Back Geïsoleerde tale Afrikaans Isolierte Sprache ALS Luengas aisladas AN لغة معزولة Arabic Llingua aislada AST Basa isolat BAN Изолиран език Bulgarian Basa isulat BJN Yezh digenvez Breton Llengua aïllada Catalan

Language isolate

Not to be confused with Isolating language.
Locations of a few relatively well-known examples of isolated languages

A language isolate is a language that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with any other languages.[1] Basque in Europe, Ainu[1] in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, Haida and Zuni in North America, Kanoê in South America, Tiwi in Australia and Burushaski in Pakistan are all examples of such languages. The exact number of language isolates is yet unknown due to insufficient data on several languages.[2]

One explanation for the existence of language isolates is that they might be the last remaining member of a larger language family. Such languages might have had relatives in the past that have since disappeared without being documented, leaving them an orphaned language. One example is the Ket language spoken in central Siberia, which belongs to the wider Yeniseian language family; had it been discovered in recent times independently from its now extinct relatives, such as Yugh and Kott, it would have been classified as an isolate. Another explanation for language isolates is that they arose independently in isolation and thus do not share a common linguistic genesis with any other language but themselves. This explanation mostly applies to sign languages that have developed independently of other spoken or signed languages.[1][3]

Some languages once seen as isolates may be reclassified as small families if some of their dialects are judged to be sufficiently different from the standard to be seen as different languages. Examples include Japanese and Georgian: Japanese is now part of the Japonic language family with the Ryukyuan languages, and Georgian is the main language in the Kartvelian language family. There is a difference between language isolates and unclassified languages, but they can be difficult to differentiate when it comes to classifying extinct languages.[1] If such efforts eventually do prove fruitful, a language previously considered an isolate may no longer be considered one, as happened with the Yanyuwa language of northern Australia, which has been placed in the Pama–Nyungan family.[4] Since linguists do not always agree on whether a genetic relationship has been demonstrated, it is often disputed whether a language is an isolate.

  1. ^ a b c d Campbell, Lyle (2010-08-24). "Language Isolates and Their History, or, What's Weird, Anyway?". Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society. 36 (1): 16–31. doi:10.3765/bls.v36i1.3900. ISSN 2377-1666.
  2. ^ p. xi. Lyle Campbell. 2018. "Introduction". Language Isolates edited by Lyle Campbell, pp. xi–xiv. Routledge.
  3. ^ Urban, Matthias (April 2021). "The geography and development of language isolates". Royal Society Open Science. 8 (4): rsos.202232, 202232. Bibcode:2021RSOS....802232U. doi:10.1098/rsos.202232. ISSN 2054-5703. PMC 8059667. PMID 33996125.
  4. ^ Bradley, John (2016). Wuka nya-nganunga li-Yanyuwa li-Anthawirriyarra = Language for us, the Yanyuwa Saltwater People: a Yanyuwa encyclopaedia. Vol. 1. Jean F. Kirton, Elfreda MacDonald. North Melbourne, Vic. ISBN 978-1-925003-67-3. OCLC 957570810.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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