Classification of the Uralic (Finno-Ugrian) languages, with present numbers of speakers and areas of distribution (last updated 2 July 2009)
© Tapani Salminen <email@example.com> 1994–2012
|Saami||South Saami||? 500||Norway, Sweden||Ume Saami||? 20||Norway (extinct), Sweden||Pite Saami||? 20||Norway (extinct), Sweden||Lule Saami||? 2,000||Norway, Sweden||North Saami||30,000||Norway, Sweden, Finland||Inari Saami||400||Finland||Kemi Saami||extinct since 1800s||Finland, Russia||Skolt Saami||300||Finland, Russia||Akkala (Babino) Saami||extinct since 2003||Russia||Kildin Saami||800||Russia||Ter Saami||10||Russia|
|Finnic||Livonian||1||Latvia||Vőro-Seto||50,000||Estonia, Russia||Estonian||1,000,000||Estonia and adjacent areas||Vote||20||Russia||Finnish||5,000,000||Finland and adjacent areas||Ingrian||200||Russia||Karelian||30,000||Finland, Russia||Olonetsian (Livvi)||25,000||Finland (evacuees), Russia||Lude||? 3,000||Russia||Veps||5,000||Russia|
|Mari||Western (Hill) Mari||30,000||Russia||Eastern (Meadow) Mari||470,000||Russia|
+ Yazva Komi
+ Csángó Hungarian
|Hungary and adjacent areas|
|Mansi||Northern Mansi||2,500||Siberia||Eastern Mansi||? 10||Siberia||Western Mansi||extinct since 1900s||Siberia||Southern Mansi||extinct since 1900s||Russia, Siberia|
|Khanty||Northern Khanty||? 10,000||Siberia||Eastern Khanty||? 3,000||Siberia||Southern Khanty||extinct since 1900s||Siberia|
|Samoyed||Nganasan||500||Siberia||Enets||Tundra Enets||? 20||Siberia||Forest Enets||? 30||Siberia||Yurats||extinct since 1800s||Siberia||Nenets||Tundra Nenets||25,000||Russia, Siberia||Forest Nenets||? 1,500||Siberia||Selkup||Northern Selkup||1,000||Siberia||Central Selkup||? 50||Siberia||Southern Selkup||? 50||Siberia||Kamas||extinct since 1989||Siberia||Mator||extinct since 1800s||Siberia|
The map Geographical Distribution of the Uralic Languages (Finno-Ugrian Society, Helsinki 1993) is distributed by the Bookstore Tiedekirja. Price 3 euros +p&p.
The original version of the table, prepared at the Department of Finno-Ugrian Studies of the University of Helsinki, was included in the map legend and sent to the Linguist List in September 1993. It was later found out that especially the numbers of speakers of eastern Saami languages had been grossly overestimated (cf. especially Ter Saami: formerly 500, now 10). Furthermore, the languages with a very low number of speakers have been assigned a definite figure (instead of “very few”). The figures for many languages are still not quite reliable, and it must be remembered that many of the alleged speakers actually prefer some other language(s) in their daily life.
Other changes are that Vőro-Seto and Estonian, Karelian and Olonetsian as well as Komi and Permyak are listed separately, and the idioms subsumed under Mari, Mansi, Khanty, Enets, Nenets, and Selkup are included in the list, as they are correctly regarded as separate languages rather than “major dialects”. Also mentioned for the first time are the outlying dialects Yazva Komi and Csángó Hungarian, marked with a + sign.
The table only includes the modern names recommended for current usage. Here is a checklist of old and new names: Cheremis → Mari; Lappish (or Lapp) → Saami (or Sámi, both pronounced sah-mee); Ostyak → Khanty; Ostyak Samoyed → Selkup; Tavgi (or Tavgi Samoyed) → Nganasan; Vogul → Mansi; Votyak → Udmurt; Yenisey Samoyed → Enets; Yurak (or Yurak Samoyed) → Nenets; Zyryan → Komi (in the narrow sense excluding Permyak).
Please also notice that Finnic (rather than “Baltic-Finnic” or the like) is the name of the group of closely related languages including Finnish, and that the practice of referring to “Finno-Permian”, i.e. all Uralic languages except Hungarian, Mansi, Khanty and Samoyed, as Finnic should be regarded as obsolete. Finno-Ugrian can also be spelled as Finno-Ugric, and both variants are currently used in literature.