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Concept
Komi peoples
Summary
The Komi (komijas also komi-vojtyr), also called Komi-Zyryans or Zyryans, are an indigenous Permian ethnic group whose homeland is in the northeast of European Russia around the basins of the Vychegda, Pechora and Kama rivers. They mostly reside in the Komi Republic, Perm Krai, Murmansk Oblast, Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug in the Russian Federation.
There have been at least three names for the Komis: Permyaks, Zyrians (пермяки, зыряне) and Komi, the last being the self-designation of the people.
The name Permyaks firstly appeared in the 10th century in Russian sources and came from the ancient name of the land between the Mezen River and Pechora River – Perm or "Great Perm" (Пермь Великая). Several origins of the name have been proposed but the most accepted is from Veps Peräma "back, outer or far-away land" from Veps perä "back, extreme" and ma "land". In Old Norse and Old English, it was known as Bjarmaland and Beormas respectively but those Germanic names might designate some other place than the Russian Perm.
Since the 20th century, the name has been applied only to the southern Komi (Komi-Permyaks) in Perm Krai. In Russia, permyak also means "an inhabitant of Perm or Perm Krai" independently from ethnicity.
The name for the northern Komis – Zyrians – has a more contradictory origin. It exists since the 14th century and it had many different forms in various Russian sources such as Seryan, Siryan, Syryan, Suryan and Ziryan, Ziranian, Zyryan (серьяне, сирьяне, сыряне, суряне, зиряне, зыряне), but the latter finally became predominant. Turkin believed that it may come from a small local tribe of the Komis (probably named saran) which first met the Russians, hence the name became default for all the northern Komis. The neighbouring Uralic-speaking peoples call the Komis with similar names: Khanty sərän, sərån, săran, sārån, Mansi sarän, Nenets sānnğr, saran, Udmurt sara-kum.
The name Komi is the endonym for all groups of the people. It was first recorded by ethnographers in the 18th century.
Official source
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