The Uralic language family is a separate independent language family. The number of native speakers belonging to this group is approximately twenty-five million people, mainly living in the territory of North-Western Europe.
Status of the Uralic languages
The most common Uralic languages are Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, which are official languages in Hungary, Finland and Estonia, respectively, and in the European Union. Other Uralic languages with a significant number of speakers are Erzya, Moksha, Mari, Udmurt and Komi, which are officially recognized in various regions of Russia.
The name "Ural language family" comes from the fact that the territories where these languages are spoken are located on both sides of the Ural Mountains. In addition, the territories in the vicinity of the Urals are traditionally considered to be its original homeland (or ancestral home).
The term "Finno-Ugric languages" is sometimes used as a synonym for Uralic, although they are only part of this language family and do not include Samoyedic languages. Scholars who do not accept the traditional notion that the Samoyedic languages arestructural part of the Ural, suggest excluding them from this family. For example, the Finnish scientist Tapani Salminen considers these two terms as synonyms.
Branches of the Uralic language family
Uralic languages is a language family that includes two branches:
- Finno-Ugric;
- Samoyed.
The closeness of Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic languages was established by E. Setiala. Scientists came to the conclusion about the existence in the distant past of the Uralic base language and the emergence of Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic languages from it. Although the term "Uralic languages" has existed in science for a long time, the study of the Finno-Ugric and Samoyed languages is often carried out separately, along with the more voluminous concept of "Uralistics", there is still a branch of linguistics as "Finno-Ugric studies", which explores the Finno-Ugric languages.
Classification of Uralic languages
The traditional classification of the Uralic languages has existed since the end of the nineteenth century. It was introduced by Richard Donner. Doner's classification model enjoys frequent citations, in whole or in part, in encyclopedias, reference books, and reviews of the Uralic family. The Donner model looks like this:
Finno-Ugric group:
1. Ugric languages, among them:
- Hungarian;
- Ob-Ugric (Ob Ugric);
- Khanty-Mansi languages.
2. Finno-Permian (Permo-Finnish) languages:
- Permian (Udmurt language);
- Finno-Volga (Finno-Mari);
- Volga-Finnish;
- Mari;
- Mordovian.
3. Finno-Sami;
- Finnish;
- Sami.
During Donner's time, the Samoyedic languages were still poorly known, and he was unable to solve these problems in research. Since they came to prominence in the early 20th century, they have come under scrutiny. In the terminology adopted for the Uralic languages as a whole family, the name "Finno-Ugric group" is still used to this day also as a synonym for the whole family. Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic languages come as the main branches of the Uralic family.
Which peoples belong to the Uralic language family?
The most numerous people who speak the languages of the Ural family are the Hungarians. The number of native speakers of the Hungarian language is about fifteen million. The Finns also belong to the Ural peoples, the population of Finland is about six million people. Estonians living in Western Europe also speak the Finno-Ugric language (the B altic branch) and belong to the Uralic peoples. All these languages have a fairly close lexical relationship, which forms this linguistic substratum called the Uralic language family. The peoples who also belong to this language branch are less numerous.
For example, these are the Mari, the Erzya and Komi peoples, the Udmurts. The remaining Ugric languages are on the verge of extinction. Particularly large differences between the Uralic languages insyntax direction. The Uralic language family is a rather diverse and geographically extensive linguistic branch of Europe. The syntax and grammar of the Uralic languages are considered very difficult to learn because they are very different from European languages.
