Cover not available
Article published In:
Journal of Uralic Linguistics
Vol. 3:1 (2024) ► pp.30–54

The origin of Uralic-speaking groups from a historical genetic point of view

| Hungarian Natural History Museum, Hungary
ORCID logo | University of Szeged, Hungary
In recent years, a number of primarily linguistic studies have dealt with the origin of the Uralic language family. These studies formulated important and, in some cases, novel results regarding the location of the Proto-Uralic homeland, the classification of linguistic branches, the chronology and geographical aspects of migration routes, and even the archaeological cultures embodying the migration routes. At the same time, our knowledge of the gene pool of the Uralic peoples has also increased significantly. The aim of the present study is to identify parallels and discrepancies between the latest linguistic and historical genetic results. We highlight several convergences between recent conclusions of linguistics and our model based on Y-chromosome data. A key finding is a correlation between Uralic language sub-branches and N subgroups. The direction and chronology of the eastward migration of these N subgroups may also shed new light on the Uralic-Chukchi, Uralic-Yukaghir and Uralic-Altaic linguistic parallels.
Keywords: Proto-Uralic, Uralic homeland, paternal lines, exogamy, N haplogroup, N subclades, Seima-Turbino cultural phenomenon, Kansk-Krasnoyarsk neolithic culture
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Summary of the latest linguistic results
  • 3.Historical genetics
  • 4.Potential Uralic male ancestors
    • 4.1The distribution of the N-B478 subclade
    • 4.2The distribution of the N-Y9022 subclade
    • 4.3The distribution of the N-VL29 subclade
    • 4.4The distribution of the N-Z1934 subclade
    • 4.5The distribution of the N-B539 subclade
  • 5.Parallels and discrepancies between linguistic and historical genetic observations
    • 5.1Substrate effect in the Samoyed gene pool and languages
    • 5.2Position of the Permic languages
    • 5.3Chronology
    • 5.4The Uralic homeland
    • 5.5Archaeology
    • 5.6Classification
  • 6.Summary
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 14 May 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jul.00025.nem
References (36)
References
Aikio, Ante. 2002. New and Old Samoyed etymologies. Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen 571. 9–57.Google Scholar
. 2022. Proto-Uralic. In Marianne Bakró-Nagy, Johanna Laakso & Elena Skribnik (eds.), The Oxford guide to the Uralic languages, 1–27. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Blyakharchuk, Tatiana Artemevna, H. E. Wright, P. S. Borodavko, W. O. van der Knaap & Brigitta Ammann. 2004. Late Glacial and Holocene vegetational changes on the Ulagan high-mountain plateau, Altai Mountains, southern Siberia. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 2091. 259–279. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Childebayeva, Ainash, Fabian Fricke, Sergej Kuzminykh & Wolfgang Haak. 2022. The genetic perspective on the Sejma-Turbino transcultural phenomenon and the spread of the Uralic languages. Congressus XIII Internationalis Fenno-Ugristarum. [URL]
Csáky, Veronika, Dániel Gerber, Bea Szeifert, Balázs Egyed, Balázs Stégmár, Sergei Gennad’evich Botalov, Ivan Valer’evich Grudochko, Natalia Petrovna Matveeva, Alexander Sergejevich Zelenkov, Anastasiia Viktorovna Sleptsova, Rimma Dmitrievna Goldina, Andrey Vasilevich Danich, Balázs Gusztáv Mende, Attila Türk & Anna Szécsényi-Nagy. 2020. Early medieval genetic data from Ural region evaluated in the light of archaeological evidence of ancient Hungarians. Scientific Reports 101. Article number: 19137 DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cui, Yinqiu, Hongjie Li, Chao Ning, Ye Zhang, Lu Chen, Xin Zhao, Erika Hagelberg & Hui Zhou. 2013. Y Chromosome analysis of prehistoric human populations in the West Liao River Valley, Northeast China. BMC Evolutionary Biology 13 Article number: 216 DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gnecchi-Ruscone, Guido Alberto, Zsófia Rácz, Levente Samu, Tamás Szeniczey, Norbert Faragó, Corina Knipper, Ronny Friedrich, Denisa Zlámalová, Luca Traverso, Salvatore Liccardo, Sandra Wabnitz, Divyaratan Popli, Ke Wang, Rita Radzeviciute, Bence Gulyás, István Koncz, Csilla Balogh, Gabriella M. Lezsák, Viktor Mácsai, Magdalena M. E. Bunbury, Olga Spekker, Petrus le Roux, Anna Szécsényi-Nagy, Balázs Gusztáv Mende, Heidi Colleran, Tamás Hajdu, Patrick Geary, Walter Pohl, Tivadar Vida, Johannes Krause & Zuzana Hofmanová. 2024. Network of large pedigrees reveals social practices of Avar communities. Nature 6291. 376–383. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grünthal, Riho, Volker Heyd, Sampsa Holopainen, Juha A. Janhunen, Olesya Khanina, Matti Miestamo, Johanna Nichols, Janne Saarikivi & Kaius Sinnemäki. 2022. Drastic demographic events triggered the Uralic spread. Diachronica 391. 490–524. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hajdú, Péter. 1989. Bevezetés az uráli nyelvtudományba [Introduction to Uralic linguistics]. Budapest: TankönyvkiadóGoogle Scholar
Helimszkij, Eugen. 1996. A szamojéd népek vázlatos története [An outline of the history of the Samoyed peoples]. Budapesti Finnugor Füzetek 11. Budapest, ELTE.Google Scholar
Hollard, Clémence, Vincent Zvénigorosky, Alexey Kovalev, Yurii Kiryushin, Alexey Tishkin, Igor Lazaretov, Eric Crubézy, Bertrand Ludes & Christine Keyser. 2018. New genetic evidence of affinities and discontinuities between bronze age Siberian populations. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 167(1): 97–107. DOI logo. Epub 2018 Jun 14. PMID: 29900529Google Scholar
Holopainen, Sampsa. 2019. Indo-Iranian borrowings in Uralic: Critical overview of sound substitutions and distribution criterion. PhD dissertation, Helsinki: University of Helsinki.
Ilumäe, Anne-Mai, Maere Reidla, Marina Chukhryaeva, Mari Järve, Helen Post, Monika Karmin, Lauri Saag, Anastasiya Agdzhoyan, Alena Kushniarevich, Sergey Litvinov, Natalya Ekomasova, Kristiina Tambets, Ene Metspalu, Rita Khusainova, Bayazit Yunusbayev, Elza K. Khusnutdinova, Ludmila P. Osipova, Sardana Fedorova, Olga Utevska, Sergey Koshel, Elena Balanovska, Doron M. Behar, Oleg Balanovsky, Toomas Kivisild, Peter A. Underhill, Richard Villems & Siiri Rootsi. 2016. Human Y chromosome haplogroup N: A non-trivial time-resolved phylogeography that cuts across language families. American Journal of Human Genetics 99(1). 163–173. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jobling, Mark, Edward Hollox, Toomas Kivisild & Chris Tyler-Smith. 2013. Human evolutionary genetics. New York: Garland Science. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Karafet, Tatiana M., Ludmila P. Osipova, Marina A. Gubina, Olga L. Posukh, Stephen L. Zegura & Michael F. Hammer. 2002. High levels of Y-chromosome differentiation among native Siberian populations and the genetic signature of a boreal hunter-gatherer way of life. Human Biology 74(6): 761–789. DOI logo. PMID: 12617488.Google Scholar
Kılınç, Gülşah Merve, Natalija Kashuba, Dilek Koptekin, Nora Bergfeldt, Handan Melike Dönertaş, Ricardo Rodríguez-Varela, Dmitrij Shergin, Grigorij Ivanov, Dmitrii Kichigin, Kjunnej Pestereva, Denis Volkov, Pavel Mandryka, Artur Kharinskii, Alexey Tishkin, Evgenij Ineshin, Evgeniy Kovychev, Aleksandr Stepanov, Love Dalén Torsten Günther, Emrah Kırdök, Mattias Jakobsson, Mehmet Somel, Maja Krzewińska, Jan Storå & Anders Götherström. 2021. Human population dynamics and Yersinia pestis in ancient northeast Asia. Science Advances 7(2). eabc4587. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Klumpp, Gerson. 2002. Konverbkonstruktionen im Kamassischen. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
Koponen, Eino. 2022. Saami. In: Marianne Bakró-Nagy, Johanna Laakso & Elena Skribnik (eds.), The Oxford guide to the Uralic languages, 103–111. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Koryakova, Ludmila & Andrej Vladimirovich Epimakhov. 2007. The Urals and Western Siberia in the Bronze and Iron Ages. Cambridge World Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kozintsev, Alexander G. 2020. The origin of the Okunev population, Southern Siberia: The evidence of physical anthropology and genetics. Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 481. 135–145. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kozintsev, Alexander G., A. V. Gromov & V. G. Moiseyev. 1999. Collateral relatives of American Indians among the Bronze Age populations of Siberia? American Journal of Physical Anthropology 108(2). 193–204. https://10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(199902)108:2<193::AID-AJPA5>3.0.CO;2-V. PMID: 9988381.Google Scholar
Lang, Valter. 2015. Formation of Proto-Finnic: An archaeological scenario from the Bronze Age/Early Iron Age. In: Kaisa Leinonen Brunniisko, Harri Mantila, Santeri Palviainen & Jari Sivonen (eds.) Congressus Duodecimus Internationalis Fenno-Ugristarum, Oulu 2015. Plenary Papers, 63–84. Oulu: University of Oulu.Google Scholar
Luho, Ville. 1975. Finnország betelepülése és őstörténete a régészeti kutatások tükrében [The colonisation and prehistory of Finland in the light of archaeological research]. In Hajdú, Péter (ed.) Uráli népek [Uralic peoples], 109–l26. Budapest: Corvina Kiadó.Google Scholar
Marchenko, Zhanna, Svetlana V. Svyatko, Vyacheslav I. Molodin, Artem E. Grishin & Marina P. Rykun. 2017. Radiocarbon chronology of complexes with Seima-Turbino type objects (Bronze Age) in Southwestern Siberia. Radiocarbon 59(5). 1381–1397. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martínez-Cruz, Begoña, Isabel Mendizabal, Christine Harmant, Rosario de Pablo, Mihai Ioana, Dora Angelicheva, Anastasia Kouvatsi, Halyna Makukh, Mihai G. Netea, Horolma Pamjav, Andrea Zalán, Ivailo Tournev, Elena Marushiakova, Vesselin Popov, Jaume Bertranpetit, Luba Kalaydjieva, Lluis Quintana-Murci, David Comas & the Genographic Consortium. 2016. Origins, admixture and founder lineages in European Roma. European Journal of Human Genetics 241. 937–943. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mikhailova, Alexandra B., Anna V. Grenaderova, Irina V. Kurina, Lyudmila S. Shumilovskikh & Tamara G. Stojko. 2021. Holocene vegetation and hydroclimate changes in the Kansk forest steppe, Yenisei River Basin, East Siberia. Boreas. An International Journal of Quaternary Research 50(4). 948–966. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nichols, Johanna. 2021. The origin and dispersal of Uralic: Distributional typological view. Annual Review of Linguistics 71. 351–369. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Post, Helen, Endre Németh, László Klima, Rodrigo Flores, Tibor Fehér, Attila Türk, Gábor Székely, Hovhannes Sahakyan, Mayukh Mondal, Francesco Montinaro, Monika Karmin, Lauri Saag, Bayazit Yunusbayev, Elza K. Khusnutdinova, Ene Metspalu, Richard Villems, Kristiina Tambets & Siiri Rootsi. 2019. Y-chromosomal connection between Hungarians and geographically distant populations of the Ural Mountain region and West Siberia. Scientific Reports 91. Article number 7786. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rantanen, Timo, Harri Tolvanen, Meeli Roose, Jussi Ylikoski & Outi Vesakoski. 2022. Best practices for spatial language data harmonization, sharing and map creation – A case study of Uralic, PLoS ONE 17(6): e0269648. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ruttkay-Miklián, Eszter. 2012. Testi-lelki rokonság. A szinjai hantik rokonsági csoportjai [Bodily-spiritual kinship. Kinship groups of Synja Khanty]. Budapest: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar
Saarikivi, Janne. 2022. The divergence of Proto-Uralic and its offspring. In Marianne Bakró-Nagy, Johanna Laakso & Elena Skribnik (eds.), The Oxford guide to the Uralic languages, 28–58. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Syrjänen, Kaj, Terhi Honkola, Kalle Heikki Korhonen, Jyri Lehtinen, Outi Vesakoski & Niklas Wahlberg. 2013. Shedding more light on language classification using basic vocabularies and phylogenetic methods: A case study of Uralic. Diachronica 30(3). 323–352. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tamás, Ildikó. 2007. Tűzön át, jégen át. A sarkvidéki nomád lappok énekhagyománya [Through fire and ice. The song tradition of arctic nomadic Lapps]. Budapest: Napkút Kiadó.Google Scholar
Tambets, Kristiina, Bayazit Yunusbayev, Georgi Hudjashov, Anne-Mai Ilumäe, Siiri Rootsi, Terhi Honkola, Outi Vesakoski, Quentin Atkinson, Pontus Skoglund, Alena Kushniarevich, Sergey Litvinov, Maere Reidla, Ene Metspalu, Lehti Saag, Timo Rantanen, Monika Karmin, Jüri Parik, Sergey I. Zhadanov, Marina Gubina, Larisa D. Damba, Marina Bermisheva, Tuuli Reisberg, Khadizhat Dibirova, Irina Evseeva, Mari Nelis, Janis Klovins, Andres Metspalu, Tõnu Esko, Oleg Balanovsky, Elena Balanovska, Elza K. Khusnutdinova, Ludmila P. Osipova, Mikhail Voevoda, Richard Villems, Toomas Kivisild & Mait Metspalu. 2018. Genes reveal traces of common recent demographic history for most of the Uralic-speaking populations. Genome Biology 191. Article number: 139. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Türk, Attila. 2023. The archaeological background of Hungarian prehistory. In József Szentpétery (ed.), Psalmus Hungaricus. A Hungarian cultural history. Volume I: From the beginnings to 1526, 16–20. Budapest: ELKH Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont.Google Scholar
Volkov, Vladimir Gennadievich. 2015. Gene pool of South Selkups in a historical context. Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 4 (10): 109–122.Google Scholar