Ugric

Abstract

Ugric is an umbrella term for Hungarian and the two Ob-Ugric languages or language groups spoken in West Siberia, namely Khanty (in older literature, also known as “Ostyak”) and Mansi ("Vogul"). Traditionally, they have been considered to form a distinct subtaxon in the Uralic language family. However, although some common Ugric features can be found at all levels of language structure, many scholars now claim that these do not necessarily derive from a common Ugric protolanguage but rather reflect Sprachbund-like contact influences between Proto-Hungarian, Proto-Khanty, and Proto-Mansi. Departing from this prehistoric setting, this chapter presents an overview of the structure of the Ugric languages and the possible Common Ugric features in their phonology, morphology, lexicon and syntax, also briefly describing the language contacts which have contributed to the formation of today’s Hungarian, Khanty and Mansi varieties.

Acoustic correlates of word stress and focus marking in Udmurt

“… 1 Stress placement in other Uralic languages varies: e.g., in Hungarian, stress is fixed on the initial syllable (Siptár & Törkenczy 2000), and in Hill Mari, on the penult (Saarinen 2022); in Komi-Permyak, stress placement depends on morphological factors (Lytkin 1962); in Meadow Mari, stress targets the last full/non-reduced vowel in the word (Alhoniemi 2010). See Pajusalu (2022) for an overview.…”