List of unclassified languages according to the Ethnologue

The following languages are listed as unclassified by the Ethnologue (17th edition), though in their descriptions some are identified with an established family, or have been retired as spurious. Since the 15th edition, several other unclassified languages were found to be related to known languages once better data was collected, and some, such as Amikoana and Miarrã, were found to be spurious and their ISO codes were retired. (See spurious languages.) Languages which became extinct before 1950 are the purview of Linguist List and are being gradually removed from Ethnologue; they are listed as an addendum to this page.

There are 48 unclassified languages in the 25th edition of Ethnologue published in 2022.

Africa

  • Bung language (Cameroon)
  • Gail language (a cant of South Africa)
  • Imeraguen language (Mauritania, Hassaniya-Soninke mix?) (retired)
  • Kara language (Central African Republic, Central Sudanic)
  • Kujarge language (Chad, Afroasiatic?)
  • Leti language (Cameroon)
  • Lufu language (Nigeria, Southern Jukunoid?)
  • Cameroonian Luo language (Cameroon; not to be confused with the better-known Luo language)
  • Nigerian Mawa language (Nigeria; not to be confused with the Chadian Mawa language)
  • Rer Bare language (Ethiopia, unattested)
  • Shabo language (Ethiopia)
  • Weyto language (Ethiopia, unattested)
  • Yeni language (Cameroon, Mambiloid)

Americas

North

South

Asia

Europe

All cants:

Oceania

Languages maintained by Linguist List

These languages became extinct before 1950 and their ISO codes are not, or are no longer, maintained by SIL. Maintenance of additional languages extinct before 1950 is being gradually shifted from SIL to Linguist List.

Africa
America, North
America, South
Asia
Anatolia
Korea
Europe
Oceania

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Bhatola". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

External links

  • Unclassified in Eberhard, David M.; Simons, Gary F.; Fennig, Charles D., eds. (2022). Ethnologue: Languages of the World (25th ed.). Dallas, Texas: SIL International.
  • List from the Linguist List