Algonquian–Wakashan languages

Hypothetical language family of North America

Algonquian–Wakashan (also Almosan, Algonkian–Mosan, Algonkin–Wakashan) is a hypothetical language family composed of several established language families that was proposed in 1929. The proposal consists of the following:

Algonquian–Wakashan
Algic (Algonkin–Ritwan)
Algonquian (Algonkin)
Beothuk
Wiyot–Yurok (Ritwan)
Kutenai (also known as Kootenay; a language isolate)
Mosan
Wakashan
Chimakuan
Salishan

Kutenai may possibly be distantly related to the Salishan family, but this link has not been demonstrated. The Mosan family proposal is also hypothetical and is currently considered undemonstrated, rather appearing to be a Sprachbund.

Joseph Greenberg renamed Sapir's proposal Almosan and grouped it in an even more inclusive Almosan–Keresiouan phylum with the Caddoan, Iroquoian, Keresan, and Siouan families. This proposal has been rejected by linguists specializing in Native American languages. Murray Gell Mann, Ilia Peiros, and Georgiy Starostin group Chukotko Kamchatkan and Nivkh with Almosan. In the mid 2010s, Sergei Nikolaev argued in two papers for a systematic relationship between the Nivkh language of Sakhalin and the Amur basin and the Algic languages. He also proposed a secondary relationship between these two together and the Wakashan languages. In 1998, Vitaly V. Shevoroshkin rejected the Amerind affinity of the Almosan (Algonquian Wakashan) languages, suggesting instead that they had a relationship with Dené–Caucasian. Several years later, he offered a number of lexical and phonological correspondences between the North Caucasian, Salishan, and Wakashan languages, concluding that Salishan and Wakashan may represent a distinct branch of North Caucasian and that their separation from it must postdate the dissolution of the Northeast Caucasian unity (Avar Andi Tsezian), which took place around the 2nd or 3rd millennium BC.