Post
by Cerberus » Thu Oct 05, 2006 1:43 am
Language is really a poor indicator of someone's origins. As mentioned here and elsewhere on the forum, genetically the closest people to Finns are Estonians and other Balts, Dutch and Germans. Theory about Finnish people being the first people in Europe doesn't really fit into this perspective very well - and regardless of that, it's not like all the ancestors of modern day Finns came to this part of the world all that once. All evidence seems to point to the fact that throughout post ice age period, different groups of people have arrived here from south, west and east.
According to one theory, which is backed up by genetic research, one of the first arrivals who started pushing the Sami northwards were those proto-Finns that were of members of the same tribe, who are also ancestors to modern day German, Baltic, and Slavic peoples. It has been theorized that these proto-Finns spoke an Indoeuropean language. After they settled to Finland, subsequent immigration from the east brought them the Finno-Ugric language.
Of course it may very well be that the Finno-Ugric speaking proto-Finns were there before these "Germanic" proto-Finns came, but the overall situation is the same.
With Hungarians "we" have very little in common. Even Italians are closer. Basque, Same and Irish people are furthest.
It also should be kept in mind that before 19th century, the Finnish tribes were not nearly as mixed as they are now. For example, people from western coast had considerable Swedish (Germanic) ancestry. Karelians on the other hand were largely a mix of Tavastian Finns (themselves originally Finns from the west coast, who had settled eastwards), Russians, Swedes and Sami. Finns in eastern Finland were a mix of Tavastians and Karelians.
Last edited by
Cerberus on Thu Oct 05, 2006 2:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
"[Russia is] a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma" - Winston Churchill