Editing Language isolate (section)

===Asia===
{| class="wikitable sortable" rules="ALL
|-
! Language
! data-sort-type=number | Speakers
! Status
! Countries
! Comments
|-
| [[Ainu language|Ainu]]
|2<ref>{{e25|Hokkaido Ainu}}</ref>
| data-sort-value=4 rowspan="2" | Moribund
|[[Japan]]
| Spoken on the island of [[Hokkaido]] in [[Japan]]. Sometimes hypothesized to be related to [[Korean language|Korean]] and [[Japanese language|Japanese]],<ref name=grenberg2000>Joseph Greenberg (2000–2002): ''Indo-European and Its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Language Family'', 2 volumes. Stanford University Press.</ref> while at other times proposed to be a branch of [[Altaic languages|Altaic]].<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>
|-
|[[Akajeru dialect|Akajeru]] 
|3
|[[India]]
|Language isolate as of 2020 after the last speaker of [[Akachari dialect|Akachari]] died of tuberculosis, the last of the [[Great Andamanese languages]].
|-
| [[Burushaski]]
|130,000<ref>{{e27|Burushaski}}</ref>
| data-sort-value=2 |Vulnerable
|[[Pakistan]], [[India]]
| Spoken in the [[Yasin Valley]] and [[Hunza Valley]] of [[Gilgit-Baltistan]] and [[Hari Parbat]] of [[Jammu and Kashmir (union territory)|Jammu and Kashmir]]. Linked to [[Languages of the Caucasus|Caucasian languages]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jdbengt.net/biblio.htm|title=John D Bengtson|website=jdbengt.net|access-date=19 March 2019}}</ref> [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]],<ref name=hamp2013>{{cite journal|last=Hamp|first=Eric P.|title=The Expansion of the Indo-European Languages: An Indo-Europeanist's Evolving View|journal=Sino-Platonic Papers|date=August 2013|volume=239|page=8|url=http://sino-platonic.org/complete/spp239_indo_european_languages.pdf|access-date=5 April 2014}}</ref><ref>Casule, Ilija. 2003. Evidence for the Indo-European laryngeals in Burushaski and its genetic affiliation with Indo-European. ''The Journal of Indo-European Studies'' 31:1–2, pp 21–86.</ref> and [[Na-Dene languages]]<ref>[[John Bengtson]], ''Some features of Dene–Caucasian phonology (with special reference to Basque).'' Cahiers de l'Institut de Linguistique de Louvain (CILL) 30.4: 33–54,</ref><ref>John Bengtson and V. Blazek, "Lexica Dene–Caucasica". Central Asiatic Journal 39, 1995, 11–50 & 161–164</ref> in various proposals. 
|-
| [[Elamite language|Elamite]]
| style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" |Extinct
|[[Iran]]
| Formerly spoken in [[Elam]], along the northeast coast of the [[Persian Gulf]]. Attested from around 2800 BC to 300 BC.<ref>Stolper, Matthew W. 2008. ''Elamite''. In ''The Ancient Languages of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Aksum''. pp. 47–50.</ref> Some propose a relationship to the [[Dravidian languages]] (see [[Elamo-Dravidian languages|Elamo-Dravidian]]), but this is not well-supported.<ref>David McAlpin, "Toward Proto-Elamo-Dravidian", ''Language'' vol. 50 no. 1 (1974); David McAlpin:  "Elamite and Dravidian, Further Evidence of Relationships", ''Current Anthropology'' vol. 16 no. 1 (1975); David McAlpin: "Linguistic prehistory: the Dravidian situation", in Madhav M. Deshpande and Peter Edwin Hook: ''Aryan and Non-Aryan in India'', Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1979); David McAlpin, "Proto-Elamo-Dravidian: The Evidence and its Implications", ''Transactions of the American Philosophical Society'' vol. 71 pt. 3, (1981)</ref>
|-
| [[Hruso language|Hruso]]
| 3,000
| data-sort-value=2 | Vulnerable
| [[India]]
| Possible language isolate spoken by the [[Hruso people]] of [[Arunachal Pradesh]] in India.<ref>Blench, Roger. 2011. [http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/South%20Asia/NEI/General/Lingres/Declassifying%20Arunachal.pdf ''(De)classifying Arunachal languages: Reconsidering the evidence''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130526230734/http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/South%20Asia/NEI/General/Lingres/Declassifying%20Arunachal.pdf |date=2013-05-26 }}</ref>
|-
|[[Ket language|Ket]]
|60
|Endangered
|[[Russia]]
|Language isolate since 1972 after the [[Yugh language]] went extinct. Linked to the [[Na-Dene languages]] in the [[Dene–Yeniseian languages]].
|-
| [[Kusunda language|Kusunda]]
|1<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-08-10 |title=The language that doesn't use 'no' |url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220804-kusunda-the-language-isolate-with-no-word-for-no |access-date=2025-02-19 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en-GB}}</ref>
| data-sort-value=4 | Moribund
|[[Nepal]]
| Spoken in [[Gandaki Province]]. The recent discovery of a few speakers shows that it is not demonstrably related to anything else.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://kathmandupost.com/national/2019/01/04/resuscitating-dying-kusunda-language |title=Resuscitating dying Kusunda language |publisher=Kathmandupost.com |date=2019-01-04 |access-date=2022-09-03}}</ref>
|-
| [[Miju language|Miju]]
| 18,000
| data-sort-value=3 rowspan="2" | Endangered
| rowspan="2" | [[India]]
| Possible language isolate spoken by the [[Miju Mishmi tribe|Miju Mishmi]] of [[Arunachal Pradesh]] in India.<ref>Blench, Roger. 2011. [http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/South%20Asia/NEI/General/Lingres/Declassifying%20Arunachal.pdf ''(De)classifying Arunachal languages: Reconsidering the evidence''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130526230734/http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/South%20Asia/NEI/General/Lingres/Declassifying%20Arunachal.pdf |date=2013-05-26 }}</ref>
|-
| [[Nihali language|Nihali]]
|2,500<ref>{{Citation|last=Seidel|first=Frank|title=Language Documentation and Endangerment in Africa|chapter=Describing endangered languages|date=2015-10-09|chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/clu.17.12sei|series=Culture and Language Use|volume=17|pages=277–312|place=Amsterdam|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|doi=10.1075/clu.17.12sei|isbn=978-90-272-4452-9|access-date=2020-12-14}}</ref>
| Spoken in northern [[Maharashtra]] along the [[Tapti River]]. Strong lexical [[Munda languages|Munda]] influence from [[Korku language|Korku]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Nihali |url=http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/nll |website=Endangered Languages Project |access-date=30 January 2021}}</ref> as well as [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian]] and [[Indo-Aryan languages]]. Used as [[anti-language]] by speakers.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=The Nihali Language|last=Nagaraja|first=K.S|publisher=Central Institute of Indian Languages|year=2014|isbn=978-81-7343-144-9|location=Mysore |page=250}}</ref>
|-
| [[Nivkh language|Nivkh]]
|200
| data-sort-value=4 | Moribund
|[[Russia]]
| Also known as Gilyak. Spoken in the lower [[Amur River]] basin and in the northern part of [[Sakhalin]]. Dialects sometimes considered two languages.<ref name="Fortescue2016">Fortescue, Michael. 2016. ''Comparative Nivkh Dictionary''. Languages of the World/Dictionaries (LW/D) 62. Munich: Lincom Europa. {{ISBN|978-3-86288-687-6}}</ref> Has been linked to [[Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages]].<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Fortescue | first1 = Michael | year = 2011 | title = The relationship of Nivkh to Chukotko-Kamchatkan revisited | journal = Lingua | volume = 121 | issue = 8| pages = 1359–1376 | doi = 10.1016/j.lingua.2011.03.001 }}</ref>
|-
| [[Puroik language|Puroik]]
| 20,000
| data-sort-value=3 | Vulnerable
| [[India]], [[China]]
| Possible language isolate spoken by the [[Puroik people]] of [[Arunachal Pradesh]] in India and of [[Lhünzê County]], Tibet, in [[China]].<ref>Blench, Roger. 2011. [http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/South%20Asia/NEI/General/Lingres/Declassifying%20Arunachal.pdf ''(De)classifying Arunachal languages: Reconsidering the evidence''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130526230734/http://www.rogerblench.info/Language/South%20Asia/NEI/General/Lingres/Declassifying%20Arunachal.pdf |date=2013-05-26 }}</ref>
|-
| [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]]
| style="text-align: center;" colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Extinct
|[[Iraq]]
| Spoken in Mesopotamia until around 1800 BC, but used as a [[classical language]] until 100 AD.<ref name=oates79>[[Joan Oates]] (1979). ''Babylon'' [Revised Edition] Thames and Hudston, Ltd. 1986 p. 30, 52–53.</ref> Long-extinct, but well-attested language of ancient [[Sumer]]. 
|-
| [[Tambora language|Tambora]]
| [[Indonesia]]
| Poorly documented, extinct since the [[1815 eruption of Mount Tambora]], basic vocabulary points towards it being an isolate.
|-
|[[Vedda language|Vedda]] 
|300<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/index.php|title=UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger|website=www.unesco.org|language=en|access-date=2017-12-25}}</ref>
|Endangered
|[[Sri Lanka]]
|Highly influenced by [[Sinhala language|Sinhala]] and [[Tamil language|Tamil]] to the extent some linguists have classed it as a [[creole language]].
|}