What is "jumala"

or or means "god" in the Finnic languages and those of the Volga Finns ( Mari, Erzya and Moksha languages), both the Christian god and any other deity of any religion. The word is thought to have been the name of a sky god of the ancient Finnic-speaking peoples. Jumala as a god of the sky is associated with the related Estonian Jumal, Mari Jumo and Bjarmian Jomali and is thought to stem from an ancient tradition of the Finno-Ugric peoples. A related term appears also in the Mordvinic languages, jondol "lightning", literally "fire of Juma" (cf. tol "fire").

The terms are usually considered to derive from a common Finno-Permic root *juma. No equivalents are found in the Ugric languages, and there are different theories concerning the earlier origin of the word. One possible origin is Baltic languages (cf. Jumis — Latvian god of fertility, one of the divine twins). An Indo-Iranian origin for the name has been proposed, comparing e.g. Sanskrit dyumān "heavenly", "shining", but this remains disputed.

This name replaced the original Finno-Ugric word for "heaven" (*ilma), which is preserved in the Sámi and Permic languages but whose meaning was shifted to "air" in Finnic. The older sense remains in the Finnish divine name Ilmarinen.