The Ob-Ugric languages are a hypothetical branch of the Uralic languages, specifically referring to the Khanty (Ostyak) and Mansi (Vogul) languages. Both are split in numerous and highly divergent dialects. They, along with Hungarian, comprise the Ugric branch of the Uralic languages.
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.
The Ob-Ugric languages form a close areal grouping, adjacent varieties regularly sharing isoglosses and having loaned vocabulary back and forth (as well as from common external sources, e.g. from eastern dialects of Komi into northern dialects of Mansi and Khanty). Certain areal similarities are also shared with their eastern Samoyedic relatives, in particular Selkup and Forest Nenets. The relationship to Hungarian is looser: in their current state, the Ob-Ugric languages are radically different from Hungarian in phonology, syntax, and vocabulary.
The Ob-Ugric languages have also been also strongly influenced by nearby Turkic languages, especially Tatar.
Mansi has about 3800 speakers while Khanty has about 14280 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.
The existence of a common Ob-Ugric period after the separation from Hungarian and the rest of Uralic is not universally accepted: some linguists treat all common features of Mansi and Khanty as either later convergence under mutual influence, or retentions from the common Ugric and earlier periods.
Famous quotes containing the word languages:
“No doubt, to a man of sense, travel offers advantages. As many languages as he has, as many friends, as many arts and trades, so many times is he a man. A foreign country is a point of comparison, wherefrom to judge his own.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)