Macro-Paesan (also spelled Macro-Paezan) is a proposal linking several small families and

language isolate Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The num ...

s of northwest South America. Kaufman (2007) proposes the structure at the right. Paez–Barbacoan is commonly proposed, though Curnow (1998) argued that it (or at least Paez– Coconucan) is spurious.

Kunza Kunza is an extinct language isolate once spoken in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile and southern Peru by the Atacama people, Atacama people, who have since shifted to Spanish people, Spanish. The last speaker was documented in 1949. Other n ...

– Kapixana was a more provisional suggestion (Kaufman 1990, 1994, 2007; Swadesh 1959), but this connection is not widely accepted. Kunza is now generally considered to be a language isolate. Jolkesky (2015) proposes lexical evidence linking the Páez, Andaqui (Andakí), and Tinígua languages.Jolkesky, Marcelo. 2015.
Semejanzas léxicas entre el Páez, el Andakí y el Tinígua
'.

References

*Kaufman, Terrence. 2007. ''Atlas of the World's Languages'', 2nd edition, 62–64. Routledge. Indigenous languages of South America Proposed language families {{SouthAm-stub