1950 Volume 1950 Issue 15 Pages 27-39,104
According to the opinions of many Finno-Ugrian linguists, Vogulian initial s-represents *s-of Proto-Finno-Ugrian., and Cheremissian š- represents *s-. But we also find š-in Vogulian, and. s-, s-in Cheremissian in the same group of words.
As a result of the field researches of many scholars we have confirmed the following facts:
1) In Vogulian there are two groups of words (A and B), which are both traced to Preto-F.-U.*s-. The words of A-Group possess s-in all Vogulian dialects, but in the words belonging to B-Group we find š-in Southern and Western dialects.
2) Many Cheremissian dialects have s-, for Proto-F.-U. ks-. Only in Malmy-dialect there exist s-(in the words of ‘palatal’ vowels) or s-(in the words of ‘velar’ vowels) for *s-initial.
The writer takes up this problem in this article from both ‘synchronique’ and ‘diachronique’ point of view referring to the studies of Setälä, Paasonnen, Toivonen; uichmann, Beke, etc.