Finno-Ugric languages Finno-Ugric languages Finno-Ugric ( or ), Finno-Ugrian or Fenno-Ugric is a traditional grouping of all languages in the Uralic language family except the Samoyedic languages. Its commonly accepted status as a subfamily of Uralic is based on criteria formulated in the 19th century and is criticized by some contemporary linguists. The three most-spoken Uralic languages, Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian, are all included in Finno-Ugric, although linguistic roots common to both branches of the traditional Finno-Ugric language tree (Finno-Permic and Ugric) are distant. The term "Finno-Ugric", which originally referred to the entire family, is sometimes used as a synonym for the
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)