On the Time and Historical Circumstances of Permian Denasalization
DOI: 10.23951/2307-6119-2026-1-29-39
This article continues the examination of Permian denasalization, specifically the simplification of medial Proto-Finno-Ugric clusters of ‘nasal + consonant or affricate,’ which resulted in the emergence of voiced consonants and affricates in the Permian proto-language (*-nt- > *-d, *-ŋk- > *-g, *-nč- > *-ǯ, *-ńć- > *-ʒ ́ ). The author attempts to date Permian denasalization and outline its historical context. Earlier theories suggesting that this process continued at the beginning of early Permic-Bulgarian contacts are rejected. Based on the analysis of reconstructed phonetic processes and the stratification of borrowings into the Permian proto-language, the beginning (middle to second half of the 1st millennium BC) and the end (second half of the 1st millennium AD, between the 7th and 9th centuries) of Permian denasalization are proposed. Since this dating coincides with that of a similar phonetic process in Old Hungarian, as established by Hungarian researchers (first half to middle of the 1st millennium AD), the article proposes revisiting the possibility of parallel Permian and Hungarian denasalization during the secondary contact of these languages in the middle of the first millennium AD. It is suggested that these contacts occurred in the territory of modern Bashkiria, in the lower reaches of the Kama River and the Belaya basin, where, in the middle of the first millennium AD, there was close interaction between speakers of the post-Pyanobor cultures of the Belaya River basin and the late Glyadenovo culture of the Middle Kama Region (Proto-Permians) and the bearers of the Kushnarenkovo-Karayakupovo tradition (ancient Hungarians)–along with the southern Permians and ancient Hungarians, speakers of Sarmat-Alanic dialects ancestral to the Ossetian language (the creators of archaeological sites of the Late Sarmatian tradition in the Southern Urals and the Middle Volga region) also played an active role in this interaction. In addition to denasalization, the active interaction of these languages is reflected in the development of common morphological elements and lexical borrowings, whose phonetic features reflect the state of the respective languages during this period.
Keywords: Permic languages, Hungarian language, Ossetian language, denasalization, historical morphonology, linguistic reconstruction, language contacts, prehistory
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