Online Encyclopedia
Finno-Ugric language
The Finno-Ugric languages form a subfamily of the Uralic languages. They include Finnish, Hungarian and Estonian, among others. Unlike most of the languages spoken in Europe, the Finno-Ugric languages are not part of the Indo-European family of languages.
The "Urheimat" of the proto-language of the modern Finno-Ugric languages, known as Proto-Finno-Ugric, is believed to be to the west of the Ural mountains, some 5000 years ago. There is evidence that before the arrival of Slavic tribes to their present territory in Russia, a sprinkling of Finno-Ugrians inhabited the whole territory from the Urals to the Baltic Sea.
There have been attempts to relate them to the Indo-European languages, but there are not enough similarities to link them with any certainty. Conversely, there have been suggestions that the Germanic languages evolved from an Indo-European language such as Celtic imposed on a Finnic substrate, but no satisfactory proof yet exists.
The Finno-Ugric subfamily of the Uralic languages has the following members:
- Finnic
- Finno-Lappic
- Baltic Finnic:
- Lappic
-
Sami languages (or Lappish)
- Western Sami languages
- Lule Sami
- Northern Sami
- Pite Sami
- Southern Sami
- Ume Sami
- Eastern Sami languages
- Akkala Sami
- Inari Sami
- Kainuu Sami - Extinct
- Kemi Sami - Extinct
- Kildin Sami
- Skolt Sami
- Ter Sami
- Western Sami languages
-
Sami languages (or Lappish)
- Volga-Finnic
- Permian-Finnic:
- Udmurt or Votyak (obsolete)
- Komi
- Finno-Lappic
- Ugric
See also:
- Uralic languages in the Hungarian Wikipedia (in Hungarian)