Pre-Finno-Ugric substrate
Pre-Finno-Ugric substrate refers to substratum loanwords from unidentified non-Indo-European and non-Uralic languages that are found in various Finno-Ugric languages, most notably Sami. The presence of Pre-Finno-Ugric substrate in Sami languages was demonstrated by Ante Aikio. Janne Saarikivi points out that similar substrate words are present in Finnic languages as well, but in much smaller numbers.
| Languages of Pre-Finno-Ugric substrate | |
|---|---|
| Region | Northern Europe |
| Extinct | 1st millennium AD |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | None |
Languages of northern Europe in the early Iron Age | |
The number of substrate words in Sámi likely exceeds one thousand words.
Borrowing to Saami from Paleo-Laplandic probably still took place after the completion of the Great Saami Vowel Shift. Paleo-Laplandic likely became extinct about 1500 years ago.
The Nganasan language also has many substrate words from unknown extinct languages in the Taimyr peninsula.