LING 2009 Languages of the World: The Uralic Languages

1. Uralic sub-groups
1.1 Finnic (Finnish, Estonian, Saami): SVO/free word order, mostly agglutinating morphology
1.2 Ugric (Hungarian): SVO/free word order, agglutinating morphology
1.3 Samoyedic (Nenets): SOV; archaic character

2. Saami

Negative verb (as in Finnish):

Person	Singular	Dual	Plural
1	in  "I (do) not"	aen	ate
2	it   "you (do) not"	aep'pi	eppet
3	ii   "s/he does not"	aeba	aei

Muhto in mun gierda guldalit
but     NEG  I  dared  listen
But I dared not listen

From a Saami poem by Nils Aslak Valkeapää

go mi leimmet	When we were
dalle go mii leimmet dáppe iesgaskaneamet,	Back when we lived for ourselves
eliimet ja leimmet oassi luonndus.	Lived and were part of nature
ja mii bivddiimet ja guolásteimmet, ja gottimet,	And we fished and hunted and killed
vuoi ealáseimmet, ja mii didiimet, ahte go mii jápmit,	So that we could live, and we knew that when we died
mii saddat oassin eatnamis, ja addit eallima soames eará eallái.	We would become part of the earth
ja mii leimmet oassi luonddus ja me dovddasteimmet luonddu min badjelii	And we were part of nature and we recognised nature as our master

Saami song Gula gula 'Hear, hear' sung by Mari Boine, from Eallin ("live")

Gula gula	Hear, hear
Nieida, gánda	Listen
Gula máttut dál du curvot	Hear the voices of the foremothers ask
Manin attát eatnama duolvat	Why you let the earth become polluted
Mirkkoduvvot	poisoned
Guoriduvvot	exhausted

Gula jiena	They remind you where you come from
Nieida, gánda	Listen
Gula mátturáhkuid jiena	Do you hear, they want to remind you
Eana lea min buohkaid eadni	The earth is our mother
Dan jos goddit ieza jápmit	If we take her life we die with her

3. A taste of Hungarian grammar

Examples from song lyrics:

Nominative (Subject):   a   lany
                                   the girl

Accusative (Object) eléri   azt,
                            reaches that-Acc

Superessive: “on”  viz-é-n
                           water-its-on

Inessive: "in”        a   szél-ben
                          the wind-in

Illative: "into”   a szív-be
                      the heart-into

Ablative “from” senki-töl
                         nobody-from

3.2 Verb inflections

Subjective conjugation    Objective conjugation

tud-ok  “I know”          tud-om “I know (it)”
tud-sz  “you know”      tud-od “you know (it)”
tud    “s/he knows”      tud-ja “he/she knows (it)”
tud-unk  “we know”      tud-juk “we know (it)”
tud-tok  “you (pl) know”    tud-játok “you (pl) (know it)”
tud-nak  “they know”  tud-ják “they know (it)”

3.3 Vowel harmony
                      the heart-into

	Back vowels:			Front vowels		Front rounded vowels
short	a	o	u	e	i	ö	ü
long	á	ó	ú	é	í	?	?

• any word must contain only front vowels or only back vowels
• consequence: suffixes change their form according to the vowels in the stem to which they attach

 

 

e.g. Possessive suffixes:

haj-a      arc-a      szív-e        könyv-e
hair-3sg    face-3sg    heart-3sg    book-3sg

álmok   csapdáj-a    hív-ja,       atölel-i      a     fény
dreams snare-their call-3sg  entices-3sg the light/sparkle
‘The snare of dreams calls her, the light entices her’

Haj-a   lobog   a   szél-ben,  arc-a   a   tó   viz-é-n
hair-her floats the wind-in  face-her the lake water-its-on
‘Her hair floats in the wind, her face on the water of the lake’

Csak egy lány, a sors-a  az,  hogy  gyönyörü  szép
Just one girl  the fate-her that, that  splendid(ly) beautiful
‘Just one girl, whose fate was to be fabulously beautiful’

álmok   csapdáj-a    hív-ja,       atölel-i      a     fény
dreams snare-their call-3sg  embraces-3sg the light/sparkle
‘The snare of dreams calls her, the light embraces her’

és   a   lany   eléri   azt,    amit   ö   szem remelt
and the girl reaches that which she never hoped
‘And the girl gets what she never dreamed of’

A   szép-ek      szép-e,     mondd   hova   lett?   A  szerelem  várta  még
The beautiful-PL beautiful-POSS tell where became  the  love  waited  still
‘The beauty of beauties, tell me what became of her?  Love still awaited her’

Mósolya   át-lebeg,   a   feledés    felett,   fiu-szemek-ben él
Smile-3sg across-floated the oblivion over  boy-eyes-in lives
‘Her smile floated away into oblivion,  it lives on in the eyes of boys’

Szavak szurnok a szív-be   és   a   szépseg  se  véd
??      sting-PL the heart-into  and the beauty never defends
‘Her heart was stung, and beauty never defends’

Senki-töl   se    ovja    öt   a   tizenhat  év
nobody-from never protect the sixteen years
‘Her sixteen years never protected her from anyone’

Átkos    áldás-a      üz-i,         elsötétül  a   fény
Curse blessing-3sg pursue-Obj   go-out the light
‘Her blessing of a curse pursued her, and out went the light’

 Es  a  harang most erte szó,  de  már  ne  váraszol
And the bell now for-her rings, but already not answers
‘And now the bell rings for her, but she no longer replies’

from Naplemez  ('Disc of the day', 1989) by  Elsö Emelet ('The First Floor')