Language isolate

A language with no demonstrated genealogical relationship to any other language or established language family. Its status reflects the limits of current evidence, not proof that it never had relatives.

Comparative method: A procedure for reconstructing language history by comparing systematic correspondences among languages. It is the main method used to test whether an isolate belongs to a family.
Basque language: A language spoken in the western Pyrenees and the only surviving language isolate of western Europe. Basque is a prominent isolate whose proposed relatives remain unproven.
Language reconstruction: The inference of earlier linguistic forms and structures from evidence in surviving or recorded languages. Reconstruction can reveal ancestry when an isolate is compared with a sufficiently related language.
Nostratic languages: A proposed macrofamily linking several language families across Eurasia, whose validity remains disputed. Some proposals include isolates, but the proposed deep relationships lack broad acceptance.
Language family: A group of languages descended from a common ancestral language. An isolate lacks a demonstrated connection to any such group.
Ainu language: A language historically spoken by the Ainu people of northern Japan and nearby regions. Ainu is commonly classified as an isolate despite hypotheses linking it to other languages.
Sound change: A regular alteration in the pronunciation of a language over time. Regular sound change allows historical comparisons to be tested rather than guessed.
Dene–Yeniseian languages: A proposed language family linking the Yeniseian languages of Siberia with Na-Dené languages of North America. Its proposed connection would change the classification of Ket, often described as an isolate.
Proto-language: A reconstructed ancestral language from which a group of related languages descends. A proposed family connection requires evidence for shared descent from an ancestor.
Korean language: The language spoken by most people in North and South Korea and by Korean communities worldwide. Korean is often treated as an isolate, though its classification has been debated.

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