Uralo-Siberian languages

Uralo-Siberian
(Not widely accepted)
Geographic
distribution
Northern Eurasia, the Arctic
Linguistic classificationProposed language family
Subdivisions
Language codes
GlottologNone

Uralo-Siberian is a hypothetical language family consisting of Uralic, Yukaghir, and Eskaleut. It was proposed in 1998 by Michael Fortescue, an expert in Eskaleut and Chukotko-Kamchatkan, in his book Language Relations across Bering Strait. Some have attempted to include Nivkh in Uralo-Siberian. Until 2011, it also included Chukotko-Kamchatkan. However, after 2011 Fortescue only included Uralic, Yukaghir and Eskaleut in the theory, although he argued that Uralo-Siberian languages have influenced Chukotko-Kamchatkan.

Connections with the Uralic and other language families are generally seen as speculative, including Fortescue's Uralo-Siberian hypothesis. Fortescue's observations have been evaluated by specialists with a limited degree of positivity but are viewed as scattered evidence and still remain highly speculative and unproven and the soundness of the reconstructed common ancestors are challenging to evaluate.