Contact and the Finno‐Ugric Languages
Johanna Laakso · 2020
The Uralic languages are spoken in vastly different ecological and sociopolitical environments, and the genetic and typological diversity within Uralic is comparable to that between the branches of Indo-European. This chapter presents a quick survey on the diversity of language contacts relevant to Finno-Ugric, with some exemplary cases. It draws attention on the rich Finno-Ugristic research tradition. With the exception of the quasi-isolate Hungarian, most Finno-Ugric languages have contacts with related languages, sometimes resulting in complicated, Sprachbund-like networks, in which not only lexical borrowing but also transmission of morphological elements is possible. For many Finno-Ugric minorities, the school system only exists in the majority language, which dominates in most domains of language use outside home and family. Practically all speakers of today are bilingual and their language is characterized by influences from the majority language at all levels.