Otto Wilhelm Masing was an early Livonian Estophile and a major advocate of peasant rights, especially regarding education.

In 1795, Masing compiled and published a children's reading textbook, the ABD. (The letter 'C' does not appear in Estonian words, and back then, was not considered a member of Estonian alphabet

Estonian alphabet

The Estonian alphabet is used for writing the Estonian language and is based on the Latin alphabet, with German influence. As such, the Estonian alphabet has the letters Ä, Ö, and Ü , which represent the vowel sounds , and , respectively...

. This considered, the title could be translated as "ABC.")

In 1821–1823, Masing published a newsletter Marahva Näddala-Leht (Estonian

Estonian language

Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...

 for Peasant's Weekly), one of the earliest regular publications in Estonian language

Estonian language

Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...

.

Among other linguistic contributions, Masing is credited with creating the letter 'õ

Õ

"Õ", or "õ" is a composition of the Latin letter O with the diacritic mark tilde.The HTML entity is Õ for Õ and õ for õ.-Estonian:...

' to denote an Estonian phoneme not found in other nearby languages.

External links

• Estonica: 1710–1850. The Baltic Landesstaat. Emergence of national consciousness and Estophilia