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A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical (or "genetic") relationship with other living languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common to any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single language. Commonly cited examples include Basque, Ainu, Burushaski, and Korean, though in each case a minority of linguists claims to have demonstrated a relationship with another language (see Dene-Caucasian, Karasuk, and Altaic, for example). With context, a language isolate may be understood to be relatively isolated. For instance, Albanian, Armenian, and Greek are commonly called 'Indo-European isolates'. While part of the Indo-European family, they do not belong to any established branch, but instead form independent branches of their own. However, without such a disambiguating context, "isolate" is understood to be in the absolute sense. Some languages became isolated in historical times, after all their known relatives became extinct. The Pirahã language of Brazil is one such example, the last surviving member of the Mura family. Others, like Basque, have been isolated for as long as their existence has been documented. Language isolates may be seen as a special case of unclassified languages, being languages which remain unclassified even after extensive efforts. If eventually such efforts do prove fruitful, a language previously considered an isolate may no longer be considered one; this has happened with the Yanyuwa language of northern Australia, which has recently been placed in the Pama-Nyungan family. Since linguists do not always agree on whether a genetic relationship has been demonstrated, it is often disputed whether a language constitutes a true isolate or not. Genetic relationship The term "genetic relationship" is meant in the genealogical sense of historical linguistics, which groups most languages spoken in the world today into a relatively small number of families, according to reconstructed descent from common ancestral languages. For example, English is related to other Indo-European languages and Mandarin is related to many other Sino-Tibetan languages. By this criterion, each language isolate constitutes a family of its own, which explains the exceptional interest that these languages have received from linguists. Looking for relationships It is possible, though not certain, that all languages spoken in the world today are related by descent from a single ancestral tongue. The established language families would then be only the upper branches of the genealogical tree of all languages, or, equally, lower progeny of a parent tongue. For this reason, language isolates have been the object of numerous studies seeking to uncover their genealogy. For instance, Basque has been compared with every living and extinct language family known, from Sumerian to the South Caucasian, without conclusive results. There are some situations in which a language with no ancestor might arise. For example, if deaf parents were to raise a group of hearing children who have no contact with others until adulthood, they might develop a verbal language among themselves and keep using it later, teaching it to their children, and so on. Eventually, it could develop into the full-fledged language of a population, as has evidently happened in the case of Nicaraguan Sign Language. Such a situation is not very likely to occur at any one time but, over the tens of thousands of years of human history plus pre-history, the likelihood of this occurring at least a few times increases. There are also creole languages and constructed languages such as Esperanto which do not descend directly from a single ancestor as portrayed for most languages. Isolate, not isolated or isolating One should not confuse the concept of a language isolate with a language whose speakers are isolated in some sense, such as people who have little contact with other cultures (like the Rapa Nui language of Easter Island) or because they live far from regions where related languages are spoken (like the Malagasy language of Madagascar whose closest relatives are spoken in Borneo). These languages are not linguistic isolates. Neither should isolates be confused with isolating languages, languages in which morphemes generally exist in the form of full-fledged words, as opposed to synthetic languages. Extinct isolates Caution is required when speaking of extinct languages as isolates. Sumerian is well known for a language so ancient; well enough to be able to recognize modern relatives, if they existed. However, many extinct languages are very poorly attested, and the fact that they cannot be linked to other languages may be a reflection of our poor knowledge of them. Etruscan, for example, is sometimes claimed to be Indo-European; although most historical linguists believe this is unlikely, it's not yet possible to demonstrate it one way or the other. Similar situations pertain to many extinct isolates of America, such as Beothuk and Cayuse. A language thought to be an isolate may turn out to be relatable to other languages once enough material is recovered, but material is unlikely to be recovered if a language was not written. List of language isolates by continent Below is a list of known language isolates, arranged by continent, along with notes on possible relations to other languages or language families Note that the Status column reflects more or less the classification of "Language Types" in ISO 639-3. "Vibrant" is classified "Living" or sometimes "Endangered" in ISO, depending on ongoing efforts to preserve the language, and "Moribund" is classified as "Endangered" in ISO, but may already be "Extinct". Africa Asia Australasia and Oceania Europe North America|North and Central America South America Bibliography rmy:Korkori chhib | |||||||
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