Finno-Ugric



         


The Finno-Ugric languages form a subfamily of the Uralic languages. They include Finnish, Hungarian and Estonian, among others. Unlike most of the languages spoken in Europe, the Finno-Ugric languages are not part of the Indo-European family of languages.

The "Urheimat" of the proto-language of the modern Finno-Ugric languages, known as Proto-Finno-Ugric, is believed to be to the west of the Ural mountains, some 5000 years ago. There is evidence that before the arrival of Slavonic 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.

The Finno-Ugric subfamily of the Uralic languages has the following members:

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