Finno-Ugric languages#Criticism

The validity of Finno-Ugric as a phylogenic grouping is currently disputed,[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|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190113123959/http://www.helsinki.fi/~tasalmin/kuzn.html |date=13 January 2019 }}; the clade has also been abandoned by Ethnologue.{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Aikio |first1=Ante |author-link=Ante Aikio |title=Chapter 1: Proto-Uralic |editor1-last=Bakró-Nagy |editor1-first=Marianne |editor2-last=Laakso |editor2-first=Johanna |editor3-last=Skribnik |editor3-first=Elena |encyclopedia=The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages |date=2019 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, UK |url=https://www.academia.edu/40193033 |pages=3ff. |isbn=9780198767664 |access-date=18 May 2020 |archive-date=10 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211210230034/https://www.academia.edu/40193033 |url-status=live }} 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.

{{More citations needed|section|date=September 2022}}

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.{{cite book| last = Campbell| first = Lyle| title = Historical linguistics: an introduction| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=EjXrrOJhex8C&pg=PA405| year = 2004| publisher = MIT Press| isbn = 978-0-262-53267-9| page = 405 }}

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, {{IPA|[ʃ]}}) 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".{{cite book| last = Sammallahti| first = Pekka| title = The Uralic languages – Description, history and foreign influences| chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=TM2NQ78dP2wC&pg=PA492| year = 1988| publisher = BRILL| isbn = 978-90-04-07741-6| pages = 478–554| chapter = Historical Phonology of the Uralic languages| editor = Denis, Sinor }}

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,Häkkinen, Jaakko 2009: Kantauralin ajoitus ja paikannus: perustelut puntarissa. – Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Aikakauskirja 92. http://www.sgr.fi/susa/92/hakkinen.pdf {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171014085722/http://www.sgr.fi/susa/92/hakkinen.pdf |date=14 October 2017 }} 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.

{{citation

|last=Aikio

|first=Ante

|title=On Finnic long vowels, Samoyed vowel sequences, and Proto-Uralic *x

|year=2012

|journal=Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia

|volume=264

|issn=0355-0230

}}) The proposed raising of *o has been alternatively interpreted instead as a lowering *u → *o in Samoyedic (PU *lumi → *lomə → Proto-Samoyedic *jom).

Janhunen (2007, 2009){{citation

|last=Janhunen

|first=Juha

|title=The primary laryngeal in Uralic and beyond

|year=2007

|journal=Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia

|volume=253

|issn=0355-0230

|url=http://www.sgr.fi/sust/sust253/sust253_janhunen.pdf

|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

}}{{citation

|last=Janhunen

|first=Juha

|title=Proto-Uralic – what, where and when?

|year=2009

|journal=Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia

|volume=258

|isbn=978-952-5667-11-0

|issn=0355-0230

|url=http://www.sgr.fi/sust/sust258/sust258_janhunen.pdf

|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

}} notes a number of derivational innovations in Finno-Ugric, including *ńoma "hare" → *ńoma-la, (vs. Samoyedic *ńomå), *pexli "side" → *peel-ka → *pelka "thumb", though involving Proto-Uralic derivational elements.

{{Main|Uralic languages#Typology|l1=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.

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 distrubution, suggesting that they were borrowed after Uralic had already diversified into its nine branches.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.

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.

100-word Swadesh lists for certain Finno-Ugric languages can be compared and contrasted at the Rosetta Project website:

[https://web.archive.org/web/20050309213457/http://64.81.54.21:8080/live/search/contribute/swadesh/view?ethnocode=FIN Finnish], [https://web.archive.org/web/20051025191808/http://64.81.54.21:8080/live/search/contribute/swadesh/view?ethnocode=EST Estonian], [https://web.archive.org/web/20051023224839/http://64.81.54.21:8080/live/search/contribute/swadesh/view?ethnocode=HNG Hungarian], and [https://web.archive.org/web/20051023225428/http://64.81.54.21:8080/live/search/contribute/swadesh/view?ethnocode=MYV Erzya].

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).{{Cite journal |last=Iurchenkov |first=Valerii |date=March 2001 |title=The Mordvins: Dilemmas of Mobilization in a Biethnic Community |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/nationalities-papers/article/abs/mordvins-dilemmas-of-mobilization-in-a-biethnic-community/570644540645D4A01CFF5125150BC873 |journal=Nationalities Papers |language=en |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=85–95 |doi=10.1080/00905990120036394 |issn=0090-5992|url-access=subscription }}

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) 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.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

Some of the ethnicities speaking Finno-Ugric languages are:{{citation needed|reason=for the classification|date=December 2023}}

{{columns-list|colwidth=15em|

• 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

}}

File:Proposed Finno-Ugric flag.svg

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,{{cite web |title=7th World Congress of the Finno-Ugric Peoples |url=http://lahti2016.fucongress.org/en |publisher=World Congress of the Finno-Ugric Peoples |access-date=15 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190317164710/http://lahti2016.fucongress.org/en |archive-date=17 March 2019 |url-status=dead}}{{cite web |url=http://www.suri.ee/doc/statutes.html |title=Statutes of the Consultative Committee of Finno-Ugrian peoples |access-date=13 July 2016 |publisher=Finno-Ugric Peoples' Consultative Committee |archive-date=31 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200731164926/http://www.suri.ee/doc/statutes.html |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=The Congress of the Finno-Ugric Peoples |url=http://rkomi.ru/en/print/razdelpseudo/337/ |publisher=Russia |access-date=15 July 2016 |archive-date=6 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806125723/https://rkomi.ru/en/print/razdelpseudo/337/ |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |title=Fenno-Ugria |url=http://jabadaba.eki.ee/index.php?id=10973 |publisher=Estonia |access-date=15 July 2016 |archive-date=19 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160919044725/http://jabadaba.eki.ee/index.php?id=10973 |url-status=live }} the 7th Congress in 2016 in Lahti in Finland,{{cite web |title=The VII (7th) World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples |url=https://fennougria.ee/en/representative-bodies/worldcongresses/seventh/ |publisher=Fenno-Ugria |access-date=17 August 2021 |archive-date=17 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210817233025/https://fennougria.ee/en/representative-bodies/worldcongresses/seventh/ |url-status=live }} and the 8th Congress in 2021 in Tartu in Estonia.{{cite web |title=The VIII(8th) World Congress of Finno-Ugric Peoples |url=https://fennougria.ee/en/representative-bodies/worldcongresses/eighth/ |publisher=Fenno-Ugria |access-date=17 August 2021 |archive-date=11 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711202852/https://fennougria.ee/en/representative-bodies/worldcongresses/eighth/ |url-status=live }} 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.suri.ee/coco.html |title=Finno-Ugric Peoples' Consultative Committee, Members |access-date=15 July 2016 |publisher=Finno-Ugric Peoples' Consultative Committee |work=World Congresses of the Finno-Ugric Peoples |archive-date=2 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202002051/http://www.suri.ee/coco.html |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura (in Finnish) |url=http://www.sgr.fi/english/index.html |publisher=Finno-Ugrian Society (in English) |access-date=15 July 2016 |archive-date=3 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180303004401/http://www.sgr.fi/english/index.html |url-status=live }}

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.{{cite web |title=International Festival of the Finno-Ugric Peoples |url=http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/24422 |publisher=Press Release from the Kremlin in Russia |date=19 July 2007 |access-date=15 July 2016 |archive-date=31 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200731151016/http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/24422 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |work=Press Release from the Kremlin in Russia |title=Press Statements by President Vladimir Putin, leaders of Finland and Hungary |url=http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/24418 |date=19 July 2007 |access-date=15 July 2016 |archive-date=31 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200731175452/http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/24418 |url-status=live }}

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.{{Cite web |title=IFUSCO comes back to "fatherland" from Syktyvkar |url=http://finugor.ru/en/node/41040 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180616223234/http://finugor.ru/en/node/41040 |archive-date=16 June 2018}}{{Cite web |title=IFUSCO XXXVII Prague 2022 {{!}} FAQ |url=https://ifusco2022.ff.cuni.cz/faq/ |website=ifusco2022.ff.cuni.cz/faq/ |access-date=28 May 2023 |archive-date=28 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230528190840/https://ifusco2022.ff.cuni.cz/faq/ |url-status=live }}

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.{{Cite journal |last1=Gulyás |first1=Nikolett F. |last2=Janurik |first2=Boglárka |last3=Mus |first3=Nikolett |last4=Tánczos |first4=Orsolya |year=2011 |title=The 11th International Congress for Finno-Ugric Studies: Finno-Ugric Peoples and Languages in the 21st Century |url=https://full.btk.ppke.hu/index.php/FULL/article/view/7 |journal=Finno-Ugric Languages and Linguistics |volume=1 |issue=1–2}}{{Cite journal |last1=Georgieva |first1=Ekaterina |last2=Mus |first2=Nikolett |year=2015 |title=The 12th International Congress for Finno-Ugric Studies |url=https://full.btk.ppke.hu/index.php/FULL/article/view/33 |journal=Finno-Ugric Languages and Linguistics |volume=4 |issue=1–2}} The first congress was organized in 1960 in Budapest, the last congress took place in 2022 in Vienna,{{Cite web |title=13th International Congress for Finno-Ugric Studies |url=https://fennougria.ee/en/event/international-congress-for-finno-ugric-studies/ |website=The official site of Estonian Non-Profit Organisation Fenno-Ugria}} the next congress is planned to be held in Tartu, Estonia in 2025.{{Cite web |title=Congressus XIV Internationalis Fenno-Ugristarum. August 2025, Tartu. |url=https://cifu14.ut.ee/ |access-date=12 March 2024 |website=The official site of 14th International Congress for Finno-Ugric Studies}}

{{portal|language}}

{{col div|colwidth=20em}}

• Baltic Finnic peoples
• {{annotated link|Budinos}}
• Finnic languages
• Volga Finns
• Comb Ceramic culture
• Uralo-Siberian languages
• Old Hungarian script
• Old Permic script
• Pre-Finno-Ugric substrate
• Proto-Finnic language
• Proto-Uralic homeland hypotheses
• International Finno-Ugric Students' Conference

{{colend}}

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite book |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/43672 |title=The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages |date=24 March 2022 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-182151-6 |language=en |doi=10.1093/oso/9780198767664.001.0001 |editor-last1=Bakró-Nagy |editor-last2=Laakso |editor-last3=Skribnik |editor-first1=Marianne |editor-first2=Johanna |editor-first3=Elena }}
• {{cite book| author = Björn Collinder| title = Fenno-Ugric Vocabulary: An Etymolog| year = 1977| publisher = Buske Verlag| isbn = 978-3-87118-187-0 }}
• Campbell, Lyle: Historical Linguistics: An Introduction. Edinburgh University Press 1998.
• Encyclopædia Britannica 15th ed.: Languages of the World: Uralic languages. Chicago, 1990.
• Oja, Vilja (2007). "Color naming in Estonian and cognate languages". In: MacLaury, Robert E.; Paramei, Galina V.; Dedrick, Don (Ed.). Anthropology of Color: Interdistiplinary multilevel modeling. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins B V Publ. pp. 189–209.
• Sinor, Denis (ed.): Studies in Finno-Ugric Linguistics: In Honor of Alo Raun (Indiana University Uralic and Altaic Series: Volume 131). Indiana Univ Research, 1977, {{ISBN|978-0-933070-00-4}}.
• Vikør, Lars S. (ed.): Fenno-Ugric. In: The Nordic Languages. Their Status and Interrelations. Novus Press, pp. 62–74, 1993.

{{Wikiquote}}

• {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Finno-Ugrian | volume= 10 |last= Eliot |first=Charles Norton Edgcumbe |author1-link= Charles Eliot (diplomat) | page = | pages = 388–393 |short=1}}
• [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Swadesh_lists_for_Finno-Ugric_languages Swadesh lists for the Finno-Ugric languages] (from Wiktionary's [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Swadesh_lists Swadesh-list appendix])
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20051018190124/http://library.finugor.ru/ Finno-Ugric Electronic Library] by the Finno-Ugric Information Center in Syktyvkar, Komi Republic Interface in Russian and English, texts in Mari, Komi, Udmurt, Erzya and Moksha languages.
• [http://www.economist.com/World/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=5323735 The Finno-Ugrics: The dying fish swims in water] The Economist, 20 December 2005
• [http://www.suri.ee/papers/zamjatine.html "Ethnic origins of Finno-Ugric nations and modern Finno-Ugric nationalism in the Russian Federation" by Konstantin Zamyatin]
• [http://fulr.karelia.ru/ Online unified platform of the Libraries of the Finno-Ugric Republics of Russia]

{{Uralic languages}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Finno-Ugric Languages}}

Category:Uralic languages

Category:History of Ural