Aspects of Finnic language history

The article draws together aspects of the history of the Finnic languages. I rely on Finnic language studies to shed light on the main lines of the historical development of the Finnic languages and on the methods implemented in these studies. Comparison of cognate languages on a synchronic level has been a recurrent procedure in the historical studies of this language group. The article stresses the role of the minor Finnic languages and their equality with the societally stronger Finnic languages, Finnish and Estonian, in a linguistic context.