Finnish hasn't actualy had a full written dictionary of words until rather recently, too. The finno-ugric language branch has always been very mysterious, to the point nobody can definitely point the actual origin for it. To this day, the language spoken in some parts of finland is still really hard to understand even for the finnish themselves, like in some parts of Savo, supposedly.
Err... the Finnish written language started being codified in the 16th century, and the first dictionaries are from the 17th century. We appear to have radically different interpretations of 'rather recently'. Written Finnish was neglected, of course - the Swedish-speaking elites and
government tyranny saw no reason to encourage the peasant rabble's common tongue.
The Savo dialect is about as difficult as any rural dialect in any language. I can't really say for the mysteriousness of Finno-Ugric - AFAIK it originated from out there in the direction of Siberia, as evidenced by the lots of Finno-Ugric minority languages in what's now Russia.
Why the Hungarians wandered off so far south is a mystery. The languages are not very similar anymore to the layman. They must be so lonely.
Dont be silly. Finland (and Norway to an extent) are populated with nordic superhumans. Things like "the cold" are easily defeated with a suitable beverage for them. ;P
/joke
What do you mean, 'joke'? It's just the truth. I'm not sure why you specified 'Finland and Norway', but I rather like you left Sweden out of this grouping.
Förgrymmmade, fjompiga fjord-fjuniga fjantiga fjolla!
An illustration of languages in Europe, starring balls:
-snip-
Vesihiisi sihisi hississä right back atcha, buddy.
Is that Basque among the Romances? Basque is the real mystery of European languages - it's not related to
any other living languages in Europe or beyond. How did it end up there and survive for so long? Where did it come from?
What are they hiding from us?