Home›Open Questions›Does Haida belong within the Na-Dene family, or is it an unrelated language isolate?Open QuestionsDoes Haida belong within the Na-Dene family, or is it an unrelated language isolate?Citation FormatsGeneral ReferenceGeneral Reference Citation TextLanguage Atlas. "Does Haida belong within the Na-Dene family, or is it an unrelated language isolate?." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-language.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/does-haida-belong-in-na-dene.Copy General ReferenceAPA StyleAPA Style Citation TextLanguage Atlas. (n.d.). Does Haida belong within the Na-Dene family, or is it an unrelated language isolate?. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-language.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/does-haida-belong-in-na-deneCopy APA StyleBibTeXBibTeX Citation Text@misc{languageatlas-does-haida-belong-within-the-na-dene-fam, author = {Language Atlas}, title = {Does Haida belong within the Na-Dene family, or is it an unrelated language isolate?}, year = {2026}, url = {https://dev-language.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/does-haida-belong-in-na-dene}, note = {Accessed August 30, 2026} }Copy BibTeXOpen QuestionCross-Tradition ConnectionsSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)Open QuestionHaida was formerly grouped with Na-Dene, but linguists such as Lyle Campbell consider the comparative evidence for that link inconclusive and classify Haida as a language isolate instead. A separate, still-debated hypothesis (Dene-Yeniseian) proposes linking Na-Dene itself to the Yeniseian languages of Siberia, the only living member of which is Ket.What would resolve this A body of regular sound correspondences and shared basic morphology between Haida and the Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit core of Na-Dene, of the kind the comparative method requires, rather than the more impressionistic lexical resemblances the original grouping rested on.OpenHistorical and comparative linguisticsWikipedia: Na-Dene LanguagesCross-Tradition ConnectionsQuestion OnNa-Dene, Language Families Well-attested Source Wikipedia: Na-Dene Languagestier 2SourcesWikipedia: Na-Dene Languagestier 2Wikimedia FoundationExternal Classification sectionView the SourceComments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.View At A Past YearThe atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.Show This Year