The
Finnic (Fennic) or
Baltic Finnic (Balto-Finnic, Balto-Fennic) languages are a branch of the
Uralic language family spoken around the
Baltic Sea by about 7 million people.
The major modern representatives of the family are
Finnish and
Estonian, the official languages of their respective nation states. The other Finnic languages in the Baltic Sea region are
Ingrian,
Karelian,
Ludic,
Veps, and
Votic, spoken around the
Gulf of Finland and Lakes
Onega and
Ladoga.
Võro and
Seto (modern descendants of historical
South Estonian) are spoken in south-eastern
Estonia and
Livonian in parts of
Latvia.
The smaller languages are disappearing. In the 20th century both
Livonian and Votic had fewer than 100 speakers left.
Meänkieli (in northern Sweden) and
Kven (in northern Norway) are Finnish dialects that the Scandinavian countries of Sweden and Norway have given the legal status of independent languages. They are
mutually intelligible with Finnish.
The geographic centre of the maximum divergence between the languages is located south of the
Gulf of Finland.