The "Urheimat" of the proto-language of the modern Finno-Ugric languages, the so-called Proto-Finno-Ugric, is believed to be on the western side of the Ural mountains 5000 years ago. There is evidence that before the arrival of Slavonic tribes to their present territory in Russia, a sprinkling of Finno-Ugrians inhabited the whole territory from the Urals to the Baltic Sea.

The Finno-Ugric subfamily of the Uralic languages has the following members:

• Finno-permic
  • Finno-cheremisic
    • Finno-mordvinic
      • Finno-Lappic
        • Baltic Finnic:
          • Finnish
          • Estonian
          • Karelian
          • Meänkieli
          • Veps - In danger of extinction
          • Livonian - Almost extinct
          • Votic - Almost extinct
          • Izhorian - Almost extinct
          • Ingrian Finnish
        • Lappic
          • Saami (or Lappish)
      • Mordvin
        • Erzya-Mordvin
        • Moksha-Mordvin
    • Mari or Cheremis
  • Permic group:
    • Udmurt or Votyak
    • Komi
      • Komi-Permyak
      • Komi-Zyrian
• Ugric
  • Hungarian
  • Ob Ugric
    • Khanty or Ostyak, see Khant
    • Mansi or Vogul