ASMR The Finno-Ugric Languages (soft spoken, map tracing)

We continue our language exploration with the Finno-Ugric family, a relatively small but diverse group of languages spoken in Northern Europe, Russia and of course Hungary. There are some surprising similarities to the Turkic languages, such as agglutinaton and vowel harmony, but even within the family, exact classifications are difficult to establish. So if you like linguistic puzzles, this one's definitely for you!
Maps are from:
Glück/Rödel (ed.): Metzler Lexikon Sprache, 5th edition. (German)
Putzger: Historischer Weltatlas, Kartenausgabe. (German)
All info is collected from various Wikipedia articles. Please keep in mind that I'm not an expert on any of these particular languages and I'm happy to hear your additions and corrections. The goal, as always, is to tell you something interesting to help you relax and sleep. So if you drift off halfway through, that's perfectly alright with me! 🤍
If you prefer audio only, the podcast version is available on Spotify and Amazon Music under Melange ASMR.
You can support my channel via:
www.paypal.com/paypalme/melan...
If you'd like to send a map, address it to:
Melange ASMR
Postfach 0021
1015 Vienna
Austria

[@sinaedjk9765]

Thanks!

[@MelangeASMR]

Thank you!! 💛

[@NeofolkClassics]

Udmurt and Mari were actually on that map. You couldn't find them because it was akin to looking for Magyar when only knowing of Hungarian, in that their exonyms are Votyak and Cheremis respectively. Also, getting really technical now, South Estonian was the first Finnic language to split off and phylogenetically Northern Estonian and Finnish are in a single sub-group which excludes the southern language. But the southern language has been influenced by the northern language to such an extent that its most divergent features have gradually diminished, and likewise the standardisation of Estonian saw the borrowing of some southern elements into the official language. Therefore mutual intelligibility has increased with the centuries, however unique features remain. This is also where the debate over whether it's a dialect or its own language comes from, merely looking at it empirically would have one guess it's a dialect but knowing the totality of its history leads to the second conclusion. We are far away from a politically charged Spanish-Catalan standoff though, the unanimous consensus is that both are part of a single nation.

[@MelangeASMR]

Thank you for the detailed response!That's a fascinating case with Estonian. I didn't really have time to read up on it as much as I would have liked, so I really appreciate you taking the time to write your comment. And yes, the names threw me off a bit - I was using other texts to prepare and didn't make the connection.

[@mtchaves1985]

Oh my, this is so interesting! Thanks for sharing 😁

[@Heetteri]

Great video! Some interesting tidbits: I'm not sure if it was mentioned, but the first attempt to write Finnish and establish a grammar by Mikael Agricola was based on the grammar of German, and it looks incredibly wacky to the modern eye. :D Secondly, Estonians and us Finns actually do understand each other pretty well, although there's a lot of words that mean something different in the other language.

[@MelangeASMR]

Thank you! I read about Agricola but didn't manage to pack him into the video - there's already too much going on haha. The way you describe it makes it sounds very tempting to get into it. I love the sound of Finnish but the grammar scares me. Maybe a little German perspective would help 😅 And yeah, that makes sense with Estonian and Finnish, given that they're more closely related and spoken in the same area.

[@hansangcho6553]

You are my favorite ASMRtist these days. No frill, no fuss, straight to interesting information; light object sounds, great voice/tone/volume. Just wanted to thank you so much for your videos and tell you that I really appreciate the format.

[@MelangeASMR]

Thank you so much, that's really wonderful feedback!

[@nibik8]

So cool, great video. As an estonian i understand very basic finnish but hungarian sounds like a really distant cousin and i really cant understand anything. But sadly yes, most of the finno-ugric laguages are in decline.

[@MelangeASMR]

Hey Aleks, thank you! Yeah it's sadly an issue with many small languages.

[@margovsko]

I’m originally from Karelia and I still remember learning Karelian songs in Kindergarden ☺️ This was my first time learning about its origins. Thank you so much for this enlightening video! ♥️

[@evigskog]

Ahhhh yes another video to fall asleep to and then watch 100 more times to fully digest the info. These are my favorite videos!! So good 🥰

[@MelangeASMR]

Thank you 💛💛💛 And I hope you sleep well every time!

[@Wytchandwyvern]

These language videos are almost too interesting to fall asleep to. Would you ever consider doing a video on the universal aspects of all languages? Parts of speech we see across all or most languages?

[@MelangeASMR]

Love that idea! I actually have a couple of books on the topic at home, I just can't ever seem to find the time to read them. Something similar I'd love to do is also communication across languages (so lingua franca, planned languages, etc.) Maybe also interesting to you :)

[@sofiabecerracalvino6220]

Its so sweet of you to list the books in the description, thank u! 💕

[@MelangeASMR]

Of course! Tho they're often in German, I don't know how useful that is to most of my audience 😅

[@tylerpentecost9669]

I would not have expected this to be the most requested language family, but a great video as always!

[@MelangeASMR]

I was pretty surprised as well, but people really have been adamant...

[@katieherger4928]

The 3D map is back! I love it! Thanks for another wonderful video. Well researched and informative as always. You’re just the best!

[@MelangeASMR]

I didn't expect such a little fan community for the 3D-map haha, I'll have to look out for another one! Hope you're feeling a little better already?

[@ralphbarrett3408]

just found your channel - that was the most calming & informative video in a while . Well done :)

[@MelangeASMR]

Thank you so much, Ralph, love to hear that!

[@chrisgrayson2391]

Another excellent video that gives me knowledge of things I knew nothing about before watching. Also a very relaxing video as always, you are the best ❤️

[@MelangeASMR]

Thank you so much, I'm very happy you enjoyed it!

[@daniellaharkai4269]

Dieses Video war besonders spannend und als Ungarin und als Finnischlerner erwärmt mein Herz. 🥰 Tja, es gibt wirklich eine Menge Frage, aber vielleicht deswegen sind diese Sprachen so geheimnisvoll. Tausendmal vielen Dank für dieses erstaunlichen Video. ❤️

[@MelangeASMR]

Stimmt, wahrscheinlich wäre ein Interview mit dir die beste Vorbereitung für das Thema gewesen! 💛 Vielen, vielen Dank - dein Feedback freut mich immer sehr!

[@SS-te3nl]

IM ALWAYS SO EXCITED TO SEE A NEW VIDEO !!!! thank you so much Melange 💕💞💗💖

[@MelangeASMR]

My pleasure 😇🥰🥰💕

[@gregweston657]

I'm looking forward to listening to this one! Such a challenging language family compared to a lot of others.

[@MelangeASMR]

Also challenging to prepare haha, there was lots of new info for me.

[@veras0208]

As a Hungarian I found this video fascinating 🥰 PS I have finish friends and I definitely don't understand a word they say😀

[@MelangeASMR]

Love to hear that, thank you! Haha yeah, it doesn't even sound similar, does it?

[@Benni777]

Can I just say that I had a horrible headache before his video, and after drinking some water while watching this, I feel 100% better?! It was probably the dehydration, but your voice just took it up a notch for me! Thanks so much for this info! Plz keep these vids coming!🤗

[@MelangeASMR]

Aw I'm so glad to hear you felt better afterwards! And yes, taking a little time to relax definitely doesn't hurt 💚

[@LoFIJak]

I love these language family videos so much. I love languages and learning about them 😍

[@MelangeASMR]

You're so kind, thank you!! Hope you're doing well 🧡

[@cskitti0922]

Ich freue mich über dieses Video, weil ich Ungarin bin, und ich finde die ungarische Sprache sehr interessant. Danke, dass du dieses Video gemacht hast :)

[@MelangeASMR]

Puh dann hoffe ich, dass ich alles richtig wiedergegeben habe! Ungarisch hat auch so eine reiche und spannende Geschichte, es war nicht einfach, sich da einzulesen. :)

[@aleynaa00]

Soft talk is one of my favorite asmr genres. And you're really good at it .

[@MelangeASMR]

That is so nice to hear, thank you! 💜

[@aleynaa00]

@@MelangeASMR 💜🌸

[@niamhirvine4951]

Love your videos!! Would love another video of you fixing the maps ❤

[@MelangeASMR]

Like the French guide I had? I'll keep an eye out, maybe I can find another odd map. Thank you!!

[@karfomachet7265]

the Udmurt language is on your map under the name Votyak . It is between Permian / Komi Permyaks and the Mari El / Cheremis on your map , which is all so in another language ( your map ) making these language names that much harder to read . For example the Mari El people all so known as the Cheremis are on your map called the Tscheremissisch. There in fact 3 Mari El languages , the meadow Mari , the Hill Mari and the Eastern Mari .

[@MelangeASMR]

Ah, thank you! Switching between sources and languages maybe wasn't the best strategy to prepare 😅

[@alekseeeeej]

Uuuuuuuuh.... I'm early since I subscribed recently....... best yt channel ever! So inspiring! Love you!!!! 😍

[@MelangeASMR]

Thank you so much, love to hear that!!

[@michaelthornhill9073]

You are ridiculously smart I love you're method of teaching ❤️

[@MelangeASMR]

I'm glad you enjoy it, thank you so much!

[@michaelshinkar5894]

What a lovely video! I am one of the Finno-Ugric fans out there 😁

[@MelangeASMR]

Thank you so much, I hope I've managed to present these languages accurately :)

[@diabeticalien3584]

Wow, how relaxing! And very informative too

[@MelangeASMR]

Thank you, glad to hear it!

[@katie5575]

I am obsessed with finno-ugric anthropology so thanks for this!

[@MelangeASMR]

My pleasure! You're probably more well-versed in this subject than I am tho :)

[@paulfriedrich8326]

I'm sure this is 90th on the requests list, but I think the Dravidic languages would be very fun :)

[@MelangeASMR]

Something like that, yes 😅 I'll add it!

[@acrosstheboard3207]

I would love to send you a map of New England. We have the oldest history in America as you know. I just know you would have the best explanation of it, not to mention the most relaxing.

[@MelangeASMR]

I'd love that!!

[@springreasmr]

Soo relaxing! You are a big inspiration for me🥰🥰🇧🇷

[@MelangeASMR]

Aw thank you, that's really sweet! 🧡

[@gisli1131]

It is nice to see a video about the lesser known language families, especially about one which is so important to me. Still I would like to correct a common mistake. Not only the language family is named correctly Uralic (which as you mentioned includes the Samoyedic branch), not Finno-Ugric, but recently more and more linguists question whether its Finno-Ugric branch existed at all. The reason is for it that the derived proto-Uralic and proto-Finno-Ugric languages are practically the same. There is no consensus about it yet, there are several theories (e.g. the first split of the Uralic was three-way, i.e. Finno-Permic, Ugric and Samoyedic) though. One interesting tidbits: the archeological discoveries from the last few years question everything we knew so far the Hungarian migration. They suggest that it was much faster than we thought earlier, maybe it took only 100 years from the ancient homeland of Hungarians to the Carpathian Basin, with only two stops (in an east-european region which partially overlaps with Magna Hungaria and Etelköz).

[@MelangeASMR]

Thank your for that interesting addition! Uralic history is super fascinating, but it can get a bit overwhelming haha, so many sides to it...

[@littlecatfeet9064]

Only 20 seconds in and I know this will be great! Do I sleep or stay awake and learn?

[@MelangeASMR]

Sleep! 💛

[@farielzouioueche2180]

La qualité de la recherche,la radicalité des explications,sont excellentes pour celui qui est vraiment interresse au sujet,mais il y a aussi cette façon de présenter le sujet d’une manière comme intime,ce n’est pas une leçon,.nous sommes engagés parce qu’il y a les cartes et la géographie qu’il faut suivre,,et cette façon que la présentatrice a de caresser les livres dénotent un respect extrême de ce qu’elle fait.,en parlant lentement,clairement.un grand Bravo aux réalisateurs,MERCI.ce n’est pas une vulgaire vulgarisation,

[@MelangeASMR]

Thank you so much 🙏 That's a great compliment and just wonderful to hear!

[@alekseeeeej]

Great video.... again!

[@kiraz3806]

Such nice, intresting and calming video… thank you so much and greetings from 🇷🇺

[@albanian_barcelona_fan]

Can you tell me about the situation of these languages in russia? Are they really shrinking? Will they go extinct soon or is there a movement to save amd protect them?

[@MelangeASMR]

Thank you, Kiraz!

[@carleryk]

Finnish and Estonian languages are about the same close to each other as Italian and Spanish. So it's possible to hold up basic conversation between these two Finnic languages. Learning each other's languages is of course pretty easy too. Finnish is definitely more conservative out of the two since Estonian has a ton of loan words mostly from Germanic languages (Low German, German and Swedish). It should make learning Estonian easier in theory 🙂

[@richardfordham931]

If I may be so bold as to recommend something, Ms. Melange, it would be the channel of one Peter Revesz. He's a data mining specialist with an interest in historical linguistics. He proposes that Sumerian and Minoan may be linked to Finno-Ugric. My main thing is music, and over the past few years I became interested in singing in other languages. Among other things I've learned several translations of "Where Have All The Flowers Gone." The Hungarian and the Estonian versions are both fun to sing, and they are quite different from each other.

[@MelangeASMR]

That looks right up my alley, thank you! I'll bookmark it for an upcoming train journey. :) Singing in other languages is a beautiful pastime - and it's always fascinating to see how memorizing sounds works differently in speech and song.

[@kohinarec6580]

I love Finnish. Onhan se äidinkieleni. Ajatteluni, historiani, kansani kieli, kieli, jolla kerron, jolla tunnen, jolla tiedän.

[@bryndundas7271]

If you know of English version editions of the books you use that would be really useful. I do search but you may know from the get go.

[@MelangeASMR]

Unfortunately not. For the Putzger Atlas, you could check for a regular school atlas. I'm very happy with the Austrian one that I have. And as for linguistic maps, I'm honestly lost as well.

[@patrickf.4966]

Great one!

[@MelangeASMR]

Thanks!

[@beachblackcat]

What is the one single sentence they found loosely related right before the 32 minute mark?

[@MelangeASMR]

It's from an Estonian philologist, Mall Hellam, and means "The living fish swims in the water": Estonian: Elav kala ujub vee all Finnish: Elävä kala ui veden alla Hungarian: Eleven hal úszkál a víz alatt

[@whaleacademic7750]

@@MelangeASMR Interesting. As a finn I would have definitely understood the Estonian sentence but would never have even thought the Hungarian sentence to mean the same thing or to put it next to the others. Guess it just goes to show how distantly related it really is to the Finnic branch despite being in the same family. Probably comparable to the distance between English and Russian for example. Whereas I've heard the distance between Finnish & Estonian being compared to that of French & Spanish or Icelandic & Norwegian/Swedish, which to me sounds about right. Not fluent in any of those languages though so I could be wrong.

[@thenorseguy2495]

Awesome video as always🥰 I’ve been to Tahiti that are on the other side of the world. But I’ve never been to Finland that are our nighbors. I have to go there one day. I’m never gonna learn finnish tho. Speaking of languages, I’ve been wondering if there are any difference between german in Germany and german in Austria. Can you hear if peoples are from Germany or Austria? I hope you’re doing amazing 😍

[@MelangeASMR]

Haha yeah I feel you about learning Finnish. It sounds so cute, but I would probably need an extra lifetime to manage. You can definitely hear where people are from, often down to the specific region (or if you're familiar with the area, even the district). We still use a lot of dialect in Austria (tho less so in Vienna), so even when we speak Standard German, it's with an accent that can be quite strong. And what a lot of people incl native speakers don't know is that standard pronunciation in Austria, Germany and Switzerland follows different rules as well, meaning professional speakers on the news, in theatre, on the radio etc will sound slightly different as well. The cliché is that Austrian German sounds softer, a little more charming and friendly, and especially Northern German has that perceived harshness that a lot of people abroad associate with the language. (I have a video on German somewhere in the language playlist if you want all the details lol)

[@thenorseguy2495]

Thank you so much for the answer. I really appriciate it🥰 I’m gonna have to check out your playlist. I haven’t seen your playlist before and I just discovered that you had made videos about how to learn Norwegian. I’m gonna see if I can learn something 😝

[@Jhj624]

So relaxing👍

[@MelangeASMR]

Thank you 💜

[@barkasz6066]

Cases in Uralic languages get a bad rep I think. "You have to learn 18 cases in Hungarian". It's easier to think of them as "post-positions" rather than pre-positions. What we call cases in Uralic languages mostly translate to prepositions in English like "to, for, from" etc.

[@MelangeASMR]

Yeah that's a good point, the languages work very differently. (I might be a bit prejudiced from the sheer number of case/gender variations in German; those are no fun even for native speakers lol)

[@j.w-b.y1504]

J'aime bien comment vous effacez à chaque fois avec votre main les endroits où le stylet/bâtonnet est passé...🙂 c'est marrant 😉

[@harrylewish]

I'm learning Finnish at the moment as my fiance is a Finn. Honestly the most difficult thing I've ever done 😂

[@MelangeASMR]

omg I can imagine. But it sounds so cute!

[@ans3070]

The finns settled there before thé germans ?

[@nashtokloginovskaya1568]

In fact Mari language is located to the west of the Udmurt and Komi languages. Also it's a pity that almost nothing is said about the Mansi and Khanty. Anyway as an Udmurt I want to say Туж бадӟым тау видео понна! (Thank you for the video)

[@MelangeASMR]

Thank you so much! Yes, I got a bit confused with the map using different terms to the sources I used to prepare. And it's a bit of a time issue - there would be so many more interesting things to read up on and narrate, but since these languages are pretty new to me as well, there's only so much work I can get done in the spare time I have.

[@cloudsingh3147]

🙏

[@PolinAvakians1881]

Omgg this video is awesome 👏🏼 I was wondering if you can please do Persian language 🙏🏼🙏🏼

[@MelangeASMR]

Thank you! Persian sounds great. I actually tried to learn it a long time ago but sadly didn't get very far. It's one of the most beautiful languages to me, just love the sound of it.

[@PolinAvakians1881]

@@MelangeASMR aww 😊 its ok,at least you tried 🤍

[@jealyn6353]

When I was literally just reading about the migration of the Magyar to what's now Hungary then open youtube to see this

[@PDXurbia]

Love these videos of languages.. I'm waiting on the Spanish one

[@MelangeASMR]

Spanish will be either next or the one after that :)

[@PDXurbia]

@@MelangeASMR you're making my dreams come true. By putting me to sleep and dreaming Thanks!

[@zsebora]

The very basic words must be investigated, which were important and used even for the ancient people. Like sun, body, rain, bone, etc. For instance Blood is like Vér (HUN), Veri (EST), Verta (FIN). Or Water is Víz (HUN), Vesi (EST), Vesi (FIN). Both quite similar. I, as a Hungarian, would even understand these in the proper context. So yepp, I don't understand a Finnish guy talking to me and I am sure he wouldn't understand me either, but if we do some digging, relationship is still there.

[@ans3070]

What is the title of thé book you réd please ?

[@MelangeASMR]

Titles are in the description box; both books are in German though! Most info is collected from wikipedia, tbh.

[@ans3070]

I must translate to English.

[@MelangeASMR]

😳

[@ans3070]

Thank you for thé answer.

[@ans3070]

@@MelangeASMR ?

[@Ambsdr723]

The English speaking world is only just becoming aware of us. My ethnic group/nationality is controversial apparently... Thank you ! You did research our history a bit I see. I'm Hungarian and the only thing that annoys me and other Hungarians is that people seem to think Uralic = Scandinavian? We are our own group. All Uralic peoples came from the Urals and spoke 1 language and used to look Asian. (Eskimo type race) Then invading turkic tribes came into the southern urals ( the ancestors who would become the Tatars and Bashkirs) ! We do not call ourselves Turks Other Europeans like to bully us about this. We only say we mixed with them ..and became Turkified. Perfect example next to magyars are the Udmurt people who are also Turkified-Uralic people. We learned horse riding from the Turkic tribes and left the Urals with them. I can't seem to explain my country history to english speakers without being belittled or interrupted though... Maybe an ASMR is a good idea 👏

[@pabloescobar7479]

Nice video. I hope you'll do a video about the Albanian or Greek language they're very unique

[@MelangeASMR]

Thank you! I'll add both to my list, but there have been a lot of requests recently, so no promises when I'll get to them.

[@pabloescobar7479]

@@MelangeASMR 👍👍

[@Genosse_Kommissar]

O! I found my city on the map!

[@taistelubanaani420]

oii!! greetings from Finland

[@MelangeASMR]

Hello! 💙

[@naturalexplorer]

Another great, relaxing overview and insight into human dispersal via language. Thank You very much. This time the Finno-Ugric which seems to me to be key to prehistory roots. That there were north-western lands where the original Finno-Ugric resided and these lands are no more. Sunken into the depths as a result of flood likely emanating from a catastrophe of some kind. Or series of catastrophe's. The people from these sunken north-western lands therefore were forced to migrate south and their traces are first picked up via the Finno-Ugric language around the Ural region. These migrating tribes then disperse back north into Finland for the Finns and south into Hungary for the Magyars. Just a theory but one that connects strongly with other nearby lands that had to deal with similar catastrophe and forced migration. This connection can strongly relate with Irish mythology and the seeding of Ireland with migrating humans from the WEST out of archipelago lands that now also lie beneath the ocean. I think the connections between Ireland , Finland and Hungary would be an extremely interesting study - to say the least. Particularly the Finno-Ugric language and the languages spoken by the very early Irish well before modern day history tells this story. Your language skills are highly useful tool into better understanding and thereby recovering ancient human roots, distribution and prehistory. I wish I had myself delved into languages when I was much younger to now be able to more clearly research into the mysteries of very early human civilization.

[@89Awww]

Agglutination, vowel harmony and no grammatical gender...the Uralic languages may not be related to the Turkic or Mongolic languages but these areal features are fascinating!

[@MelangeASMR]

It's really stands out - I'm curious about how the research in this area is going to develop.

[@ans3070]

Can you do germanic langages ?

[@MelangeASMR]

I've done one on German and one on English, they're in the playlist linked at the end :)

[@ans3070]

@@MelangeASMR OK you already make it, great !

[@teddyQuake]

Nice 👍 X.

[@MelangeASMR]

So are you!

[@NeofolkClassics]

!

[@ayauniv1132]

Can you make a video about Arab countries? for instance you may talk about the history of Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, or Palestine.

[@ayauniv1132]

BTW I really liked the idea of your videos, keep up

[@MelangeASMR]

Hey yes, one of the next languages videos is going to be about Semitic languages so that's cover some of that :)

[@MelangeASMR]

Thank you!!

[@rsvihla]

Is that a kebab skewer?

[@MelangeASMR]

Yes I was in the middle of cooking!

[@rasijaa]

TORILLE! 😁

[@MelangeASMR]

Ah now I know a sixth Finnish word haha

[@user-ws4tc7xu1u]

Даёшь асмр на русском 😊

[@MelangeASMR]

Mmmh bit difficult!

[@Nikitiitta]

This may be the weirdest niche of ASMR I've run into

[@MelangeASMR]

But is there any ASMR niche that's not weird?

[@scalf_]

First

[@scalf_]

Love your videos

[@MelangeASMR]

Thank you!!

[@scalf_]

@@MelangeASMR absolutely! Thank you for what you do!

[@leopoldlodewijkfilipsmaria8064]

Torille

[@henriashurst-pitkanen8735]

Utterly bizarre. This would be a far more interesting and watchable video if it weren't just a cover to make weird meme sounds for people to wince at. The content is clearly researched and thought-out, which makes the overdone stroking of the pages(!?) even more ridiculous...the internet is such a weird place.

[@MelangeASMR]

The channel has ASMR in the name, the video title starts with it - why did you click the video?