Historically, the UgriansorUgors were the linguistic ancestors of the present-day Hungarians, and the Khanty and Mansi peoples of Western Siberia.[1][2][3][4] The name is sometimes also used in a modern context as a cover term for these three peoples.[5][6] In 19th century and early 20th century literature, they were called Ugrian Finns.[7]
The Khanty and the Mansi are collectively known as the Ob-Ugrians. They are ethnographically close to each other and live in geographic proximity with each other in the Ob River basin, mostly in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.[8][4]
The majority of Hungarians live in HungaryinCentral Europe. They are ethnographically and culturally distant from the Ob-Ugrians, and are only related to them by a weak linguistic connection.[6]
Although the Khanty and Mansi are closely related ethnographically, their languages are not particularly close. It is commonly posited that their languages are related to each other (as the Ob-Ugric languages) and also to the language of the Magyars of Hungary (together forming the Ugric language family). While all three of these languages are clearly members of the greater Uralic language family, the linguistic reconstruction work needed to prove that they are closer to each other than to other Uralic languages has never been adequately done, and in recent decades a more agnostic position has been taken by many linguists. (See the Classification of Uralic languages.)[citation needed]
^Róna-Tas, András (1999). Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: an introduction to early Hungarian history. Translated by Bodoczky, Nicholas. Budapest New York: Central European Univ. Press. p. 97,319. ISBN978-963-9116-48-1.
^Kálmán, Béla (1988). "The history of Ob-Ugric languages". In Denis Sinor (ed.). The Uralic Languages: Description, History and Foreign Influences. Handbuch Der Orientalistik (Abt. 8, Vol. I). Leiden: BRILL. pp. 395–412. Thus the Ugrians had either to move north or to change nomadic animal breeding. The forefathers of the Ob-Ugrians proceeded northwards and reached the lower and middle reaches of the Ob. The Hungarians' ancestors however became animal breeders.
^Baynes, T. S., ed. (1879). "Finland" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. IX (9th ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 219. Ugrian Finns include the Voguls [...], the Ostyaks [...] and the Magyars of Hungary
