Unclassified languages are languages whose genetic affiliation has not been established, mostly due to lack of reliable data. The question of the genetic affiliation of languages belongs to the domain of
historical linguisticsHistorical linguistics is the study of language change. It has five main concerns:* to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages;...
. If this state of affairs continues even after intense study of the language and efforts to connect it to other languages, it is termed a
language isolateA language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...
. Languages can be considered unclassified for a variety of reasons, including:
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Unclassified languages are languages whose genetic affiliation has not been established, mostly due to lack of reliable data. The question of the genetic affiliation of languages belongs to the domain of
historical linguisticsHistorical linguistics is the study of language change. It has five main concerns:* to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages;...
. If this state of affairs continues even after intense study of the language and efforts to connect it to other languages, it is termed a
language isolateA language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...
. Languages can be considered unclassified for a variety of reasons, including:
Absence of data, e.g.:
- Weyto language
The Weyto language is believed to be an extinct language formerly spoken in the Lake Tana region of Ethiopia by the Weyto, a small group of hippopotamus hunters who now speak Amharic....
(EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
)
- Sentinelese language
The Sentinelese language is the unknown language of the Sentinelese of North Sentinel Island in the Andaman Islands, India...
(spoken by the SentineleseThe Sentinelese are one of the Andamanese indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal. They inhabit North Sentinel Island which lies westward off the southern tip of the Great Andaman archipelago. They are noted for vigorously resisting attempts of contact by outsiders...
of the Andaman IslandsThe Andaman Islands are a group of archipelagic islands in the Bay of Bengal, and are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Union Territory of India. The Andaman Archipelago is an oceanic continuation of the Burmese Arakan Yoma range in the North and of the Indonesian Archipelago in the South...
in IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
)
Paucity of data, e.g.:
- Bete language
The Bete language of Nigeria is a nearly extinct language spoken by a small minority of the 3,000 inhabitants of Bete Town, Takum Local Government Authority, Taraba State; its speakers have mostly shifted to Jukun Takum. It is reported to have been close to Lufu and Bibi...
(Nigeria; not to be confused with Bété languageThe Bete language of Nigeria is a nearly extinct language spoken by a small minority of the 3,000 inhabitants of Bete Town, Takum Local Government Authority, Taraba State; its speakers have mostly shifted to Jukun Takum. It is reported to have been close to Lufu and Bibi...
)
- Bung language
The Bung language is a nearly extinct language of Cameroon spoken by 3 people at the village of Boung on the Adamawa Plateau. A wordlist collected for it shows its strongest resemblance to be with the Ndung dialect of Mambiloid language Kwanja, although that may simply be because this has become...
(CameroonThe Republic of Cameroon is a unitary republic of central and western Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the Bight of...
)
- Kujarge
The Kujargé language is spoken in seven villages in Chad near Jebel Mirra and in Sudan in villages scattered along the lower Wadi Salih and Wadi Azum. It is estimated to have about 1000 speakers...
(Chad)
- Lufu language
The Lufu language of Nigeria is a nearly extinct language still spoken by some elders among the 2,000-3,000 Lufu in Takum Local Government Authority, Taraba State; its speakers have mostly shifted to Jukun. It is reported to have been close to Bete and Bibi...
(Nigeria)
- Luo language of Atta (Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising thirty-six states and one Federal Capital Territory. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger...
; not to be confused with Luo language)
- Mawa language of Bauchi (Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising thirty-six states and one Federal Capital Territory. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger...
; not to be confused with the Mawa language of ChadChad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
)
Not closely related to its neighbors, and not commonly examined due to paucity of data, e.g.:
- Bangi-me
The Bangi-me language is spoken by 2000-3000 people who call themselves the Banga-na, in northern Mali among the Dogon. It shows no clear affinities with neighboring languages, and may be a language isolate, but pending further investigation it remains unclassified.The ISO 639-3 code is...
(MaliMali, officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked nation in Western Africa. Mali is the seventh largest country in Africa, bordering Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west...
)
- Jalaa language
Jalaa is an endangered language of northeastern Nigeria , of uncertain origins...
(NigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising thirty-six states and one Federal Capital Territory. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger...
)
- Mpre language
Mpre is an unclassified language once spoken in the village of Butie in Ghana, near the confluence of the Black and White Voltas. It is known only from a 70-word list given in a 1931 article...
(GhanaThe Republic of Ghana is a country in West Africa which borders Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
)
- Shompen languages
The Shompen languages are spoken on Great Nicobar Island in the Indian union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean south of Burma....
(IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
)
- Kwaza language
Kwaza is an endangered, unclassified language spoken by the Kwaza people of Brazil. there were only 25 known speakers, though over half of these were children.- Vowels :* All vowels, except <œ>, may be nasalized....
(BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the fifth largest country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean...
)
Not closely related to any other language, and academic consensus on its more distant relations not yet established, e.g.:
- Laal
Laal is an unclassified language spoken by 749 people in three villages in the Moyen-Chari prefecture of Chad on opposite banks of the Chari River,...
(ChadChad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
)
- Ongota
Ongota is a moribund language of southwest Ethiopia. In 2008, it was said to be in a state of decline with only 6 elderly native speakers, the rest of their small village on the west bank of the Weito River having adopted the Tsamai language instead. The grammar follows a Subject Object Verb word...
(EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
)
- Shabo
Shabo is an endangered language spoken by about 600 hunter-gatherers in southwestern Ethiopia, in the westernmost part of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region. They live in three places in the Keficho Shekicho Zone: Anderaccha, Gecha, and Kaabo...
(EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
)
- Basque
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is the mother tongue of approximately one fifth of Basques, 632,000 out of nearly 3,000,000...
(SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
and FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
)
Also, languages whose very existence either presently or in the past is dubious fall into this category by default, e.g.:
- Oropom language
Oropom is an almost certainly extinct African language, once spoken in northeastern Uganda and northwestern Kenya between the Turkwel River, Chemorongit Mountains, and Mount Elgon, by the Oropom ethnic group...
(UgandaThe Republic of Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania...
)
- Imraguen language
The Imraguen or Imeraguen language is spoken by a tiny Imraguen fishing tribe in the Banc d'Arguin National Park on the Atlantic coast of Mauritania. According to Gerteiny , it is "a strange version of Hassaniyya restructured on an Azêr base"; Hassaniyya is an Arabic dialect and Azer is a Soninke...
(MauritaniaMauritania , officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country in northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the west, by Senegal on the southwest, by Mali on the east and southeast, by Algeria on the northeast, and by the Morocco-controlled Western Sahara on the northwest...
)
- Nemadi language
The Nemadi are small Nemadi hunting tribe of eastern Mauritania. Their language is according to some sources a dialect of Hassaniyya, according to other a mixture of Zenaga, Azer and Hassaniyya...
(MauritaniaMauritania , officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country in northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the west, by Senegal on the southwest, by Mali on the east and southeast, by Algeria on the northeast, and by the Morocco-controlled Western Sahara on the northwest...
)
- Rer Bare
The Rer Bare are a tribe in Ethiopia's eastern Ogaden region on the Shabele River, near Somalia, who currently speak Somali. According to the Ethnologue, "it is uncertain if they spoke a different language earlier"; if so, it is extinct...
language of EthiopiaEthiopia , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country situated in the Horn of Africa. Ethiopia is bordered by Eritrea to the north, Sudan to the west, Kenya to the south, Somalia to the east and Djibouti to the northeast. Its size is 1,100,000 km² with an...
(extinct, if it existed)
- Wutana language
The hypothetical Wutana language was mentioned in early editions of the Ethnologue, but has now been removed. The inclusion of Wutana in the Ethnologue was based on two sentences in Temple :and...
(NigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising thirty-six states and one Federal Capital Territory. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger...
)
- Malakhel (Afghanistan
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
)
- Mukha-Dora (India
India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
)
- Aariya
Aariya is a possible extinct language of Madhya Pradesh, India.According to a submission made in 2007 to the ISO 639-3 Registration Authority to have the language code withdrawn, the only reference for the language was a 1970 work entitled A bibliographical Index of the Lesser Known Languages and...
(India)
See also
- Language isolate
A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. They are in effect language families consisting of a single...
- List of unclassified languages according to the Ethnologue
External links