Misunderstanding historical linguistics: three Uralic examples

Since the nineteenth century, findings of historical linguistics have been used for shedding light on the past and, in this connection, also in national identity building. This has created tensions between pre-scientific, romantic narratives and the mainstream academic views on linguistic prehistory. Somewhat surprisingly, not only laypeople but even academic “maverick” linguists sometimes propagate pseudolinguistic views seemingly tailored to support popular ideas about a glorious national past. This chapter analyzes three such cases and the reasons behind the misuse of data, methods, and terminology. While two of them seem to be mainly connected to Hungarian Anti-Finno-Ugrism, one of them represents similar problems in Finland and Estonia.