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Finno-Ugric languages

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The Finno-Ugric languages form a subfamily of the Uralic languages. The majority of linguists believe that Finnish, Hungarian and Estonian, among other languages 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 the Finno-Ugric languages 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).

Structural features

All of 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 (instead of prepositions in English). The Finno-Ugric languages are also famous for having a large number of grammatical cases, of which Finnish has at least 15 and Hungarian has at least 24.

Another feature of the Finno-Ugric languages is that verbs are inflected, i.e. conjugated, by person and number. (This is the familiar way verbs are conjugated in most Indo-European languages; but Chinese, Vietnamese and other isolating languages do not share this feature.)

Finally, the Finno-Ugric languages lack possessive pronouns, such as mine and yours, communicating the same information via declension. (Although this is not strictly true for Finnish, which is thought to have picked up its possessive pronouns more recently from neighboring Indo-European languages.)

Classification

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

Ugric (Ugrian)

Finno-Permic (Permian-Finnic)

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

Linguists criticizing the Finno-Ugric group believe that Ugric and Finno-Permic are more distantly related than proponents advertise---possibly no closer than the Turkic and Ugric groups (see Ural-Altaic hypothesis).

Common vocabulary

This is a small sample of cognates in basic vocabulary across Uralic, illustrating the sound laws. Note that in general two cognates don't have the same meaning; they merely have the same origin. Thus, the English word in each row should be regarded as an approximation of the original meaning, not a translation of the other words.

English Finnish Estonian North Sami Mari Komi Khanty Hungarian
heart sydän, sydäm- süda, südam- čotta, čoddaga šüm- śələm səm szív
lap syli süli salla, sala šəl syl jöl öl
vein suoni soon suotna, suona šön sən jan ín (means sinew/tendon)
go mennä, men- minna, min- mannat mija- mun- mən- menni, megy
fish kala kala guolli, guoli kol - kul hal
hand käsi, käte-
gen. käden, part. kättä 		käsi, kät-
gen. käe, part. kätt 		giehta, gieđa kö ki köt kéz
eye silmä silm čalbmi, čalmmi šinča śin sem szem
one yksi, yhte-
gen. yhden, part. yhtä 		üks, üht-
gen. ühe, part. üht(e) 		okta, ovtta ikte ət'ik ĭt egy
two kaksi, kahte-
gen. kahden, part. kahta 		kaks, kaht-
gen. kahe, part. kaht(e) 		guokte kok kyk kät kettő/két
three kolme kolm golbma kum kujim koləm három
ice jää jää jiekŋa, jieŋa ij ji jöŋk jég
louse täi täi dihkki ti toj tögtəm tetű

Numbers

The numbers from 1 to 10 in Finnish, Estonian, North Sami, Erzya, Mansi, and Hungarian.

Number Finnish Estonian North Sami Erzya Mansi Hungarian
1 yksi üks okta vejke akva egy
2 kaksi kaks guokte kavto kityg kettő
3 kolme kolm golbma kolmo hurum három
4 neljä neli njeallje nile nila négy
5 viisi viis vihtta vete at öt
6 kuusi kuus guhtta koto hot hat
7 seitsemän seitse čieža sisem sat hét
8 kahdeksan kaheksa gávcci kavkso ńololov nyolc
9 yhdeksän üheksa ovcci vejkse ontolov kilenc
10 kymmenen kümme logi kemeń lov tíz

Finno-Ugric Swadesh lists

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

See also

References

  • Benkő, Loránd (1992-1997): Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Ungarischen. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.
  • Collinder, Bjorn (1955): Fenno-Ugric Vocabulary, 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
  • 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 (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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