Balto-Finnic
| Finnic | |
|---|---|
| Fennic Baltic Finnic |
|
| Ethnicity | Baltic Finns |
| Geographic distribution |
Northern Fennoscandia, Baltic states, Northwestern Russia |
| Linguistic classification |
Uralic
|
| Proto-language | Proto-Finnic |
| Subdivisions | |
| Glottolog | finn1317 |
 |
|
The Finnic (Fennic) or Baltic Finnic (Balto-Finnic, Balto-Fennic) languages are a branch of the Uralic language family spoken around the Baltic Sea, mainly in Finland and Estonia, by about 7 million people.
Traditionally eight Finnic languages have been recognized. The major modern representatives of the family are Finnish and Estonian, the official languages of their respective nation states. The other Finnic languages in the Baltic Sea region are Ingrian and Votic, spoken in Ingria by the Gulf of Finland; and Livonian, once spoken around the Gulf of Riga. Spoken farther northeast are Karelian, Ludic and Veps, in the region of Lakes Onega and Ladoga.
In addition, since the 1990s, several Finnic-speaking minority groups have emerged to seek of recognition as distinct languages, and have established separate literary standard languages.Northern Karelian, Tver Karelian and Livvi represent the three main dialect groups of Karelian, which earlier had been an unwritten language. Võro and Seto (modern descendants of South Estonian) are spoken in southeastern Estonia and earlier were considered dialects of Estonian. The Meänkieli dialects and Kven are spoken in northern Sweden and Norway and have the legal status of independent languages. They were earlier considered dialects of Finnish and are mutually intelligible with it.
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