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The following is a list of proposed language families, which connect established families into larger genetic groups (macro-families). Support for these proposals vary from case to case. For example, the Dené–Yeniseian languages are a recent proposal which has been generally well received, whereas reconstructions of the Proto-World language are often viewed as fringe science. Proposals which are themselves based on other proposals have the likelihood of their parts noted in parentheses.
Under considerations
| Proposed name | Proposal | Agree | Disagree | Doubt | Ref. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alarodian |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Austric |
| Wilhelm Schmidt (initiator), La Vaughn H., Lawrence Reid, G. Diffloth, Paul Sidwell, Paul K. Benedict (later rejected), Sergei Starostin, John Bengtson, ASJP | Robert Blust, Paul K. Benedict | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wilhelm Schmidt (initiator) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Paul K. Benedict (initiator, later rejected), Sergei Starostin, John Bengtson | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| John Bengtson (initiator) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Austro-Tai |
| Paul Benedict (initiator, also including Japanese), Ostapirat, Smith | Thurgood | Sagart | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aztec–Tanoan |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chukotko-Kamchatkan–Amuric |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dené–Yeniseian |
| Alfredo Trombetti (initiator), Merritt Ruhlen, Edward Vajda, Michael Krauss, Jeff Leer, James Kari, Heinrich Werner, Bernard Comrie, Johanna Nichols, Victor Golla, Michael Fortescue, Eric Hamp, Bill Poser, and Paul Kiparsky | George Starostin (Vajda's proposal) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gulf |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hokan |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ibero-Caucasian |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Indo-Uralic |
| Holger Pedersen (initiator), Kortlandt, Hannes Sköld, Alwin Kloekhorst, and Nikolai Dmitrievich Andreev | Christian Carpelan, Asko Parpola, Petteri Koskikallio, Angela Marcantonio, and Johan Schalin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kortlandt (initiator) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Je–Tupi–Carib |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Karasuk |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Macro-Chibchan |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Macro-Jê |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Macro-Pama–Nyungan |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Macro-Panoan |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Macro-Siouan |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mataco–Guaicuru |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Miao–Dai |
| Ryuichi Kosaka (initiator) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Niger–Congo |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nilo-Saharan |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| North Caucasian |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Pontic |
| Émile Benveniste, Winfred P. Lehmann, Aert Kuipers, and John Colarusso | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Quechumaran |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Serbi–Mongolic |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sino-Austronesian |
| Laurent Sagart (initiator), Stanley Starosta | Weera Ostapirat, Alexander Vovin, George van Driem | Paul Jen-kuei Li and Robert Blust | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Totozoquean |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Uralic–Yukaghir |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Uralo-Siberian |
| Michael Fortescue (initiator), Frederik Kortlandt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Frederik Kortlandt (initiator) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Yok-Utian |
| Geoffrey Gamble(initiator), Catherine Callaghan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Yuki–Wappo |
|
Widely rejected
This list has no precise inclusion criteria as described in the Manual of Style for standalone lists. (June 2024) |
Below are language families that are already rejected by most linguists. As they are widely rejected, only linguists who agree are shown.
| Proposed name | Description | Status | Agree | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Almosan | Algic, Kutenai and Mosan | Widely rejected | ||
| Amerind | All languages in the Americas which do not belong to the Eskimo–Aleut or Na–Dene families | Widely rejected | ||
| Altaic | Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Koreanic and Japonic (and possibly Ainu) | Widely rejected; generally considered a Sprachbund | ||
| Austronesian–Ongan | Ongan and Austronesian | Widely rejected | Juliette Blevins (initiator) | |
| Borean | All families except in sub-Saharan Africa, New Guinea, Australia, and the Andaman Islands | Widely rejected | ||
| Coahuiltecan | Native languages of modern Texas | Sprachbund | ||
| Dene–Caucasian | Na-Dené, North Caucasian, Sino-Tibetan, Yeniseian, and others. | Widely rejected | ||
| Dravido-Korean | Dravidian and Koreanic | Obsolete | ||
| Elamo-Dravidian | Elamite and Dravidian | Widely rejected | ||
| Eurasiatic | Indo-European, Uralic and Altaic | Widely rejected | ||
| Indo-Pacific | Several Pacific families. | Widely rejected | ||
| Indo-Semitic | Indo-European languages and Semitic languages or Afroasiatic languages | Widely rejected | ||
| Khoisan | African click-consonant languages that do not belong to any other macrophyla | Widely rejected | ||
| Macro-Mayan | Mayan with Totonacan, Mixe–Zoque, and Huave | Widely rejected | ||
| Mosan | Salishan, Wakashan, and Chimakuan languages of Pacific Northwest North America | Sprachbund | ||
| Nostratic | Afroasiatic, Kartvelian, Dravidian and Eurasiatic | Widely rejected | ||
| Proto-World | Reconstructed common ancestor of all living languages | Widely rejected | Alfredo Trombetti (initiator) | |
| Ural–Altaic | Uralic and Altaic | Obsolete; considered a linguistic convergence zone | ||
| Sino-Uralic | Uralic, Sinitic | ? | Jingyi Gao (initiator) |
See also
References
- Grierson, G. A. (January 1907). "Die Mon-Khmer-Völker, Ein Bindeglied Zwischen Völkern Zentralasiens und Austronesiens. By P. W. Schmidt, S.V.D. Reprinted from Archiv für Anthropologie, Neue Folge, Band v, Heft 1 u. 2. (Brunswick, 1906.)". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland. 39 (1): 187–191. doi:10.1017/s0035869x00035711. ISSN 0035-869X. S2CID 163114228.
- "Alphabetisches Verzeichnis der vorkommenden Sprachen und Dialekte", Die westlichen Sudansprachen und ihre Beziehungen zum Bantu, Berlin, Boston: DE GRUYTER, 1927, doi:10.1515/9783111390192-003, ISBN 9783111390192, retrieved 9 January 2023
- Benedict, Paul K. (12 October 1942). "Thai, Kadai, and Indonesian: A New Alignment in Southeastern Asia". American Anthropologist. 44 (4): 576–601. doi:10.1525/aa.1942.44.4.02a00040.
- Smith, Alexander (2022-01-28). Alves, Mark; Sidwell, Paul (eds.). "More Austro-Tai Comparisons and Observations on Vowel Correspondences". Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society: Papers from the 30th Conference of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (2021). 15 (3): 112–134. doi:10.5281/zenodo.5781307. ISSN 1836-6821. Retrieved 2022-02-14.
- Starostin, George (2012). "Dene-Yeniseian: a critical assessment". p. 137
- Aikio, Ante (January 2022). "Proto-Uralic". In Bakró-Nagy, Marianne; Laakso, Johanna; Skribnik, Elena (eds.). Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
- Kortlandt, Frederik (2004). "NIVKH AS A URALO-SIBERIAN LANGUAGE". researchgate.net.
- Kosaka, Ryuichi (2002). "On the affiliation of Miao-Yao and Kadai: Can we posit the Miao-Dai family?" (PDF). Mon-Khmer Studies. 32: 71–100.
- Colarusso, John (1997). "Proto-Pontic: Phyletic links between Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Northwest Caucasian". Journal of Indo-European Studies. 25: 119–51.
- Sagart, L. (1990) "Chinese and Austronesian are genetically related". Paper presented at the 23rd International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, October 1990, Arlington, Texas.
- Sagart, Laurent (2016). "The wider connections of Austronesian: A response to Blust (2009)". Diachronica. 33 (2): 255–281. doi:10.1075/dia.33.2.04sag.
- Fortescue, Michael (2011). "The relationship of Nivkh to Chukotko-Kamchatkan revisited". Lingua. 121 (8): 1359–1376. doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2011.03.001.
I would no longer wish to relate CK directly to [Uralo-Siberian], although I believe that some of the lexical evidence [...] will hold up in terms of borrowing/diffusion.
- Kortlandt, Frederik (2004). "NIVKH AS A URALO-SIBERIAN LANGUAGE". researchgate.net.
- van Driem, George (2011). "Rice and the Austroasiatic and Hmong-Mien homelands". In N.J Enfield (ed.). Dynamics of human diversity: the case of mainland Southeast Asia. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. Retrieved 13 November 2021.
This article has multiple issues Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page Learn how and when to remove these messages This article is missing information about the linguists who agree disagree and doubt the proposed language families Please expand the article to include this information Further details may exist on the talk page August 2023 This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources List of proposed language families news newspapers books scholar JSTOR August 2023 Learn how and when to remove this message An editor has performed a search and found that sufficient sources exist to establish the subject s notability Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources List of proposed language families news newspapers books scholar JSTOR August 2023 Learn how and when to remove this message Learn how and when to remove this message The following is a list of proposed language families which connect established families into larger genetic groups macro families Support for these proposals vary from case to case For example the Dene Yeniseian languages are a recent proposal which has been generally well received whereas reconstructions of the Proto World language are often viewed as fringe science Proposals which are themselves based on other proposals have the likelihood of their parts noted in parentheses Under considerationsThis table is incomplete you can help by expanding it Proposed name Proposal Agree Disagree Doubt Ref Alarodian Alarodian Hurro UrartianNortheast CaucasianAustric Austric AustroasiaticAustronesian Wilhelm Schmidt initiator La Vaughn H Lawrence Reid G Diffloth Paul Sidwell Paul K Benedict later rejected Sergei Starostin John Bengtson ASJP Robert Blust Paul K BenedictAustric AustroasiaticAustronesianJaponic Wilhelm Schmidt initiator Austric AustroasiaticHmong MienAustronesianKra Dai Paul K Benedict initiator later rejected Sergei Starostin John BengtsonAustric AinuAustroasiaticHmong MienAustronesianKra DaiNihali John Bengtson initiator Austro Tai Austro Tai AustronesianKra Dai Paul Benedict initiator also including Japanese Ostapirat Smith Thurgood SagartAztec Tanoan Aztec Tanoan TanoanUto AztecanChukotko Kamchatkan Amuric Chukotko Kamchatkan Amuric Chukotko KamchatkanNivkhDene Yeniseian Dene Yeniseian Na DeneYeniseian Alfredo Trombetti initiator Merritt Ruhlen Edward Vajda Michael Krauss Jeff Leer James Kari Heinrich Werner Bernard Comrie Johanna Nichols Victor Golla Michael Fortescue Eric Hamp Bill Poser and Paul Kiparsky George Starostin Vajda s proposal Gulf Gulf AtakapaChitimachaMuskogeanNatchezTunicaHokan Hokan ChimarikoCoahuiltecoComecrudanEsselenJicaqueanKarukPalaihnihanShastanPomoanSalinanSeriTequistlatecanWashoYanaYuman CochimiIbero Caucasian Ibero Caucasian KartvelianNortheast CaucasianNorthwest CaucasianIndo Uralic Indo Uralic Indo EuropeanUralic Holger Pedersen initiator Kortlandt Hannes Skold Alwin Kloekhorst and Nikolai Dmitrievich Andreev Christian Carpelan Asko Parpola Petteri Koskikallio Angela Marcantonio and Johan SchalinIndo Uralic Indo EuropeanUralic Yukaghir UralicYukaghir Kortlandt initiator Je Tupi Carib Je Tupi Carib CaribanMacro Je BororoanJaikoJeKamakaKarajaKaririKrenakMaxakalianOfayePurianRikbaktsaYabutianTupianKarasuk Karasuk BurushaskiYeniseianMacro Chibchan Macro Chibchan ChibchanLencanMisumalpanMacro Je Macro Je BororoanJaikoJeKamakaKarajaKaririKrenakMaxakalianOfayePurianRikbaktsaYabutianMacro Pama Nyungan Macro Pama Nyungan GarawanMacro GunwinyguanPama NyunganTangkicMacro Panoan Macro Panoan Moseten Chonan ChimaneChonanPano Tacanan PanoanTacananMacro Siouan Macro Siouan CaddoanIroquoianSiouanYuchiMataco Guaicuru Mataco Guaicuru GuaicuruanMatacoanMiao Dai Miao Dai Hmong MienKra Dai Ryuichi Kosaka initiator Niger Congo Niger Congo Atlantic CongoDogonIjawKatloidMandeRashadNilo Saharan Nilo Saharan KuliakSaharanBʼagaEastern SudanicKaduKomanBertaCentral SudanicFurKunamaMabanSonghayNorth Caucasian North Caucasian Northeast CaucasianNorthwest CaucasianPontic Pontic Indo EuropeanNorthwest Caucasian Emile Benveniste Winfred P Lehmann Aert Kuipers and John ColarussoQuechumaran Quechumaran AymaranQuechuanSerbi Mongolic Serbi Mongolic MongolicPara MongolicSino Austronesian Sino Austronesian Austronesian Kra DaiSino Tibetan Laurent Sagart initiator Stanley Starosta Weera Ostapirat Alexander Vovin George van Driem Paul Jen kuei Li and Robert BlustTotozoquean Totozoquean ChitimachaMixe ZoqueTotonacanUralic Yukaghir Uralic Yukaghir UralicYukaghirUralo Siberian Uralo Siberian EskaleutUralic Yukaghir UralicYukaghir Michael Fortescue initiator Frederik KortlandtUralo Siberian EskaleutNivkhUralic Yukaghir UralicYukaghir Frederik Kortlandt initiator Yok Utian Yok Utian UtianYokuts Geoffrey Gamble initiator Catherine CallaghanYuki Wappo Yuki Wappo WappoYukiWidely rejectedThis list has no precise inclusion criteria as described in the Manual of Style for standalone lists Please improve this article by adding inclusion criteria or discuss this issue on the talk page June 2024 Below are language families that are already rejected by most linguists As they are widely rejected only linguists who agree are shown This table is incomplete you can help by expanding it Proposed name Description Status Agree Ref Almosan Algic Kutenai and Mosan Widely rejectedAmerind All languages in the Americas which do not belong to the Eskimo Aleut or Na Dene families Widely rejectedAltaic Turkic Mongolic Tungusic Koreanic and Japonic and possibly Ainu Widely rejected generally considered a SprachbundAustronesian Ongan Ongan and Austronesian Widely rejected Juliette Blevins initiator Borean All families except in sub Saharan Africa New Guinea Australia and the Andaman Islands Widely rejectedCoahuiltecan Native languages of modern Texas SprachbundDene Caucasian Na Dene North Caucasian Sino Tibetan Yeniseian and others Widely rejectedDravido Korean Dravidian and Koreanic ObsoleteElamo Dravidian Elamite and Dravidian Widely rejectedEurasiatic Indo European Uralic and Altaic Widely rejectedIndo Pacific Several Pacific families Widely rejectedIndo Semitic Indo European languages and Semitic languages or Afroasiatic languages Widely rejectedKhoisan African click consonant languages that do not belong to any other macrophyla Widely rejectedMacro Mayan Mayan with Totonacan Mixe Zoque and Huave Widely rejectedMosan Salishan Wakashan and Chimakuan languages of Pacific Northwest North America SprachbundNostratic Afroasiatic Kartvelian Dravidian and Eurasiatic Widely rejectedProto World Reconstructed common ancestor of all living languages Widely rejected Alfredo Trombetti initiator Ural Altaic Uralic and Altaic Obsolete considered a linguistic convergence zoneSino Uralic Uralic Sinitic Jingyi Gao initiator See alsoList of language families MacrofamilyReferencesGrierson G A January 1907 Die Mon Khmer Volker Ein Bindeglied Zwischen Volkern Zentralasiens und Austronesiens By P W Schmidt S V D Reprinted from Archiv fur Anthropologie Neue Folge Band v Heft 1 u 2 Brunswick 1906 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain amp Ireland 39 1 187 191 doi 10 1017 s0035869x00035711 ISSN 0035 869X S2CID 163114228 Alphabetisches Verzeichnis der vorkommenden Sprachen und Dialekte Die westlichen Sudansprachen und ihre Beziehungen zum Bantu Berlin Boston DE GRUYTER 1927 doi 10 1515 9783111390192 003 ISBN 9783111390192 retrieved 9 January 2023 Benedict Paul K 12 October 1942 Thai Kadai and Indonesian A New Alignment in Southeastern Asia American Anthropologist 44 4 576 601 doi 10 1525 aa 1942 44 4 02a00040 Smith Alexander 2022 01 28 Alves Mark Sidwell Paul eds More Austro Tai Comparisons and Observations on Vowel Correspondences Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society Papers from the 30th Conference of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society 2021 15 3 112 134 doi 10 5281 zenodo 5781307 ISSN 1836 6821 Retrieved 2022 02 14 Starostin George 2012 Dene Yeniseian a critical assessment p 137 Aikio Ante January 2022 Proto Uralic In Bakro Nagy Marianne Laakso Johanna Skribnik Elena eds Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages Oxford UK Oxford University Press Kortlandt Frederik 2004 NIVKH AS A URALO SIBERIAN LANGUAGE researchgate net Kosaka Ryuichi 2002 On the affiliation of Miao Yao and Kadai Can we posit the Miao Dai family PDF Mon Khmer Studies 32 71 100 Colarusso John 1997 Proto Pontic Phyletic links between Proto Indo European and Proto Northwest Caucasian Journal of Indo European Studies 25 119 51 Sagart L 1990 Chinese and Austronesian are genetically related Paper presented at the 23rd International Conference on Sino Tibetan Languages and Linguistics October 1990 Arlington Texas Sagart Laurent 2016 The wider connections of Austronesian A response to Blust 2009 Diachronica 33 2 255 281 doi 10 1075 dia 33 2 04sag Fortescue Michael 2011 The relationship of Nivkh to Chukotko Kamchatkan revisited Lingua 121 8 1359 1376 doi 10 1016 j lingua 2011 03 001 I would no longer wish to relate CK directly to Uralo Siberian although I believe that some of the lexical evidence will hold up in terms of borrowing diffusion Kortlandt Frederik 2004 NIVKH AS A URALO SIBERIAN LANGUAGE researchgate net van Driem George 2011 Rice and the Austroasiatic and Hmong Mien homelands In N J Enfield ed Dynamics of human diversity the case of mainland Southeast Asia Canberra Pacific Linguistics Retrieved 13 November 2021
