proto-Uralic

Proto-Uralic is the hypothetical language ancestral to the Uralic language family, which includes Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic.The available reconstruction may not be a representation of the language itself; instead, it may summarize features common to a dialect continuum spanning from the Eastern center later producing Samoyedic and Ugric, to the Western center producing Finno-Permic languages. According to the traditional binary tree model, Proto-Uralic diverged into Proto-Samoyedic and Proto-Finno-Ugric. However, reconstructed Proto-Finno-Ugric differs very little from Proto-Uralic, and many apparent differences follow from the methods used. Thus, Proto-Finno-Ugric may be seen as a geographical classification of more closely related dialects of Proto-Uralic, not as a true language separate from Proto-Uralic.
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