24 SANSKRIT AND INDO-EUROPEAN the East of the Urals, but are considered to have moved there from the West. These two, with Hungarian form the Ugrian sub-group, and are distinguished from the rest by certain com- mon features. The Hungarians moved from the region of the Volga to the territory they now occupy in the ninth century. In Siberia there are several Samoyede languages which as a group are related to Finno-Ugrian. The two families are classed together as the Uralian languages. Even before the Indo-Iranian period there is evidence of contact between Indo-European and Finno-Ugrian. Certain remarkable coincidences (e.g. Lat. sal * salt Finn, suola ; Skt. mddhu 1 honey ', Gk. ^ U 9 v : Finn, mete- ; Skt. ndman-, Gk, ovofia 1 name ' : Finn, nime-, Goth, wato * water etc. : Fi. vete~) have long since attracted attention, but there is lack of agreement as to how exactly they are to be interpreted. One theory is that the two families are ultimately related, but the available evidence is not sufficient to establish this with any certainty. On the whole it seems more probable that the coincidences, insofar as they are not due to chance, are the result of mutual contact and influence in the early prehistoric period. 1 Evidence is both more abundant and easier to interpret when it comes to early Indo-Iranian contacts with Finno-Ugrian, Here it is possible to point out a considerable number of words in Finno-Ugrian which can be shown to have been borrowed from Indo-Iranian at this stage. The most important of the Finno-Ugrian words which have been ascribed to Indo-Iranian are as follows : (i) Finn, sata * ioo Lapp, cuotte , Mordv. sado, Cer. siiSo, Zyry. so, Voty. &u, Vog. sat , $ai t Osty. sot, sdt, Hung, szdz : Skt. satdm , Av. satrm. (2) Mordv. azoro , azor * lord Voty. uz’ir, Zyry. ozir * rich ' ; Vog. oter, dter ' hero ' : Skt. dsnra, ' lord ', Av. ahura- ‘ id (3) Finn, vasara ' hammer Lapp. v&ler t Mordv. vizir , uzer : Skt. vdjra - ' Indra's weapon Av. vazra- ' club, mace (4) Finn, porsas, Zyry. pori , porys , 1 Borrowings are likely to have occurred in both directions, and usually it is difficult to decide which family has been the borrower. As an example of a probable loan from Finno-Ugrian we may quote Engl, whale, O.N. hvalr , O. Pruss. kalis: Av. kara- ‘ mythical fish living in the Rar)ha { -Volga) : Finn, kola ' fish ' etc. The restriction of the meaning indicates that the IE languages are the borrowers, and it is likely that Iranian and the northern IE languages have done so separately.
