Language isolate

{{Short description|Language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with other languages}} {{Distinguish|Isolating language}} thumb|434x434px|Locations of a few examples of language isolates.|class=skin-invert-image A '''language isolate''', sometimes called an '''isolated language''', is a language that has no demonstrable genealogical relationship with any other language.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Campbell|first=Lyle|date=2010-08-24|title=Language Isolates and Their History, or, What's Weird, Anyway?|journal=Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society|language=en|volume=36|issue=1|pages=16–31|doi=10.3765/bls.v36i1.3900|issn=2377-1666|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last1=Salaberri |first1=Iker |title=State of the art of research on language isolates: Introduction |date=2025-01-16 |work=Investigating Language Isolates: Typological and diachronic perspectives |pages=2–19 |editor-last=Salaberri |editor-first=Iker |url=https://benjamins.com/catalog/tsl.135.intro |access-date=2025-01-17 |series=Typological Studies in Language |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |language=en |doi=10.1075/tsl.135.intro |isbn=978-90-272-1899-5 |last2=Krajewska |first2=Dorota |last3=Santazilia |first3=Ekaitz |last4=Zuloaga |first4=Eneko |editor2-last=Krajewska |editor2-first=Dorota |editor3-last=Santazilia |editor3-first=Ekaitz |editor4-last=Zuloaga |editor4-first=Eneko|url-access=subscription }}</ref> That is, an isolate is a language family that only contains one member. Basque in Europe, Ainu (if counted as a single language) and Burushaski in Asia, Sandawe and Hadza in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê and Trumai in South America, Tiwi and possibly Porome in Oceania are examples of language isolates, as too are well attested extinct languages such as Sumerian and Elamite. The exact number of language isolates is unknown due to insufficient data on several languages; that is, there is a fuzzy boundary between language isolates and unclassified languages. Researchers may have differing criteria on how much comparative work needs to be done before concluding that a language is an isolate.<ref>p. xi. Lyle Campbell. 2018. "Introduction". ''Language Isolates'' edited by Lyle Campbell, pp. xi–xiv. Routledge.</ref>

"Isolate" does not mean that a language has no relatives, only that any relationships are too distant to be detectable. Most established families of oral languages &ndash; including isolates &ndash; are assumed to be related to each other at a time depth too great for us to reconstruct. (See linguistic monogenesis.)

Another possibility is that the language arose independently and does not share a common linguistic genesis with any other language. This possibility is often posited for sign languages that are thought to have developed independently of other oral or sign languages.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Urban|first=Matthias|date=April 2021|title=The geography and development of language isolates|journal=Royal Society Open Science|language=en|volume=8|issue=4|pages=rsos.202232, 202232|article-number=rsos.202232 |doi=10.1098/rsos.202232 |doi-access=free|pmid=33996125|pmc=8059667|bibcode=2021RSOS....802232U|issn=2054-5703}}</ref>

In some classifications, a language may be counted as an isolate once all known relatives are extinct. An example is the Ket language spoken in central Siberia, which belongs to the wider Yeniseian family, all the others of which are now extinct. Ket is thus an isolate in the current context. However, most classifications do not count Ket as a language isolate because it does have demonstrable relatives, even if they no longer exist except in recorded data. If those relatives had gone extinct without being recorded, then Ket would be an isolate in the stricter sense.

Isolates may be reclassified as larger families if some of their purported dialects are later judged to be sufficiently different from each other to count as different languages. Examples include the erstwhile isolates of Japanese and Georgian: Japanese is now considered to be the Japonic language family (which includes the Ryukyuan languages), and Georgian to be the Kartvelian language family.

There is a difference between language isolates and unclassified languages, but they can be difficult to differentiate when data is limited.<ref name=":1" /> If comparative efforts do prove fruitful, a language previously considered an isolate may be reclassified as being part of a larger language family, as happened with the Yanyuwa language of northern Australia, now placed in the Pama–Nyungan family.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bradley|first=John|title=Wuka nya-nganunga li-Yanyuwa li-Anthawirriyarra = Language for us, the Yanyuwa Saltwater People: a Yanyuwa encyclopaedia|volume =1|date=2016|others=Jean F. Kirton, Elfreda MacDonald|isbn=978-1-925003-67-3|location=North Melbourne, Vic|oclc=957570810}}</ref> Since linguists do not always agree on whether a genetic relationship has been demonstrated, it is often disputed whether a particular language is an isolate.

==Genetic relationships== {{Main|Genetic relationship (linguistics)}} A genetic relationship is when two different languages are descended from a common ancestral language.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last=Thomason|first=Sarah Grey|title=Language contact, creolization, and genetic linguistics|date=1988|others=Terrence Kaufman|isbn=0-520-07893-4|location=Berkeley|oclc=16525266}}</ref> This is what makes up a language family, which is a set of languages for which sufficient evidence exists to demonstrate that they descend from a single ancestral language and are therefore genetically related.<ref name=":1" /> For example, English is related to other Indo-European languages and Mandarin Chinese is related to other Sino-Tibetan languages. By this criterion, each language isolate constitutes a family of its own.<ref name=":4" />

Isolates at the family level are not to be confused with lower-level isolates, single languages that form a primary branch of a larger language family. Examples are Armenian, an isolate within the Indo-European family, and Paiwan, an isolate within the Austronesian family.

==Extinct isolates== Caution is required when speaking of extinct languages as language isolates. Despite their great age, Sumerian and Elamite can be safely classified as isolates, as the languages are well enough documented that, if modern relatives existed, they would be recognizably related.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages|date=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|editor=Roger D. Woodard|isbn=0-521-56256-2 |oclc=59471649}}</ref> A language thought to be an isolate may turn out to be related to other languages once enough material is recovered, but this is unlikely for extinct languages whose written records have not been preserved.<ref name=":1" />

Many extinct languages are very poorly attested, which may lead to them being considered unclassified languages (or even unclassifiable languages) rather than language isolates. This occurs when linguists do not have enough information on a language to classify it as either a language isolate or as a part of another language family.<ref name=":1" />

== Isolates v. unclassified languages == Unclassified languages are different from language isolates in that they have no demonstrable genetic relationships to other languages due to a lack of sufficient data. In order to be considered a language isolate, a language needs to have sufficient data for comparisons with other languages through methods of historical-comparative linguistics to show that it does not have any detectable genetic relationships.<ref name=":1" />

Many extinct and living languages today are very poorly attested, and the fact that they cannot be linked to other languages may be a reflection of linguists' poor knowledge of them. Hattic, Gutian, and Kassite are all considered unclassified languages, but their status is disputed by a minority of linguists who count them as isolates.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Mallory|first1=J. P.|title=The Tarim mummies: ancient China and the mystery of the earliest peoples from the West, with 190 illustrations, 13 in color|date=2000|publisher=Thames & Hudson|first2=Victor H. |last2=Mair|isbn=0-500-05101-1|location=New York City|oclc=43378559}}</ref> Many extinct languages of the Americas such as Cayuse and Majena may likewise have been isolates.<ref>{{Cite book|first1=Barbara Leitch |last1=LePoer |first2=Kendall T. |last2=LePoer |title=A Concise dictionary of Indian tribes of North America |date=1979 |publisher=Reference Publications |location=Algonac, Michigan |oclc=868981165|isbn=9780917256097}}</ref>

==Sign language isolates== {{Further|Deaf-community sign language|Village sign language}}

A number of sign languages have arisen independently, without any ancestral language, and thus are true language isolates. (See linguistic polygenesis.) These include Nicaraguan Sign Language, a well-documented case of what has happened in schools for the deaf in many countries.<ref name="journals.sagepub.com">{{Cite journal|last1=Senghas|first1=Ann|last2=Coppola|first2=Marie|date=July 2001|title=Children Creating Language: How Nicaraguan Sign Language Acquired a Spatial Grammar|url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9280.00359|journal=Psychological Science|language=en|volume=12|issue=4|pages=323–328|doi=10.1111/1467-9280.00359|pmid=11476100|s2cid=9978841|issn=0956-7976|url-access=subscription}}</ref> In Tanzania, for example, there are seven schools for the deaf, each with its own sign language with no connection to any other language.<ref>{{Cite book|last=T.|first=Muzale, H. R.|title=Kamusi ya Lugha ya Alama ya Tanzania (LAT) = Tanzanian Sign Language (TSL) dictionary: Kiswahili-TSL-English|date=2004|publisher=Languages of Tanzania Project, University of Dar es Salaam|isbn=9987-691-02-1|oclc=67947374}}</ref> Sign languages have also developed outside schools, in communities with high incidences of deafness, such as Kata Kolok in Bali, and half a dozen sign languages of the hill tribes in Thailand including the Ban Khor Sign Language,<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=de Vos|first=Connie|date=March 2011|title=Kata Kolok Color Terms and the Emergence of Lexical Signs in Rural Signing Communities|url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.2752/174589311X12893982233795|journal=The Senses and Society|language=en|volume=6|issue=1|pages=68–76|doi=10.2752/174589311X12893982233795|hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-0012-BB5A-6|s2cid=218839277 |issn=1745-8927|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Nonaka|first=Angela M.|date=July 2009|title=Estimating size, scope, and membership of the speech/sign communities of undocumented indigenous/village sign languages: The Ban Khor case study|url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0271530909000202|journal=Language & Communication|language=en|volume=29|issue=3|pages=210–229|doi=10.1016/j.langcom.2009.02.004|url-access=subscription}}</ref> or in cities when people immigrate from the countryside and deaf children meet other deaf people for the first time, even without attending a school for the deaf.

These and more are all presumed to be absolute isolates or small independent families, because many deaf communities are made up of people whose hearing parents do not use sign language, and have manifestly, as shown by the language itself, not borrowed their sign language from other deaf communities during the recorded history of these languages.<ref name=":3" />

=== List === {| class="wikitable sortable" rules="ALL" |- ! Language ! data-sort-type="number" | Users ! Status ! Countries ! Comments |- | Adamorobe Sign |40 | data-sort-value="1" | Endangered |Ghana | AdaSL is believed to have emerged over 200 years ago, alongside the settlement's founding.<ref name=":04">{{Cite book |last=Nyst|first=Victoria|title=A descriptive analysis of Adamorobe Sign Language (Ghana)|date=2007|publisher=LOT|isbn=978-90-78328-22-3|series=LOT|location=Utrecht}}</ref> |- |Afghan Sign |190,000 | rowspan="2" |Vibrant |Afghanistan | |- |Albanian Sign |24,000 |Albania |It is unrelated to other sign languages of the Balkans. |- |Albarradas |1,000 |Vulnerable |Mexico | |- |Algerian Jewish |Unknown |Moribund |Algeria | |- |Alipur |150-250 |Endangered | rowspan="2" |India | |- |Angami Naga Sign | colspan="2" |Extinct | |- |Armenian Sign |3,200–16,000 | rowspan="3" |Vulnerable |Armenia |Wittmann (1991)<ref>Wittmann, Henri (1991). "Classification linguistique des langues signées non vocalement." Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et appliquée 10:1.215–88.[http://www.nou-la.org/ling/1991a-class.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412133912/http://www.nou-la.org/ling/1991a-class.pdf|date=2019-04-12}}</ref> posits that ArSL is a language isolate (a 'prototype' sign language). |- |Bamako |25,000 |Mali |A sign language that developed outside the Malian educational system, in the urban tea-circles of Bamako where deaf men gathered after work. It is used predominantly by men, and is threatened by the educational use of American Sign Language, which is the language of instruction for those deaf children who go to school. |- |Ban Khor |400 |Thailand | |- |Bay Islands | colspan="2" |Unknown |Honduras | |- |Berbey |5 |Moribund |Mali |Used by two families. |- |Bouakako |24 |Endangered |Ivory Coast |LaSiBo has been used by several generations of deaf people, most of whom are related. 9 deaf and 15 fluent hearing speakers known<!-- Cite error: <ref name="Tano2016" /> --> |- |Brazilian |630,000 |'''Vibrant''' |Brazil |Brazilian Sign Language is a well-established language and legally recognized. |- |Bribri Sign Language | colspan="2" |Extinct | rowspan="2" |Costa Rica | |- |Brunca | colspan="2" rowspan="3" |Unknown | |- |Bura |Nigeria |Used by the Bura people around the village of Kukurpu, 40 km (25 miles) south-east of Biu, Nigeria, an area with a high degree of congenital deafness. |- |Carhuahuaran |Peru |a multigenerational family sign language of the Quechua-speaking region of Peru.<ref name="Clark">Brenda Clark, [http://ling.hawaii.edu/wp-content/uploads/Clark_Brenda-Dissertation-Draft.pdf A Grammatical Sketch of Sivia Sign Language] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515121841/http://ling.hawaii.edu/wp-content/uploads/Clark_Brenda-Dissertation-Draft.pdf|date=2021-05-15}}</ref> |- |Caucasian | colspan="2" |Extinct |Armenia | |- |Central Taurus |Unknown |Vulnerable |Turkey | |- |Chatino |11 |Moribund |Mexico | |- |Douentza |700~1300 |Vulnerable |Mali |Also known as Dogon Sign language. |- |Enga Sign | colspan="2" |Unknown |Papua New Guinea |an apparent village sign language among the Tato Enga people in Enga province, Papua New Guinea. It was reported in 1980 in three articles by Adam Kendon, based on ethnographic films of three signers (one deaf, two hearing) in the upper valley of the Lagaip River, but with reports of wider use in the surrounding region.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kendon|first1=Adam|title=A description of a deaf-mute sign language from the Enga Province of Papua New Guinea with some comparative discussion, Part I: The formational properties of Enga signs|journal=Semiotica|date=1980|volume=31|issue=1/2|pages=1–34|doi=10.1515/semi.1980.31.1-2.1|s2cid=201699673}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kendon|first1=Adam|title=A description of a deaf-mute sign language from the Enga Province of Papua New Guinea with some comparative discussion, Part II: The semiotic functioning of Enga signs|journal=Semiotica|date=1980|volume=32|issue=1/2|pages=81–117}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kendon|first1=Adam|title=A description of a deaf-mute sign language from the Enga Province of Papua New Guinea with some comparative discussion, Part III: Aspects of utterance construction|journal=Semiotica|date=1980|volume=32|issue=3/4|pages=245–313}}</ref> Its current status is unknown, as no more recent information is available. |- |Ghandruk |20 |Moribund |Nepal | |- |Guatemalan |50,000 |Vibrant |Guatemala | |- |Guinea-Bissau |Unknown | rowspan="2" |Vibrant |Guinea-Bissau |An incipient sign language evolving from the single school for the deaf in Guinea-Bissau, which was founded in Bissau in 2003. In 2005 a linguist and Portuguese Sign Language teacher found GBSL to still be basic, but with some consistency among students in the school and village use when the students went home. It is not directly related to the Portuguese sign language, although it has borrowed the alphabet from it.<ref>{{Cite web |title=República da Guiné-Bissau (Republic of Guinea-Bissau)|url=https://africansignlanguagesresourcecenter.com/guine-bissau/|access-date=2024-05-13|website=African Sign Languages Resource Center|language=en-US}}</ref> |- |Hausa Sign |20,000~5,000,000 |Nigeria |There are no statistics on the number of deaf people in northern Nigeria or in Nigeria in general or on the number of people who use Hausa Sign Language. Estimates as to the number of signers using this language "vary greatly, from 70,000 to five million".<ref>Schmaling, Constanze. 2015. ''Sign Languages of the World: A Comparative Handbook'', Julie Bakken Jepsen, Goedele De Clerck, Sam Lutalo-Kiingi, William B. McGregor, (eds.), 362-390. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614518174</ref> |- |Hawaiʻi Sign |40 |Moribund | rowspan="2" |United States | |- |Henniker | colspan="2" |Extinct |Was a village sign language of 19th-century Henniker, New Hampshire and surrounding villages in the US. It was one of the three local languages which formed the basis of American Sign Language. |- |Inuit Sign |47 | rowspan="2" |Endangered |Canada and Greenland | |- |Jamaican Country |7,500 |Jamaica |In 2007 it was estimated that the language would become extinct in the next twenty to thirty years |- |Jhankot | colspan="2" |Unknown | rowspan="2" |Nepal | |- |Jumla Sign Language |8 |Moribund |a village sign language of the town of Jumla in western Nepal. There is a Nepalese Sign Language school in Jumla, and that the students come from a 1–2-day walk away and do not speak Jumla Sign Language. |- |Kaʼapor Sign |507 |Vulnerable |Brazil |a village sign language used by the small community of Kaʼapor people in the Brazilian state of Maranhão |- |Kafr Qasem |50 |Endangered |Israel-Palestine | |- |Kailge Sign | colspan="2" |Unknown |Papua New Guinea | |- |Kajana |Unknown |Endangered |Suriname |a village sign language of Suriname. It is spoken in Kajana, a village of just three families. |- |Kata Kolok |1,240 |Vulnerable |Indonesia |Deaf people in the village express themselves using special cultural forms such as deaf dance and martial arts and occupy special ritual and social roles, including digging graves and maintaining water pipes. Deaf and hearing villagers alike share a belief in a deaf god. |- |Keresign |15 | rowspan="2" |Moribund |United States |Developed locally, and is unrelated to the trade language Plains Indian Sign Language. |- |Koniya |4 |Japan | |- |Old Cayman | colspan="2" |Extinct |Cayman Islands | |- |Old Costa Rican |100 |Moribund |Costa Rica |A deaf-community sign language of San Jose, spoken by people born before about 1945. Along with American Sign Language, it is one of the sources of New Costa Rican Sign Language.<!-- Cite error: {{sfn|Woodward|1991}} --> |- |Old Kentish | colspan="2" |Extinct |United Kingdom |Was a village sign language of 17th-century Kent in the United Kingdom, that has been incorporated along with other village sign languages into British Sign Language. |- |Orocovis |25-50 |Endangered |Puerto Rico | |- |Ottoman | colspan="2" |Extinct |Turkey |It is not known whether Ottoman Sign Language was ancestral to modern Turkish Sign Language, as no signs were recorded.<ref>{{cite web |first=Aslı|last=Özyürek|author-link=Aslı Özyürek|title=Turkish Sign Language (TİD) General Info|website=Koç University|url=http://turkisaretdili.ku.edu.tr/en/tid.aspx|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415064343/http://turkisaretdili.ku.edu.tr/en/tid.aspx|archive-date=2012-04-15}}</ref> |- |Maldives Sign |2,700 | rowspan="2" |Vulnerable |Maldives | |- |Maltese Sign |200 |Malta |LSM courses have been offered by the University of Malta since 2015.<ref name=":05">{{Cite web |last=Zammit|first=Juliana|date=2025-01-07|title=The lesser known third official language of Malta|url=https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/133026/the_lesser_known_third_official_language_of_malta|access-date=2025-04-02|website=Malta Today|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite web |last=Pace|first=Yannick|date=2021-11-24|title=Malta's First Ever Crop Of Maltese Sign Language Interpreters Graduate From University|url=https://lovinmalta.com/news/maltas-first-ever-crop-of-maltese-sign-language-interpreters-graduate-from-university/|access-date=2025-04-02|website=Lovin Malta|language=en-GB}}</ref> Despite official recognition, the Deaf community in Malta has struggled with shortages of qualified LSM interpreters. |- |Mardin |40 |Moribund |Turkey | |- |Maroua |150 |Endangered |Cameroon |Used by approximately 150 people in and around the town of Maroua, capital of the Far North Region of Cameroon.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Atindogbe|first=Gratien G.|date=September 2019|title=Deaf education and Language-Based Curriculum: The case of the Buea School for the Deaf|url=https://hdl.handle.net/11599/3226|journal=|hdl=11599/3226|language=en}}</ref> |- |Martha's Vineyard | colspan="2" |Extinct |United States |was a village sign language that was once widely used on the island of Martha's Vineyard, United States, from the early 18th century to 1952. It was used by both deaf and hearing people in the community; consequently, deafness was not a barrier to participation in public life. |- |Maunabudhuk–Bodhe | colspan="2" |Unknown |Nepal | |- |Mauritian |1,000 |Vibrant |Mauritius | |- |Mayan Sign |417 |Endangered |Mexico and Guatemala |Only 17 of the 417 users are deaf. |- |Mbour | colspan="2" |Unknown |Senegal |Used in a neighborhood of the city of M'Bour in Senegal. Deaf people in the neighborhood meet regularly. |- |Mehek Sign |102 |Vulnerable |Papua New Guinea | |- |Miyakubo |70 |Vulnerable |Japan | |- |Mount Avejaha |Unknown |Vibrant |Papua New Guinea |a village sign language of Papua New Guinea. It is spoken in a remote village with many deaf children in the foothills of Mount Avejaha, in Oro Province. It is dissimilar from other village sign languages in New Guinea. The deaf are well integrated into the community. |- |Nanabin |25-30 |Endangered |Ghana |a family sign language of the coastal Fante village of Ekumfi Nanabin in the Central Region of Ghana, ca. 8 km east of Mankessim. It is used by three generations of a single family which is mostly deaf. The second generation are bilingual in Ghanaian Sign Language. |- |Navajo Family | colspan="2" |Unknown |Navajo Nation, United States |a sign language used by a small deaf community of the Navajo People.<ref name="Supalla">{{cite book |last=Supalla|first=Samuel J.|date=1992|title=The Book of Name Signs|page=22}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Davis|first1=Jeffrey|last2=Supalla|first2=Samuel|date=1995|chapter=A Sociolinguistic Description of Sign Language Use in a Navajo Family|editor-link1=Ceil Lucas|editor-last=Ceil|editor-first=Lucas|title=Sociolinguistics in Deaf Communities|publisher=Gallaudet University Press|pages=77–106|isbn=978-1-563-68036-6}}</ref><ref name="Hand Talk">{{cite book|last1=Davis|first1=Jeffrey E.|title=Hand Talk: Sign Language Among American Indian Nations|date=29 July 2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521870108|page=178|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XDsvau6__D4C&q=Navajo+Family+Sign&pg=PA178|accessdate=14 February 2017|language=en|archive-date=26 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240526080114/https://books.google.com/books?id=XDsvau6__D4C&q=Navajo+Family+Sign&pg=PA178#v=snippet&q=Navajo%20Family%20Sign&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> |- |Nicaraguan |3,000 |Vibrant |Nicaragua |a sign language developed by deaf children in several schools in Nicaragua. |- |Plains Indian |Unknown | rowspan="2" |Vulnerable |United States and Canada | |- |Providence Island |19 |Colombia |a village sign language of the small island community of Providence Island in the Western Caribbean, off the coast of Nicaragua but belonging to Colombia. The island is about {{convert|15|sqmi|km2}} and the total population is about 5000, of which an unusual proportion are deaf (5 in 1,000).<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Lattig MC, Gelvez N, Plaza SL, Tamayo G, Uribe JI, Salvatierra I, Bernal JE, Tamayo ML|title=Deafness on the island of Providencia - Colombia: different etiology, different genetic counseling.|journal=Genetic Counseling|volume=19|issue=4|pages=403–12|year=2008|pmid=19239084}}</ref> |- |Rossel Island Sign | colspan="2" |Unknown |Papua New Guinea | |- |Salvadoran |26,000 |Vibrant |El Salvador |a language used by the deaf community in El Salvador. Its main purpose is to communicate and is used by about 15,000 people, or 0.25% of the population.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Project|first=Joshua|title=Deaf in El Salvador|url=https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/19007/ES|access-date=2024-09-29|website=joshuaproject.net|language=en}}</ref> |- |Sandy River Valley | colspan="2" |Extinct |United States |was a village sign language of the 19th-century Sandy River Valley in Maine. Together with the more famous Martha's Vineyard Sign Language and Henniker Sign Language, it was one of three local languages which formed the basis of American Sign Language. |- |Saudi |100,000 |Vibrant |Saudi Arabia |Unrelated to other Arab Sign languages |- |Sinasina Sign |30-55 |Vulnerable |Papua New Guinea | |- |Sivia |27~30 |Vulnerable |Peru |the deaf sign language of the Quechua town of Sivia in Peru. It is not related to Peruvian Sign Language.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://iso639-3.sil.org/sites/iso639-3/files/change_requests/2018/2018-009.pdf|access-date=12 March 2024|page=3|title=Request for Change to ISO 639-3 Language Code|first=Brenda|last=Clark|date=2018-03-12|publisher=ISO 639-3 Registration Authority}}</ref> |- |South Rupununi Sign Language |"Seven plus villages" |Vulnerable |Guyana and Brazil |An indigenous village sign language used in at least seven Wapishana villages with a high degree of congenital deafness. The villages are located south of the town of Lethem in the Rupununi savannah of Guyana and Brazil. |- |Solomon Islands |3,000 | rowspan="3" |Vibrant |Solomon Islands |Main sign language in Solomon Islands |- |Spanish Sign |60,000 |Spain | |- |Sri Lankan Sign |13,000 |Sri Lanka |Wittmann (1991)<ref>{{cite journal |language=fr|last=Wittmann|first=Henri|author-link=Henri Wittmann|year=1991|title=Classification linguistique des langues signées non vocalement|journal=Revue québécoise de linguistique théorique et appliquée|volume=10|issue=1|pages=215–88|s2cid=162499258|url=http://www.nou-la.org/ling/1991a-class.pdf}}</ref> posits that the Sri Lankan languages, as a group, are a language isolate ('prototype' sign language), though one developed through stimulus diffusion from an existing sign language. It is not known if they are related to each other, nor how many there are. |- |Tebul |500 | rowspan="2" |Vulnerable |Mali |a village sign language of the village of Uluban in the Dogon region of Mali, among speakers of Tebul Dogon. |- |Terena Sign |Unknown |Brazil |a village sign language used by deaf Terena people in southern Brazil. Deaf Terena who attend school use LIBRAS there, but switch to Terena Sign when they return home.<ref>Sumaio Soares, Priscilla Alyne (2018) ''Língua Terena de sinais: análise descritiva inicial da língua de.'' Doctoral dissertation, Araraquara: Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho".</ref> |- |Tibetan Sign |500 |Endangered |China | |- |Trinidad and Tobago |2,000 |Vulnerable |Trinidad and Tobago | |- |Turkish Sign |250,000 | rowspan="3" |Vibrant |Turkey | |- |Ugandan |160,000 |Uganda | |- |Venezuelan |86,000 |Venezuela |The national deaf sign language of Venezuela. |- |Wanib | colspan="2" |Unknown |Papua New Guinea | |- |Yolngu / Penguin Sign |5,000 |Vibrant |Australia |Ritual Sign language of the Yolŋu |- |Yoruba Sign |32 |Endangered |Nigeria | |}

==Oral language isolates== Below is a list of spoken language isolates, arranged by continent, along with notes on possible relationships to other languages.

The status column indicates the degree of endangerment of the language, according to the definitions of the UNESCO ''Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger''.<ref name="UNESCO Atlas End.">{{cite web |title=UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger |url=http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/ |website=unesco.org |publisher=UNESCO |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210214005202if_/https://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/ |archive-date=2021-02-14 |access-date=13 February 2021}}</ref> "Vibrant" languages are those in full use by speakers of every generation, with consistent native acquisition by children. "Vulnerable" languages have a similarly wide base of native speakers, but a restricted use and the long-term risk of language shift. "Endangered" languages are either acquired irregularly or spoken only by older generations. "Moribund" languages have only a few remaining native speakers, with no new acquisition, highly restricted use, and near-universal multilingualism. "Extinct" languages have no native speakers, but are sufficiently documented to be classified as isolates. <!-- Sort order data-sort-value: 1 = Vibrant, 2 = Vulnerable, 3 = Endangered, 4 = Moribund, 5 = Extinct -->

===Africa=== {{Further|Languages of Africa#Unclassified languages}}

All of Africa's languages had once been gathered into four major phyla: Afroasiatic, Niger–Congo, Nilo-Saharan and Khoisan.<ref>Blench, Roger. 2017. African language isolates. In ''Language Isolates'', edited by Lyle Campbell, pp. 176–206. Routledge.</ref> Of these, only Afroasiatic has been established as a valid family, and even there there are doubts that some of the peripheral languages are actually Afroasiatic. Khoisan has been completely abandoned, the two major branches of Niger–Congo (as well as several smaller branches) cannot be shown to be related, and there has been persistent doubt about Nilo-Saharan.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Starostin|first=George|title=The Nilo-Saharan hypothesis tested through lexicostatistics: current state of affairs |website=Academia |date=5 February 2016 |url=https://www.academia.edu/21582071|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last1=Harald Hammarström|title=glottolog/glottolog: Glottolog database 4.2.1|date=2020-04-16|chapter-url=https://zenodo.org/record/3754591|doi=10.5281/zenodo.3754591|access-date=2020-08-12|last2=Robert Forkel|last3=Martin Haspelmath|last4=Sebastian Bank|chapter=Linguistics }}</ref> Data for several African languages, especially extinct ones like Kwisi, is not sufficient for classification. In addition, Jalaa, Shabo, Laal, Kujargé, and a few other languages within Nilo-Saharan and Afroasiatic-speaking areas may turn out to be isolates upon further investigation. Defaka and Ega are highly divergent languages located within Niger–Congo-speaking areas, and may also possibly be language isolates.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/Niger-Congo/General/Niger-Congo%20an%20alternative%20view.pdf|title=Niger-Congo: an Alternative View|last=Blench|first=Roger}}</ref> {| class="wikitable sortable" RULES="ALL" |- ! Language ! data-sort-type=number | Speakers ! Status ! Countries ! Comments |- | Bangime |3,500 | data-sort-value=1 rowspan="2" | Vibrant |Mali | Spoken in the Bandiagara Escarpment. Used as an anti-language.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Hantgan|first1=Abbie|url=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01867003|title=Bangime: Secret Language, Language Isolate, or Language Island?|last2=List|first2=Johann-Mattis|date=September 2018}}</ref> |- |Bayot |35,000 |Senegal, Guinea-Bissau |Basic vocabulary shows no relation to other languages.<ref>{{Cite web| title=Some Hypotheses About Possible Isolates within the Atlantic Branch of the Niger-Congo Phylum | url=https://journals.linguisticsociety.org/proceedings/index.php/BLS/article/download/3924/3619/5154 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250227144746/https://journals.linguisticsociety.org/proceedings/index.php/BLS/article/download/3924/3619/5154 | archive-date=2025-02-27}}</ref> |- | Gule | style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" data-sort-value=6 |Extinct |Sudan | Although this language is poorly known, Zamponi (2025) unambiguously classified it as an isolate.<ref>Zamponi, Raoul (2025, forthcoming). ''[https://www.academia.edu/126721374/Zamponi_R_2025_Gule_Routledge_London_and_New_York Gule]''. Routledge World Languages. London: Routledge.</ref> Not enough evidence exists to classify it as one of the Koman languages.<ref name="glot">{{cite web| editor-last1= Hammarström| editor-first1 = Harald| editor-last2 = Forke| editor-first2 = Robert| editor-last3 = Haspelmath| editor-first3 = Martin| editor-last4 = Bank| editor-first4 = Sebastian| year = 2020|title = Gule | work = Glottolog 4.3| url = https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/gule1241}}</ref> |- | Hadza |1,000 | data-sort-value=2 |Vulnerable |Tanzania | Spoken on the southern shore of Lake Eyasi in the southwest of Arusha Region. Once listed as an outlier among the Khoisan languages.<ref name="Witzlack-Nakagawa">{{cite book |last1=Witzlack-Makarevich |first1=Alena |last2=Nakagawa |first2=Hirosi |editor1-last=Ekkehard-Wolff |editor1-first=H. |title=The Cambridge Handbook of African Linguistics |date=2019 |publisher=CUP |pages=382–416 |chapter=Linguistic Features and Typologies in Languages Commonly Referred to as 'Khoisan'}}</ref> Language use is vigorous, though there are fewer than 1,000 speakers.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Miller |first1=Kirk |title=Highlights of Hadza Fieldwork |website=Academia |date=29 April 2018 |url=https://www.academia.edu/36533860}}</ref> |- |Jalaa | style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" data-sort-value=6 |Extinct |Nigeria |Strongly influenced by Dikaka, but most vocabulary is very unusual.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kleinewillinghofer |first1=Ulrich |title=Jalaa: An Almost Forgotten Language of Northeastern Nigeria: A Language Isolate? |journal=Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika |date=2001 |volume=16–17 |pages=239–271}}</ref> |- |Laal |750 | data-sort-value=4 |Moribund |Chad |Spoken in three villages along the Chari River in Moyen-Chari Region. Poorly known. Also known as Gori. Possibly a distinct branch of Niger–Congo, Chadic of the Afroasiatic languages, or mixed.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}} |- |Mpra | style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" |Extinct |Ghana |It is known only from a 70-word list given in a 1931 article. Blench (2007) considers it to be a possible language isolate.<ref>Blench, Roger (2007) ''[http://www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/projets/clhass/PageWeb/ressources/Isolats/Mpra%20%20Blench%202007.pdf Recovering data on Mpra (=Mpre) a possible language isolate in North-Central Ghana]''</ref> |- |Ongota |12 |Moribund |Ethiopia |Likely isolate.<ref>{{cite book|first=Gerrit J.|last=Dimmendaal|title=Historical Linguistics and the Comparative Study of African Languages|year=2011|publisher=John Benjamins|isbn=978-90-272-8722-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Gerrit J.|last=Dimmendaal |year=2020 |chapter=33. Linguistic Isolates |editor1=Rainer Vossen |editor2=Gerrit J. Dimmendaal |title=The Oxford Handbook of African Languages |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=428–436}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The Languages and Linguistics of Africa |last=Güldemann |first=Tom |editor-last=Güldemann |editor-first=Tom |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |chapter=Historical linguistics and genealogical language classification in Africa |year=2018|isbn=978-3-11-042606-9 |doi=10.1515/9783110421668-002 |location=Berlin |pages=58–444 |series=The World of Linguistics series |volume=11 |s2cid=133888593 }}</ref> |- | Sandawe |60,000 | data-sort-value=1 |Vibrant |Tanzania |Spoken in the northwest of Dodoma Region. Tentatively linked to the Khoe languages.<ref name="Witzlack-Nakagawa" /> |- |Shabo |400 | data-sort-value=3 |Endangered |Ethiopia |Spoken in Anderaccha, Gecha, and Kaabo of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region. Linked to the Gumuz and Koman families in the proposed Komuz branch of the Nilo-Saharan languages.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ahland |first1=Colleen |title=The Classification of Gumuz and Koman Languages |journal=Language Isolates in Africa Workshop |date=2010}}</ref> |- |Siamou |40,000 |Vibrant |Burkina Faso, Mali, Ivory Coast |Traditionally classified as Kru. Due to lack of evidence or any resemblance is classified now as an isolate.<ref name="Guldemann">{{Cite book |last=Güldemann |first=Tom |title=The Languages and Linguistics of Africa |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |year=2018 |isbn=978-3-11-042606-9 |editor-last=Güldemann |editor-first=Tom |series=The World of Linguistics series |volume=11 |location=Berlin |pages=58–444 |chapter=Historical linguistics and genealogical language classification in Africa |doi=10.1515/9783110421668-002 |s2cid=133888593}}</ref> |}

===Asia=== {| class="wikitable sortable" rules="ALL |- ! Language ! data-sort-type=number | Speakers ! Status ! Countries ! Comments |- | Ainu | 3 | data-sort-value = 3 |Endangered |Japan | Spoken on the island of Hokkaido in Japan. Sometimes hypothesized to be related to Korean and Japanese,<ref name=grenberg2000>Joseph Greenberg (2000–2002): ''Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Language Family'', 2 volumes. Stanford University Press.</ref> while at other times proposed to be a branch of Altaic.<ref name=patrie78>James Tyrone Patrie (1978): ''The genetic relationship of the Ainu language''. PhD thesis, University of Hawaii.</ref><ref name=patrie82>James Tyrone Patrie (1982): ''The Genetic Relationship of the Ainu Language.'' University of Hawaii Press. {{ISBN|0-8248-0724-3}}</ref> |- |Bugun |900 | data-sort-value=3 |Endangered |India | Possible language isolate spoken by the Bugun people of Arunachal Pradesh in India.<ref name="auto">Blench, Roger. 2011. [http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/South%20Asia/NEI/General/Lingres/Declassifying%20Arunachal.pdf ''(De)classifying Arunachal languages: Reconsidering the evidence''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130526230734/http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/South%20Asia/NEI/General/Lingres/Declassifying%20Arunachal.pdf |date=2013-05-26 }}</ref> |- | Burushaski |130,000<ref>{{e27|Burushaski}}</ref> | data-sort-value=2 |Vulnerable |Pakistan, India | Spoken in the Yasin Valley and Hunza Valley of Gilgit-Baltistan and Hari Parbat of Jammu and Kashmir. Linked to Caucasian languages,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jdbengt.net/biblio.htm|title=John D Bengtson|website=jdbengt.net|access-date=19 March 2019}}</ref> Indo-European,<ref name=hamp2013>{{cite journal|last=Hamp|first=Eric P.|title=The Expansion of the Indo-European Languages: An Indo-Europeanist's Evolving View|journal=Sino-Platonic Papers|date=August 2013|volume=239|page=8|url=http://sino-platonic.org/complete/spp239_indo_european_languages.pdf|access-date=5 April 2014}}</ref><ref>Casule, Ilija. 2003. Evidence for the Indo-European laryngeals in Burushaski and its genetic affiliation with Indo-European. ''The Journal of Indo-European Studies'' 31:1–2, pp 21–86.</ref> and Na-Dene languages<ref>John Bengtson, ''Some features of Dene–Caucasian phonology (with special reference to Basque).'' Cahiers de l'Institut de Linguistique de Louvain (CILL) 30.4: 33–54,</ref><ref>John Bengtson and V. Blazek, "Lexica Dene–Caucasica". Central Asiatic Journal 39, 1995, 11–50 & 161–164</ref> in various proposals. |- | Elamite | style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" |Extinct |Iran | Formerly spoken in Elam, along the northeast coast of the Persian Gulf. Attested from around 2800 BC to 300&nbsp;BC.<ref>Stolper, Matthew W. 2008. ''Elamite''. In ''The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Aksum''. pp. 47–50.</ref> Some propose a relationship to the Dravidian languages (see Elamo-Dravidian), but this is not well-supported.<ref>David McAlpin, "Toward Proto-Elamo-Dravidian", ''Language'' vol. 50 no. 1 (1974); David McAlpin: "Elamite and Dravidian, Further Evidence of Relationships", ''Current Anthropology'' vol. 16 no. 1 (1975); David McAlpin: "Linguistic prehistory: the Dravidian situation", in Madhav M. Deshpande and Peter Edwin Hook: ''Aryan and Non-Aryan in India'', Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1979); David McAlpin, "Proto-Elamo-Dravidian: The Evidence and its Implications", ''Transactions of the American Philosophical Society'' vol. 71 pt. 3, (1981)</ref> Some scholars also believe a language called Khuzi, spoken perhaps until 1000 AD and reported in Medieval Islamic sources, may have represented Elamite. |- | Hruso | 3,000 | data-sort-value=2 | Vulnerable | India | Possible language isolate spoken by the Hruso people of Arunachal Pradesh in India.<ref name="auto"/> |- | Kusunda |23<ref>{{Cite web |title=caste-ethnicity-report {{!}} national_population and housing_census_year results |url=https://censusnepal.cbs.gov.np/results/downloads/caste-ethnicity?type=data |access-date=2025-04-23 |website=censusnepal.cbs.gov.np}}</ref> | data-sort-value=4 | Moribund |Nepal | Spoken in Gandaki Province. The recent discovery of a few speakers shows that it is not demonstrably related to anything else.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://kathmandupost.com/national/2019/01/04/resuscitating-dying-kusunda-language |title=Resuscitating dying Kusunda language |publisher=Kathmandupost.com |date=2019-01-04 |access-date=2022-09-03}}</ref> |- | Miju | 18,000 | data-sort-value=3 rowspan="2" | Endangered | rowspan="2" | India | Possible language isolate spoken by the Miju Mishmi of Arunachal Pradesh in India.<ref name="auto"/> |- | Nihali |2,500<ref>{{Citation|last=Seidel|first=Frank|title=Language Documentation and Endangerment in Africa|chapter=Describing endangered languages|date=2015-10-09|chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/clu.17.12sei|series=Culture and Language Use|volume=17|pages=277–312|place=Amsterdam|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|doi=10.1075/clu.17.12sei|isbn=978-90-272-4452-9|access-date=2020-12-14}}</ref> | Spoken in northern Maharashtra along the Tapti River. Strong lexical Munda influence from Korku,<ref>{{cite web |title=Nihali |url=http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/nll |website=Endangered Languages Project |access-date=30 January 2021}}</ref> as well as Dravidian and Indo-Aryan languages. Used as anti-language by speakers.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=The Nihali Language|last=Nagaraja|first=K.S|publisher=Central Institute of Indian Languages|year=2014|isbn=978-81-7343-144-9|location=Mysore |page=250}}</ref> |- | Nivkh |200 | data-sort-value=4 | Moribund |Russia | Also known as Gilyak. Spoken in the lower Amur River basin and in the northern part of Sakhalin. Dialects sometimes considered two languages.<ref name="Fortescue2016">Fortescue, Michael. 2016. ''Comparative Nivkh Dictionary''. Languages of the World/Dictionaries (LW/D) 62. Munich: Lincom Europa. {{ISBN|978-3-86288-687-6}}</ref> Has been linked to Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Fortescue | first1 = Michael | year = 2011 | title = The relationship of Nivkh to Chukotko-Kamchatkan revisited | journal = Lingua | volume = 121 | issue = 8| pages = 1359–1376 | doi = 10.1016/j.lingua.2011.03.001 }}</ref> |- |Northern Andamanese |3 |Moribund |India |Once part of the larger Great Andamanese languages, now the sole surviving language. |- | 'Ole |1 | data-sort-value=4 | Moribund |Bhutan |ʼOle, also called ʼOlekha or Black Mountain Monpa, is a moribund, possibly Sino-Tibetan language spoken natively by 1 person in the Black Mountains of Wangdue Phodrang and Trongsa Districts in western Bhutan. The term ʼOle refers to a clan of speakers.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Center of Nepal and Asian Studies Journal |title=In Quest of Mahākirānti |last=van Driem |first=George |author-link=George van Driem |volume=19 |number=2 |pages=241–247 |url=http://www.thlib.org/static/reprints/contributions/CNAS_19_02_05.pdf|accessdate=2011-10-23 |date=July 1992}}</ref> |- | Puroik | 20,000 | data-sort-value=3 | Vulnerable | India, China | Possible language isolate spoken by the Puroik people of Arunachal Pradesh in India and of Lhünzê County, Tibet, in China.<ref name="auto"/> |- | Sumerian | style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Extinct |Iraq | Spoken in Mesopotamia until around 1800&nbsp;BC, but used as a classical language until 100&nbsp;AD.<ref name=oates79>Joan Oates (1979). ''Babylon'' [Revised Edition] Thames and Hudston, Ltd. 1986 p. 30, 52–53.</ref> Long-extinct, but well-attested language of ancient Sumer. |- | Tambora | Indonesia | Poorly documented, extinct since the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, basic vocabulary points towards it being an isolate. |- |Vedda |300<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/index.php|title=UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger|website=www.unesco.org|language=en|access-date=2017-12-25}}</ref> |Endangered |Sri Lanka |Highly influenced by Sinhala and Tamil to the extent some linguists have classed it as a creole language. |}

===Oceania=== Current research considers that the "Papuasphere" centered in New Guinea includes as many as 37 isolates.<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = De Gruyter| isbn = 978-3-11-029525-2| pages = 1–20 |editor=Bill Palmer | last = Palmer| first = Bill| title = The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area| chapter = Language families of the New Guinea Area| location = Berlin, Boston |access-date=2020-08-03| date = 2017| chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=v2VCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 | doi=10.1515/9783110295252-001}}</ref> (The more is known about these languages in the future, the more likely it is for these languages to be later assigned to a known language family.) To these, one must add several isolates found among non-Pama-Nyungan languages of Australia:<ref name="Evans 2003" /> {| class="wikitable sortable" RULES="ALL" |- ! Language ! data-sort-type=number | Speakers ! Status ! Countries ! Comments |- | Abinomn |300 | rowspan="6" data-sort-value="1" | Vibrant | rowspan="2" |Indonesia | Spoken in the far north of New Guinea. Also known as Bas or Foia. Language is considered safe by UNESCO but endangered by Ethnologue.<ref>{{cite web|title=Size and vitality of Abinomn|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/size-and-vitality/bsa|access-date=2020-08-12|website=Ethnologue|language=en}}</ref> |- |Abun |3,000 | Spoken in the northern area of Bird's Head Peninsula located in the province of Southwest Papua. Linked to West Papuan languages but Palmer (2018), ''Ethnologue'', and Glottolog consider it an isolate.<ref>{{e25|Abun}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| editor1-last= Hammarström| editor1-first = Harald| editor2-last = Forke| editor2-first = Robert| editor3-last = Haspelmath| editor3-first = Martin| editor4-last = Bank| editor4-first = Sebastian| year = 2020|title = Abun | work = Glottolog 4.3| url = https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/abun1252}}</ref><ref name="Palmer-LLNGA">{{cite book |last=Palmer |first=Bill |editor1-last=Palmer |editor1-first=Bill |date=2018 |title=The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide |chapter=Language families of the New Guinea Area |series= The World of Linguistics |volume=4 |location=Berlin |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |pages=1–20 |isbn=978-3-11-028642-7}}</ref> |- | Anêm |800 | rowspan="2" |Papua New Guinea | Spoken on the northwest coast of New Britain.<ref name="Ethnologue22-PNG">{{cite web |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/country/PG/languages |title=Papua New Guinea languages |work=Ethnologue: Languages of the World |edition=22nd |editor1-last=Eberhard |editor1-first=David M. |editor2-last=Simons |editor2-first=Gary F. |editor3-last=Fennig |editor3-first=Charles D. |date=2019 |location=Dallas |publisher=SIL International}}</ref> Perhaps related to Yélî Dnye and Ata.<ref name="Stebbins-Island">{{cite book |last1=Stebbins |first1=Tonya |last2=Evans |first2=Bethwyn |last3=Terrill |first3=Angela |editor1-last=Palmer |editor1-first=Bill |date=2018 |title=The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide |chapter=The Papuan languages of Island Melanesia |series= The World of Linguistics |volume=4 |location=Berlin |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |pages=775–894 |isbn=978-3-11-028642-7}}</ref> |- | Ata |2,000 | Spoken in the central highlands of New Britain. Also known as Wasi. Perhaps related to Yélî Dnye and Anem.<ref>{{Citation|last=Ross|first=Malcolm|title=Is there an East Papuan phylum? Evidence from pronouns|date=2001|url=https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/94801|publisher=Pacific Linguistics|language=en-AU|isbn=978-0-85883-445-3|access-date=2020-08-12}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Ross|first=Malcolm|title=Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages|date=2005|url=https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/84328|publisher=Pacific Linguistics|language=en-AU|isbn=978-0-85883-562-7|access-date=2020-08-12}}</ref> |- |Burmeso |250 |Indonesia |Spoken in Mamberamo Raya Regency, Papua Province. Linked to West Papuan languages but Stephen Wurm and William A. Foley consider it an isolate.<ref>Foley, William A. (2018). "The languages of Northwest New Guinea". In Palmer, Bill (ed.). The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 4. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 433–568. {{ISBN|978-3-11-028642-7}}.</ref> |- |Busa |370 |Papua New Guinea |Spoken in Sandaun Province, northwestern Papua New Guinea. Added to Senu River.<ref>[https://sites.google.com/site/newguineaworld/families/senu-river NewGuineaWorld, Senu River]</ref> |- | Giimbiyu |style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" |Extinct |Australia |Spoken in the northern part of Arnhem Land until the early 1980s. Sometimes considered a small language family consisting of Mengerrdji, Urningangk and Erre.<ref name="Campbell 2006">Campbell, R. "A Sketch Grammar of Urningangk, Erre and Mengerrdji: the Giimbiyu languages of Western Arnhem Land". Honours thesis. University of Melbourne, 2006.</ref> Part of a proposal for the undemonstrated Arnhem Land language family. |- |Isirawa |1,800 | rowspan="3" |Vibrant | rowspan="3" |Papua New Guinea |Whilst classed as a Kwerbic language, it only shares 20% of its vocabulary and is considered by some linguists to be an isolate. |- | Kol |4,000 | Spoken in the northeastern part of New Britain. Possibly related to the poorly known Sulka, or the Baining languages, suggested as part of the East Papuan languages.<ref>{{cite web |title=Kol |url=http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/10809 |website=Endangered Language Project}}</ref><ref name="Dunn">{{cite journal |last1=Dunn |first1=Michael |last2=Reesnik |first2=Ger |last3=Terrill |first3=Angela |title=The East Papuan Languages: A Preliminary Typological Appraisal |journal=Oceanic Linguistics |date=2002 |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=28–62 |doi=10.1353/ol.2002.0019 |hdl=11858/00-001M-0000-0013-1ADC-1 |s2cid=143012930 |url=https://www.eva.mpg.de/documents/Linguistic%20Society%20of%20America,%20MUSE/Dunn_East_OceanLing_2002_1555925.pdf |access-date=6 February 2021}}</ref> |- | Kuot |1,500 | Spoken on New Ireland. Also known as Panaras. Suggested to form part of the East Papuan family.<ref name="Dunn" /> |- |Lavukaleve |1,700 |Vulnerable |Solomon Islands |Classified as an isolate by Endangered Languages Project;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Did you know Lavukaleve is threatened? |url=http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/10269 |access-date=2025-07-07 |website=Endangered Languages |language=en}}</ref> historically classified as a Central Solomon language, but little evidence was found of a relationship by Muller.<ref name="ASJP-4">Müller, André, Viveka Velupillai, Søren Wichmann, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik Bakker, Dmitri Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Matthew S. Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant, and Pilar Valenzuela. 2013. ''[https://asjp.clld.org/static/WorldLanguageTree-004.zip ASJP World Language Trees of Lexical Similarity: Version 4 (October 2013)]''.</ref> |- | Malak-Malak |10 |Moribund | rowspan="2" |Australia |Spoken in northern Australia. Often considered part of one Northern Daly family together with Tyeraity. Used to be considered genetically related to the Wagaydyic languages, but nowadays they are considered genetically distinct.<ref>{{cite book |last=Nordlinger |first=Rachel |author-link=Rachel Nordlinger |editor-last1= Fortescue |editor-first1= Michael |editor-link1= Michael Fortescue |editor-link2=Marianne Mithun |editor-last2= Mithun |editor-first2= Marianne |editor-last3= Evans |editor-first3= Nicholas |editor-link3=Nicholas Evans (linguist) |title=Oxford Handbook of Polysynthesis |publisher=Oxford: Oxford University Press |date=2017 |pages=782–807 |chapter=Chapter 37: The languages of the Daly region (Northern Australia)}}</ref> |- |Marrgu |style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Extinct |Marrgu had been assumed to be an Iwaidjan language like its neighbours. However, Evans (2006) has produced evidence that it was a language isolate, with possible connection to the extinct and poorly attested Wurrugu.<ref>{{AIATSIS|N45}}</ref> |- |Mawes | rowspan="4" |Indonesia |Likely isolate.<ref>Foley (2018)</ref><ref>Harald Hammarström. 2010. The Genetic Position of the Mawes Language. Paper presented at the Workshop on the Languages of Papua 2, 8–12 February 2010, Manokwari, Indonesia.</ref> |- |Maybrat |25,000 |Vibrant |Spoken in the central area of the Bird's Head Peninsula located in the province of Southwest Papua. Sometimes linked to West Papuan languages but others consider it an isolate. |- |Molof |230 |Vulnerable |Usher (2020) tentatively suggests it may be related to Pauwasi languages.<ref name=ngw>[https://newguineaworld.linguistik.uzh.ch/families/pauwasi-river New Guinea World]</ref> However, Søren Wichmann (2018) and Foley (2018) consider it to be an isolate.<ref name="Wichmann2013">Wichmann, Søren. 2013. [http://www.langlxmelanesia.com/wichmann313-386.pdf A classification of Papuan languages] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201125143227/https://www.langlxmelanesia.com/wichmann313-386.pdf |date=2020-11-25 }}. In: Hammarström, Harald and Wilco van den Heuvel (eds.), History, contact and classification of Papuan languages (Language and Linguistics in Melanesia, Special Issue 2012), 313-386. Port Moresby: Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea.</ref><ref name="Foley-NWNG">{{cite book |last=Foley |first=William A. |title=The Languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area: A Comprehensive Guide |date=2018 |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |isbn=978-3-11-028642-7 |editor1-last=Palmer |editor1-first=Bill |series=The World of Linguistics |volume=4 |location=Berlin |pages=433–568 |chapter=The languages of Northwest New Guinea}}</ref> |- |Mpur |5,000 | rowspan="2" |Vibrant |Spoken in the Mpur and Amberbaken Districts, Tambrauw Regency on the north coast of the Bird's Head Peninsula. |- | Murrinh-patha |2,100<ref>{{cite web|title=SBS Australian Census Explorer|url=https://www.sbs.com.au/news/creative/census-explorer|access-date=12 October 2022}}</ref> | rowspan="2" |Australia |Spoken on the eastern coast of Joseph Bonaparte Gulf in the Top End. The proposed linkage to Ngan'gityemerri in one Southern Daly family<ref name="Green 2003">Green, I. "The Genetic Status of Murrinh-patha" in Evans, N., ed. "The Non-Pama-Nyungan Languages of Northern Australia: comparative studies of the continent's most linguistically complex region". ''Studies in Language Change'', 552. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 2003.</ref> is generally accepted to be valid. |- | Ngan'gityemerri |26 | data-sort-value="4" |Moribund |Spoken in the Top End along the Daly River. The proposed linkage to Murrinh-patha in one Southern Daly family<ref name="Green 2003" /> is generally accepted to be valid. |- |Porome |1,200 |Vibrant | rowspan="3" |Papua New Guinea |Spoken in 6 villages in West Kikori Rural LLG and East Kikori Rural LLG of Gulf Province, near the Aird Hills and Kikori River tributaries. |- |Pyu |250 |Vulnerable |Spoken in Green River Rural LLG in Sandaun Province, near the Indonesian border. Linked to neighboring Left May and Amto-Musan in a proposed Arai-Samaia family.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://sites.google.com/site/newguineaworld/families/arai-and-samaia-rivers |title=NewGuineaWorld, Arai and Samaia Rivers |access-date=2024-01-24 |archive-date=2022-10-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221004211633/https://sites.google.com/site/newguineaworld/families/arai-and-samaia-rivers |url-status=dead }}</ref> |- | Sulka |2,500 |Vibrant |Spoken across the eastern end of New Britain. Suggested to form part of the East Papuan family.<ref name="Dunn" /> |- |Tause |500 |Vulnerable |Indonesia |Was classified to encourage research as a Lakes Plain language, but there has been little evidence so has been classed as an isolate. |- | Tayap | data-sort-value="49" |<50 | data-sort-value="4" | Moribund |Papua New Guinea | Formerly spoken in the village of Gapun. Links to Lower Sepik languages and Torricelli languages have been explored, but the general consensus among linguists is that it is an isolate unrelated to surrounding languages.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VXWcDwAAQBAJ |title=A Grammar and Dictionary of Tayap: The Life and Death of a Papuan Language |last1=Kulick |first1=Don |last2=Terrill |first2=Angela |series=Pacific Linguistics 661 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter Inc. |year=2019 |isbn=978-1-5015-1220-9 |location=Boston/Berlin }}</ref> |- | Tiwi |2,100<ref>{{cite web|title=SBS Australian Census Explorer|url=https://www.sbs.com.au/news/creative/census-explorer|access-date=9 Jan 2023}}</ref> | rowspan="2" data-sort-value="2" | Vulnerable |Australia | Spoken in the Tiwi Islands in the Timor Sea. Traditionally Tiwi is polysynthetic, but the Tiwi spoken by younger generations is not.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lee|first=Jennifer|date=1987|title=Tiwi Today: A Study of Language Change in a Contact Situation|url=https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/145421/1/PL-C96.pdf|journal=Pacific Linguistics|page=50}}</ref> |- |Touo |1,900 |Solomon Islands |Classified as an isolate by Glottolog.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Glottolog 5.2 - Touo |url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/touo1238 |access-date=2025-07-07 |website=glottolog.org}}</ref> |- |Umbugarla | colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" |Extinct |Australia |Possibly a language isolate. Ngomburr likely a dialect. |- |Usku |20 ~ 160 | rowspan="3" data-sort-value="4" |Moribund |Indonesia |Foley (2018) classifies it as a language isolate.<ref name="Foley-NWNG"/> |- | Wagiman |11 | rowspan="2" |Australia |Spoken in the southern part of the Top End. May be distantly related to the Yangmanic languages,<ref name="Merlan 1994">Merlan, F. "A Grammar of Wardaman: a language of the Northern Territory of Australia." Berlin; New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1994.</ref> which might in turn be a member of the Macro-Gunwinyguan family,<ref name="Evans 2003">Evans, N. "Introduction" in Evans, N., ed. "The Non-Pama-Nyungan Languages of Northern Australia: comparative studies of the continent's most linguistically complex region". ''Studies in Language Change'', 552. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, 2003.</ref> but neither link has been demonstrated. |- | Wardaman |50 |Spoken in the southern part of the Top End. The extinct and poorly attested Dagoman and Yangman dialects are sometimes treated as separate languages, forming a Yangmanic family, to which Wagiman may be distantly related.<ref name="Merlan 1994"/> Possibly a member of the Macro-Gunwinyguan family,<ref name="Evans 2003"/> but this has yet to be demonstrated. |- |Yele |5,000 |Vibrant |Papua New Guinea |Stebbins et al. (2018) classifies Yélî Dnye as an isolate.<ref>Stebbins et al. 2018</ref> They explain similarities with Austronesian as being due to contact and diffusion. |}

===Europe=== {| class="wikitable" RULES="ALL" |- ! Language ! Speakers ! Status ! Countries ! Comments |- | Basque |806,000 (2021),<ref name=basquetribune>{{cite web | url=https://basquetribune.com/the-basque-language-gains-speakers-but-no-surge-in-usage/ | title=The Basque Language Gains Speakers, but No Surge in Usage – Basque Tribune }}</ref> 434,000 passive speakers<ref name="inkesta2016">{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.mintzaira.fr/fileadmin/documents/Aktualitateak/015_VI_ENQUETE_PB__Fr.pdf VI° Enquête Sociolinguistique en Euskal herria (Communauté Autonome d'Euskadi, Navarre et Pays Basque Nord)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180821114111/http://www.mintzaira.fr/fileadmin/documents/Aktualitateak/015_VI_ENQUETE_PB__Fr.pdf |date=21 August 2018 }} (2016).)</ref> | data-sort-value=2 | Vulnerable |Spain, France | Natively known as ''Euskara'', the Basque language is found in the historical region of the Basque Country between France and Spain. It has no known living relatives, although Aquitanian is commonly regarded as related to or a direct ancestor of Basque. Some linguists have claimed similarities with various languages of the Caucasus<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Hualde|first1=José Ignacio|title=Towards a history of the Basque language|last2=Lakarra|first2=Joseba.|last3=Trask|first3=R. L. (Robert Lawrence)|date=1995|publisher=J. Benjamins Pub. Co|isbn=978-90-272-8567-6|location=Amsterdam|page=81|oclc=709596553}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Mallory, J.P.|title=In search of the Indo-Europeans: language, archaeology, and myth|date=1989|publisher=Thames and Hudson|isbn=0-500-05052-X|location=New York|oclc=20394139}}</ref> that are indicative of a relationship, while others have proposed a relation to Iberian<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Orduña Aznar|first=Eduardo|date=2005|title=Sobre algunos posibles numerales en textos ibéricos|url=https://ifc.dpz.es/publicaciones/ver/id/2622|journal=Palaeohispanica|volume=5|pages=491–506}}</ref> and to the hypothetical Dené–Caucasian languages.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bengtson |first1=John |title=Some features of Dene-Caucasian Phonology (with special reference to Basque) |journal=Cahiers de l'Institut de Linguistique de Louvain |date=2004 |volume=30 |issue=4 |pages=33–54 |doi=10.2143/CILL.30.4.2003307 |url=http://jdbengt.net/articles/CILL30a.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728041607/http://jdbengt.net/articles/CILL30a.pdf |access-date=20 February 2021|archive-date=2011-07-28 }}</ref> |- |}

===North America=== {| class="wikitable sortable" RULES="ALL" |- ! Language ! data-sort-type=number | Speakers ! Status ! Countries ! Comments |- |Alsea | style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" rowspan="9" |Extinct | rowspan="5" |United States |Poorly attested. Spoken along the central coast of Oregon until the early 1950s.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Buckley |first1=Eugene |title=The Structure of the Alsea Verb Root: Papers from the 1989 Hokan-Penutian Workshop. Ed. Scott DeLancey |journal=University of Oregon Papers in Linguistics |date=1989 |volume=2 |issue=17}}</ref> Sometimes regarded as two separate languages. Often included in the Penutian hypothesis in a Coast Oregon Penutian branch.<ref name="journals.uchicago.edu">{{cite journal |last1=Grant |first1=A.P. |title=Coast Oregon Penutian: Problems and Possibilities |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |date=1997 |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=144–156 |doi=10.1086/466316 |s2cid=143822361 |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/466316 |access-date=7 February 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref> |- | Atakapa | Spoken on the Gulf coast of eastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana until the early 1900s. Often linked to Muskogean in a Gulf hypothesis.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Munro|first=Pamela|date=1994|title=Gulf and Yuki-Gulf|journal=Anthropological Linguistics|volume=36|issue=2|pages=125–222|jstor=30028292|issn=0003-5483}}</ref> |- | Cayuse | Spoken in Oregon until the 1930s. Classified as a language isolate per Campbell (2024).<ref>{{Citation |last=Campbell |first=Lyle |title=North American Indian Languages North of Mexico |date=2024-06-25 |work=The Indigenous Languages of the Americas |pages=28–145 |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/57386/chapter/464713514 |access-date=2025-06-25 |edition=1 |publisher=Oxford University PressNew York |language=en |doi=10.1093/oso/9780197673461.003.0002 |isbn=978-0-19-767346-1|url-access=subscription }}</ref> |- | Chimariko | Spoken in northern California until the 1950s.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Golla |first1=Victor |title=Californian Indian Languages |date=2011 |publisher=University of California Press |page=89}}</ref> Part of the Hokan hypothesis.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jany |first1=Carmen |title=Chimariko Grammar: Areal and Typographical Perspective |date=2009 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Santa Barbara |page=3 |isbn=978-0-520-09875-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AWklDQAAQBAJ&q=jany+chimariko&pg=PR13 |access-date=7 February 2021}}</ref> |- | Chitimacha | Well-attested. Spoken along the Gulf coast of southeastern Louisiana until 1940.<ref name="chitmacha">{{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Cecil |last2=Wichmann |first2=Soren |last3=Beck |first3=Dacid |title=Chitimacha: a Mesoamerican Language Spoken in the Lower Mississippi Valley |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |date=2014 |volume=80 |issue=4 |pages=426–484|doi=10.1086/677911 |s2cid=145538166 }}</ref> Possibly in the Totozoquean family of Mesoamerica.<ref name="chitmacha" /> |- | Coahuilteco | rowspan="2" |United States, Mexico | Spoken in southern Texas and northeastern Mexico until the 1700s. Part of the Pakawan hypothesis,<ref name="Campbell">{{cite journal |last1=Campbell |first1=Lyle |journal=Anthropological Linguistics |date=1996 |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=620–634 |title=Coahuiltecan: A Closer Look |jstor=30013048}}</ref> has been linked to the hypothesised Hokan languages in a larger group.<ref name="Langdon">{{cite book |last1=Langdon |first1=Margaret |title=Comparative Hokan-Coahuiltecan Studies: A Survey and Appraisal |date=2011 |publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-088783-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=spa8TemcC3IC&q=hokan+coahuiltecan |access-date=9 February 2021}}</ref> |- | Cotoname | Spoken in extreme southern Texas and northeastern Mexico until {{circa|1900}}. Part of the Pakawan hypothesis, has been linked to the hypothesised Hokan languages in a larger group. |- | Cuitlatec |Mexico | Spoken in northern Guerrero until the 1960s.<ref name="El Cuitlateco">{{cite book |last1=Escalante Hernández |first1=Robert |title=El Cuitlateco |date=1982 |publisher=Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia |location=México, D.F.}}</ref> Has been proposed to be part of Macro-Chibchan<ref name="Amerind Dictionary">{{cite book |last1=Greenberg |first1=Joseph |last2=Ruhlen |first2=Merritt |title=An Amerind Etymological Dictionary |publisher=Dept. of Anthropological Sciences Stanford University |page=276 |url=http://www.merrittruhlen.com/files/AED5.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101225141018/http://www.merrittruhlen.com/files/AED5.pdf |access-date=9 February 2021|archive-date=2010-12-25 }}</ref> and Uto-Aztecan.<ref name="El Cuitlateco"/> |- | Esselen |United States | Poorly known. Spoken in the Big Sur region of California until the early 1800s. Part of the Hokan hypothesis.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Leedom Shaul |first1=David |title=The Huelel (Esselen) language |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |date=1995 |volume=61 |issue=5 |pages=191–239 |doi=10.1086/466251 |s2cid=144781879 |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/466251 |access-date=10 February 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref> |- | Haida |13 | data-sort-value=4 | Moribund |Canada, United States | Spoken in the Haida Gwaii archipelago off the northwest coast of British Columbia, and the southern islands of the Alexander Archipelago in southeastern Alaska. Some proposals connect it to the Na-Dené languages, but these have fallen into disfavor.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Levine |first1=Robert D. |title=Haida and Na-Dene: A new look at the evidence |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |date=1979 |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=151–170 |doi=10.1086/465587 |s2cid=143503584 }}</ref> |- | Huave |20,000 | data-sort-value=3 | Vulnerable |Mexico | Spoken in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in the southeast of Oaxaca state. Has been linked to various language families, but is still generally considered an isolate.<ref name="AmerIndLang-Campbell">{{cite book |last1=Campbell |first1=Lyle |title=American Indian Languages – The Historical Linguistics of Native America |date=1997 |publisher=Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics, Oxford University Press. |location=Oxford }}</ref> |- | Karuk |12 | data-sort-value=4 | Moribund | rowspan="2" |United States | Spoken along the Klamath River in northwestern California. Part of the Hokan hypothesis, but little evidence for this.<ref name="AmerIndLang-Campbell" /> |- |Keres |13,200 | data-sort-value=3 |Endangered |Spoken in several pueblos throughout New Mexico, including Cochiti and Acoma Pueblos. Has two main dialects: Eastern and Western. Sometimes those two dialects are separated into languages in a Keresan family.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=Wick |title=Proto-Keresan Phonology |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |date=1963 |volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=310–330 |doi=10.1086/464748 |s2cid=143519987 |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/464748 |access-date=11 February 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref> |- | Kutenai |345 | data-sort-value=4 | Moribund |Canada, United States | Spoken in the Rockies of northeastern Idaho, northwestern Montana and southeastern British Columbia. Attempts have been made to place it in a Macro-Algic or Macro-Salishan family, but these have not gained significant support.<ref name="AmerIndLang-Campbell" /> |- | Natchez | style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" |Extinct |United States | Spoken in southern Mississippi and eastern Louisiana until 1957.<ref name=kimball2>{{cite book|last=Kimball|first=Geoffry|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nd5o9juMePEC&pg=PA385|chapter=Natchez|title=Native Languages of the Southeastern United States |editor=Janine Scancarelli |editor2=Heather Kay Hardy |publisher=University of Nebraska Press|year=2005|pages=385–453|isbn=978-0-8032-4235-7}}</ref> Often linked to Muskogean in a Gulf hypothesis.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Haas |first1=M.R. |title=Natchez and the Muskogean languages |journal=Language |date=1956 |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=61–72|doi=10.2307/410653 |jstor=410653 }}</ref> Attempts at revival have produced six people with some fluency.<ref>{{Cite news | last = Smith | first = Diane | title = University helps Native Americans save languages: Project aims to increase field linguists. | work = Seattle Times Newspaper | access-date = 2013-06-02 | date = 2011-06-15 | url = http://seattletimes.com/html/living/2015308947_native16.html#.Tf91h9keT90;facebook }}</ref> |- | Purépecha |142,500<ref>[http://cuentame.inegi.org.mx/hipertexto/todas_lenguas.htm Lenguas indígenas y hablantes de 3 años y más, 2020] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303165419/http://cuentame.inegi.org.mx/hipertexto/todas_lenguas.htm |date=2016-03-03 }} INEGI. Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020.</ref> | data-sort-value=3 | Endangered |Mexico | Spoken in the north of Michoacán state. Language of the ancient Tarascan kingdom. Sometimes regarded as two languages.<ref name="AmerIndLang-Campbell" /> |- | Salinan | style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" |Extinct |United States | Spoken along the south-central coast of California. Part of the Hokan hypothesis.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Turner |first1=Katherina |title=Areal and Genetic linguistic affiliations of the Salinan |journal=Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics |date=1983 |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=215–247 |url=https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/handle/1808/482/ling.wp.v8.n2.paper6.pdf;sequence=1 |access-date=12 February 2021 |archive-date=22 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210722025627/https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/handle/1808/482/ling.wp.v8.n2.paper6.pdf;sequence=1 |url-status=dead }}</ref> |- | Seri |720 | data-sort-value=2 | Vulnerable | Mexico | Spoken along the coast of the Gulf of California, in the southwest of Sonora state. Part of the Hokan hypothesis.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Marlett |first1=Stephen |title=La situación sociolingüística de la lengua seri en 2006 |url=http://www.lengamer.org/publicaciones/trabajos/seri_socio.pdf |website=Lenguas de las Americas |publisher=lengamer.org |access-date=12 February 2021}}</ref> |- | Siuslaw | style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" rowspan="5" |Extinct | rowspan="9" | United States | Spoken on the southwest coast of Oregon until 1960. Likely related to Alsea, Coosan languages, or possibly the Wintuan languages. Part of the Penutian hypothesis.<ref name="journals.uchicago.edu"/> |- | Takelma | Spoken in western Oregon until mid 20th century.<ref name="jstor.org">{{cite journal |last1=Kendall |first1=Daythall |title=The Takelma Verb: Towards Proto-Takelma-Kalapuyan |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |date=1997 |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=1–17 |doi=10.1086/466312 |jstor=1265863 |s2cid=144593968}}</ref> Part of the Penutian hypothesis.<ref name="jstor.org"/> |- | Timucua | Well attested. Spoken in northern Florida and southern Georgia until the mid- to late 1700s. Briefly spoken in Cuba by a migrant community established in 1763. A connection with the poorly known Tawasa language has been suggested, but this may be a dialect.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Granberry |first1=Julian |title=A grammatical sketch of Timucua |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |year=1990 |volume=56 |issue=1 |pages=60–101 |doi=10.1086/466138 |s2cid=143759206 |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/466138|url-access=subscription }}</ref> |- | Tonkawa | Spoken in central and northern Texas until the early 1940s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Frawley |first=William |title=International encyclopedia of linguistics |date=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195307450 |edition=2nd |location=New York, NY |oclc=66910002}}</ref> |- | Tunica | Spoken in western Mississippi, northeastern Louisiana, and southeastern Arkansas until 1948.<ref>Pierite, Joseph. 1964. Letter to Mary Haas. ''Mary R. Haas Papers''. Mss.Ms.Coll.94. American Philosophical Society Library. Philadelphia.</ref> |- | Washo |20 | data-sort-value=4 | Moribund | Spoken along the Truckee River in the Sierra Nevada of eastern California and northwestern Nevada. Part of the Hokan hypothesis.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mithun |first1=Marianne |title=The Languages of Native North America |date=2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |page=303 |isbn=978-0-521-29875-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ALnf3s2m7PkC&q=yuchi |access-date=17 February 2021}}</ref> |- | Yana | style="text-align: center;" rowspan="2" colspan="2" |Extinct | Well-attested. Spoken in northern California until 1916. Part of the Hokan hypothesis.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mithun |first1=Marianne |title=The Languages of Native North America |date=2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |page=564 |isbn=978-0-521-29875-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ALnf3s2m7PkC&q=yuchi |access-date=17 February 2021}}</ref> |- | Yuchi | Spoken in Oklahoma, but formerly spoken in eastern Tennessee. A connection to the Siouan languages has been proposed.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mithun |first1=Marianne |title=The Languages of Native North America |date=2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |page=571 |isbn=978-0-521-29875-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ALnf3s2m7PkC&q=yuchi |access-date=17 February 2021}}</ref> The last native speaker died in 2021, but there is an ongoing revitalization project that has trained a small number of L2s. |- | Zuni |9,600 | data-sort-value=2 | Vulnerable |Spoken in Zuni Pueblo in northwestern New Mexico. Links to Penutian<ref name="goddard">{{cite book |last1=Goddard |first1=Ives |editor1-last=Goddard |editor1-first=I |title= Handbook of North American Indians: Languages |date=1996 |pages=290–323 |chapter=The classification of the native languages of North America. }}</ref> and Keres<ref>{{cite book |last1=Campbell |first1=L |last2=Mithun |first2=M |title=The Languages of Native America:Historical and Comparative Assessment |date=2014 |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=Austin |page=418 |isbn=978-0-292-76850-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=maGDBAAAQBAJ |access-date=17 February 2021}}</ref> have been proposed. |}

===South America=== {| class="wikitable sortable" RULES="ALL" |- ! Language ! data-sort-type=number | Speakers ! Status ! Countries ! Comments |- | Aikanã |150 | data-sort-value="3" | Endangered | rowspan="2" | Brazil | Spoken in the Amazon of eastern Rondônia. Links to Kanoê and Kwaza have been tentatively proposed.<ref name="Voort, Hein 2005">Van der Voort, Hein. 2005. Kwaza in a comparative perspective. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 71: 365–412.</ref> Arawakan has been suggested.{{Citation needed|reason=Arawakan not mentioned in main article|date=January 2021}} |- |Mato Grosso Arára | colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Extinct |Spoken in Mato Grosso, Brazil until sometime in the 20th century. |- | Andaqui | Colombia | Spoken in the southern highlands of Colombia until the 1970s. It has been linked to the Paezan or Barbacoan languages, but no connections have been sufficiently demonstrated. Adelaar (2004) classifies it as a language isolate, but lists similarities with Páez.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last1=Adelaar |first1=Willem F. H. |title=The languages of the Andes |last2=Muysken |first2=Pieter |date=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-511-48685-2 |series=Cambridge language surveys |location=Cambridge, UK New York}}</ref> |- | Andoque | 370 | data-sort-value="3" | Endangered | Colombia, Peru | Spoken on the upper reaches of the Japurá River. Extinct in Peru. Extinct Urequena is close.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Adelaar|first=Willem F. H.|url=https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/handle/1887/71532|title=Archiv 63-64|last2=Brijnen|first2=Hélène B.|date=2014|isbn=978-3-643-99824-8|editor-last=Weltmuseum Wien Friends|chapter=Natterer’s Linguistic Heritage}}</ref> |- | Arutani | 6 | data-sort-value=4 | Moribund | Brazil, Venezuela | Spoken along the Paragua River and Uraricaá River in the far southern area of Bolívar State, Venezuela and the far northern area of Roraima, Brazil. Part of the proposed Arutani–Sape language family but more likely to be an isolate.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hammarström|first=Harald|title=The status of the least documented language families in the world|journal=Language Documentation & Conservation|year=2010|volume=4|pages=183|url=http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/4478/hammarstrom.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | publisher = Cambridge University Press Cambridge | last = Dixon | first = R. M. W. |author2=A. Y. Aikhenvald | title = The Amazonian languages | series = Cambridge Language Surveys | date = 1999 | page = 343}}</ref> |- | Betoi | style="text-align:center; text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Extinct |Venezuela | Spoken in the Apure River basin near the Colombian border until the 19th century. Paezan and Tucanoan affiliation have been suggested.<ref name=":0">{{cite encyclopedia|title=South America|encyclopedia=Atlas of the World's Languages|year=2007|publisher=Routledge|location=London}}</ref> |- | Candoshi-Shapra |1,100 | data-sort-value="3" | Endangered | Peru | Spoken along the Chapuli, Huitoyacu, Pastaza, and Morona river valleys in southwestern Loreto. Has been linked to various language families, but no agreement exists on its classification.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Fabre |first1=Alain |title=Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos. CANDOSHI |url=http://www.ling.fi/Entradas%20diccionario/Dic=Candoshi.pdf |access-date=19 February 2021}}</ref> |- | Canichana | style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" |Extinct | rowspan="3" | Bolivia | Spoken in the Llanos de Moxos region of Beni Department until around 2000. Connections with various language families have been proposed, none widely accepted.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Crevils |first1=Mily |title=Tomo II: Amazonia – Canichana |url=https://www.ru.nl/cls/our-research/completed-research-projects/completed-projects/lenguas-de-bolivia-es/lenguas-de-bolivia/tomo-ii-amazonia/ |website=Lenguas de Bolivia |publisher=Centre for Language Studies-Radboud University |access-date=19 February 2021}}</ref> |- | Cayuvava |12 | data-sort-value=4 | Moribund | Spoken in the Amazon west of Mamore River, north of Santa Ana del Yacuma in the Beni Department.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Crevils |first1=Mily |title=Tomo II: Amazonia – Cayubaba |url=https://www.ru.nl/cls/our-research/completed-research-projects/completed-projects/lenguas-de-bolivia-es/lenguas-de-bolivia/tomo-ii-amazonia/ |website=Lenguas de Bolivia |publisher=Centre for Language Studies-Radboud University |access-date=19 February 2021}}</ref> |- |Chimane |5,300 | data-sort-value=2 |Vulnerable |Spoken along the Beni river in Beni Department. Also spelled Tsimané. Sometimes split into multiple languages in a Moséten family. Linked to the Chonan languages in a Moseten-Chonan hypothesis.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sakel |first1=Jeanette |title=Tomo I: Ámbito andino – Mosetén y Chimane (Tsimane') |url=https://www.ru.nl/cls/our-research/completed-research-projects/completed-projects/lenguas-de-bolivia-es/lenguas-de-bolivia/tomo-ambito-andino/|website=Lenguas de Bolivia |publisher=Centre for Language Studies-Radboud University |access-date=19 February 2021}}</ref> |- |Chiquitano |2,400 | data-sort-value="3" |Endangered | Bolivia, Brazil |Spoken in the eastern part of Santa Cruz department and the southwestern part of Mato Grosso state. Has been linked to the Macro-Jê family.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Galeote |first1=Jesús |title=Tomo III: Oriente – Chiquitano |url=https://www.ru.nl/cls/our-research/completed-research-projects/completed-projects/lenguas-de-bolivia-es/lenguas-de-bolivia/tomo-iii-oriente/|website=Lenguas de Bolivia |publisher=Centre for Language Studies-Radboud University |access-date=19 February 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Adelaar |first1=Willem |editor1-last=elles de Araujo Pereira Lima |editor1-first=S.V |editor2-last=Santos de Paula |editor2-first=A |title=Topicalizando Macro-Jê |date=2008 |publisher=Nectar |pages=9–28 |chapter=Chapter 1: Relações externas do Macro-Jê: O caso do chiquitano}}</ref> |- |Chono | style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" |Extinct | Chile |Spoken in Chonos Archipelago and Chiloé Archipelago until around 1875. ''Glottolog'' and Campbell (2024) characterize it as a language isolate. |- | Cofán |1,500 | data-sort-value="3" |Endangered | Colombia, Ecuador |Spoken in northern Sucumbíos Province and southern Putumayo Department. Also called A'ingae.<ref>{{cite web |title=Cofan |url=http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/1043 |website=Endangered Languages Project |access-date=19 February 2021}}</ref> Sometimes classified as Chibchan, but the similarities appear to be due to borrowings. Seriously endangered in Colombia.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stark |first1=Louisa |editor1-last=Manells Klein |editor1-first=Harriet |editor2-last=Stark |editor2-first=Louisa |title=South American Indian Languages: Retrospect and Prospect |date=1985 |publisher=University of Texas Press |page=165 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GxMaDQAAQBAJ&q=Cofan |access-date=21 February 2021 |chapter=Chapter 3: Indigenous Languages of Lowland Ecuador: History and Current Status|isbn=978-0-292-73732-7 }}</ref> |- |Culle | colspan="2" rowspan="4" |Extinct |Peru |Spoken in Peru until the mid-20th century. |- |Esmeralda |Ecuador |Spoken in Ecuador by a mixed Black-Indigenous population in the late 19th century.<ref name=":5" /> |- |Guachí | Argentina | Formerly spoken in Argentina by the Guachí. Linkage has been proposed to the Mataco–Guaicuru language family, however Campbell (2012) classifies it as an isolate.<ref name="Campbell-SAmerica" /> |- |Guamo |Venezuela |Spoken in Venezuela until some time after 1778. |- |Guató |2<ref name="Amazonian isolates 1">{{cite book |url=https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110419405/html |title=Amazonian Languages: Language Isolates. Volume I: Aikanã to Kandozi-Chapra |date=2023 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-041940-5 |editor-last=Epps |editor-first=Patience |location=Berlin |doi=10.1515/9783110419405 |editor-last2=Michael |editor-first2=Lev}}</ref> | data-sort-value="4" |Moribund | Brazil |Spoken in the far south of Mato Grosso near the Bolivian border. Has been classified as Macro-Jê, but this is disputed.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Campbell |first1=Lyle |editor1-last=Campbell |editor1-first=Lyle |editor2-last=Grondona |editor2-first=Veronica |title=Classification of the Indigenous Languages of South America: A Comprehensive Guide |date=2012 |publisher=De Gruyter |page=136 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pA-ryJRcG3AC&q=Guat%C3%B3&pg=PA59 |access-date=21 February 2021 |chapter=Chapter II: Classification of the Indigenous Languages of South America|isbn=978-3-11-025803-5 }}</ref> |- |Hodï |640 |Vulnerable |Venezuela |Spoken in Amazonas state in Venezuela. Linked with the Macro-Puinavean hypothesis. |- |Iatê |1,000 | data-sort-value="4" |Moribund | rowspan="2" |Brazil |Spoken in the states of Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe, and the northern part of Bahia. Divided into two dialects, Fulniô and Yatê.<ref>{{cite web |title=Yaté |url=http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/1642 |website=Endangered Languages Project |access-date=20 February 2021}}</ref> Sometimes classified as a Macro-Jê language.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Crevils |first1=Mily |editor1-last=Campbell |editor1-first=Lyle |editor2-last=Grondona |editor2-first=Veronica |title=Classification of the Indigenous Languages of South America: A Comprehensive Guide |date=2012 |publisher=De Gruyter |page=185 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pA-ryJRcG3AC&q=Guat%C3%B3&pg=PA59 |access-date=21 February 2021 |chapter=Chapter III: Language Endangerment in South America:The Clock is Ticking|isbn=978-3-11-025803-5 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Melatti |first1=Julio Cezar |title=Aspectos culturais (não linguísticos) dos povos falantes de línguas do tronco Macro-Jê-Roteiro para discussão no IX Encontro Macro-Jê |url=http://www.juliomelatti.pro.br/notas/n-aspectos-culturais-macro-je.pdf |access-date=20 February 2021}}</ref> |- | Irantxe |90 | data-sort-value="3" | Endangered | Spoken by the Irántxe and Mỹky peoples in the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil. Recent descriptions of the language analyze it as a language isolate.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Documenting Manoki (Mỹky), an isolate of Brazilian Amazonia {{!}} Endangered Languages Archive |url=https://www.elararchive.org/dk0498/ |access-date=2025-01-25 |website=www.elararchive.org}}</ref> According to Arruda (2003), it "bears no similarity with other language families". |- | Itonama |1 | data-sort-value="4" | Moribund | Bolivia | Spoken in the far-eastern part of Beni Department. A relationship to Paezan has been suggested.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Crevils |first1=Mily |title=Tomo II: Amazonia – Itonama |url=https://www.ru.nl/cls/our-research/completed-research-projects/completed-projects/lenguas-de-bolivia-es/lenguas-de-bolivia/tomo-ii-amazonia/ |website=Lenguas de Bolivia |publisher=Centre for Language Studies-Radboud University |access-date=19 February 2021}}</ref> |- | Kamëntšá |4,000 | data-sort-value="3" | Endangered | Colombia | Spoken in Sibundoy in the Putumayo Department. Also known as Camsa, Coche, Sibundoy, Kamentxa, Kamse, or Camëntsëá.{{citation needed|date=February 2021}} |- |Kanoê |3 | data-sort-value=4 | Moribund | Brazil | Spoken in southeastern Rondônia. Also known as ''Kapishana''. Tentatively linked to Kwaza and Aikanã.<ref name="Voort, Hein 2005"/> Part of a Macro-Paesan proposal.<ref name="Kaufman, Terrence 1994">Kaufman, Terrence. 1994. The native languages of South America. In: Christopher Moseley and R. E. Asher (eds.), ''Atlas of the World's Languages'', 59–93. London: Routledge.</ref> |- | Kunza | style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" |Extinct | Chile | Spoken in areas near Salar de Atacama until the 1950s. Also known as ''Atacameño''. Part of a Macro-Paesan proposal.<ref name="Kaufman, Terrence 1994"/> |- |Kwaza |25 | rowspan="2" data-sort-value="4" |Moribund |Brazil |Spoken in eastern Rondônia. Connections have been proposed with Aikanã and Kanoê.<ref name="Voort, Hein 2005"/> |- | Leco |20 | Bolivia | Spoken at the foot of the Andes in the department of La Paz.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Van der Kerke |first1=Simon |title=Tomo I: Ámbito andino – Leco |url=https://www.ru.nl/cls/our-research/completed-research-projects/completed-projects/lenguas-de-bolivia-es/lenguas-de-bolivia/tomo-ambito-andino/|website=Lenguas de Bolivia |publisher=Centre for Language Studies-Radboud University |access-date=19 February 2021}}</ref> |- | Máku of Auari | style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" |Extinct | Brazil | Spoken on the Brazil–Venezuela border in Roraima until 2000. Also known as ''Jukude'' or ''Maku''. Likely language isolate. Has been linked to the Arutani–Sape and the Macro-Puinavean language families. |- | Mapuche |260,000 | data-sort-value=2 | Vulnerable | Chile, Argentina | Spoken in areas of the far-southern Andes and in the Chiloé Archipelago. Also known as ''Mapudungun'', ''Araucano'' or ''Araucanian''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Zúñiga |first1=Fernando |title=Los mapuches y su lengua |date=2006 |publisher=Centro de Estudios Públicos |location=Santiago de Chile |page=402}}</ref> Variously part of Andean,<ref name="Amerind Dictionary" /> Macro-Panoan,<ref name="Kaufman, Terrence 1994"/> or Mataco–Guaicuru<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Viegas Barros |first1=Jose Pedro |title=La hipótesis de parentesco Guaicurú-Mataguayo: estado actual de la cuestión |journal=Revista Brasileira de Linguística Antropológica |date=2013 |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=293–333 |doi=10.26512/rbla.v5i2.16269 |doi-broken-date=21 January 2026 |url=https://ri.conicet.gov.ar/handle/11336/28247 |access-date=21 February 2021|doi-access=free |hdl=11336/28247 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> proposals. Sometimes Huilliche is treated as a separate language, reclassifying Mapuche into an Araucanian family.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mason |first1=John Alden |editor1-last=steward |editor1-first=Julian |title=Handbook of South American Indians |date=1950 |publisher=Government Printing Office: Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin |location=Washington D.C. |pages=157–317 |chapter="The Languages of South America"}}</ref> |- | Matanawi | style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" rowspan="2" | Extinct | Brazil | Spoken on the Castanha River and Madeirinha River in Amazonas in Brazil until the middle of the 20th century. Has been linked to the Mura-Pirahã language. |- | Mochica | Peru | Spoken along the northwest coast of Peru and in an inland village until {{circa|1920}}. Usually considered to be a language isolate,<ref name="Campbell-SAmerica">{{cite book |last=Campbell |first=Lyle |author-link=Lyle Campbell |editor1-last=Grondona |editor1-first=Verónica |editor2-last=Campbell |editor2-first=Lyle |date=2012 |title=The Indigenous Languages of South America |chapter=Classification of the indigenous languages of South America |series=The World of Linguistics |volume=2 |location=Berlin |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |pages=59–166 |isbn=978-3-11-025513-3}}</ref> but has also been hypothesized as belonging to a wider Chimuan language family. |- | Movima | 1,400 | data-sort-value=2 | Vulnerable | Bolivia | Spoken in the Llanos de Moxos, in the north of Beni Department. Affiliations with Canichana, Chibcha and Macro-Tucanoan have been proposed, none of these have been proven.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Haude |first1=Katharina |title=Tomo II: Amazonia – Movima |url=https://www.ru.nl/cls/our-research/completed-research-projects/completed-projects/lenguas-de-bolivia-es/lenguas-de-bolivia/tomo-ii-amazonia/ |website=Lenguas de Bolivia |publisher=Centre for Language Studies-Radboud University |access-date=19 February 2021}}</ref> |- | Munichi | style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Extinct | Peru |Spoken in the southern part of Loreto Region until the late 1990s. Possibly evolved either from a mixed language or a sister language to Proto-Arawak.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gibson |first1=Michael Luke |title=El Munichi: Un idioma que se extingue |date=2008 |publisher=Instituto Linguistico de Verano |location=Yarinacocha |page=19 |url=http://repositorio.cultura.gob.pe/bitstream/handle/CULTURA/444/El_munichi_un_idioma_que_se_extingue-slp42_myr_.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y |access-date=21 February 2021}}</ref> |- | Mure | Bolivia | Formerly spoken in the Jesuit Missions of Moxos in Beni Department. Isolate according to ''Glottolog'', but past proposals include links to Chapacuran<ref>{{Cite web |title=Glottolog 5.2 - Mure |url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/mure1235 |access-date=2025-10-01 |website=glottolog.org}}</ref> |- | Nasayuwe | 60,000 | data-sort-value=2 | Vulnerable | Colombia | Spoken in the northern part of Cauca Department. Also known as ''Páez''. Several proposed relationships in the Paezan hypothesis but nothing conclusive.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Adelaar |first1=Willem |last2=Muysken |first2=Pieter |title=The Languages of the Andes |date=2004 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |pages=393–397}}</ref> |- | Omurano | colspan="2" rowspan="3" style="text-align: center;" |Extinct | Peru | Spoken near the Marañón River until 2006. Linkage to the Saparo–Yawan language family has been proposed. |- | Oti | Brazil | Spoken in São Paulo until the early 1900s. Macro-Jê affiliation has been suggested, but not accepted.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rodrigues |first1=Aryon |editor1-last=Dixon |editor1-first=R.M.W |title=The Amazonian Languages |date=1999 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |chapter=6: The Amazonian Languages}}</ref> |- | Payaguá | Argentina, Paraguay | Spoken in Argentina and Paraguay by the Payaguá until 1943. Linkage has been proposed to the Mataco–Guaicuru language family, however Campbell (2012) classifies it as an isolate.<ref name="Campbell-SAmerica"/> |- | Pirahã |380 | data-sort-value=1 | Vibrant | Brazil | Spoken along the Maici River in Amazonas, Brazil. The only living dialect of Mura language. |- | Gününa Küne | style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" |Extinct | Argentina, Chile | Spoken in the Pampas region, last speaker died around 1960.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Viegas Barros |first1=J. Pedro |title=Un nuevo análisis fonológico del Gününa Yajüch |url=http://www.adilq.com.ar/FONOLOGIA%20GUNUNA.pdf |website=ADILQ |publisher=Asociación de Investigadores en Lengua Quechua |access-date=21 February 2021 |archive-date=5 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305072046/http://www.adilq.com.ar/FONOLOGIA%20GUNUNA.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Sometimes linked to Het, as part of the Chonan languages.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Viegas Barros |first1=J. Pedro |title=La familia lingüística tehuelche |journal=Revista Patagónica |date=1992 |volume=54 |issue=13 |pages=39–46}}</ref> Included in a proposed Macro-Jibaro family.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kaufman |first1=Ternece |editor1-last=Payne |editor1-first=Doris |title=Amazonian Linguistics Studies in Lowland South American Languages |date=1990 |publisher=University of Texas Press |chapter=Language History in South America: What We Know and How to Know More}}</ref> |- | Puinave |3,000 | data-sort-value=3 | Endangered | Colombia, Venezuela | Spoken in 32 communities along the banks of the Inírida River in Guainía Department, Colombia and in 10 communities along the Orinoco River, in the Colombia–Venezuela border region. Generally considered to be a language isolate, but has been linked frequently to Nadahup and Nukak-Kakwa. |- |Pumé | style="text-align: center;" |7,900 | style="text-align: center;" |Vibrant |Venezuela |Spoken along the Orinoco, Cinaruco, Meta, and Apure rivers. Linked to the extinct Esmeralda language.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Adelaar| first1 = William F. H. | last2 = Muysken | first2 = Pieter C.| title = The languages of the Andes| publisher = Cambridge University Press| series = Cambridge Language Surveys| date = 2004| pages = 156–161| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UiwaUY6KsY8C&q=Esmeralde%CB%9Cno&pg=PA34| isbn = 978-1-139-45112-3}}</ref> |- |Puquina | colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Extinct | |Spoken around Lake Titicaca until the 19th century. |- |Puri |Brazil |Spoken in Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro states of Brazil until the late 19th century, Formerly considered Macro-Jê, but affiliation has been disproven.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ramirez |first=Henri |last2=Vegini |first2=Valdir |last3=França |first3=Maria Cristina Victorino de |date=2015-09-26 |title=Koropó, puri, kamakã e outras línguas do Leste Brasileiro |url=http://periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br/ojs/index.php/liames/article/view/8642302 |journal=LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas |language=pt |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=223–277 |doi=10.20396/liames.v15i2.8642302 |issn=2177-7160}}</ref> |- | Ramanos | colspan="2" rowspan="4" style="text-align: center;" |Extinct | Bolivia | Spoken in Moxos Province in Bolivia until the 1790s. Isolate according to ''Glottolog''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Glottolog 5.2 - Ramanos |url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/rama1271 |access-date=2025-07-15 |website=glottolog.org}}</ref> |- | Sapé | Venezuela | Spoken along the Paragua River and Karuna River in Venezuela until 2018. Also known as ''Kaliana'' or ''Caliana''. Part of the proposed Arutani–Sape language family but more likely to be an isolate. |- |Sechura | rowspan="2" |Peru |Spoken in Peru until the late 19th century. Known from only two short wordlists, but linked to the Tallán language.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Urban |first=Matthias |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/304709916.pdf |title=Lost languages of the Peruvian north coast |date=2019 |publisher=Gebr. Mann Verlag |isbn=978-3-7861-2826-7 |series=Estudios Indiana |location=Berlin |pages=73–96 |chapter=Sechura |oclc=on1090545680}}</ref> |- |Tallán |Spoken in Peru until the late 19th century. Known from only two short wordlists, but linked to the Sechura language.<ref name=":03">{{Cite book |last=Urban |first=Matthias |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/304709916.pdf |title=Lost languages of the Peruvian north coast |date=2019 |publisher=Gebr. Mann Verlag |isbn=978-3-7861-2826-7 |series=Estudios Indiana |location=Berlin |pages=73–96 |chapter=The Tallán languages |oclc=on1090545680}}</ref> |- | Taruma |3 | data-sort-value=4 rowspan="2" | Moribund |Brazil, Guyana and Suriname | Originally spoken around the mouth of the Rio Negro river, now located in Maruranau village among the Wapishana. Kaufman (1990) proposed it to be distantly related to Katembri, but this relationship has not been repeated in recent surveys of South American languages by Campbell (2012), confirming that this language is an isolate.<ref name="Serke22">{{Cite thesis |last=Serke |first=Anna K. |title=A description of Taruma phonology |date=2022 |publisher=Universitat Leiden |url=https://studenttheses.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A3454579/view}}</ref><ref name="Campbell-SAmerica"/> |- | Taushiro |1 | rowspan="2" | Peru | Spoken in the northeastern area of the Loreto province. Linkage to the Saparo–Yawan language family has been proposed. |- | Tequiraca | style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" | Extinct | Spoken in the central part of Loreto until the 1950s. Also known as Auishiri. A connection with Canichana has been proposed by Kaufman (1994).<ref>Kaufman, Terrence. (1994). The native languages of South America. In C. Mosley & R. E. Asher (Eds.), ''Atlas of the world's languages'' (pp.&nbsp;46–76). London: Routledge.</ref> |- |Tinigua | style="text-align: center;" |1 | style="text-align: center;" |Moribund |Colombia |Once part of a larger language family, is the sole surviving member of the Tiniguan languages |- | Trumai |51 | data-sort-value=4 | Moribund | Brazil | Settled on the upper Xingu River. Currently reside in the Xingu National Park in the northern part of Mato Grosso.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Angelis |first1=Wimar |title="Línguas Indígenas no Brasil: urgência de ações para que sobrevivam." Paper presented at the round table: "A situação atual das línguas indígenas brasileiras", no IX ELESI – Encontro sobre Leitura e Escrita em Sociedades Indígenas (Porto Seguro, BA, 22 a 26 de outubro de 2012). Publicada em: Anari Braz Bomfim & Francisco Vanderlei F. da Costa (orgs), Revitalização de língua indígena e educação escolar indígena inclusiva (Salvador: Egba, 2014, p. 93-117).|url=https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/58350913/Linguas_Indigenas_-_para_que_sobrevivam.pdf?1549532226=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DLinguas_Indigenas_no_Brasil_urgencia_de.pdf&Expires=1614430091&Signature=Pcis05y7U0nTc4oEfbeoIF5iGR3zzkzWpARPSQOnHq2kZfRPoV2RDQcSTscjKcquVKFEq5fB2Ly6DKezbbp8nIygMST3IjG36BaxxDR9W-35oYGwKst5EpcURqAS7Jzx0mO57IWerkAWByK6uu2SO-T7l1NYUu-WdzkhL~Y~tYIjhPk8ovsxIiFw42AMDpbNlEYvVU~Rx7QXDro7~faYRrzVaWSdjhViCIEWaMEXGshLvjKPUIrBIVXjo48O19FiDZIY2P0B0Lu3ajzRkwMPz0LPOn7Nb9qNCAQoKNCHqO1Wgg6-FOHHZjtV0p8yEvHTMJzQFcxHHP01MCh8FLdFyg__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA |access-date=27 February 2021}}{{dead link|date=May 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> |- | Urarina |3,000 | rowspan="2" data-sort-value="2" | Vulnerable | Peru | Spoken in the central part of the Loreto Region.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Olawsky |first1=Knut |title=A Grammar of Urarina |date=2006 |publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-019020-5 |page=3 |edition=First |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2hIxb1XM1AYC&q=urarina+language&pg=PR15 |access-date=21 January 2021}}</ref> Part of the Macro-Jibaro proposal.<ref>Kaufman, Terrence. (1990). Language history in South America: What we know and how to know more. In D. L. Payne (Ed.), ''Amazonian linguistics: Studies in lowland South American languages'' (pp.&nbsp;13–67). Austin: University of Texas Press. {{ISBN|0-292-70414-3}}.</ref> |- | Waorani |2,000 | Ecuador, Peru | Also known as Sabela. Spoken between the Napo and Curaray rivers. Could be spoken by several groups living in isolation.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Colleoni |first1=Paola |last2=Proaño |first2=José |title=CAMINANTES DE LA SELVA | trans-title=JUNGLE WALKERS |date=2010 |publisher=Grupo Internacional de Trabajo sobre Asuntos Indígenas (IWGIA) |location=Quito |page=10 |url=http://sgpwe.izt.uam.mx/files/users/uami/lauv/Caminantes_de_la_Selva_PP_aislados_Venezuela-_Informe_7.pdf |access-date=27 February 2021}}</ref> |- | Warao |32,800 | data-sort-value=3 | Endangered | Guyana, Suriname and Venezuela | Spoken in the Orinoco Delta.<ref name="Kaufman, Terrence 1994"/> |- |Xukuru | style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Extinct |Brazil |Spoken in Pernambuco state, Brazil until the early 20th century. Only attestation is from wordlists collected in the 1950s-60s from rememberers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hohenthal |first=Jr., W. D. |date=1954 |title=Notes on the Shucurú Indians of Serra de Ararobá, Pernambuco, Brazil |url=https://etnolinguistica.wdfiles.com/local--files/biblio%3Ahohenthal-1954-notes/Hohenthal_1954_NotesOnShukuru.pdf |journal=Revista do Museu Paulista (Nova Série) |volume=8 |pages=93–164}}</ref> |- | Yahgan | Chile | Spoken in far-southern Tierra del Fuego until 2022. Also called Yámana.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Vega |first1=Jorge |title=In Chile's remote south, the last speaker of an ancient language fights to keep it alive |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chile-language-indigenous/in-chiles-remote-south-the-last-speaker-of-an-ancient-language-fights-to-keep-it-alive-idUSKCN1T11YU |publisher=Reuters |access-date=3 June 2019 |date=31 May 2019}}</ref> |- | Yuracaré |2,700 | data-sort-value=3 | Endangered | Bolivia | Spoken in the foothills of the Andes, in Cochabamba and Beni Departments. Connections to Mosetenan, Pano–Tacanan, Arawakan, and Chonan have been suggested.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Van Gijn |first1=Rik |title=Tomo III: Oriente – Yurakare|url=https://www.ru.nl/cls/our-research/completed-research-projects/completed-projects/lenguas-de-bolivia-es/lenguas-de-bolivia/tomo-iii-oriente/|website=Lenguas de Bolivia |publisher=Centre for Language Studies-Radboud University |access-date=19 February 2021}}</ref> |- |Yurumanguí | colspan="2" |Extinct |Colombia |Spoken in Colombia until sometime after 1768. Linked with the Hokan languages by Paul Rivet, but this is now rejected.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rivet |first=Paul |date=1942 |title=Un dialecte hoka colombien : le Yurumangí. |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/jsa_0037-9174_1942_num_34_1_2334 |journal=Journal de la société des américanistes |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=1–59 |doi=10.3406/jsa.1942.2334}}</ref> |}

==See also== *Unclassified languages *List of language families

==References== {{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==Bibliography== * Campbell, Lyle, ed. 2017. ''Language Isolates''. Routledge. * Campbell, Lyle. (1997). ''American Indian languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America''. New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN |0-19-509427-1}}. * Goddard, Ives (Ed.). (1996). ''Languages''. Handbook of North American Indians (W. C. Sturtevant, General Ed.) (Vol. 17). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. {{ISBN |0-16-048774-9}}. * Goddard, Ives. (1999). ''Native Languages and Language Families of North America'' (rev. and enlarged ed. with additions and corrections). [Map]. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press (Smithsonian Institution). (Updated version of the map in Goddard 1996). {{ISBN |0-8032-9271-6}}. * Grimes, Barbara F. (Ed.). (2000). ''Ethnologue: Languages of the world'', (14th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. {{ISBN |1-55671-106-9}}. (Online edition: [http://www.ethnologue.com/ Ethnologue: Languages of the World]). * Mithun, Marianne. (1999). ''The languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN |0-521-23228-7}} (hbk); {{ISBN |0-521-29875-X}}. * Salaberri, Iker, Krajewska, Dorota, Santazilia, Ekaitz & Zuloaga, Eneko (eds.). (2025). ''Investigating Language Isolates. Typological and Diachronic Perspectives''. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. {{ISBN|9789027218995|9789027246295}} {{doi|10.1075/tsl.135}} * Sturtevant, William C. (Ed.). (1978–present). ''Handbook of North American Indians'' (Vol. 1–20). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. (Vols. 1–3, 16, 18–20 not yet published).

==External links== * [https://www.ethnologue.com/subgroups/language-isolate Ethnologue's list of language isolates]

{{Language families}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Language Isolate}} Category:Language isolates