It is easier to discuss the relations of the Finno-Ugric languages to one another than to decide what are their affinities with other groups. They are generally considered to be connected with the Samoyede, Turkish, Mandchu, and Mongolian languages, that is to say, the ancestor of each of these groups was related to the ancestor of the Finno-Ugrian languages. When, however, identity of vocabulary cannot be proved, it is dangerous to make comparisons on the ground of general grammatical resemblances, because the grammar of agglutinative languages offers few striking peculiarities, and represents a stage of development through which may other languages, certainly the Aryan, have passed. The only general description which can be given of the Finno-Ugric group is that they are languages without gender, whose grammatical structure consists entirely in appending suffixes. To these characteristics is generally added another, the vowel harmony, but this exists very partially in the Finnish group. Now without denying the possible relationship of Turkish, Mongol, and Mandchu to Finnish, it must be admitted that they have only a very general resemblance, and very many and precise differences. Mandchu and Mongol, with their uninflected verbs, would have been put into quite another class were they not undoubtedly akin to languages with a more developed system. And why should Japanese be excluded? It presents no phenomena incongruous with the grammar of the languages above cited, and the want of vowel harmony cannot be alleged as a difficulty.
If, however, we turn to the Samoyede languages the case is very different. They are usually mentioned as if they stood no nearer to the Finno-Ugric group than Turkish or Mandchu, and yet the resemblances in detail are numerous and striking.
They possess the vowel harmony, and apparently a law for the weakening of consonants analogous to that of Finnish and Esthonian, e.g. kinta, kindan; mat, maden; sok, sogon. The noun is strikingly like Finnish. We find a genitive in n, an accusative in m or p (cf. Lappish), a dative in ni or n, a locative in nan (cf. Finnish na), and an instrumental in se. There are three numbers, the dual is characterised by g or hā (cf. gen. in Ostiak, ag in Vogul), and the plural is formed with la or t (d). The pronouns show a good deal of variety, and it is evident that some forms (e.g. pudar, thou; puda, he) are not real pronouns but substantives used as pronouns. Still we find a general consensus for man as the 1st person singular, and some form of the same word for the plural; tan for the second singular, and te, ten, or ši for the plural (cf. Lappish, Cheremissian, Syrjenian, and Mordvinian). The 3rd person exists in several forms, tep, sete, di, etc., which may perhaps be compared with the Ostiak ten, Cheremissian tidä, and Syrjenian si̱a. The pronominal affixes are also extraordinarily numerous and varied, but they seem to include m for the 1st singular, t or d for the 2nd, jea (cf. Magyar ja) for the 3rd; mu or met for the 1st plural, and ta or tet for the 2nd. The interrogative pronouns are kutö, hübea, hoke, etc., who, and ma, mi, what. The verb and noun are not sharply distinguished. The verb takes two sets of pronominal suffixes, the predicative, with which an intransitive verb is always conjugated, and the possessive, which are used with both transitive and intransitive verbs. The preterite is formed by adding s, which occurs as a preterite suffix in Cheremissian, Mordvinian, Vogul, and Ostiak. The conjunctive is formed with nji, ne, na (cf. the Finnish ne). The imperative is formed with the syllable kar, gar, har (cf. Finnish ka). There is also an optative with the suffix rava, so perhaps kar is ka-ra.
Besides this similarity of grammatical forms there is a large common vocabulary. The following examples are taken at haphazard out of Castren’s lexicon:—River, jaha, joha (Finn. joki); hill, pirda (Finn. vuori); dark, paebi, paevuda (pimeä); to blow, pu’u (puhua); half, pealea, fealla (puoli); good, sava, sova (hyvä); fire, tu (tuli); fish, kole, hale (kala); tree, po, pe, pea (puu); bear, korg, kuerg (karhu); earth, mon (maa); narrow, small, tîjea (tyhjä, empty); to place, puenan (panna); live, jileadm (eleä); come, tû’am, töak (tulla)[4].
On the other hand, the Samoyede languages differ in many ways from the Ugro-Altaic group. The numbers are entirely different. The Ostiak Samoyede ōker, one, shows a faint resemblance to yhte, and sidea, or sede, two, has been compared with kahte, but such analogies are doubtful. Only the number seven, sin, sjelde, sjaibua shows a resemblance with the Finno-Ugric forms. But it is clear that the Samoyede numbers represent very primitive attempts at numeration (e.g. Jurak. hâsava-ju, Samoyede big number, for nine, lutsa-ju, Russian big number for ten), and that in many cases Turkish numbers have been borrowed (cf. tjet, tet, four, with Yakut tüört and kamass, khera 40, iliχ 50, althon 60, with Turkish kirk, elli, altmish). Samoyede is also more like the Turkish than the Finno-Ugric language in its power of adding predicative and temporal suffixes to nouns (which implies a want of distinction between the verb and noun). Thus lūtsa means a Russian; lūtsam, I am a Russian; lūtsamsʻ, I was a Russian.
The above sketch of Samoyede has no pretence to be exhaustive, and may be charged with inaccuracy, inasmuch as words and forms are cited indifferently from all the dialects. For a proper investigation of the question it is no doubt necessary to thoroughly study the relations of the Samoyede languages to one another, to establish the original forms, and in particular to determine the influence of foreign languages, whether Turkish or Finno-Ugric, on the Samoyede vocabulary. But unless there is something strangely misleading in the superficial character of these dialects, it appears to me that they undoubtedly stand far nearer to Finno-Ugric than do Turkish or Mongolian, and should indeed be classed as outlying members of the Finno-Ugric group. The want of similarity in the numbers is certainly very strange, but the other resemblances in vocabulary seem to me to be conclusive, unless all the words in question are borrowed.
A FINNISH GRAMMAR.
The Finnish Alphabet consists of 21 letters, viz.: a, d, e, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v (or w), y, ä, ö.