This volume offers the most comprehensive and wide-ranging treatment available today of the Uralic language family, a group of languages spoken in northern Eurasia. While there is a long history of research into these languages, much of it has been conducted within several disparate national traditions; studies of certain languages and topics are somewhat limited and in many cases outdated. The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages brings together leading scholars and junior researchers to offer a comprehensive and up-to-date account of the internal relations and diversity of the Uralic language family, including the outlines of its historical development, and the contacts between Uralic and other languages of Eurasia.
The book is divided into three parts. Part I presents the origins and development of the Uralic languages: the initial chapters examine reconstructed Proto-Uralic and its divergence, while later chapters provide surveys of the history and codification of the three Uralic nation-state languages (Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian) and the Uralic minority languages from Baltic Europe to Siberia. This part also explores questions of endangerment, revitalization, and language policy. The chapters in Part II offer individual structural overviews of the Uralic languages, including a number of understudied minority languages for which no detailed description in English has previously been available. The final part of the book provides cross-Uralic comparative and typological case studies of a range of issues in phonology, morphology, syntax, and the lexicon. The chapters explore a number of topics, such as information structure and clause combining, that have traditionally received very little attention in Uralic studies. The volume will be an essential reference for students and researchers specializing in the Uralic languages and for typologists and comparative linguists more broadly.
Marianne Bakró-Nagy, Professor Emerita, Research Institute for Linguistics - Budapest, Johanna Laakso, Professor of Finno-Ugric Studies, University of Vienna, Elena Skribnik, Professor Emerita at the Institute of Finno-Ugric and Uralic Studies, Ludwig Maximilan University of Munich
Marianne Bakró-Nagy is Professor Emerita at the Research Institute for Linguistics and the University of Szeged. She was formerly Head of Department and Deputy Director of the Research Institute and Chair of Finno-Ugric Studies at the University of Szeged, and has been a member of the Scientific Committee for Humanities of Science Europe, and an honorary member of the International Committee of Finno-Ugric Studies.
Johanna Laakso has been Professor of Finno-Ugric Studies at the University of Vienna since 2000. She is a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and a member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters and the Academia Europaea. From 2015-2021 she was President of the Organizing Committee for the International Congress in Finno-Ugric Studies.
Elena Skribnik is Professor Emerita and former Chair of Finno-Ugric and Uralic Studies at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. She has previously been Deputy Director of the Institute of Philology in the Siberian division of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Humboldt Research Fellow and DAAD Guest Professor at the University of Hamburg, and is a member of the Organizing Committee for the International Congress in Finno-Ugric Studies.
