Dene-Yeniseian

Dene-Yeniseian is a proposed language family linking the Yeniseian languages of central Siberia with the Na-Dene languages of North America, including Tlingit, Eyak and the Athabaskan languages, on the hypothesis that the two groups descend from a shared proto-language spoken thousands of years ago on either side of the Bering region. The proposal remains controversial rather than accepted: some respected linguists consider it plausible, while others, including Lyle Campbell, argue the evidence gathered so far has not proven sufficient to establish a genuine genealogical relationship between the two groups. Yeniseian survives today mainly as a single living language, Ket, while the Na-Dene branch remains far more populous, which is why this atlas places the family under North America rather than Eurasia.