Finno-Ugric languages

Status

The validity of Finno-Ugric as a phylogenic grouping is currently disputed, with some linguists maintaining that the Finno-Permic languages are as distinct from the Ugric languages as they are from the Samoyedic languages spoken in Siberia, or even that none of the Finno-Ugric, Finno-Permic, or Ugric branches has been established. Received opinion is that the easternmost (and last discovered) Samoyed had separated first and the branching into Ugric and Finno-Permic took place later, but this reconstruction does not have strong support in the linguistic data.

Origins

Attempts at reconstructing a Proto-Finno-Ugric proto-language, a common ancestor of all Uralic languages except for the Samoyedic languages, are largely indistinguishable from Proto-Uralic, suggesting that Finno-Ugric might not be a historical grouping but a geographical one, with Samoyedic being distinct by lexical borrowing rather than actually being historically divergent. It has been proposed that the area in which Proto-Finno-Ugric was spoken reached between the Baltic Sea and the Ural Mountains.

Traditionally, the main set of evidence for the genetic proposal of Proto-Finno-Ugric has come from vocabulary. A large amount of vocabulary (e.g. the numerals "one", "three", "four" and "six"; the body-part terms "hand", "head") is only reconstructed up to the Proto-Finno-Ugric level, and only words with a Samoyedic equivalent have been reconstructed for Proto-Uralic. That methodology has been criticised, as no coherent explanation other than inheritance has been presented for the origin of most of the Finno-Ugric vocabulary (though a small number has been explained as old loanwords from Indo-Iranian languages or perhaps other Indo-European languages).

The Samoyedic group has undergone a longer period of independent development, and its divergent vocabulary could be caused by mechanisms of replacement such as language contact. (The Finno-Ugric group is usually dated to approximately 4,000 years ago, the Samoyedic a little over 2,000.) Proponents of the traditional binary division note, however, that the invocation of extensive contact influence on vocabulary is at odds with the grammatical conservatism of Samoyedic.

The consonant *š (voiceless postalveolar fricative, ) has not been conclusively shown to occur in the traditional Proto-Uralic lexicon, but it is attested in some of the Proto-Finno-Ugric material. Another feature attested in the Finno-Ugric vocabulary is that *i now behaves as a neutral vowel with respect to front-back vowel harmony, and thus there are roots such as *niwa- "to remove the hair from hides".

Regular sound changes proposed for this stage are few and remain open to interpretation. Sammallahti (1988) proposes five, following Janhunen's (1981) reconstruction of Proto-Finno-Permic:

• Compensatory lengthening: development of long vowels from the cluster of vowel plus a particular syllable-final element, of unknown quality, symbolized by *x
  • Long open *aa and *ää are then raised to mid *oo and *ee respectively.
    • E.g. *ńäxli- → *ńääli- → *ńeeli- "to swallow" (→ Finnish niele-, Hungarian nyel, etc.)
• Raising of short *o to *u in open syllables before a subsequent *i
• Shortening of long vowels in closed syllables and before a subsequent open vowel *a, *ä, predating the raising of *ää and *ee
  • E.g. *ńäxl+mä → *ńäälmä → *ńälmä "tongue" (→ Northern Sámi njalbmi, Hungarian nyelv, etc.) Sammallahti (1988) further reconstructs sound changes *oo, *ee → *a, *ä (merging with original *a, *ä) for the development from Proto-Finno-Ugric to Proto-Ugric. Similar sound laws are required for other languages as well. Thus, the origin and raising of long vowels may actually belong at a later stage, and the development of these words from Proto-Uralic to Proto-Ugric can be summarized as simple loss of *x (if it existed in the first place at all; vowel length only surfaces consistently in the Baltic-Finnic languages.

Janhunen (2007, 2009){{citation |access-date=5 May 2010 |archive-date=15 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015232718/http://www.sgr.fi/sust/sust253/sust253_janhunen.pdf |url-status=live |access-date=24 May 2012 |archive-date=18 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121118233454/http://www.sgr.fi/sust/sust258/sust258_janhunen.pdf |url-status=live

Structural features

Main article: Uralic languages#Typology

The Finno-Ugric group is not typologically distinct from Uralic as a whole: the most widespread structural features among the group all extend to the Samoyedic languages as well.

Common vocabulary

Loanwords

One argument in favor of the Finno-Ugric grouping has come from loanwords. Several loans from the Indo-Iranian languages are present in most or all of the Finno-Ugric branches, while being absent from Samoyedic. However, the majority of them have irregular sound correspondences and have a limited distribution, suggesting that they were borrowed after Uralic had already diversified into its nine branches.

Numbers

The number systems among the Finno-Ugric languages are particularly distinct from the Samoyedic languages: only the numerals "2", "5", and "7" have cognates in Samoyedic, while also the numerals, "1", "3", "4", "6", "10" are shared by all or most Finno-Ugric languages.

Below are the numbers 1 to 10 in several Finno-Ugric languages. Forms in italic do not descend from the reconstructed forms.

The number '2' descends in Ugric from a front-vocalic variant *kektä.

The numbers '9' and '8' in Finnic through Mari are considered to be derived from the numbers '1' and '2' as '10–1' and '10–2'. One reconstruction is *yk+teksa and *kak+teksa, respectively, where *teksa cf. deka is an Indo-European loan; the difference between /t/ and /d/ is not phonemic, unlike in Indo-European. Another analysis is *ykt-e-ksa, *kakt-e-ksa, with *e being the negative verb.

Finno-Ugric Swadesh lists

100-word Swadesh lists for certain Finno-Ugric languages can be compared and contrasted at the Rosetta Project website: Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, and Erzya.

{{anchor|People}}Speakers

The four largest ethnic groups that speak Finno-Ugric languages are the Hungarians (14.5 million), Finns (6.5 million), Estonians (1.1 million), and Mordvins (0.85 million). Majorities of three (the Hungarians, Finns, and Estonians) inhabit their respective nation states in Europe, i.e. Hungary, Finland, and Estonia, while a large minority of Mordvins inhabit the federal Mordovian Republic within Russia (Russian Federation).

The indigenous area of the Sámi people is known as Sápmi and it consists of the northern parts of the Fennoscandian Peninsula. Some other peoples that speak Finno-Ugric languages have been assigned formerly autonomous republics within Russia. These are the Karelians (Republic of Karelia), Komi (Komi Republic), Udmurts (Udmurt Republic), Moksha and Erzya (Republica of Mordovia) and Mari (Mari El Republic). The Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug was set up for the Khanty and Mansi of Russia. A once-autonomous Komi-Permyak Okrug was set up for a region of high Komi habitation outside the Komi Republic.

Some of the ethnicities speaking Finno-Ugric languages are:

• Baltic Finns
  • Estonians
  • Finns
  • Izhorians
  • Karelians
  • Livonians
  • Setos
  • Veps
  • Votes
  • Tornedalians
  • Kvens
• Volga Finns
  • Meryans †
  • Meshchyoras†
  • Muromians †
  • Mari
  • Mokshas
  • Erzyas
• Sámi
• Permians
  • Besermyan
  • Komi
  • Udmurts
• Hungarians
  • Székely
  • Csángó
  • Jász
  • Kun
  • Palóc
• Ugrians
  • Khanty
  • Mansi

International Finno-Ugric societies

In the Finno-Ugric countries of Finland, Estonia and Hungary that find themselves surrounded by speakers of unrelated tongues, language origins and language history have long been relevant to national identity. In 1992, the 1st World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples was organized in Syktyvkar in the Komi Republic in Russia, the 2nd World Congress in 1996 in Budapest in Hungary, the 3rd Congress in 2000 in Helsinki in Finland, the 4th Congress in 2004 in Tallinn in Estonia, the 5th Congress in 2008 in Khanty-Mansiysk in Russia, the 6th Congress in 2012 in Siófok in Hungary, the 7th Congress in 2016 in Lahti in Finland, and the 8th Congress in 2021 in Tartu in Estonia. The members of the Finno-Ugric Peoples' Consultative Committee include: the Erzyas, Estonians, Finns, Hungarians, Ingrian Finns, Ingrians, Karelians, Khants, Komis, Mansis, Maris, Mokshas, Nenetses, Permian Komis, Saamis, Tver Karelians, Udmurts, Vepsians; Observers: Livonians, Setos.

In 2007, the 1st Festival of the Finno-Ugric Peoples was hosted by President Vladimir Putin of Russia, and visited by Finnish President, Tarja Halonen, and Hungarian Prime Minister, Ferenc Gyurcsány.

The International Finno-Ugric Students' Conference (IFUSCO) is organised annually by students of Finno-Ugric languages to bring together people from all over the world who are interested in the languages and cultures. The first conference was held in 1984 in Göttingen in Germany. IFUSCO features presentations and workshops on topics such as linguistics, ethnography, history and more.

The International Congress for Finno-Ugric Studies is the largest scientific meeting of scientists studying the culture and languages of Finno-Ugric peoples, held every five years. The first congress was organized in 1960 in Budapest, the last congress took place in 2022 in Vienna, the next congress is planned to be held in Tartu, Estonia, in 2025.

Notes

References

References

1. Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 11th Edition. Retrieved 4 September 2012 from website: http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/Finno-Ugric {{Webarchive. link. (11 June 2012)
2. Tapani Salminen, "The rise of the Finno-Ugric language family." In Carpelan, Parpola, & Koskikallio (eds.), ''Early contacts between Uralic and Indo-European: linguistic and archaeological considerations.'' Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 242; Helsinki 2001. 385–396.[http://www.helsinki.fi/~tasalmin/tvarminne.html] {{Webarchive. link. (30 August 2017)
3. (2019). "Proto-Uralic". Oxford University Press.
4. Tommola, Hannu. (2010). "Mood in the Languages of Europe". John Benjamins Publishing Company.
5. (24 March 2022). "Introduction". The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages.
6. Bakró-Nagy, Marianne. (2012). "The Uralic Languages". Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire.
7. Sommer, Łukasz. (1 January 2023). "Conceptualizing language kinship or How Finnocentric is Finno-Ugricity?".
8. (1965). "Einführung in die finnisch-ugrische Sprachwissenschaft". Otto Harrassowitz.
9. [http://www.helsinki.fi/~tasalmin/kuzn.html Salminen, Tapani (2002): ''Problems in the taxonomy of the Uralic languages in the light of modern comparative studies''] {{Webarchive. link. (13 January 2019 ; the clade has also been abandoned by ''[[Ethnologue]]''.)
10. (2019). "Chapter 1: Proto-Uralic". [[Oxford University Press]].
11. Campbell, Lyle. (2004). "Historical linguistics: an introduction". MIT Press.
12. Sammallahti, Pekka. (1988). "The Uralic languages – Description, history and foreign influences". BRILL.
13. Häkkinen, Jaakko 2009: Kantauralin ajoitus ja paikannus: perustelut puntarissa. – Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Aikakauskirja 92. http://www.sgr.fi/susa/92/hakkinen.pdf {{Webarchive. link. (14 October 2017)
14. Aikio, A. (2022). Proto-Uralic and its offspring . In M. Bakró-Nagy, J. Laakso, & E. Skribnik (Eds.), The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages (p. 30). Oxford University Press.
15. Zaich, Gábor. (2006). "Etimológiai szótár". Tinta}}, the Hungarian word for "one" is an internal development, i.e. it is not related to the Proto-Finno-Ugric {{lang.
16. Iurchenkov, Valerii. (March 2001). "The Mordvins: Dilemmas of Mobilization in a Biethnic Community". Nationalities Papers.
17. "7th World Congress of the Finno-Ugric Peoples". World Congress of the Finno-Ugric Peoples.
18. "Statutes of the Consultative Committee of Finno-Ugrian peoples". Finno-Ugric Peoples' Consultative Committee.
19. "The Congress of the Finno-Ugric Peoples". Russia.
20. "Fenno-Ugria". Estonia.
21. "The VII (7th) World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples". Fenno-Ugria.
22. "The VIII(8th) World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples". Fenno-Ugria.
23. "Finno-Ugric Peoples' Consultative Committee, Members". Finno-Ugric Peoples' Consultative Committee.
24. "Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura (in Finnish)". Finno-Ugrian Society (in English).
25. (19 July 2007). "International Festival of the Finno-Ugric Peoples". Press Release from the Kremlin in Russia.
26. (19 July 2007). "Press Statements by President Vladimir Putin, leaders of Finland and Hungary". Press Release from the Kremlin in Russia.
27. "IFUSCO comes back to "fatherland" from Syktyvkar".
28. "IFUSCO XXXVII Prague 2022 {{!}} FAQ".
29. (2011). "The 11th International Congress for Finno-Ugric Studies: Finno-Ugric Peoples and Languages in the 21st Century". Finno-Ugric Languages and Linguistics.
30. (2015). "The 12th International Congress for Finno-Ugric Studies". Finno-Ugric Languages and Linguistics.
31. "13th International Congress for Finno-Ugric Studies".
32. "Congressus XIV Internationalis Fenno-Ugristarum. August 2025, Tartu.".