The
Uralic language family, to which Finnish belongs, consists of over 30 languages,
which are spoken by approximately 23 million people. These language areas
extend from Northern Norway across Northern Europe and Siberia to the Taymyr
Peninsula. The Uralic language areas are clustered on the north-east Baltic
seaboard, and around rivers Ob, Yenisei, Pechora and Volga in Russia. Curiously,
Hungarian in Eastern Europe is isolated from the Uralic clusters.
A lot of research has been dedicated towards reconstruction of the parent language of the Uralic languages and identification of its habitat. Nobody seems to know where exactly the the parent language was spoken. According to Campbell (1995), studies of word roots for deciduous trees and terms of apiculture suggest the place of origin to the west, rather than east of the Urals. Absences of common roots suggest that the western limit may be around the Baltic-Black Sea line. According to Crystal (1997), Proto-Uralic was spoken in the region of the north Ural Mountains in Russia 7,000 years ago.
Two main branches of the family are Finno-Ugric languages and Samoyedic languages. The Finno-Ugric languages are spoken in Finland, Northern Scandinavia, Estonia, certain parts of Russia and in Hungary and adjacent areas. Samoyedic languages are spoken by a small number of Samoyeds scattered throughout Siberia and Arctic Russia.
Last reviewed: January 2004. Please send comments to: prentz@westminstercollege.edu