Finno-Ugric languages

   

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The Finno-Ugric languages form a subfamily of the Uralic languages. The majority of linguists believe that the Finnish, Hungarian and Estonian, among others should be included in the group. Unlike most of the other languages spoken in Europe, the Finno-Ugric languages are not part of the Indo-European family of languages. The Uralic languages also include the Samoyedic languages, and some linguists use the terms Finno-Ugric and Uralic as synonyms. Many of the smaller Finno-Ugric languages are endangered and near extinction.

The "Urheimat" of the proto-language of the modern Finno-Ugric languages, known as Proto-Finno-Ugric, is believed to have been to the west of the Ural mountains, some 5000 years ago. There is evidence that before the arrival of the 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. (On the other hand, it is now believed that Germanic was initially much more akin to Balto-Slavic and moved closer to Celtic during its protohistoric development.)

A portion of the Baltic-Finnic lexicon is not shared with the remaining Finno-Ugric languages and may be due to a pre-Finnic substrate, which may coincide in part with the substrate of the Indo-European Baltic languages. As far as the Samic (Lappic) languages are concerned, a hypothesis has been advanced that the Sami were originally speakers of a different language, who adopted their current Finno-Ugric speech under the pressure of their Finnic neighbors.

There have also been theories about the Finno-Ugric languages being related to other language families, such as the Altaic languages (which includes the Turkic languages).

All the Finno-Ugric languages share structural features and basic vocabulary. Around 100 basic words have been proposed and include word stems for concepts related to humans such as names for relatives and body parts. The structural features are seen by linguists as strong evidence for a common ancestry. These include inflection by adding suffixes (compared to prepositions in English). The Finno-Ugric languages are also famous for having a large number of grammatical cases, of which Finnish has 15 and Hungarian has even more. Another feature is that verbs are inflected by person.

Classification

It is generally agreed that the Finno-Ugric subfamily of the Uralic languages has the following members:

Ugric (Ugrian)

  • Hungarian
  • Ob Ugric (Ob Ugrian)
    • Khanty (Ostyak)
    • Mansi (Vogul)

Finno-Permic (Permian-Finnic)

Modern linguistic research has shown that Volgaic languages is a geographical classification rather than a linguistic one, because the Mordvinic languages are more closely related to the Finno-Lappic languages than the Mari languages.

Linguists criticizing the Finno-Ugric group point out, that the only relationship in this group is agglutination, and they also point out, that the relationship among all agglutinating languages should be treated rather then creating little artificial groups like Finno-Ugric or Uralic. (see Ural-Altaic hypothesis).


Common vocabulary

This is the sample of cognates in basic vocabulary across Uralic, illustrating the sound laws.


English Finnish Estonian Saami Mari Komi Khanty Hungarian
heart sydäm- südam- čâððam- šüm- śələm səm szív
lap syli süli sâllâ šəl syl jöl öl
vein suoni soon suodnâ šön sən jan ér
go men- min- mânnâ- mija- mun- mən- megy, menni-
fish kala kala guolle kol - kul hal
hand käsi kät- giettâ kö ki köt kéz
eye silmä silm čal'bme šinča śin sem szem
one yksi üks ok'tâ ikte ət'ik ĭt egy
two kaksi kaks guok'te kok kyk kät kettõ
three kolme kolm gol'bmâ kum kujim koləm három
ice jää jää jiegŋâ ij ji jöŋk jég
louse täi täi dik'ke ti toj tögtəm tetű


See also

External links


References

  • Benkő, Loránd (1992-1997): Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Ungarischen. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.
  • Collinder, Bjorn (1955): Fenno-Ugric Vocabulary (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D3871181870/harapanmediatechA/104-1247525-5965549), Uppsala.
  • Csepregi Márta (szerk., 1998): Finnugor kalauz. Budapest: Panoráma.
  • Laakso, Johanna (1999): Karhunkieli. Pyyhkäisyjä suomalais-ugrilaisten kielten tutkimukseen. Helsinki: SKS.
  • Laakso, Johanna (ed.; 1992): Uralilaiset kansat. Porvoo - Helsinki - Juva: WSOY.
  • Marcantonio, Angela (2004) 'What Is the Linguistic Evidence to Support the Uralic Theory or Theories?' In Linguistica Uralica 40, 1, pp 40-45.
  • Marcantonio, Angela (2003) The Uralic Language Family: Facts, Myths and Statistics.
  • Marcantonio, Angela & Pirjo Nummenaho & Michela Salvagni (2001): 'The "Ugric-Turkic Battle": A Critical Review'. In Linguistica Uralica 37, 2, pp81-102. online version (http://www.kirj.ee/esi-l-lu/l37-2-1.pdf)
  • Sammallahti, Pekka (1998): "Historical phonology of the Uralic languages." - In: Denis Sinor (ed.), The Uralic languages. Description, history and foreign influences. Leiden - New York - København - Köln: Brill.
  • Denis Sinor (ed.; 1977) Studies in Finno-Ugric Linguistics: In Honor of Alo Raun (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0933070004/harapanmediatechA/104-1247525-5965549) (Indiana University Uralic and Altaic Series : Volume 131). Indiana Univ Research.
  • Lars S. Vikør (ed.; 1993). “Fenno-Ugric,” in The Nordic Languages. Their Status and Interrelations. Novus Press, pp.62-74.
  • 1966. Языки народов СССР III. Финно-угорские и самодтйские языки. Москва: Наука.
  • 1967-1978. A magyar szókészlet finnugor elemei. Etimológiai szótár. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.



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