An unclassified language is a language whose genetic affiliation to other languages has not been established. Languages can be unclassified for a variety of reasons, mostly due to a lack of reliable data but sometimes due to the confounding influence of

language contact Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. When speakers of different languages interact closely, it is typical for th ...

, if different layers of its vocabulary or morphology point in different directions and it is not clear which represents the ancestral form of the language. Some poorly known extinct languages, such as Gutian and Cacán, are simply unclassifiable, and it is unlikely the situation will ever change. A supposedly unclassified language may turn out not to be a language at all, or even a distinct dialect, but merely a family, tribal or village name, or an alternative name for a people or language that is classified. If a language's genetic relationship has not been established after significant documentation of the language and comparison with other languages and families, as in the case of Basque in Europe, it is considered a

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 ...

– that is, it is classified as a language family of its own. An 'unclassified' language therefore is one which may still turn out to belong to an established family once better data is available or more thorough comparative research is done. Extinct unclassified languages for which little evidence has been preserved are likely to remain in limbo indefinitely, unless lost documents or a surviving speaking population are discovered.

Classification challenges

An example of a language that has caused multiple problems for classification is Mimi of Decorse in

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

. This language is only attested in a single word list collected ca. 1900. At first it was thought to be a Maban language, because of similarities to

Maba Maba or MABA may refer to: * ''Maba'', a plant genus now included in ''Diospyros'' * Maba, Shaoguan (马坝镇), town in Qujiang District, Shaoguan, Guangdong, China * Maba, Xuyi County (马坝镇), town in Xuyi County, Jiangsu, China * Maba, Ind ...

, the first Maban language to be described. However, as other languages of the Maban family were described, it became clear that the similarities were solely with Maba itself, and the relationship was too distant for Mimi to be related specifically to Maba and not equally to the other Maban languages. The obvious similarities are therefore now thought to be due to borrowings from Maba, which is the socially dominant language in the area. When such loans are discounted, there is much less data to classify Mimi with, and what does remain is not particularly similar to any other language or language family. Mimi might therefore be a language isolate, or perhaps a member of some other family related to Maban in the proposed but as yet undemonstrated

Nilo-Saharan The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50–60 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. T ...

phylum. It would be easier to address the problem with better data, but no-one has been able to find speakers of the language again. It also happens that a language may be unclassified within an established family. That is, it may be obvious that it is, say, a

Malayo-Polynesian language The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the Austronesian peoples outside of Taiwan, in the island nations of Southeast ...

, but not clear in which branch of Malayo-Polynesian it belongs. When a family consists of many similar languages with great degree of confusing contact, a large number of languages may be effectively unclassified in this manner. Families where this is a substantial problem include Malayo-Polynesian,

Bantu Bantu may refer to: *Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages *Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language * Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle *Black Association for National ...

, Pama–Nyungan, and

Arawakan Arawakan (''Arahuacan, Maipuran Arawakan, "mainstream" Arawakan, Arawakan proper''), also known as Maipurean (also ''Maipuran, Maipureano, Maipúre''), is a language family that developed among ancient indigenous peoples in South America. Branch ...

Examples by reason

There are hundreds of unclassified languages, most of them extinct, although there are some, albeit relatively few, that are still spoken; in the following list, the extinct languages are labeled with a dagger (†).

Absence of data

These languages are unclassifiable, not just unclassified, because while there may be record of a language existing there may not be enough materials in it to analyze and classify, especially with now-extinct languages. (See, for example, a list of unclassified languages of South America.) *

Sentinelese The Sentinelese, also known as the Sentineli and the North Sentinel Islanders, are an indigenous people who inhabit North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal in the northeastern Indian Ocean. Designated a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group ...

(Andaman Islands) – a living presumed language of an uncontacted people * Weyto† (Ethiopia) *

Nam Nam, Nam, or The Nam are shortened terms for: * Vietnam, which is also spelled ''Viet Nam'' * The Vietnam War Nam, The Nam or NAM may also refer to: Arts and media * Nam, a fictional character in anime series ''Dragon Ball'' * ''NAM'' (video ...

† (Chinese–Tibetan border) – data remains undeciphered * Harappan† ( Indus Valley civilisation 33rd–13th centuries BC) – data remains undeciphered * Cypro-Minoan† (Cyprus 15th–10th centuries BC) – data remains undeciphered * Lullubi† (Iran) * † (Tanzania) * Guale† and Yamasee† (US) *

Himarimã The Himarimã or Hi-Merimã are an indigenous peoples in Brazil, indigenous people of Brazil. They are largely uncontacted peoples, uncontacted by outside society, and live along the Pinhuã River, between the Juruá River, Juruá and Purus River ...

(Brazil) – a living presumed language of an uncontacted people * Nagarchal† (India) – assumed to have been Dravidian

Scarcity of data

Many of these languages are also considered unclassifiable, as the amount of data may not be enough to reveal close relatives if there were some. For others there may be enough data to show the language belongs to a particular family, but not where within it, or to show the language has no close relatives, but not enough to conclude that it is a language isolate. * Solano† (Mexico) * Cacán† (Argentina) * Kujargé (Chad) * Bung (Cameroon) * Luo (Cameroon) * Mawa† (Nigeria) * Komta† (Nigeria) * Wawu† (Ghana or Ivory Coast?) * †? (West Africa) * Dima-Bottego† (Ethiopia) * Kwadi† (Angola) *

Philistine language The Philistine language () is the extinct language of the Philistines. Very little is known about the language, of which a handful of words survived as cultural loanwords in Biblical Hebrew, describing specifically Philistine institutions, like ...

† (Palestine) *

Iberian language The Iberian language was the language of an indigenous western European people identified by Greek and Roman sources who lived in the eastern and southeastern regions of the Iberian Peninsula in the pre-Migration Era (before about 375 AD). The a ...

† (Spain and southern France) *

Lemnian The Lemnian language was spoken on the island of Lemnos, Greece, in the second half of the 6th century BC. It is mainly attested by an inscription found on a funerary stele, termed the Lemnos stele, discovered in 1885 near Kaminia. Fragments of ...

† ( Lemnos, Greece) *

Minoan The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450B ...

† (ancient Crete) *

Eteocretan Eteocretan ( from grc-gre, Ἐτεόκρητες, Eteókrētes, lit. "true Cretans", itself composed from ἐτεός ''eteós'' "true" and Κρής ''Krḗs'' "Cretan") is the pre-Greek language attested in a few alphabetic inscriptions of anc ...

† (ancient Crete) * Hattic† (Anatolia) * Kaskian† (Anatolia, possibly related to Hattic) * Kassite† (Iraq) * Gutian† (Zagros borderlands) * Hunnic† (Eastern Europe & Central Asia) *

Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 209 ...

† (Mongolia) * Xianbei† (Mongolia) *

Ruanruan Ruanruan (; also called Rouran) is an unclassified extinct language of Mongolia and northern China, spoken in the Rouran Khaganate from the 4th to the 6th centuries AD, considered a likely early precursor to Mongolic. Peter A. Boodberg claime ...

† (Mongolia) * Khitan† (Mongolia)

Unrelated to nearby languages and not commonly examined

Bangime Bangime (; , or, in full, ) is a language isolate spoken by 3,500 ethnic Dogon in seven villages in southern Mali, who call themselves the ("hidden people"). Bangande is the name of the ethnicity of this community and their population grows at ...

(Mali) * Jalaa† (Nigeria) * Kwaza (Brazil) *

Mpre The Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE) is a 120-minute, 60-question, multiple-choice examination designed to measure the knowledge and understanding of established standards related to a lawyer's professional conduct. It i ...

† (Ghana)

Basic vocabulary unrelated to other languages

* Bayot (Senegal) * Laal (Chad)

Not closely related to other languages and no academic consensus

Ongota Ongota (also known as Birale, Birayle) is a moribund language of southwest Ethiopia. UNESCO reported in 2012 that out of a total ethnic population of 115, only 12 elderly native speakers remained, the rest of their small village on the west bank ...

(Ethiopia) * Shabo (Ethiopia) * Omaio (Tanzania)

Languages of dubious existence

* Oropom (Uganda) (extinct, if it existed) * Imeraguen (Mauritania) * Nemadi (Mauritania) * Rer Bare (Ethiopia) (extinct, if it existed) * Wutana (Nigeria) (extinct, if it existed) * Trojan (Anatolia) (as yet unattested, possibly a Luwian dialect) Some 'languages' turn out to be fabricated, as Kukurá of Brazil.

Notes

References

External links

*
Ethnologue: Unclassified languages
{{language families