Uralic Languages Family Tree Classification Of Languages

The Uralic languages form a language family of about 30 languages spoken by approximately 20 million people. The name of the language family references the location of the family's suggested Urheimat, which is often placed close to the

Uralic languages, in terms of the number of native speakers and national identity, are Estonian, Finnish, and Hungarian.

1 Family Tree

While the internal structure of the Uralic family has been under debate since the family was originally proposed, two linguistic genera ,

are consistently recognized as being distinct from one another. Many efforts have been made to identify the relationship between the Uralic languages and languages generally thought to belong to the world's other major language families. Perhaps the most controversial is the relationship between the Uralic languages and the Altaic languagesAltaic is a putative language family which would include 60 languages spoken by about 250 million people, mostly in and around central Asia. The relationships among these languages remain a matter of debate among historical linguists, and the existence of.

Theories that include the Uralic family as a node in a proposed super-family include the following:

2 Classification of Languages

The traditional classification of the Uralic languages is as follows. Obsolete names are displayed in italics.

3 Typology

Structural characteristics generally said to be typical of Uralic languages include:

extensive use of independent suffixes, a.k.a. agglutination

The only common feature

a large set of grammatical cases (13 - 14 cases on average)

Not in Hungarian

unique Uralic case system, which the case system of all modern Uralic languages are derived from
nominative singular has no case suffix (a feature also found in languages such as German)
three-way distinction in the local case system

Modern makes no sense here. Modern means lost its traditional structure? Three way distinction not present in Hungarian.

vowel harmony (recently lost in standard Estonian, but exists in dialects)
a lack of grammatical gender (a feature found in many languages around the world, including English)
negative verb, which exists in all Uralic languages, e.g. Nganasan, Enets, Nenets, Kamassian, Komi, Meadow Mari, North Sami (and other Samic languages), Finnish, Estonian, Karelian, etc. (Some innovative languages have lost personal suffixes, e.g. Hungarian.)

Innovative again a wrong word. We keep our traditions. No negative verbs in Hungarian.

palatalization (a widespread feature worldwide, notably common in the neighboring Slavic languages)
basic vocabulary, including body parts (e.g. eye, heart, head, foot, mouth), family members (e.g. father, mother-in-law), animals (e.g. viper, partridge, fish), nature objects (e.g. tree, stone, nest, water), basic verbs (e.g. live, fall, run, suck, go, die, swim, know), basic pronouns (e.g. who, what, we, you, I), numerals (e.g. two, five)

Very few common words.

possessive suffixes

In all agglutinating languages.

no separate possessive pronouns

In all agglutinating languages.

dual, which exists e.g. in Samoyedic, Ob Ugrian and Samic languages, although not in Hungarian.
plural markers -j (i) and -t have the same origin (e.g. in Finnish, Estonian, Erzya, Samic languages, Samoyedic languages). Hungarian, however, has -i and -k. In the old orthographies, the plural marker -k was also used in the Samic languages.

Differnt markers for plural.

no verb "have"

Not true for Hungarian.

4 Selected cognates

The following is a selection of cognates in basic vocabulary across the Uralic family, which may serve to give an idea of the sound changes involved.

English Finnish Estonian North Sami Saami Mari Komi Khanty Hungarian Nenets

heart sydäm- südam- cotta (gen. coddaga) câððam- šüm- sələm səm szív sew

lap syli süli salla sâllâ šəl syl jöl öl -

vein suoni soon suotna (gen. suona) suodnâ šön sən jan ér ten

go mennä (stem men-) minna (stem min-) mannat mânnâ- mija- mun- mən- megy, menni- min-

fish kala kala guolli guolle kol - kul hal xal'ä

hand käte- (nom. käsi) kät- giehta (gen. gieda) giettâ kö ki köt kéz -

eye silmä silm calbmi cal'bme šinca sin sem szem sew

Summarized: There are very few common words in the whole group. The only truely common feature, agglutination, is also characteristic for Sumerian, Basque, Persian, Turkish, Armenian, Etruscian, and other languages.

5 Bibliography

Collinder, Bjorn (1960), An Etymological Dictionary of the Uralic Languages, Stockholm.
Decsy, Jyula (1990), The Uralic Protolangage: A Comprehensive Reconstruction, Bloomington, Indiana.
Redei, Karoly (ed.) (1986-88), Uralisches Etymologisches Worterbuch, Budapest.
Sauvageot, Aurelien (1930), Recherches sur le vocabulaire des langues ouralo-altaiques, Paris.

6 External links

Ethnologue's Uralic Family Tree
The Untenability of the Finno-Ugrian Theory from a Linguistic Point of View by Dr. László Marácz
"The Ugric-Turkic Battle": A Critical Review (PDF) by Angela Marcantonio ( Rome), Pirjo Nummenaho ( Naples) and Michela Salvagni (Rome)
Uralic languages Languages of Russia

Language families

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6 External links

Home > Uralic languages

1 Family Tree

2 Classification of Languages

3 Typology

4 Selected cognates

5 Bibliography

Topics: Uralic Languages, Family Tree, Classification Of Languages...

English	Finnish	Estonian	North Sami	Saami	Mari	Komi	Khanty	Hungarian	Nenets
heart	sydäm-	südam-	cotta (gen. coddaga)	câððam-	šüm-	sələm	səm	szív	sew
lap	syli	süli	salla	sâllâ	šəl	syl	jöl	öl	-
vein	suoni	soon	suotna (gen. suona)	suodnâ	šön	sən	jan	ér	ten
go	mennä (stem men-)	minna (stem min-)	mannat	mânnâ-	mija-	mun-	mən-	megy, menni-	min-
fish	kala	kala	guolli	guolle	kol	-	kul	hal	xal'ä
hand	käte- (nom. käsi)	kät-	giehta (gen. gieda)	giettâ	kö	ki	köt	kéz	-
eye	silmä	silm	calbmi	cal'bme	šinca	sin	sem	szem	sew