Ugric languages → Hungarian "szem", Mansi сам , Khanty сем ). A peculiar exception is the numeral '3', in which Hungarian ("három") and Mansi (хурэм ) point to an original cluster *rm, whereas the rest of the Uralic family suggests original *lm (Khanty холәм, Finnish "kolme", Estonian "kolm", Inari Sami "kulma", Erzya колмо, etc.) This has frequently been listed as an argument for considering Hungarian more closely related to Mansi than Khanty. The reverse has also been suggested—Hungarian and Mansi retaining the original form of the numeral, whereas Khanty and all the Finno-Permic languages would have innovated /l/ for some reason. Hungarian
Uralic–Yukaghir languages the expression, as "*ne e-m mene" 'not be-me go' etc. What made it possible to drop the negative particle was that there was no morphological or syntactic possibility of confusing the expression with the positive verb, which had the form 1s. "*mene-m", 2s. "*mene-t"; 1p. "*mene-me", 2p. "*mene-te" (still preserved without change in Finnish, except for final "*-m" > "-n") 'I go', etc. The dropping of the negative particle is well-attested by such expressions as French "pas", "personne", "rien" and Old Norse "engi", "eigi" (ib.). Pedersen’s argument implies that the Uralic negative verb is very ancient, for three reasons: (1)