URALIC MIGRATIONS: THE LINGUISTIC EVIDENCE

Vclav Blaek
For the classification of Fenno-Ugric/Uralic languages the following scenarios have been proposed:
(1) Mari, Mordvin and Fenno-Saamic as coordinate sub-branches (Setl 1890)
Saamic
Fenno-Saamic

Balto-Fennic

Fenno-Volgaic

Mordvin

Fenno-Permic

Mari
Udmurt

Fenno-Ugric

Permic
Komi
Hungarian
Ugric
Mansi.
Xanty

(2) Mordvin and Mari in a Volgaic group (Collinder 1960, 11; Hajd 1985, 173; OFUJ 1974, 39)

Fenno-Volgaic

Saamic

North, East, South Saami

Baltic Finnic

Finnish, Ingrian, Karelian, Olonets, Ludic,

end of the 1st mill. BC

1st mill
BC

Fenno-Permic

Mordvin

Volgaic

Mari

mid 2nd
mill. BC

Finno-Ugric

Udmurt
Permic

end of the
3rd mill. BC

8th cent. AD

Komi
Hungarian

Uralic

Ugric

4th mill. BC

mid 2st mill. BC

Mansi, Xanty
North

Nenets, Enets, Nganasan

South

Selkup; Kamasin

Samoyedic
end of the 1st mill. BC

(3) A model of a series of sequential separations by Viitso (1996, 261-66): Mordvin and Mari
represent different separations from the mainstream, formed by Ugric.
Fenno-Saamic
Finno-Ugric

Mordvin
Mari

Uralic

Permic
Ugric (Core)
Samoyedic

(4) The first application of a so-called recalibrated glottochronology to Uralic languages was realized
by the team of S. Starostin in 2004.
-3500

-3000

-2500

-2000

-1500

Samojedic

-1000

-500

-720

+500

+1000

+1500

+2000

Selkup
Mator
Kamasin
Nganasan
Enets
Nenets

-210
-550
-340
+130

Uralic
-3430

Ugric
-1340

Fenno-Ugric

Ob-Ugric

Permic
-2180

Khanty
Mansi
Hungarian

+130

Komi
Udmurt

+570

Volgaic
-1370

Mari

-1880

Mordva

-1730

Balto-Fennic

Veps
Estonian
Finnish

+220
+670
-1300

Saamic
Note: G. Starostin (2010) dates the separation of Samoyedic and Fenno-Ugric to 3 840 BC.

(5) The same model was obtained by Blaek (conference of Finno-Ugric Studies Association of
Canada, Montreal, May 2010)
i
-2500

-1500

-500

Saamic

+500

+1500

87.0%/730
96.6

91.3%/970 95.4
94.6%/1190

1360
1240

South
Lule
North
Inari
Skolt
Kildin

48.2%/-1300

42.2%/-1710

BaltoFennic

FennoPermic
40.64%/-1840

98.9%/1610
94.6%/1190
92.2%/1030
88.8%/830
96.7%/
1360

98.0%/+1500

Veps
Karelian
Finnish
Votic
Estonian
Livonian
Mordva Erzya
Mordva Moka
Mari

Fenno-Ugric

49.73%/-1200

Permic

34.0%/-2350

Udmurt
Komi Zyryan

87.1/+730

Hungarian
45.3%/-1480
Ugric

96.9%+1390*

Mansi North
Mansi East

64.4%/-390
86.3%/+680

Khanty East
Khanty South

There are two methods which, in combination, allow us to determine the homeland of a given
language group: (a) Linguistic paleontology, based on the geographical location of plants and
animals whose designations can be reconstructed in proto-languages, in the perspective of
paleobotany and paleozoology (cf. Sebestyn 1941-43/49-50; 1935 for Uralic tree- and fishnames). (b) The study of mutual contacts with neighboring languages. The absolute
chronology can be estimated, if the development of the donor language or recipient is reliably
documented. Another source of chronological data may be found in glottochronology.
According to Hajd (1985, 156-57), Xelimskij (1989[2000], 15) and Napolskix (1997, 12734), in the Uralic lexicon the following tree-names play a diagnostic role: *kawse "spruce,
Picea", *ulk "fir, Abies", *jw "pine, Pinus"; *sks "Siberian stone pine, Pinus cembra
Sibirica". Napolskix (1997, 130-34) adds *mura "blackberry, Rubus chamaemorus" and
some zoonyms: *kunta "reindeer", *poa "(calf of) reindeer", *arta "deer, reindeer", *tew
"elk, deer", *uk(-)e "ermine, marten"; *pe "partridge, hazel-grouse"; *kje "snake";
*kr "sterlet, Caspian sturgeon, Acipenser ruthenus", *kew(-k) "salmon, whitefish", *kor
"Coregonus lavaretus/muksun", *on "Stenodus nelma, Coregonus njelma", *totka
"tench,Tinca tinca", and also FU *ampe "sturgeon, Acipenser" (with a probable cognate in
Sm *su/mp-k "muksun", where *su/mp means "back of fish", so typical for
"sturgeon"). These species determine the borders of the area of the Uralic proto-language:
between the Ural Mountains in the west and the middle Yenisei River in the east, and from
the Arctic Circle in the north to the southern border of taiga in the foothills of the Sayany and
Altai mountains. Any location west of the Urals is problematic with regard to the closest
relative of Uralic: the small Yukaghir family, localized in the 18th century between the lower
streams of the Lena and Anadyr. The Uralic-Yukaghir divergence is dated to 6600 BC by G.
Starostin (2010).
Such Fenno-Ugric tree-names as *nakr "cedar-nut", *n "larch, Larix Sibirica", *ala
"elm, Ulmus", plus Fenno-Permic *ine "bast", *ine-puw "linden, Tilia", and zoonyms
*maja "beaver", *ijele "hedgehog", *or "salmon, whitefish", *tokta "diving-duck, Gavia",
shift the area of the Fenno-Ugric proto-language to the west in comparison with the Uralic
homeland. From the original Proto-Uralic territory the southwest of Western Siberia and the
Central and South Urals remain, while the basins of the upper streams of the Kama, Pechora
and Vychegda rivers may be added to the Fenno-Ugric homeland (Napolskix 1997, 140). The
disintegration of Uralic is traditionally dated to the 4th mill. BC (Hajd; S. Starostin: 3430
BC, G. Starostin: 3840 BC). In the meantime, before the separation of Fenno-Permic from
Ugric in the 24th cent. BC, the first contacts with Indo-Europeans had begun. While ancestors
of the Tocharians influenced Fenno-Ugric only during their migration to the east in the late
4th mill. BC, Indo-Iranians and their descendants (Jacobsohn 1922; Korenchy 1972; Joki
1973; Toporov 1981; Blaek 1990, 1999, 2003ab, 2005; Xelimskij [1998]2000; Katz 2003)
became southern neighbors of the Fenno-Ugrians, possibly from as early as 3000 BC, and
remaining so until their (Indo-Iranians) assimilation by Slavs and Turks in the first mill. AD.
Crucial to the westerly spread of Fenno-Ugrians was the Kama River. This biggest tributary
of the Volga led the ancestors of the Permians, Mari and Mordva (plus the now extinct Merya
and Muroma) to the middle and upper basins of the Volga, while the ancestors of the FennoSaamic people continued to the basin of the Baltic Sea. During their habitation of FennoScandia, the ancestors of the Saami assimilated some older population(s) (cf. Toivonen 194950; Xelimskij 1996[2000]). In Mari, Mordva and Fenno-Saamic the Baltic (Thomsen 1870;
Vaba 1983; Blaek 1999, 2004) and in the latter case also Germanic (Thomsen 1870; LGL;
Ritter 1993; Xelimskij 1995[2000]) influences are apparent. During the last millennium the
influence of Russian and various Turkic languages has grown. In the Volga basin the Kama
also brought the ancestors of the Hungarians west after their separation from Ob-Ugric in the

15-14th cent. BC. The Hungarian lexicon indicates significant influences from tribal
languages contacted or assimilated during their route along the lower Volga through the
Caspic and Pontic steppes to Pannonia, especially Turkic of the Bulgar-uva type (Gombocz
1912), Sarmatian-Alanic (Skld 1925; Abaev 1965;) and Pannonian Slavic (Xelimskij
1988[2000]; Richards 2003).
Xelimskij (1989[2000], 15-17) localized the Samoyedic homeland in the Southwest Siberian
taiga, in the area limited by a triangle formed by the cities Tomsk - Krasnoyarsk - Eniseisk. In
the taiga region between the middle Ob and Yenisei rivers there are attested trees and animals
whose names are (i) inherited from Uralic: Samoyedic *kt "spruce, Picea", *ulk "fir,
Abies", *je "pine, Pinus"; *ttw "stone pine, Pinus cembra Sibirica"; (ii) attested only in
Samoyedic: *to1jm "larch"; *ki(j) "sable", *munt1o "ibex", *pajt1 "roe", *pi "ermine",
*pnso(j) "flying squirrel", *tet "otter", *wiknce "wolverine", *ksr "Nucifraga
caryocatactes", *un "diving-duck", *sek "grouse". According to S. Starostin the
ancestors of the Selkups were the first to separate in the early 8th century BC. They moved to
the north along the Ob. The North Samoyeds separated in the mid 6th cent. BC and migrated
to the north along the Yenisei. In Taymyr they assimilated some kind of substratum, reflected
especially in Nganasan. The disintegration of Kamasin-Koibalsan and Mator-Taigi-Karagas
around 200 BC could have been caused by Huns attacking the Minussin Hollow. The former
group moved to the south in the Sayany Mountains, the latter group migrated to the east
between the Kan and Mana, right tributaries of the Yenisei. The oldest borrowings in
Samoyedic can be identified from Tocharian (3rd mill. BC?; see Janhunen 1983; Blaek,
Schwarz 2008) and proto-Turkic (early 1st mill. BC; Janhunen 1977). The contacts with
Komi, Ob-Ugric, Ket (Xelimskij 1982), Tungusic (Anikin, Xelimskij 2007) and various
Turkic languages of Siberia (Joki 1952; Rna Tas 1988) are later.
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Note: For a correction of English the author owe John D. Bengtson.