The Genetics of Udmurts - Генетика Удмуртов

There is a misunderstanding that some people have, that since Udmurts and Finns both speak Finno-Ugric languages, they must be genetically similar to early Finno-Ugrians. This is, of course, not the case. Despite having Finno-Ugrian Ydna, Finnish people carry almost not a drop of Uralic blood. Udmurts have more Uralic blood, around a quarter. Both the Finns and the Udmurts are largely Indo-Europeans who transitioned towards speaking a language from the East. In terms of modern population genetics, Udmurts are not at all similar to the Finns. Udmurts are closer to Crimean Tatars than to even Eastern Finns. Udmurts are closer to Turkmen than to Central Finns. And still, Udmurts are much closer to all these populations than they are to pure Finno-Ugrians from bronze age Krasnoyarsk. If we compare Udmurts to modern ethnicities, they aren’t very similar to anybody except Besermyan people - who are pretty much a subethnos of Udmurts anyway. Who were the ancestors of Udmurts in the bronze age? In the early and middle bronze age, the ancestors of Udmurts spoke Indo-European languages, Indo-Iranian to be specific. The name “Udmurt” itself is of Indo-Iranian origin. In ossetian language, Ud-goymak means a person. In Persian, “mard” means a mortal, in Russian “mertvec” means a dead man.Udmurt I suppose, means a mortal man. The words Udmurt, Mari, Mordvin and Erzya all have Iranic etymology. Anyway in the middle bronze age, according to G25, 41.8% of Udmurt’s ancestors were of Srubna culture, and thus spoke Iranian languages. 24.4% of their ancestors belonged to Estonian-Baltic bronze age cultures, and spoke likely Baltic languages, 24.2% of their ancestors were of Krasnoyarsk Uralic origin and spoke Uralic languages, and 9.6% of their ancestors belonged to Turkmen Parkhai cluster, of BMAC culture, speaking Dravidian. This substrate in Udmurts is likely the result of mixing with later Iranians. If we break the ancestry of Udmurts into more “ancient” parts, in the eneolithic, 46.8% of Udmurts’ ancestors were of Khvalynsk culture, and spoke Proto-IndoEuropean. 15.4% of Udmurts’ ancestors were of Maykop culture, 22.6% were of Ymyyakhtakh culture, 15.2% of Funnelbeaker culture, speaking paleoeuropean. In Udmurtia lived first Neanderthals, then Cro-Magnons, then Ancient North Eurasians, then Eastern Hunter gatherers, then proto-Indoeuropeans, then Indo-Iranians, then finally Finno-Ugrians. Udmurts carry genes from all of these people. In regards to the appearance of Udmurts, they tend to have black hair and brown eyes, a short build, vaguely European facial features. Data from Mozhginsk graves collected by anthropologist Zenkevich P.I. suggests that around 50% of Udmurts had faces of normal width, 20% Narrow faces, and 30% wide faces. Udmurts from Mozhga being significantly more narrow faced than Udmurts from Burino. According to the studies of anthropologist D.A.Zolotorev, who studied the Udmurts of Mamadysh province, Udmurts were unique in one trait - that trait being prognathism - the forward growth of the upper and lower jaw. Udmurts are brachycephalic. According to this study, half of Udmurts had blue or grey eyes. Although in my experience with Udmurts, I think modern Udmurts are much darker eyed than that. I couldnt find any reliable data on the pigmentation of udmurts, but if I had to guess based on my observations, I would say half of Udmurts are brown eyed,quarter hazel and green eyed, and quarter blue eyed Same with hair, half black haired, quarter brown haired, quarter blonde