nonIndoEuropean

nonIndoEuropean refers to all human languages not descended from Proto-Indo-European. It is not a single language family but a broad umbrella that covers a vast diversity of linguistic lineages, including dozens of language families and numerous isolates. The category spans continents and ecosystems and includes languages in Africa, Eurasia, the Americas, and Oceania. Under this label are languages that range from analytic to agglutinative and from tonal to non-tonal.

Among the best-studied non-Indo-European families are Afroasiatic (Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, Horn of Africa) with Semitic and Berber branches; Niger-Congo (sub-Saharan Africa); Dravidian (South Asia); Sino-Tibetan (East Asia); Austroasiatic (Southeast Asia and parts of India); Austronesian (Pacific Islands, Madagascar); Uralic (Northern Europe and Siberia); and Turkic and Mongolic groups in parts of Eurasia. Caucasian language families in the Caucasus and Basque in Europe represent additional non-Indo-European lineages, including isolates whose relationships to other languages remain uncertain. In the Americas, there are many language families and isolates, reflecting long, independent histories prior to European contact.

Genetic relation among non-Indo-European languages is a matter of ongoing research. While scholars have proposed macro-families such as Eurasiatic or Nostratic, these proposals are controversial and not widely accepted. The umbrella term serves practical purposes in comparative linguistics, language documentation, and policy, rather than signaling a single genealogical unity among non-Indo-European languages.