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{{Distinguish|Isolating language}}
[[File:Isolated Languages.png|thumb|434x434px|Locations of a few relatively well-known examples of isolated languages]]
A '''language isolate''', or an '''isolated language''', is a [[language]] that has no demonstrable [[Genetic relationship (linguistics)|genetic relationship]] with any other languages.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Campbell|first=Lyle|date=2010-08-24|title=Language Isolates and Their History, or, What's Weird, Anyway?|journal=Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society|language=en|volume=36|issue=1|pages=16–31|doi=10.3765/bls.v36i1.3900|issn=2377-1666|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last1=Salaberri |first1=Iker |title=State of the art of research on language isolates: Introduction |date=2025-01-16 |work=Investigating Language Isolates: Typological and diachronic perspectives |pages=2–19 |editor-last=Salaberri |editor-first=Iker |url=https://benjamins.com/catalog/tsl.135.intro |access-date=2025-01-17 |series=Typological Studies in Language |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |language=en |doi=10.1075/tsl.135.intro |isbn=978-90-272-1899-5 |last2=Krajewska |first2=Dorota |last3=Santazilia |first3=Ekaitz |last4=Zuloaga |first4=Eneko |editor2-last=Krajewska |editor2-first=Dorota |editor3-last=Santazilia |editor3-first=Ekaitz |editor4-last=Zuloaga |editor4-first=Eneko|url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Basque language|Basque]] in Europe, [[Ainu language|Ainu]]<ref name=":1" /> and [[Burushaski]] in Asia, [[Sandawe language|Sandawe]] in Africa, [[Haida language|Haida]] and [[Zuni language|Zuni]] in North America, [[Kanoê language|Kanoê]] in South America, and [[Tiwi language|Tiwi]] in Oceania are all examples of such languages. The exact number of language isolates is yet unknown due to insufficient data on several languages.<ref>p. xi. Lyle Campbell. 2018. "Introduction". ''Language Isolates'' edited by Lyle Campbell, pp. xi–xiv. Routledge.</ref>
One explanation for the existence of language isolates is that they might be the last remaining member of a larger language family. Such languages might have had relatives in the past that may have since disappeared without being documented, leaving them an orphaned language. One example is the [[Ket language|Ket]] language spoken in [[Central Siberian Plateau|central Siberia]], which belongs to the wider [[Yeniseian languages|Yeniseian]] language family; had it been discovered in recent times independently from its probably now extinct relatives, such as [[Yugh language|Yugh]] and [[Kott language|Kott]], it would have been classified as an isolate. Another explanation for language isolates is that they arose independently in isolation and thus do not share a common linguistic genesis with any other language but themselves. This explanation mostly applies to [[sign languages]] that have developed independently of other spoken or signed languages.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Urban|first=Matthias|date=April 2021|title=The geography and development of language isolates|journal=Royal Society Open Science|language=en|volume=8|issue=4|pages=rsos.202232, 202232|article-number=rsos.202232 |doi=10.1098/rsos.202232|pmid=33996125|pmc=8059667|bibcode=2021RSOS....802232U|issn=2054-5703}}</ref>
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