Finno-Ugric Languages

Finno-Ugric Languages, subfamily of the Uralic languages that comprises more than 30 languages spoken in parts of northern Scandinavia, eastern Europe, and northwestern Asia. The Finno-Ugric subfamily is usually divided into two large branches: Finnic (also called Finno-Permian) and Ugric. The major languages of the Finnic branch are Finnish, spoken in Finland, and Estonian, spoken in Estonia. The primary Ugric language is Hungarian (also called Magyar), spoken in Hungary and by Hungarians living in neighboring countries.

The Finnic branch also includes some comparatively minor languages of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Of these, Karelian, a close relative of Finnish, is spoken alongside Finnish in the Russian republic of Karelia and is also heard in Finland. Livonian, once spoken in Latvia, is now nearly extinct (the Livonians were absorbed by the Latvians, and the term Livonian sometimes refers to one dialect of the non-Uralic Latvian language). Veps is spoken around Lake Onega in northwestern Russia. High and Low Mari (or Cheremis) are spoken in the middle region of the Volga river, and Moksha (or Mordvin-Moksha) is spoken in Mordovia. Udmurt (or Votyak), Komi-Permyak, and Komi-Zyrian are spoken by small, widely scattered groups in a vast area extending over the northeastern European part of Russia. (Udmurt and Komi are considered separately as the Permic or Permian subdivision of the Finno-Ugric languages.)

Eleven languages make up the Lappic subgroup (within the Finno-Permic subdivision of the Finnic branch). One of these is extinct and the other ten are spoken by the Saami people, also called Lapps, who are spread thinly over the northern European region known as Saamiland. Most of these languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers (some with fewer than 100) and so are endangered. The exception is Northern Saami, which is a mother tongue for thousands of people in Norway and is also spoken in Sweden and Finland.

The Ugric branch contains (besides Hungarian) two minor languages, Khanty (or Ostyak) and Mansi (or Vogul). These are spoken in the Ob’ River valley of northwestern Siberia.

There is a great deal of diversity among the modern Finno-Ugric languages, and virtually no feature is common to the entire group. Frequently mentioned characteristic features of Finno-Ugric are vocalic or vowel harmony and consonant gradation—that is, alternation between two kinds of stem consonants. The linguistic type is agglutinative. Attempts to connect the Finno-Ugric subfamily with other language families, notably with the Turkic branch of the Altaic languages and the Indo-European languages, have produced evidence of similarities, but not enough to establish any connection conclusively. Early Finno-Ugric, the reconstructed ancient parent language, was enriched through contact with the Iranian language (see Persian Language). In later times, the Finnic languages added words from the German and the Slavic (particularly Russian) languages. Hungarian was influenced by German, Italian, Latin, Slavic, and Turkish.