Ob-Ugric languages

Ob-Ugric
(controversial)
Geographic
distribution		Western Siberia
EthnicityOb-Ugrians[1]
Linguistic classificationUralic
Subdivisions
Language codes
GlottologNone
Ob-Ugric languages at the beginning of the 20th century

The Ob-Ugric languages are a commonly proposed branch of the Uralic languages, grouping together the Khanty (Ostyak) and Mansi (Vogul) languages. Both languages are split into numerous and highly divergent dialects, more accurately referred to as languages. The Ob-Ugric languages and Hungarian comprise the proposed Ugric branch of the Uralic language family.[2]

The languages are spoken in the region between the Urals and the Ob River and the Irtysh in central Russia. The forests and forest steppes of the southern Urals are thought to be the original homeland of the Ugric branch. Beginning some 500 years ago the arrival of the Russians pushed the speakers eastward to the Ob and Irtysh. Some Mansi speakers remained west of the Urals until as late as the early 20th century. Hungarian split off during the 11th century BC.[3][4] The Ob-Ugric languages have also been strongly influenced by nearby Turkic languages, especially Tatar.[5]

Mansi has about 1,000 speakers while Khanty has about 10,000 speakers, all within Russia. Until 1930, these languages had no written or literary traditions, but since 1937 have used a modified Cyrillic alphabet. However, no significant texts have been created in these languages and they have few official usages.[6]

The term Ob-Ugric was introduced by the Finnish linguist August Ahlqvist who made expeditions to Western Siberia in 1858 and 1877 to study the Khanty and Mansi languages.[7][8][9]

  1. ^ Hajdú, Péter (1975). Finno-Ugrian Languages and Peoples. London: Deutsch. p. 119. ISBN 978-0-233-96552-9.
  2. ^ "Ob-Ugric languages". Britannica. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
  3. ^ Hajdú, Péter (1981). Az uráli nyelvészet alapkérdései. Tankönyvkiadó, Budapest. ISBN 963-17-4219-9.
  4. ^ Jászó, Anna (1994). A magyar nyelv könyve. Trezor Kiadó, Budapest. ISBN 963-7685-42-1.
  5. ^ Greller, Wolfgang (2000-04-01). Encyclopedia of the Languages of Europe. Blackwell Publishing. p. 478. ISBN 0-631-22039-9.
  6. ^ "Ob-Ugric languages". Britannica. Retrieved 2024-02-06.
  7. ^ Ahlqvist, August (1882). Tutkimus sivistyssanoista obilais-ugrilaisten kansojen kielissä (in Finnish). Frenckell. The German translation Über die Kulturwörter der obisch-ugrischen Sprachen was published posthumously in 1890.
  8. ^ Ahlqvist, August (1880). "Vorwort". Ueber die Sprache der Nord-Ostjaken; Sprachtexte, Wörtersammlung und Grammatik. Abth. 1 (in German). Oxford University. Helsingfors.
  9. ^ Hajdú, Péter (1998). "A magyar–ugor vs. altaji összehasonlítótól az uráli nyelvészetig (via finnugor)" [From the Hungarian-Ugric vs. Altaic comparative study to Uralic linguistics (via Finno-Ugric)]. In Domokos, Péter; Csepregi, Márta (eds.). 125 éves a Budapesti Finnugor Tanszék: jubileumi kötet. Urálisztikai tanulmányok (in Hungarian). Budapest: ELTE, BFT. p. 60. ISBN 978-963-463-213-9.