Eduard Ahrens (3 April 1803, Tallinn (Reval) – 19 February 1863, Kuusalu, Estonia) was a Baltic German Estonian language linguist and clergyman.
Ahrens studied at Tallinn Cathedral School from 1811 to 1819, and, from 1820 to 1823, at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Tartu. After graduating from university, he could not hold a pastor's office because he was too young (the pastors were to be at least 25 years old), so in 1824 he went to Pikavere manor, where he worked for about 8 years. In 1831, Ahrens revised the pro ministerio exam at the Estonian Consistory. In 1832, he went to study in Germany and also visited France. On returning to Estonia, he again returned to home-schooling at Vana-Vigala (with the Sievers family). Ahrens held sermons in the Vigala church in Estonian.
Ahrens was called in 1837 to be the teacher of the Laurentius congregation in Kuusalu. He was ordained a pastor on 12 September 1837. In March 1860, he was a part of the East Harju congregation.[1][2]
In 1843, he modified the grammar of the Estonian language in the Grammatik der Ehstnischen Sprache Revalschen Dialektes (Grammar of the Estonian language in Tallinn, 2, revised edition 1853). Because of this work, he is considered to be the creator of modern Estonian orthography. The reason for his writing reforms was the desire to make reading the liturgical texts of the church easier.
Ahrens noticed a widening gap between the popular language and the church language as a church teacher. At the beginning of the 19th century, most of the church teachers were Germans and, on the Bible, supported German and Latin grammar. Ahrens wanted to make the church more popular.
In 1853, a second edition of his grammar book was published, with sentence instruction. Ahrens proposed to switch from the old writing system to a Finnish orthography that was better suited to pronunciation in Estonian, dubbed the Newer Orthography. His recommended new writing began to spread in the 1860s.
Ahrens was a devout religious figure in social life, and the secular literature published in Estonia remained alien to him. The main purpose of Ahrens's linguistic activity was to study and improve Estonian liturgical language.