The Finno-Permic (''Fenno-Permic'') or Finno-Permian (''Fenno-Permian'') languages, or sometimes just Finnic (''Fennic'') languages, are a proposed subdivision of the

Uralic languages The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian (w ...

which comprise the Balto-Finnic languages, Sami languages,

Mordvinic languages The Mordvinic languages, also known as the Mordvin, Mordovian or Mordvinian languages (russian: мордовские языки, ''mordovskiye yazyki''), are a subgroup of the Uralic languages, comprising the closely related Erzya language and Mok ...

Mari language The Mari language (Mari: , ''marij jylme''; russian: марийский язык, ''mariyskiy yazyk''), formerly known as the Cheremiss language, spoken by approximately 400,000 people, belongs to the Uralic language family. It is spoken primar ...

Permic languages The Permic or Permian languages are a branch of the Uralic language family. They are spoken in several regions to the west of the Ural Mountains within the Russian Federation. The total number of speakers is around 950,000, of which around 550 ...

and likely a number of extinct languages. In the traditional taxonomy of the Uralic languages, Finno-Permic is estimated to have split from

Finno-Ugric Finno-Ugric ( or ; ''Fenno-Ugric'') or Finno-Ugrian (''Fenno-Ugrian''), is a traditional grouping of all languages in the Uralic language family except the Samoyedic languages. Its formerly commonly accepted status as a subfamily of Uralic is ba ...

around 3000–2500 BC, and branched into

and

Finno-Volgaic languages Finno-Volgaic or Fenno-Volgaic is a hypothetical branch of the Uralic languages that tried to group the Finnic languages, Sami languages, Mordvinic languages and the Mari language. It was hypothesized to have branched from the Finno-Permic langua ...

around 2000 BC. Nowadays the validity of the group as a taxonomical entity is being questioned, and the interrelationships of its five branches are debated with little consensus. The term ''Finnic languages'' has often been used to designate all the Finno-Permic languages, with the term ''Balto-Finnic'' used to disambiguate the Finnic languages proper. In Finnish and Estonian scholarly usage, ''Finnic'' most often refers to the Baltic-Finnic languages alone.See
The Finnic languages
by

Johanna Laakso Johanna Laakso (born 1962 in Helsinki) is a Finnish linguist and Finno-Ugrist based at the University of Vienna. Biography Laakso studied Finno-Ugric languages, Finnic languages and general linguistics at the University of Helsinki from 1979 to 1 ...

in ''The Circum-Baltic languages: typology and contact'', p. 180.

Subclassification

The subclassification of the Finno-Permic languages varies among scholars. During the 20th century, most classifications treated Permic vs Finno-Volgaic as the primary division. In the 21st century, Salminen rejected Finno-Permic and Finno-Volgaic entirely. Other classifications treat the five branches of Finno-Permic as follows.

Subclassification

See also

References

Further reading