Spoken in Estonia and its environs, Estonian is the world's only Finno-Ugric language. Divided into two dialects - northern (Tallinn) and southern - it dates back to 1520 with the Kullamaa prayers marking its earliest written material. Nowadays, this unique Uralic tongue carries a rich heritage of history through generations past up until today.
Estonian is an extraordinary language - it belongs to the Baltic-Finnic branch of Finno-Ugric languages and shares similarities with Finnish, Votic, Livonian, Ingrian, Karelian and Veps. What makes Estonian stand out from its cousins are three distinct lengths for consonants and vowels - like how kooli can be pronounced two different ways depending on context. It also has a unique characteristic known as Consonant Gradation where certain letters alter their sound in specific contexts; however unlike other Uralic tongues Estonia lacks vowel harmony which keeps words composed only of select combinations of sounds at bay! Grammatical categories come alive through its versatile system that can give you plenty to practice your new vocabulary on.
Finno-Ugric languages
With over several million speakers scattered across the northern hemisphere, Finno-Ugric languages are one of two branches within the comprehensive Uralic language family. This expansive network stretches from Norway in Europe to Siberia and is composed of enclaves surrounded by other Germanic, Slavic, Romanian and Turkish speaking peoples along the lower Danube River region.
The Finno-Ugric language family hosts a variety of tongues, from the Ugric division consisting of Hungarian and Ob-Ugric branches to the five groups comprising its Finnic branch. Baltic-Finnic languages like Finnish, Estonian, Karelian (including Olonets), Ludic and more are complemented by Permic speakers such as those speaking Udmurt (Votyak) or Mari's unique Cheremis dialect while Mordvin even has two distinct varieties: Erzya & Moksha. Lastly Sami is all but unrecognizable in its various divisions spread across Scandinavia with many experts considering it multiple diasparate languages entirely.
The vocabulary of the Finno-Ugric languages reflects a series of contacts with neighbouring non-Uralic peoples at different periods in history. Loanwords from Indo-Iranian seem to be the oldest. Finnish borrowed from Baltic languages in remote times and later from Germanic languages and Russian. Mari, Udmurt, and the Ob-Ugric languages are rich in Turkic loanwords. Hungarian has also borrowed at different times from several Turkic sources, as well as from Iranian, Slavic, German, Latin, and the Romance languages.
The Finno-Ugric language group is incredibly diverse, with each of its members exhibiting unique features that cannot be found in any other. For instance, vowel harmony - a trait commonly attributed to the languages of this family - does not exist within Sami, Khanty or Permic speech. By contrast consonant gradation (a process whereby stems are changed by alternating between two classes) can only be heard when listening to specific tongues such as those from Finland and Baltic countries. Additionally certain markers like suffixes might be used for grammatical categorization whereas others may rely on well constructed cases systems instead; both Finnish and Hungarian have elaborate structures along these lines! Dual number however remains marked solely across all dialects spoken by Ob-Ugric speakers alone.
