Language Isolates

I hesitate to use the term “isolate” in this context. Past, present, future, any language that is an “isolate” could possibly (actually very likely) be/has been/become part of a larger group. Some “isolate” languages have only become so when all other family members die off. Some languages are “isolate” because linguists are not aware of any languages that are/were related to it. Does this then mean that such a language simply sprung out of nowhere? Presumably all language is derived from language, so the term “isolate” is actually misleading.

I will put so-called “isolated” languages into two categories:

A) A language for which there is no proof or disproof that any other languages are related to it, one that is completely unrelated to any known language in existence (past, present, future). Although such a language may be presumed to have had, at the very least, a predecessor, the fact that there is no evidence to support even that much makes it classified as an isolate.
B) Formerly had known language relatives that became obsolete over the course of history.

A few type A language isolates include Korean, Basque (Spain), Ainu (Japan), Etruscan (Italic Peninsula, extinct), Sumerian (Mesopotamia, extinct), and Zuni (SW US).

Pirahã (Brazil), is the last surviving member of the Muran Language Family (and so it is a type B language isolate), and only has about 200 active daily speakers. I will reference this language in another post which I am scheming.

“Japanese” was once considered a language isolate. That was before the realization that Ryukyuan languages (such as Okinawan) are actually different languages from Japanese rather than a dialects of it, though they are still related (I will later post about how and why languages that are different from one another come to be considered different dialects of the same language, and why different dialects are sometimes considered different languages). So the umbrella term of “Japanese” has become the Japonic Language Family, a.k.a. the Japanese-Ryukyuan Language Family, to include Japanese and the sub-branch of Ryukyuan languages.

Some linguists believe Korean and Japonic Languages to be part of the Altaic Language Family (which includes the Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungistic subgroups) but the general consensus is that they are isolates. This may also become another post for another time.

And as for the languages that have no known relatives in existence…where did they come from? From what were they derived? That is the mystery that continues to intrigue historical linguists but which no amount of research seems to resolve.