Uralic Language Family
The Uralic language family stretches from Northern to Central Europe to Siberia. It consists of 39 languages spoken by some 25 million people. It is believed that they originated from a common ancestor, *Proto-Uralic, spoken by early-Uralic people who lived some 7,000 years ago in the area of the Ural Mountains, the Russian range that separates Europe from Asia. The predecessors of the Finnic and Finno-Ugric peoples moved west and south, whereas the predecessors of the Samoyedic peoples moved north and east into Siberia. The oldest written documents in the Uralic languages date back to the 13th century.
Uralic languages with the largest number of speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian. The rest are minority languages of Russia in different stages of endangerment, with some on the brink of extinction. Uralic languages spoken by more than 1,000 speakers are listed below.
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Finnic (Baltic and Scandinavia)
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|---|---|---|
| Estonian | 1.1 million | |
| Finnish | 5.2 million | |
| Finnish, Tornedalen | 110,000 | |
| Karelian | 128,000 | |
| Livvi (Olonets) | 19,000 | |
| Ludian | 5,000 | |
| Veps | 6,300 | |
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Finno-Ugric (Western Siberia and Russia, except Hungarian) |
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| Hungarian | 14 million | |
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Mari (Volga region)
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| Mari Eastern | 535,000 | |
| Mari Western | 66,000 | |
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Mordvin (Volga region) |
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| Erzya | 518,000 | |
| Moksha | 297,000 | |
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Permian (Western Russia, Ural region)
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| Komi-Permyak | 116,000 | |
| Komi Zyrian | 262,000 | |
| Udmurt (Votyak) | 566,000 | |
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Sami (Kola Peninsula, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Russia) |
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| Saami Eastern | 5,500 | |
| Saami Western | 24,000 | |
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Samoyed (Northwestern Russia and Siberia) |
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| Nenets | 26,700 | |
| Selkup | 1,570 | |
| Khanty | 12,000 | |
| Mansi | 3,200 | |
Status
Three Uralic languages have official status in their respective countries.
- Hungarian is the official language of Hungary.
- Estonian is the official language of Estonia.
- Finnish is the official language of Finland, along with Swedish.
Several Uralic languages spoken in Russia have co-official status in their respective areas along with Russian:
| Erzya, Moksha | Republic of Mordovia |
| Khanty, Mansi | Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug |
| Komi-Permyak | Komi Republic |
| Mari | Mari Republic |
| Nenets | Nenets Autonomous Okrug |
| Udmurt | Udmurt Republic |
Even though some of the Uralic languages may have hundreds of thousands of speakers, most of the fluent speakers are elderly. Majority of urban and younger people tend to give up their language in favor of Russian. Although these peoples live in their own autonomous republics, these republics have Russian-speaking majorities and the Russian language is dominant in all areas. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a national awakening has brought about some positive developments but smaller languages are very seriously endangered as long as children and young people do not grow up to be fluent speakers. For detailed information on some of the Uralic languages spoken in Russia, consult the Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire:
| Enets Ingrian Karelian Khanty |
Mansy Nenets Selkup Veps |
Dialects
Despite their small populations of speakers, most Uralic languages have a number of geographical dialects which vary in mutual intelligibility. Below are some examples:
| Estonian | North and South Estonian considered by some to be separate languages |
| Finnish | two to eight, depending on classification |
| Hungarian | highly standardized, variation is mostly between urban versus rural speech |
| Mari | four depending which bank of the Volga river and how far up- or downstream of it |
| Komi Zyrian | two mutually intelligible dialects |
| Nenets | two major dialects—Tundra Nenets and Forest Nenets—with low mutual intelligibility between the two. |
Structure
Sound system
Some of the salient features of the sound systems of Uralic languages will be described below.
Vowels
Uralic vowel systems are characterized by the following:
- contrast between unrounded and rounded front vowels
- contrast between short and long vowels
- vowel harmony which requires that all the vowels in a word are either front or back, depending on the vowel in the first syllable. Vowel harmony does not usually apply to loanwords.
Consonants
- palatalization of consonants which was probably acquired from the neighboring Slavic languages
- consonants can be short, long and, in some languages, overly long
Stress
In Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian, and Komi stress always falls on the first syllable of the word. In other Uralic languages, stress can fall on any syllable.
Grammar
The grammars of Uralic languages have certain salient features that are present in different combinations in some, but not all of them.
Nouns
- lack of grammatical gender
- a large number of cases, ranging from 9 in Saami Inari to 27 in some varieties of Komi
- finely-differntiated system of locative cases
- variety of postpositions;
- possessive suffixes but no posessive pronouns;
Verbs
- verbs are inflected for tense, aspect, mood, number, and person. Some Uralic languages have a very elaborate mood system, for instance, Nenets has 16 moods.
- evidentiality: verbs in some Uralic languages have a witnessed and a non-witnessed past
- absence of the verb “to have”
Word order
Uralic languages have a Subject-Object-Verb or free word order, depending on the language.
Vocabulary
The Uralic languages share a basic vocabulary of about 200 words, including body parts, kinship terms, names of animals, natural objects (e.g., stone, water, tree), common verbs, basic pronouns, and numerals. The rest of the vocabulary consists of borrowings from other languages. The sources of borrowing vary from language to language. Languages spoken on the territory of Russia tend to have russified vocabularies.
Below are some common words and phrases in three Uralic languages
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Finnish
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Estonian
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Hungarian
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| Hello! |
hei
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halloo, tere
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szervusz
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| Good bye! |
hyvästi
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hüvasti, jumalaga
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ist enhozzád
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| Thank you! |
kiitos
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tänan / aitäh
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köszönóm
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| Please! |
mielyttää
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palun
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kérem
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| Excuse me! |
anteeksi
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vabandust
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pardon, bocsánat
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| Yes |
joo
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jah
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igen
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| No |
ei
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ei
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jelentéktelen, nem
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| Man |
herra
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mees
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ember
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| Woman |
nainen
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naine
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asszony, nõ
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Below are the numerals 1-10 in 8 Uralic languages belonging to different branches.
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1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
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7
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8
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9
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10
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Finnic
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Finnish
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yksi
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kaksi
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kolme
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nelja
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viisi
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kuusi
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seitseman
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kahdeksan
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yhdeksan
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kymmenen
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Estonian
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üks
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kaks
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kolm
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neli
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viis
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kuus
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seitse
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kaheksa
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üheksa
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kümme
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Finno-Ugric
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Hungarian
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egy
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kettö
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három
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négy
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öt
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hat
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hét
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nyolc
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kilenc
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tíz
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Mari (Cheremis)
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ikte
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koktit
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kumyt
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niyit
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vizyt
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kudyt
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shImyt
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kandashe
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indeshe
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lu
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Mordvin
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veyke
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kavto
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kolmo
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nile
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vete
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koto
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sisem
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kavkso
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veykse
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kemen’
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Permian
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odig
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kIk
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kuin’
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n’il’
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vit’
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kuat’
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sizIm
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t’amIz
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ukmIz
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das
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Sami
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okta
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guokte
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golbma
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njeallje
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vihtta
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guhtta
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chiezha
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gavcci
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ovcci
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logi
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Samoyed
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ngobʔ
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s’id’a
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n’akharʔ
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t’et
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saml’angg
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matʔ
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s’iʔiv
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s’idend’et
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khasuyuʔ
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yuʔ
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Writing
- Finnish, Karelian, Saami Western, Hungarian and Estonian use a modified version of the Latin alphabet.
- Uralic languages spoken on the territory of the former Soviet Union are written in modified versions of the Cyrillic alphabet. Most of these languages were not written prior to the middle of the 19th century, e.g., Nenets.
- Komi was originally written in Old Permic (Abur) alphabet devised by the Russian missionary Stepan Khrap (better known as St. Steven of Perm) in the 14th century. This alphabet was replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet in the 16th century. For a brief priod (1930-1940), Komi was written with the Latin alphabet which was, in turn, superceded by the Cyrillic alphabet used for writing the language today.
Difficulty
How difficult is it to learn Uralic languages?Estonian, Finnish and Hungarian are considered to be somewhat more difficult that Category II languages for speakers of English.