 About 1000 basic words of the Hungarian language – including the names of the seasons and natural phenomena , and the most frequently used verbs – had cognates in other Finno @-@ Ugric languages , suggesting the temporary existence of a Proto @-@ Finno @-@ Ugric language . Between around 2600 and 2100 BC , climatic changes caused the spread of swamps on both sides of the Urals , forcing groups of inhabitants to leave their homelands . The Finno @-@ Ugric linguistic unity disappeared and new languages emerged around 2000 BC . Whether the groups speaking the language from which Hungarian emerged lived to the east or to the west of the Urals in this period is debated by historians . 
