The status of the Ob-Ugric languages as a close
areal grouping is clear, with adjacent varieties regularly sharing isoglosses and having loaned vocabulary back and forth (as well as from common external sources, e.g. from eastern dialects of
Komi into northern dialects of Mansi and Khanty). This effect is particularly clear between the more eastern and northern varieties of Mansi, and the more western varieties of Khanty. Modern-day Northern Mansi and Northern Khanty continue to affect each other's evolution. Some areal similarities are also shared with their eastern Samoyedic relatives, in particular between Khanty and
Selkup, but also
Forest Nenets. The relationship to Hungarian is looser: in their current state, the Ob-Ugric languages are radically different from Hungarian in phonology, syntax, and vocabulary. The existence of a common Ob-Ugric period after the separation from Hungarian and the rest of Uralic is not universally accepted: some linguists treat all common features of Mansi and Khanty as either later convergence under mutual influence, or retentions from the common Ugric and earlier periods. Most Uralic classifications group Khanty and Mansi together even if they reject Ugric, but Salminen (2007) and Janhunen (2009) reject Ob-Ugric as well. (Janhunen classifies Hungarian and Mansi together, omitting Khanty.)
Glottolog and
Ethnologue take the agnostic approach of Salminen. Typological features distinguishing the Ob-Ugric languages include: • The lack of a systematic
voicing contrast. , however, is a frequent consonant word-medially. • Retention of Proto-Uralic word-initial *w as . (Also a feature of
Nenets.) •
Vowel harmony is found in the most archaic varieties, southern Mansi and eastern Khanty. •
Ablaut of vowels, particularly in eastern Khanty • In the northern dialects: a change *k → before
back vowels. (A similar change also occurred in Hungarian.) • Retention of
subject–object–verb (SOV) word order • Retention of
dual number • Partial or full replacement of the original
2nd person pronominal and suffixal elements; marked by the consonant in most Uralic languages but for the most part in Ob-Ugric. • A smaller
case system than in other Uralic languages, including a lack of the
genitive case. ==References==