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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 Fringe science refers to ideas whose attributes include being highly speculative or relying on premises already Objection (argument), refuted. The chance of ideas rejected by editors and published outside the mainstream being correct is remote. Wh ...
. Proposals which are themselves based on other proposals have the likelihood of their parts noted in parentheses.


Under considerations

, Paul K. Benedict (initiator, later rejected),
Sergei Starostin Sergei Anatolyevich Starostin (; March 24, 1953 – September 30, 2005) was a Russian historical linguistics, historical linguist and philology, philologist, perhaps best known for his reconstructions of hypothetical proto-languages, including hi ...
,
John Bengtson John D. Bengtson (1948-2024) was an American historical and anthropological linguist. He had been president and vice-president of the Association for the Study of Language in Prehistory, and had served as editor (or co-editor) of the journal '' ...
, , - ,
John Bengtson John D. Bengtson (1948-2024) was an American historical and anthropological linguist. He had been president and vice-president of the Association for the Study of Language in Prehistory, and had served as editor (or co-editor) of the journal '' ...
(initiator) , , - , Austro-Tai , , Paul Benedict (initiator, also including Japanese), Ostapirat, Smith , Thurgood , Sagart , , - , Aztec–Tanoan , , , , , , - , Chukotko-Kamchatkan–Amuric , , , , , , - , Dené–Yeniseian , ,
Alfredo Trombetti Alfredo Trombetti (16 January 1866 in Bologna – 5 July 1929 in Venice) was an Italian linguist active in the early 20th century. Career overview Trombetti was a professor at the University of Bologna. He was a member of the Italian Academy. ...
(initiator), Merritt Ruhlen,
Edward Vajda Edward J. Vajda (Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, September 10, 1958 as Edward M. Johnson; changed his name in 1981) is a historical linguist at Western Washington University, Washington. He is known for his work on the proposed Dené–Yeniseia ...
, Michael Krauss, Jeff Leer, James Kari, Heinrich Werner,
Bernard Comrie Bernard Sterling Comrie, (; born 23 May 1947) is a British linguist. Comrie is a specialist in linguistic typology, linguistic universals and on Caucasian languages. Personal life Early life and education Comrie was born in Sunderland, Eng ...
,
Johanna Nichols Johanna Nichols (born 1945, Iowa City, Iowa) is an American linguist and professor emerita in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Berkeley. Career She earned her Ph.D. in Linguistics at the Univer ...
, Victor Golla,
Michael Fortescue Michael David Fortescue (born 8 August 1946, Thornbury) is a British-born linguist specializing in Arctic and native North American languages, including Kalaallisut, Inuktun, Chukchi and Nitinaht. Fortescue is known for his reconstructions ...
,
Eric Hamp Eric Pratt Hamp (November 16, 1920 – February 17, 2019) was an American linguist widely respected as a leading authority on Indo-European linguistics, with particular interests in Celtic languages and Albanian. Unlike many Indo-Europeanists, ...
, Bill Poser, and
Paul Kiparsky René Paul Victor Kiparsky (born January 28, 1941) is a Finnish linguist and professor of linguistics at Stanford University. He is the son of the St. Petersburg (Russia)-born linguist and Baltist/ Slavicist Valentin Kiparsky. Kiparsky is es ...
,
George Starostin Georgiy Sergeevich "George" Starostin (; born 4 July 1976) is a Russian linguist. He is the son of the late historical linguist Sergei Starostin (1953–2005), and his work largely continues his father's. He is also known as a self-published mu ...
(Vajda's proposal) , , , - ,
Gulf A gulf is a large inlet from an ocean or their seas into a landmass, larger and typically (though not always) with a narrower opening than a bay (geography), bay. The term was used traditionally for large, highly indented navigable bodies of s ...
, , , , , , - , Hokan , , , , , , - , Ibero-Caucasian , , , , , , - , rowspan="2", Indo-Uralic , , Holger Pedersen (initiator), Kortlandt, Hannes Sköld,
Alwin Kloekhorst Alwin Kloekhorst (born 4 March 1978) is a Dutch linguist, Indo-Europeanist and Hittitologist. He was appointed a full professor in Anatolian Linguistics at Leiden University in November 2023. Biography Kloekhorst received his Ph.D. in 2007 at ...
, and Nikolai Dmitrievich Andreev , rowspan="2", 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 The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of around 210 African languages spoken by somewhere around 70 million speakers, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributari ...
, , , , , , - , North Caucasian , , , , , , - ,
Penutian Penutian is a proposed grouping of language family, language families that includes many Native Americans in the United States, Native American languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in British Columbia, Washington ( ...
, , , , , , - , Pontic , ,
Émile Benveniste Émile Benveniste (; 27 May 1902 – 3 October 1976) was a French Structuralism, structural linguistics, linguist and semiotics, semiotician. He is best known for his work on Indo-European languages and his critical reformulation of the linguist ...
, Winfred P. Lehmann, Aert Kuipers, and
John Colarusso John Colarusso is a linguist specializing in Caucasian languages. Since 1976, he has taught at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Colarusso has published more than sixty-five articles on linguistics, myths, politics, and the Caucasus; he ...
, , , , - , Quechumaran , , , , , , - , Serbi–Mongolic , , , , , , - , Sino-Austronesian , ,
Laurent Sagart Laurent Sagart (; born 1951) is a senior researcher at the Centre de recherches linguistiques sur l'Asie orientale (CRLAO – UMR 8563) unit of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). Biography Born in Paris in 1951, he earned ...
(initiator), Stanley Starosta , Weera Ostapirat,
Alexander Vovin Alexander Vladimirovich Vovin (; 27 January 1961 – 8 April 2022) was a Soviet-born Russian-American linguist and philologist, and director of studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris, France. He wa ...
,
George van Driem George "Sjors" van Driem (born 1957) is a Dutch professor emeritus of linguistics at the University of Bern. He studied East Asian languages and is known for the father tongue hypothesis. Education * Leiden University, 1983–1987 (PhD, ''A Gra ...
, Paul Jen-kuei Li and Robert Blust , , - , Totozoquean , , , , , , - , Uralic–Yukaghir , , , , , , - , rowspan="2", Uralo-Siberian , ,
Michael Fortescue Michael David Fortescue (born 8 August 1946, Thornbury) is a British-born linguist specializing in Arctic and native North American languages, including Kalaallisut, Inuktun, Chukchi and Nitinaht. Fortescue is known for his reconstructions ...
(initiator), Frederik Kortlandt , , , , - , , Frederik Kortlandt (initiator) , , , Kortlandt, Frederik (2004). "NIVKH AS A URALO-SIBERIAN LANGUAGE". ''researchgate.net''. , - , Yok-Utian , ,
Geoffrey Gamble Geoffrey Gamble (born 1942) is an American Linguistics, linguist who served from 2000 to 2009 as the 11th president of Montana State University. Early life Gamble was born in 1942 and raised on a farm near Fresno, California.Catherine Callaghan , , ,


Widely rejected

Below are language families that are already rejected by most linguists. As they are widely rejected, only linguists who agree are shown.


See also

*
List of language families This article is a list of language families. This list only includes primary language families that are accepted by the current academic consensus in the field of linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of ling ...
*
Macrofamily A macrofamily (also called a superfamily or superphylum) is a term often used in historical linguistics to refer to a hypothetical higher order grouping of languages. Metonymically, the term became associated with the practice of trying to group ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Proposed language families *