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.

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If you'd like to send a map, address it to:
Melange ASMR
Postfach 0021
1015 Vienna
Austria

[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.

[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.

[hansangcho]

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.

[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 🥰

[tylerpentecost]

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

[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?

[nibik]

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.

[sofiabecerracalvino]

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

[karfomachet]

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 .

[aleynaa]

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

[chrisgrayson]

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 ❤️

[veras]

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

[katieherger]

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

[cskitti]

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 :)

[gregweston]

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

[Benni]

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!🤗

[SS-tenl]

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

[daniellaharkai]

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. ❤️

[ralphbarrett]

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