The Khanty (Ostyak) language belongs to the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family. Together with Mansi and Hungarian, they make up the so-called Ugric sub-branch of the language family. Within this sub-branch, Mansi and Khanty constitute a separate group. Due to their speakers' dwelling site along the Ob river, the two are called the Ob-Ugric languages.

The Mansi (Vogul) language belongs to the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family. Together with Khanty and Hungarian, they make up the so-called Ugric sub-branch of the language family. Within this sub-branch, Mansi and Khanty constitute a separate group. Due to their speakers' dwelling site along the river Ob, the two are called the Ob-Ugric languages. Mansi is an indigenous language of West Siberia with a total of 938 native speakers based on the latest census data from 2010 (PEREPIS 2010). This number makes up only 7.6% of those declaring themselves to be Mansi (12,269).