Dené–Yeniseian languages
| Dené–Yeniseian | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution: |
northwest North America and central Siberia |
| Linguistic classification: | Proposed language family. |
| Subdivisions: | |
| Glottolog: | None |
Probable distribution of Dené–Yeniseian languages in the 17th century
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Dené–Yeniseian is a proposed language family consisting of the Yeniseian languages of central Siberia and the Na-Dené languages of northwestern North America.
Reception among experts has been largely, though not universally, favorable; thus, Dené–Yeniseian has been called "the first demonstration of a genealogical link between Old World and New World language families that meets the standards of traditional comparative-historical linguistics".
Amateur and professional researchers in historical linguistics have long sought to link the various known language families around the world into macrofamilies. The putative relationship between Na-Dené and Yeniseian families was first proposed by Alfredo Trombetti in 1923. Much of the early evidence adduced has been typological; in particular, both families have a complex agglutinative prefixing verb structure, which differs from most of the other languages in Asia.
More recently, a number of attempts have been made to link together various language families and language isolates with prefixing verb structures, including (in addition to Yeniseian and Na-Dené) the Northwest Caucasian (Abkhaz-Adygh) and Northeast Caucasian (Nakh-Dagestanian) language families and the Sumerian and Burushaski language isolates—grouped into a putative long-range Dené-Caucasian family by supporters of a genetic linkage.
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