Editing Altaic languages (section)

===The Ainu language===
In 1962, John C. Street proposed an alternative classification, with Turkic-Mongolic-Tungusic in one grouping and Korean-Japanese-[[Ainu language|Ainu]] in another, joined in what he designated as the "North Asiatic" family.<ref name=street>John C. Street (1962): "Review of N. Poppe, ''Vergleichende Grammatik der altaischen Sprachen, Teil I'' (1960)". ''Language'', volume 38, pages 92–98.</ref> The inclusion of Ainu was adopted also by James Patrie in 1982.<ref name=patrie78>James Tyrone Patrie (1978): ''The genetic relationship of the Ainu language''. PhD thesis, University of Hawaii.</ref><ref name=patrie82>James Tyrone Patrie (1982): ''The Genetic Relationship of the Ainu Language.'' University of Hawaii Press. {{ISBN|0-8248-0724-3}}</ref>

The Turkic-Mongolic-Tungusic and Korean-Japanese-Ainu groupings were also posited in 2000–2002 by [[Joseph Greenberg]]. However, he treated them as independent members of a larger family, which he termed [[Eurasiatic languages|Eurasiatic]].<ref name=grenberg2000>Joseph Greenberg (2000–2002): ''Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Language Family'', 2 volumes. Stanford University Press.</ref>

The inclusion of Ainu is not widely accepted by Altaicists.<ref name=georg1999/> In fact, no convincing genealogical relationship between Ainu and any other language family has been demonstrated, and it is generally regarded as a [[language isolate]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Dougherty |first=Thomas |year=2018 |chapter=Ainu |editor-last=Campbell |editor-first=Lyle |editor-link=Lyle Campbell |title=Language Isolates |series=Routledge Language Family Series |location=London |publisher=Routledge |pages=100–116 }}</ref>

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