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Permic
Geographic distribution	foothills of the Ural Mountains in Russia
Ethnicity	Permians
Linguistic classification	Uralic Permic
Subdivisions	Komi (Zyryan, Yazva, Permyak) Udmurt
Language codes
Glottolog	perm1256
Distribution of the Permic languages at the beginning of the 20th century

The Permic or Permian languages are a branch of the Uralic language family. They are spoken in several regions to the west of the Ural Mountains within the Russian Federation. The total number of speakers is around 950,000, of which around 550,000 speak the most widely spoken language, Udmurt. Like other Uralic languages, the Permic languages are primarily agglutinative and have a rich system of grammatical cases. Unlike many other agglutinative languages, they do not have vowel harmony.

The earliest Permic language to be preserved in writing was Old Permic or Old Zyryan, in the 14th century.

Classification

The extant Permic languages are:

• Udmurt (Votyak)
• Komi (Zyryan)
• Permyak (Komi-Permyak)
• Yazva (Komi-Yazva)

The Permic languages have traditionally been classified as Finno-Permic languages, along with the Finnic, Saami, Mordvin, and Mari languages. The Finno-Permic and Ugric languages together made up the Finno-Ugric family. However, this taxonomy has more recently been called into question, and the relationship of the Permic languages to other Uralic languages remains uncertain.

History

The word Permian can be traced back philologically to the Russian word Perem (Перемь) or Perm (Пермь) which is found in medieval Russian chronicles. The word was initially used to designate certain territories, including the lower reaches of the Dvina River, as well as the area bounded by the Pechora, Vychegda and Kama rivers in the north, west and south, and the Urals in the east, which was incorporated into the Russian state in the late 15th century. The word Permian was then used to designate the non-Russian peoples who lived in there, which mostly included the Zyrians, and the Russians later began using the appellation Zyrian. From the 19th century, the word Permian was used in scholarly writing to designate the Zyrians and the Udmurts.

Phonology

Proto-Uralic word roots have been subject to particularly heavy reduction in the Permic languages.

• Original geminates *pp, *tt, *kk were reduced to single voiceless stops *p, *t, *k.
• Between vowels, original single *p, *t, *k as well as *w and *x were lost entirely.
• Second-syllable vowels were lost entirely. This was obscured in Udmurt by adding -ы to certain words. (PU *lumi "snow" → Udm лымы /lɯˈmɯ/ vs PU *lämi "broth" → Udm лым /lɯm/).
• The sibilants *s, *ś, *š have remained distinct from each other in all positions, but were voiced to *z, *ž, *ź between voiced sounds.
• Consonant clusters were largely simplified: in particular nasal + stop/affricate clusters yield voiced stops/affricates, and stop + sibilant clusters yield voiceless sibilants.

A peculiarity of Permic is the occurrence of the voiced consonants such as *b, *g word-initially even in inherited vocabulary, apparently a development from original PU voiceless consonants.

The Proto-Permic consonant inventory is reconstructed as:

This inventory is retained nearly unchanged in the modern-day Permic languages.

Komi has merged original *w into /ʋ/ and undergone a word-final a change *l → /ʋ/ ~ /w/ in many dialects, while Udmurt has changed word-initially *r → /d͡ʒ/ or /d͡ʑ/. *ŋ is retained only in some Udmurt dialects; in other Permic varieties it has become /m/ next to back vowels, /n/ next to central vowels, /ɲ/ next to front vowels.

In later Russian loanwords, the consonants /f x t͡s/ may occur.

The consonant *w was marginal and occurred only word-initially or after a word-initial *k, generally traceable to diphthongization of the close back vowel of the 2nd series. An exceptional word is the numeral "six", *kwatʲ, which in Komi is the only native word root with an initial cluster.

Literary Komi and literary Udmurt both possess a seven-vowel system /i ɯ u e ə o a/. These are however not related straightforwardly, and numerous additional vowels are required for Proto-Permic, perhaps as many as 15 altogether. The reconstruction of Proto-Permic vocalism and its development from Proto-Uralic has always been a puzzling topic, for which there are several models. There is general agreement on the existence of two series of close vowels, one of which results in modern /i ɯ u/ in literary Udmurt and literary Komi-Zyryan, the other in correspondences of Udmurt /e ɯ u/ to Komi /e ə o/ (but /i ʉ u/ in the Komi-Yazva language). Proposed distinguishing factors for these include length (*u, *uː), tenseness (*ʊ, *u) and height (*u, *o).

Here is the vowel table used in Wiktionary:

Morphophonology

Noun roots in the Permic languages are predominantly monosyllabic and invariable with the canonical shape (C)VC. CV roots, such as Udmurt ву /ʋu/, Komi and Permyak ва /ʋa/ 'water', and (C)VCC roots, such as Udmurt урт /urt/, Komi орт /ort/ 'soul', exist as well. In Udmurt, there are furthermore a number of bisyllabic roots, mostly of the shape (C)VCɯ.

In noun roots with certain final clusters, the second consonant surfaces only when followed with a vowel in inflected or derived forms :

Udmurt has similar alternation for a number of other clusters of the shape voiced consonant+/m/, while Komi-Zyryan adds a number of clusters of the shape voiced consonant+/j/.

The verb root for 'to come': Udmurt лыкты- /lɯktɯ-/, Komi локты- /loktɯ-/ also shows alternation to plain /k/ in e.g. the imperative (in Udmurt only dialectally).

Notes

1. Rantanen, Timo; Tolvanen, Harri; Roose, Meeli; Ylikoski, Jussi; Vesakoski, Outi (2022-06-08). "Best practices for spatial language data harmonization, sharing and map creation—A case study of Uralic". PLOS ONE. 17 (6): e0269648. Bibcode:2022PLoSO..1769648R. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0269648. PMC 9176854. PMID 35675367.
2. Rantanen, Timo, Vesakoski, Outi, Ylikoski, Jussi, & Tolvanen, Harri. (2021). Geographical database of the Uralic languages (v1.0) . Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4784188
3. ^ Scheucher, Bernhard. "The Permic Languages". LanguageServer - the Languages of the World. The University of Graz. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
4. Kittilä, Seppo; Västi, Katja; Ylikoski, Jussi (2011). Case, Animacy and Semantic Roles. John Benjamins Publishing. p. 354. ISBN 9789027206800. Retrieved 2012-08-23.
5. ^ Riese2015, p. 249.
6. Bartens 2000, p. 33.
7. Csúcs 2005, pp. 101–102.
8. Lytkin 1970, pp. 10–21.
9. Bartens 2000, p. 51-52
10. Bartens 2000, p. 55-56
11. Bartens 2000, p. 66
12. Bartens 2000, p. 69-71
13. Bartens 2000, p. 178

Bibliography

• Lytkin, Vasily (1957). Историческая грамматика коми языка (in Russian). Syktyvkar: Коми книжное издательство.
• Lytkin, Vasily (1964). Исторический вокализм пермских языков (in Russian). Moscow: Наука.
• Lytkin, Vasily (1970). Краткий этимологический словарь коми языка (in Russian). Moscow: Наука.
• Bartens, Raija (2000). Permiläisten kielten rakenne ja kehitys (in Finnish). Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura. ISBN 952-5150-55-0.
• Csúcs, Sándor (2005). Die Rekonstruktion der permischen Grundsprache. Bibliotheca Uralica (in German). Vol. 13. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó. ISBN 963-05-8184-1.
• Riese, Timothy (8 April 2015). Abondolo, Daniel (ed.). The Uralic Languages. Routledge. pp. 249–275. ISBN 978-1-136-13500-2.

Further reading

• Ante, Aikio. "Studies in Uralic Etymology V: Permic Etymologies". In: Linguistica Uralica LVII, nr. 3 (2021): 161–179. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.3176/lu.2021.3.01
• Fedjunjova, Galina. "Etnitsheskije kontakty i divergentsija permskich jazykov" . In: Linguistica Uralica 50, nr. 2 (2014). pp. 109-121. DOI: 10.3176/lu.2014.2.03

External links

• S. K. Belykh. Swadesh list for Permic languages
• Permic languages

v t e Uralic languages
List of Uralic languages
Finnic	Bjarmian languages Estonian Laiuse Romani Northeastern coastal South Estonian Seto Võro Mulgi Tartu Ludza Kraasna Leivu Finnish Fingelska Kven Meänkieli Siberian Finnish Ingrian Siberian Ingrian Finnish Karelian Karelian proper Livvi Ludic Livonian Veps Votic Krevinian Kukkuzi
Sámi	Eastern Sámi Akkala Inari Kainuu Kemi Kildin Skolt Ter Western Sámi Lule Northern Pite Southern Ume
Mordvinic	Erzya Shoksha dialect [de; ru] Moksha
Mari	Hill Mari Meadow Mari Northwestern Mari
Permic	Komi Komi-Yazva Komi-Permyak Udmurt
Ugric	Hungarian Ob-Ugric Khanty Northern Khanty Southern Khanty Eastern Khanty Mansi Northern Mansi Western Mansi Eastern Mansi Southern Mansi
Samoyedic	Enets Kamas Koibal Mator Taygi [ru] Karagas [ru] Nenets Forest Nenets Tundra Nenets Nganasan Selkup Yurats
Others	Merya Meshcherian Muromian
Reconstructed	Proto-Uralic homeland Proto-Finnic Proto-Sámi Proto-Samoyedic
Italics indicate extinct languages Languages between parentheses are varieties of the language on their left.

• Permic languages
• Languages of Russia