ABSTRACT
A group of small languages in northeastern Asia that do not form an established language family. Included in this group on purely geographical grounds are Gilyak (Nivkh, about 2200 speakers), Yukagir, and the Chukotko-Kamchatkan language family, whose largest language, Chukchi (about 11,500 speakers), is an ergative language. Ket (about 1,200 speakers), spoken along the Yenisey River, is typologically deviant (tonal language, very complex verb morphology).
