Finnic

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Finnic peoples (Fennic, sometimes Baltic-Finnic) refers to a group of related ethnic groups, viz. the settled nations speaking Balto-Finnic languages (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 to establish a contrast to the linguistically and culturally more distantly related Sami people (historically nomadic hunter-gatherers), but also to the surrounding Slavic peoples (Slavs), Baltic peoples (Balts), Scandinavians and other Germanic peoples (Germanics), i.e., linguistically both related and unrelated peoples sharing Agriculturalism with the Finnics.

1 History
2 Modern Finnic nations
3 See also
4 External links

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History

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 before the first millennium. Perhaps due to the Germanic and Slavic migration period, or for other reasons, they were thought to have migrated over the Karelian isthmus into the inland of present-day Finland and Karelia in the first millennium. 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 linguistics 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.Image:Suur-Suomen kartta.png

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Modern Finnic nations

The Finnic peoples and their subgroups are:

The Ingrian, Tornedalian and Kven Finns are the descendants of Finnish settlers who migrated away from the main group of Finns during the past two to three centuries. They now generally consider themselves and are therefore considered by others to constitute their own separate 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.

A nearby people, the Sami, 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[12] 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.

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