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BACKGROUND ARTICLE

THE "URALIC" LANGUAGE GROUP THAT INCLUDES THE  "FINNO-UGRIC" and "SAMOYEDIC" LANGUAGES

Modern language families that appear to be descended from ancient boat peoples on the one hand and ancient reindeer hunters on the other



Synopsis: The UIRALA articles, cover the evidence in the archeological record that when looked at overall, appear to describe the development of a way of life in the aftermath of the Ice Age, that revolved around boat-use to move around in the northern environment flooded with the metlwater of the glaciers. In modern times linguistics has  identified the indigenous languages (ie not the immigrant Russian dominating today) in the region between Scandinavia and the Ural Mountains.  Because the "Uralic" language family was first  defined in the 19th century, before there was much information from archeology or population genetics,  you the reader may not find the most current thinking on the Uralic language family or the Finno-Ugric language family or Samoyedic language family.  The purpose of the following is to present the linguistic side of the boat peoples,  in the form that  is based on all available data from all sciences - using information unavailable a century ago. Some aspects of the new information like the N-haplogroups is discussed.
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The Relationship of the Archeological Boat peoples and the "Finno-Ugric" language family

      When the term "Uralic" is used, it usually refers to two families of languages - the "Finno-Ugric" and "Samoyedic". The "Samoyedic" languages are those found in the Tamir Peninsula among peoples with origins in reindeer hunting-herding. The "Finno-Ugric" languages consist of sub-families - Finnic generally in the water basin of the Gulf of Finland, Volgic in the lower Volga River region, Permic found in the Kama River water system which drains into the Volga from the north, and the Ob-Ugrians on the Ob River to the east of the Ural Mountains.
    In respect to the UIRALA articles on the development and expansion of ancient people with a boat-based way of life, we note that the Finno-Ugric cultures today have plenty of imagery and mythology revolving around boats and waterbirds. There is surviving cultural memory of an ancient life revolving around boat use. Secondly also connecting the Finno-Ugric language speakers to the boat peoples descended from the Maglemose and/or Kunda Cultures, is the fact that the above listed subfamilies of Finno-Ugric are found in  four major water systems. Such apparent linguistic division by water system proves that when the original boat peoples filled up the region between Scandinavia and the Urals arose from the fact the peoples were boat peoples, whose activity would be naturally confined to water systems, breaking a continnum of language into regions that could develop like dialects.

THE NATURAL DIVISION AND SUBDIVISION ACCORDING TO WATER GEOGRAPHY OF BOAT-BASED HUNTER-GATHERERS

Figure 1

A RECENT EXAMPLE OF LARGE WATER SYSTEM DIVISIONS NATURALLY FORMED IN SEASONALLY NOMADIC BOAT (CANOE) USING HUNTER-GATHERERS. THEIR OWN LEGENDS SPEAK OF ORIGINS IN THE VICINITY OF THE EASTERN COAST AREA WITH THEIR EXPANSION BEING VIA MAINLY INTO THE GREAT LAKES




 It is possible to refer to the situation  that existed in eastern Canada when the European colonists arrived. The Algonquian language family tribes each occupied large water systems - Labrador Innu in the Churchill River, Saguenay Innu in the Saguenay River system, Ottawa Algonquins in the Ottawa River valley,  several Ojibwa (Anishnabe) tribes in water basins draining into the Great Lakes from the north side.  Since water systems are quite large, each one contains a 'people', which will subdivide into sub-systems such as several tribes in several groupings of rivers draining into for example the Cree into Hudson Bay, or Ojibwa into the waters of the upper Great Lakes. There is a natural subdividing of boat-based hunter-gatherers according to the geography of water systems 

    For example . there is a perfect example in the Mississauga subdivision of the Anishnabe/Ojibwa Algonquian peoples around the several Great Lakes water basins. The specific tribe or sub-people occupied the entire Trent River water system that drained the waters of the Kawartha Lakes towards Lake Ontario. In that instance,  the specific tribe  covered a region as long as 400 km. They formed a tribe of the Mississaugas. There were also Ojibwa in waters draining into Lake Huron from the east, or from the north, and additionally into Lake Superior. It was the the water geography that grouped the peoples together, and once the groupings became established, there was soft separation from adjacent tribes, which allowed the development of small individual dialectic peculiarities compared to neighbours, but because boat-based way of life, and sometimes gatherings of tribes (called "pow-wows") the divergence in seasonally nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples was small. However, when we consider the large scale water systems (Hudson Bay Cree in waters draining into the south half of Hudson Bay; Ojibwa (Anishnabe) in waters draining into Lake Ontario from the north, the Ottawa Algonquins in the waters of the large Ottawa River,  and so on...) the linguistic groupings from the separation bordered on the dialects being languages. For example the Ojibwa of Lake Superior might make fun of some Cree words and vice versa, but the languages were close enough that in regions of contact like Sioux Lookout, a hybrid language developed they call "Oji-Cree".

    In general most of the "Algonquian" family (as linguists call this whole family) is defined by expansion from the east into the Great Lakes water system, however some of the Algonquians on the coast from Newfoundland south to New England, appear to have become established via travelling up rivers from the Atlantic. This - as suggested in the UIRALA articles - seems to suggest these peoples have an origin in peoples with connection to seagoing skin boat peoples, who perhaps descended from the "Dorset Culture" which was pushed out of the northeast arctic by immigration of "Thule Culture".

   Figure 2


SUGGESTED SIMILAR BOAT PEOPLES NATURALLY DEVELOPING DIALECTIC LINGUISTIC DIVISIONS ACCORDING TO WATER SYSTEMS BASED ON ARCHEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF THE SPREAD OF "MAGLEMOSE" and "KUNDA" BOAT CULTURES FROM SOUTH SCANDINAVIA



    In the above map, the blue represents the regions in which the nomadic boat peoples moved throughout the year. There were no sharp permanent boundaries, and each large scale water system could naturally subdivide further, producing several tribes. It is the water geography that determined what nomadic extended families become associated with what other families to represent the tribe of that particular water geography It is possible, with information about ther recent Algonquian divisions in Figure 1, to look at maps of water geography in the entire region, and get a good sense of where the tribes were located and even where there were gathering places for extended families of a tribe, and also several neighbouring tribes. Furthermore, the Canadian  Alqonquian experience shows that these peoples, not bound by any formal political organization, are influenced to group themselves into natural tribes purely from water geography. As civilization progressed in Europe, external influences promoted the establishing of towns, the arrival of trade, and attempts at farming. These new activities narrowed the range of movements that sharpened the divisions.  Dialectic difference between neighbours that were very small when they were boat-using and fully nomadic, became large dialectic differences. For example in the Baltic Finnic region we are today aware of two major languages - Estonian and Finnish. These languages are defined by the creation of political nations and the standardization of the language. Before the political divisions there would have been a continuum of dialects from the southeast Baltic northward into Finland. This continuum would have been punctuated by divisions ultimately caused by water systems which also affected orientation for trade. For example there would have been an Estonian-like dialect at the mouth of the Vistula, going north, a dialect in the Neemen River (The Lithuanians were originally the Leedu, peoples of the sandbars)  and next peoples of the Venta River and Curonian Peninsula, next peoples of the Daugava (Finnic Vaina) River who were the Livonains, next peoples of the Pärnu River, and we could go on through Estonia towards the Narva Region and then around the Guff of Finland to a south Finnish people, a west Finnish people, and so on-- maybe a hundred dialects when reaching the reindeer peoples. These were a natural continuum divided by the natural desire of peoples to group families into at least a small tribe, and that grouping would be, for boat peoples, determined by water systems. If on the sea, the circumstances of coastal geography, prevailing winds, etc dictated the way extended families because clustered into tribes.

    The modern Finno-Ugric languages  developed from a condensation from political and trade forces of the numerous dialectic divisions into a fewer number of strong dialects that became related languages. The Canadian Algonquian situation appears to have developed a considerable time ago, but because there never was any net population growth, and no intrusion of outside forces until recently, the early "primitive" situation survived there. In the west Eurasian experience, we can still find some of the original natural organization of water-based peoples by water geography in the Ob-Ugrians on the Ob, where remains of what we see in the Canadian Algonquian experience, are still found. Just as the Algonquians still have remains of their birch-bark canoes, so too the Ob-Ugrians who have kept up connections to their traditional tribal origins, which include still making their dugout canoes.


Side-note: there are Finnish linguists who are so closely tied to a linguistics-based belief that the regions between Scandinavia and the Urals originally had some earlier Paleo-language, and that the Finno-Ugric languages replaced them. The fact that Finno-Ugric languages preserve the intimate connections to an ancient boat-oriented way of life, and even subdivide in ways that echo ancient origins in natural tribal divisions according to water geography, prove that the Finno-Ugric languages must have developed from the languages of the boat peoples, originating ultimately in the "Maglemose" and "Kunda" archeological cultures at the end of the Ice Age. If an original unknown language was replaced by "Finno-Ugric", these echoes with the boat-people past would no longer be found, since language is an aspect of culture, and replacement of language will also be accompanied by replacement of other aspects of culture. An example where such replacement really occurred, would be the arrival of farming culture towards the south.

    
 
   

The Samoyedic Languages and Peoples: Descended from Asian Reindeer Hunters

    Unlike the Finno-Ugric languages and traditions being easily linked to the original expansions of the boat peoples at the end of the Ice Age, the Samoyedic peoples of the Tamir Peninsula, are not part of the UIRALA story, as they originated from Asian reindeer hunters. This has been revealed by population genetics concerning the N-haplogroup. From populationg genetics frequency determinations, the N-haplogroup, originated in southern Asia about 20,000 years ago, and when the world climate warmed, it shifted north. Since the N-haplogroup variants are very strong today in peoples who are associated with reindeer - Saami, Samoyeds, and Yakuts - it is quite obvious that men carrying these haplogroups were reindeer hunters, who shifted northward with the reindeer as the reindeer tried to remain in their native habitat - the tunda - which as a result of climate warming was shifting north. The N2 haplogroup in high frequency in Samoyedic men appears to have migrated north via the Central Siberian Plateau.  This population genetics information shows with little doubt that the Samoyedic peoples originate from Asian reindeer hunters, and that is also reflected in their mongoloid physical features.
    Because of this unique origin in Asian reindeer hunters, the Samoyedic languages have not direct role in the UIRALA boat peoples story. However from the point of view of being neighbours to the boat peoples, and becoming closely associated with them, if we define a linguistic family based on a community of interracting peoples, and not in terms of a genetic descent, then we can still define a "Uralic language group or community" if not a family tree.
     Thus the Samoyeds belong to the "Uralic" languages group purely from being strongly associated with the Finno-Ugric languages through close relations with the Ob-Ugric boat peoples.
    It is believed today that this close association with the Ob-Ugric is simply the natural exchanges that exist between dialectic groups across the soft boundaries. While the Finno-Ugric languages developed like the Algonquian languages in Canada did - with dialectic divergence caused by the water geographic influences creating groupings of extended families, and dialectic convergence with neighbours caused by the contining exchanges between them albeit at a lower degree. If the neighbouring regions have essentially the same language, the exchanges and changes are small and not noticable. But if there is a neighbouring region of a significantly different language, then the exchanges need to be more dramatic - involving borrowing a significant number of words. Simple adjustments are not possible. Therefore when the Samoyedic languages became associated with the Ob River Finno-Ugric boat peoples, over a long period of time, a bridging hybrid language had to develop that borrowed considerably from the Samoyedic. This borrowing also appears in the genetics and culture. The Ob-Ugrians show not just strong N2-haplogroups, but also are physically quite mongoloid in appearance.





Figure 3

THE MOST ACCURATE REPRESENTATION OF THE URALIC LANGUAGES COMMUNITY

   
   

The above diagram, designed to approximately correspond with a map of Eurasia as far east as the Tamir Peninsula,  summarizes the Uralic languages to best fit all the information available today. The double arrows show the normal two way exchanges between dialects, by which diffusion of s change  in the Ugric source can occur. The arrows between Ugric and Samoyedic represent the convergence that produced the Ugric language and modified some of the Samoyedic

   

Revelations from N-haplogroup population genetics


    Population genetics has developed recently, but its discovery that peoples from the Baltic to the Urals appear to have connections to Asians, is actually obvious from facial features  like high cheekbones and wide more flat faces. This is obviously the consequence of diffusion of genetics from the east. It does not alter the original events of the expansion of boat peoples from Europe eastward.
    Thus when population genetics also discovered an N3-haplogroup in Finno-Ugric peoples, nobody should be surprised. We can see it now and then in Finnic faces.
    The story of the N3-haplogroup is the following: In addition to population genetics discovering that the Samoyeds originated from N2-halogroup carring reindeer hunters from Asia, they also discovered that a subsequent branch of the N-haplogroup also migrated north, this one dividing between migrating north to the west of the Ob River water basin and to the east.  The Ob River did not really exist. Around 10,000 years there was a  giant glacial lake where today there are endless marshes and bogs. Therefore the reindeer herds had to split to going east and west and then continue north. The haplogroup of the reindeer hunters following the reindeer, the N3-haplogroup (now with revisions to the naming called N1c1) on the one hand migrated to northeast Siberia to where the Yakuts are today on the one hand, and to northeast Europe as well, presumably to the northern parts of the Ural Mountains.  We are of course not speaking of the Samoyeds at this point, who are located in the Tamir Peninsula on the east side of the giant glacial lake. (See map). 



SOME ADDITIONAL DETAILS: THE INTERRACTION BETWEEN BOAT PEOPLES ORIGINATING FROM EUROPE AND REINDEER PEOPLES ORIGINATING GROM ASIA




Figure 4

 ORANGE ARROWS SHOW ROUTES TAKEN BY REINDEER HERDS AND FOLLOWED BY REINDEER HUNTERS. THE ASIAN REINDEER HUNTERS CARRIED DIFFERENT N-HAPLOGROUPS, ONE BRANCH OF WHICH ENTERED NORTHEAST EUROPE



This map of Eurasia shows the two archeologically well-documented cultures "Maglemose" and "Kunda" cultures that expanded as the climate warmed, following all the waterways easily accessed from the Baltic. The orange arrows suggest locations where reindeer herds successfully reached the arctic. Obviously in northern Europe, all the reindeer tundra disappeared. Pure logic alone suggests that when the glaciers were gone, and the coastline returned to what it is today, the tundra return and Samoyedic reindder peoples and reindeer herds would have been able to migrate west along the northern coast, and reach northern Finland. The Saami peoples may have come from this migration. Since the glaciers covered Scandinavia, it is unlikely reindeer people managed to enter northern Scandinavia any earlier. This migration, perhaps around a millenium or two after the time shown in the map, would have carried the N3 haplogroup west. It then later diffused south into the Finno-Ugric peoples.

Figure 5

A GRAPHIC SHOWING HOW BOAT PEOPLES EXPANDED EAST IN THE FOREST ZONE, WHILE REINDEER PEOPLES AND REINDEER HERDS EXPANDED WEST WHEN THE REINDEER TUNDRA HAD BEEN RESTORED IN NORTHERN EUROPE




The above diagram, intends to show diffusion of language elements, genetics, etc in a radiating fashion. The solid arrows are intended to show actual people movements. We do not know if the reindeer people were the Samoyeds, or the carriers of the N3 haplogroup, or both. But this diagram shows the general idea as shown in two arrows in Figure 3 - that the Uralic languages group is a merging of European and Asian traditions. It does not suggest any replacement of either original  boat people language, nor reindeer peoples language, but a general exchange.  To understand the entire linguistic situation let us imagine that first the original Finno-Ugric language at the Ob River, changed dramatically from Samoyedic influence, and then through the normal two way exchanges between dialectic regions, the Samoyedic elements to some small degree enter the next dialect - Permic - and then the change in Permic influence the Volgic, and so on - which can be viewed as diffusion of Samoyedic elements (language elements, cultural elements, genetic elements).




    It is obvious that the story of the Finno-Ugric peoples is not entirely about boat peoples expanding from the archeologically defined "Maglemose" and "Kunda" cultures, because of the contacts with the reindeer peoples near the Ural Mountains.  Even before the N-haplogroup evidence, any Finno-Ugric person would note from time to time the presence of mild Asiatic facial features. Logically, if the eastward expanding  peoples  had not interracted with Asians, the Finno-Ugric peoples would look entirely European. The mongoloid characteristics are an adaptation to the arctic conditions, and they will increase in strength according to how much time a people remain in arctic conditions.  The only peoples who would have remained longest in arctic conditions would have been those who followed the reindeer into the north, and never left the arctic climate.  But the European reindeer hunters (The "Ahrensburg Culture" were blocked early from continuing north, when those in continental Europe came up against the wall of glaciers.  Next, those European reindeer hunters who were able to continue northeast, the "Swinderian Culture", could only last a little while longer. Figure 4 shows that the climate was as it was today and the reindeer tundra was all gone and would not return until the glaciers were gone and the original European coast was restored.  THEREFORE, the only peoples to have remained steadily in arctic conditions were the reindeer hunters of Asia who WERE able to stay with the reindeer all the way up until modern times. (Note: in Asia, it is possible peoples living in the mountains may also have continued to enhance their arctic characteristics.)
    In Finnic peoples today,. if you take a survey of Finnic faces you will see the mongoloid characteristics (some Finns often look like blonde Asians!) are strongest in the north, and then decrease going down southward into Estonians. This is the best proof that there was a migration of reindeer peoples along the arctic coast perhaps from the Samoyeds. Arriving with reindeer herds, they also carried the N3-haplogroup, and both the facial features and the haplogroup diffused in decreasing with distance down the east Baltic coast.

Summary of our best connecting the first boat peoples expansion to modern languages



    So the total story is that the "Uralic" language family is best defined as a group of contiguous languages ultimately originating with the archeological "Maglemose" and/or "Kunda" cultrues, where one portion is a foreign addition - the Samoyeds. It is not a genetic descent situation, but simply four related languages developed in situ like dialects, plus one foreign additional language that was so different that the Ugric languages were born in the Ob River.
    If the Ugric languages arose because of the contact with the Samoyeds, that suggests that originally the boat peoples may not have gone east of the Ural Mountains - the Ob-Ugrians did not exist. Then a Permic group may have crossed the Urals, and in fact the Ob-Ugrians developed from the Permic language interracting with the original Samoyedic language.
    For the purpose of the boat peoples theory, the Samoyeds do not have involvement in the boat peoples, except that the Ob River Ob-Ugrians may have been the source of another expansion of boat peoples south on the Ob River, and entering other rivers and reaching as far as the upper Lena River.



author: A.Paabo, Box 478, Apsley, Ont., Canada

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2016 (c) A. Pääbo.