PERMIC LANGUAGES

also called Permian, division of the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family, consisting of the Udmurt (Votyak), Komi (Zyryan), and Permyak (Komi-Permyak) languages. The Permic languages are spoken along the northern and western reaches of the Ural Mountains in Russia in and around Udmurtia and Komi. Udmurt has little dialectal variation, but Komi has many distinctive dialects divided into two major groups: Northern (Zyryan) Komi and Eastern (Yazva) Komi. The Komi literary language is based on Zyryan. Permyak has literary status in the Komi-Permyak autonomous okrug (district). Both Udmurt and Komi languages have flourishing literatures that have developed primarily since the second half of the 19th century, although written records of Komi exist from the 14th century. See also Finno-Ugric languages.