URALIC MIGRATIONS: THE LINGUISTIC EVIDENCE
Václav Blaek
(én kiemelésemmel)
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. Sebestyén 1941-43/49-50; 1935 for Uralic tree- and fish-names). (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 Hajdú (1985, 156-57), Xelimskij (1989[2000], 15) and Napolskix (1997, 127-34), in the Uralic lexicon the following tree-names play a diagnostic role: *kawse "spruce, Picea", *ńulk® "fir, Abies", *j®w® "pine, Pinus"; *sÓks® "Siberian stone pine, Pinus cembra Sibirica". Napolskix (1997, 130-34) adds *mura "blackberry, Rubus chamaemorus" and some zoonyms: *kunta "reindeer", *poča "(calf of) reindeer", *arta "deer, reindeer", *tewä "elk, deer", *ńuk(®-)e "ermine, marten"; *püŋe "partridge, hazel-grouse"; *küje "snake"; *kär® "sterlet, Caspian sturgeon, Acipenser ruthenus", *kew®(-ŋk®) "salmon, whitefish", *kor® "Coregonus lavaretus/muksun", *onč® "Stenodus nelma, Coregonus njelma", *totka "tench,Tinca tinca", and also FU *ampe "sturgeon, Acipenser" (with a probable cognate in Sm *su/ümp-ŋk "muksun", where *su/ümp 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", *näŋ® "larch, Larix Sibirica", *ala "elm, Ulmus", plus Fenno-Permic *ńine "bast", *ńine-puw® "linden, Tilia", and zoonyms *maja "beaver", *ijele "hedgehog", *ćor® "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 (Hajdú; 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 Fenno-Saamic people continued to the basin of the Baltic Sea. During their habitation of Fenno-Scandia, the ancestors of the Saami assimilated some older population(s) (cf. Toivonen 1949-50; 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-Čuva type (Gombocz 1912), Sarmatian-Alanic (Sköld 1925; Abaev 1965;) and Pannonian Slavic (Xelimskij 1988[2000]; Richards 2003)."
