This harmony with the mainland Estonia and other world lasted until the beginning of 19th century when a renowned linguist Otto-Triin-Wilhelm Masing invented the letter Õ. In the mainland it was quickly adopted, but the conventional islanders didn’t want to hear any of that. But Masing didn’t stop pushing and tried several times to row his boat to Saaremaa along with its followers named ABC-Book and Rooster to teach the new letter to the islanders. But the aborigines managed to make them retreat. When Masing couldn’t make it to Saaremaa by boat, he devised a cunning plan to reach his target on foot. So, the linguist built the dam on the Small Strait. When he made it to Saaremaa the loyal armies of the first County Governor Töll the Great were already expecting him and they drove him and his companions to the western part of the island to force them into the sea. For avoiding that, the followers of Masing built the island quickly bigger and retreated this way. Now this place is known as Sõrve peninsula (previously known as Sörve peninsula). There they had the final battle of Tehumardi, where both great men perished. Although many islanders refuse to say the letter Õ, Masing’s efforts were not fruitless. From that time all islanders have the eyebrows like other Estonians, which look like tilde (~). Before that, the aborigines used to have two dots like letter Ö instead of brows.