Paleosiberian (Palaeosiberian, Paleo-Siberian) languages or Paleoasian languages (from Greek palaios, "ancient") is a term of convenience used in linguistics to classify a disparate group of languages spoken in remote regions of Siberia. Their only common provenance is that they are held to have antedated the more dominant languages, particularly Tungusic and latterly Turkic languages that have largely displaced them. Even more recently, Turkic (at least in Siberia) and especially Tungusic, have been displaced in their turn by Russian. It is possible that the Merkits spoke a Paleosiberian language. Broadly conceived, linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and a linguist is someone who engages in this study. ... Siberia Siberia (Russian: , common English transliterations: Sibir’, Sibir; from the Tatar for “sleeping land”) is a vast region of Russia and northern Kazakhstan constituting almost all of northern Asia. ... Tungusic languages (or Manchu-Tungus languages) are spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria. ... The Turkic languages are a group of closely related languages that are spoken by a variety of people distributed across a vast area from Eastern Europe to Siberia and Western China. ... Siberia Siberia (Russian: , common English transliterations: Sibir’, Sibir; from the Tatar for “sleeping land”) is a vast region of Russia and northern Kazakhstan constituting almost all of northern Asia. ... An Asian tribe inhabiting southeastern Siberia during the Middle Ages, regarded by their neighbours as being particularly ferocious. ...

Four small language families and isolates , not known to have any linguistic relationship to each other, compose the Paleo-Siberian languages: Most languages are known to belong to language families (families hereforth). ... A language isolate is a natural language with no demonstrable genetic relationship with other living languages; that is, one that has not been proven to descend from a common ancestor to any other language. ...

1. The Chukotko-Kamchatkan family, sometimes known as Luoravetlan, includes Chukchi and its close relative, Koryak. Itelmen, also known as Kamchadal, is also thought to be distantly related. Chukchi and Koryak are spoken in easternmost Siberia by communities numbering in the thousands, but Itelmen is now spoken by fewer than 100 people, mostly elderly, on the west coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula.

2. Yukaghir is spoken in two mutually unintelligible varieties in the lower Kolyma and Indigirka valleys. Other languages, including Chuvantsy, spoken further inland and further east, are now extinct. Yukaghir is held by some to be related to the Uralic languages.

3. Ket (or Yeniseian) is perhaps the last survivor of a small language family on the middle Yenisei and its tributaries. Attempts have been made to relate it to Sino-Tibetan and North Caucasian groups; more recently, it has been linked to Burushaski.

4. Nivkh is spoken in the lower Amur basin and on the northern half of Sakhalin island. It has a recent modern literature and the Nivkhs have experienced a turbulent history in the last century.

Ainu is sometimes added to this group though it is not, strictly speaking, a language of Siberia. It barely survives in southern Sakhalin where it was the main native language. It was also spoken in the Kuril islands and on Hokkaido where a strong interest in its revival is taking place. Attempts have been made to relate it to many other language families, including Altaic, Austronesian, Kalto and the putative Indo-Pacific stock. The Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages are a language family of Siberia. ... Chukchi (Luoravetlan (in native language), Chukot, Chukcha) is a Palaeosiberian language spoken by circa 10,400 people (2001) (Chukchi) in the easternmost extremity of Siberia, mainly in the region called Chukotka. ... Koryak is a Palaeosiberian language spoken by circa 5,200 people (2001) (Koryak) in the easternmost extremity of Siberia, mainly in the region called Koryakia. ... Itelmen, also sometimes known as Kamchadal, is a language belonging to the Chukotko-Kamchatkan family traditionally spoken in the Kamchatka Peninsula. ... Siberia Siberia (Russian: , common English transliterations: Sibir’, Sibir; from the Tatar for “sleeping land”) is a vast region of Russia and northern Kazakhstan constituting almost all of northern Asia. ... Kamchatka is the land of volcanoes. ... Geographical distribution of Yukaghir, Finnic, Ugric and Samoyedic languages The Yukaghir languages are a family of related languages spoken in Russia by the Yukaghir, a Siberian people, living in the basin of the Kolyma River. ... The Kolyma River (Колыма́) is a river in Russia that empties into the East Siberian Sea. ... The Indigirka River (Индигирка in Russian), a river in Sakha in Russia. ... Geographical distribution of Samoyedic, Finnic, Ugric and Yukaghir languages The Uralic languages form a language family of about 30 languages spoken by approximately 20 million people. ... Ket language, formerly known as Yenisei Ostyak, is a Siberian language isolate, apparently unrelated to any other language in the world (other than Yugh, a recently-extinct language that was clearly related to Ket). ... Енисей Length 5,550 (4,102) km Elevation of the source m Average discharge 19,600 m³/s Area watershed 2,580,000 km² Origin  ? Mouth Arctic Ocean Basin countries Russia The Yenisei basin, Lake Baikal, and the cities of Dikson, Dudinka, Turukhansk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk Yenisei (Енисе́й) is a river... Sino-Tibetan languages form a language family of about 250 languages of East Asia, in number of speakers worldwide second only to Indo-European. ... North Caucasian languages is a blanket term for two distinct, but possibly related, phyla of languages spoken in the north Caucasus and in Turkey. ... Burushaski (Other names are Burushaski, Brushas, Brushias) is a language isolate spoken by some 50,000_60,000 people in the Hunza, Nagir, Yasin, and some parts of Gilgit valleys in northern Pakistan. ... Nivkh or Gilyak (ethnonym: Nivxi) (language, нивхгу - Nivxgu) is a language spoken in Outer Manchuria, in the basin of the Amgun, a tributary of the Amur, along the lower reaches of the Amur and on the northern half of Sakhalin. ... The Amur (Russian: Амур) (Simplified Chinese: 黑龙江; Traditional Chinese: 黑龍江; Hēilóng Jiāng, literally meaning Black Dragon River) (Mongolian: Хара-Мурэн, Khara-Muren or Black River) (Manchu: Sahaliyan Ula, literal meaning Black River) is one of the worlds ten longest rivers, located between the Russian Far East and Manchuria of... Sakhalin is a large elongated island in the North Pacific, lying between 45° 50 and 54° 24 N, in the Russian Far East. ... Nivkh or Gilyak (ethnonym: Nivxi) (language, нивхгу - Nivxgu) is a language spoken in Outer Manchuria, in the basin of the Amgun, a tributary of the Amur, along the lower reaches of the Amur and on the northern half of Sakhalin. ... The Ainu language (Ainu: ainu itak; Japanese: アイヌ語, ainu-go) is spoken by the Ainu ethnic group on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. ... Siberia Siberia (Russian: , common English transliterations: Sibir’, Sibir; from the Tatar for “sleeping land”) is a vast region of Russia and northern Kazakhstan constituting almost all of northern Asia. ... Sakhalin is a large elongated island in the North Pacific, lying between 45° 50 and 54° 24 N, in the Russian Far East. ... Hokkaido   listen? (北海道 Hokkaidō, literal meaning: North Sea Route, Ainu: Mosir), formerly known as Ezo, is the second largest island of Japan. ... Altaic is a language family which includes 60 languages spoken by about 250 million people, mostly in and around Central Asia and Far East. ... The Austronesian languages are a family of languages widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia. ... Kalto or Nahali is a language isolate spoken in west-central India (in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra) by around 5,000 people. ... The Indo-Pacific super-family groups together several language families, mainly spoken in Papua New Guinea and nearby regions, which are not Austronesian, together with the native languages of Tasmania and the Andaman Islands. ...

Together with Japanese and Korean which are major modern languages, these 'poor relations' resist any easy or obvious linguistic classification, either with other groups or with each other.