How the indigenous peoples of Russia's Far North are related to… Hungarians!?

The Hungarian language is unlike any of its European neighbors. The closest relatives of this language actually live in the Far North of Russia! They are the Khanty and Mansi peoples.

This seems very unexpected and quite surprising, given that there are several thousand kilometers between Budapest and Khanty-Mansiysk! But, a look back into the depths of history makes everything fall into place.

Scientists believe that the common ancestors of these three ethnic peoples lived in the Ural Mountains (in the area of modern-day Bashkortostan) until roughly the middle of the first millennium BC, after which their paths diverged.

The ancestors of the Khanty and Mansi moved north, to the Polar Urals and Western Siberia, preserving the traditional way of life as hunters and reindeer herders.

The ancestors of the Hungarians, however, moved west, finding a new homeland in the Danube River region at the end of the 9th century.

Hungarian, Khanty and Mansi are the only languages of the Ugric branch of the Finno-Ugric language family. Many words in these languages are similar, for example:

Fish: Hungarian – ‘hal’, Mansi – ‘хӯл’ (khuul), Khanty – ‘хӯл’ (khuul).

Two: Hungarian – ‘két’, Mansi кит – (‘kit’), Khanty – ‘кӑт’ (kat).

Horse: Hungarian – ‘ló’, Mansi – ‘лўв’ (luuv), Khanty – ‘лов’ (lov).

However, over hundreds of years of isolation, the languages have accumulated a huge number of differences, so Hungarians, Khanty and Mansi would likely no longer understand each other without an interpreter.