Finnic peoples (Fennic, sometimes Baltic-Finnic) refers to a group of related ethnic groups and nations speaking Finnic languages (also known as Balto-Finnic languages). They have traditionally been associated with Russia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Norway and Sweden. These groups are hypothesized to have evolved from a common ancestral parent group.

The term Finnic peoples can thus be used in contrast to the distantly related Sami people (historically nomadic hunter-gatherers), and also to the surrounding Slavic peoples (Slavs), Baltic peoples (Balts), Scandinavians and other Germanic peoples (Germanics). These other groups were contemporary and proximate peoples who shared Agriculturalism with the Finnics, but were linguistically and culturally distinct.

The term "Finnic" is also used sometimes to describe speakers of the Finno-Permic and Finno-Volgaic languages of the Uralic language family.

History

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There exist different theories on the pre-history of the farming Finnic peoples. According to earlier established theories, agricultural Finnic peoples were believed to have inhabited parts of what are now the Baltic countries several millennia BCE. They were thought to have migrated over the Karelian isthmus into the inland of present-day Finland and Karelia in the first millennium, perhaps due to the Germanic and Slavic migration period, or for other reasons. Since the 1970s, this theory has been considered obsolete: serious indications of any major migration do not exist. Archaeological record suggests instead a continuity of settlement from the Stone Age to the first millennium, and a continuous current of immigrants — and modern linguists agree.

The largest Finnic immigrant wave swept through northern Scandinavia in the 16th–18th centuries, streching from Lake Vänern in the south to the Arctic Sea in the north.

Modern Finnic nations

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The Finnic peoples and their subgroups are:

• Livonians ^*
• Estonians ^*
  • Võros
  • Setos
• Votians ^*
• Ingrians proper ^*
• Vepsians ^*
  • Ludi ^*
• Karelians ^*
  • Olonets ^*
• Finns proper ^*
  • Ingrian Finns
  • Tornedalian Finns ^*
  • Kven Finns ^*
  • Forest Finns

The Ingrians, Tornedalians and Kvens are considered their own separate Finnic ethnic groups. The Forest Finns are an extinct ethnic group whose culture is undergoing a cultural revival by assimilated descendants. The Karelians, on the other hand, are occasionally seen as an eastern branch of the Finns proper.

The Northern Scandinavian and Northwestern Russian Finno-Ugric Samis, are only distantly related to the Finnic peoples.

Many ethnic Russians are descendants of assimilated Finnic or Turkic peoples, while many ethnic Finns have Norse ancestry.

It is debated^* whether the Chudes (mentioned by Jordanes 550 A.D.) were an unidentified Finnic tribe or whether a Finnic group might be considered to be the original Chudes. It has also been considered whether Russian chud (чудь) is borrowed from Sami or vice versa.

See also

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• Fenni
• Fenno-Scandinavia
• Ugric
• Greater Finland
• Northern indigenous peoples of Russia

External links

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• Fenno-Ugria Foundation

Finnic peoples | Ancient peoples | Ethnic groups in Europe

Itämerensuomalaiset kansat | Austersjøfinske språk | Østersjøfinske språk | Финно-угорские народы