ABSTRACT
The term ‘Uralic’ refers to a language family with one large branch, Finno-Ugric, and one smaller one, Samoyedic. Each branch is further subdivided into sub-branches and these into individual languages. Finno-Ugric is often used in its wider meaning of Uralic. Though this is sanctioned by usage, it will be avoided here. The best-known Uralic languages are Hungarian, with some fourteen million speakers,
Finnish with some five million, and Estonian with about one million. These are also the populations which are most thoroughly integrated into the European cultural and economic community. Hungarian and Finnish are related only remotely, while Finnish and Estonian are related
much more intimately. The network which unites the entire family genetically can be seen in Figure 27.1. In terms of numbers of speakers of the remaining Uralic languages, Mordva is the
largest, followed by Mari and Udmurt. Most Uralic languages are spoken in the Russian Federation, the main exceptions
being Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian and the majority of the Saami (Lappish) languages; Livonian recently became extinct in Latvia. In terms of very broad cultural features, the Hungarians are Central Europeans, the
Finns, and to some extent the Saamis, are Fenno-Scandians, the Estonians and the other Baltic-Finnic speakers are Balts. The Mari, Mordva and Udmurt are agrarian populations. Komi culture occupies an intermediate position between that of the central-Russian agrarians and a sub-Arctic form of living. The Ob-Ugrians and the Samoyeds were, until this century, sub-Arctic peoples, as were the northernmost Saami. The family tree of the Uralic languages (Figure 27.1) shows that this is a closely knit
family in the accepted sense. Only two questions are still awaiting resolution:
(1) The precise position of Saami within the family. This group of languages has been considered Baltic-Finnic (node a), Finno-Ugric (node b), a separate branch of Uralic (node c) and a ‘mixed language’, a vague term which generates further questions.
