Аннотация:This paper is dedicated to functioning of onomatopoeic words in Volgaic (Mordvin, Mari) and Permic (Udmurt, Komi) Finno-Ugric languages. Contrary to the widespread view of such elements as syntactically isolated, our analysis shows that onomatopoeic words can be used as predicates or form predicates in combination with verbs meaning ‘to hear’, ‘to do’, ‘to go’, etc.