Re: Finno-Ugric languages

Pablo Flores wrote:

> I'd like to know something: how are Hungarian and Finnish related? I know
> they belong to the Finno-Ugric branch, characterized by agglutination and
> vowel harmony. But Finnish, Estonian and most of the other Finno-Ugric
> languages are spoken in Northern Europe.
Basically, the Hungarians migrated as part of the *Volkerwaenderung*
that toppled the Western Roman Empire.  The nearest relatives of
Hungarian (which aren't very similar) are spoken on the river Ob' in
Asian Russia.

The Finns, Estonians, and Karelians are probably the descendants of
people who once spoke Indo-European and who adopted a Uralic language
from the Saami.  That happened in prehistoric times.

You can see a family tree of the Uralic languages (which include
Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic) at
http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/families/Uralic.html .

--
John Cowan      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
        You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
        You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
                Clear all so!  'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)