Spurious languages are languages that have been reported as existing in reputable works, while other research has reported that the language in question did not exist. Some spurious languages have been proven to not exist. Others have very little evidence supporting their existence, and have been dismissed in later scholarship. Others still are of uncertain existence due to limited research. In some cases a purported language is tracked down and turns out to be another, known language. This is common when language varieties are named after places or ethnicities.
Historical spurious languages Some alleged languages turn out to be hoaxes, such as the Kukurá language of Brazil or the Taensa language of Louisiana. Others are honest errors that persist in the literature despite being corrected by the original authors; an example of this is , the name given in 1892 to two colonial-era word lists, one of Tlingit and one of a Salishan language, that were mistakenly listed as Patagonian. The error was corrected three times that year, but nonetheless "Hongote" was still listed as a Patagonian language a century later in Greenberg (1987).
In the case of New Guinea, one of the most linguistically diverse areas on Earth, some spurious languages are simply the names of language surveys that the data was published under. Examples are , Kia, , , listed as Indo-Pacific languages in Ruhlen 1987; these are actually rivers that gave their names to language surveys in the Greater Awyu languages and Ok languages of New Guinea.Upper Kaeme may correspond to Korowai.
Dubious languages Dubious languages are those whose existence is uncertain. They include: Oropom (Uganda) Nemadi (Mauritania) Rer Bare (Ethiopia) – extinct, if it ever existed Ladakhi Sign Language – no community to use it
Spurious according to Ethnologue and ISO 639-3 Following is a list of ISO 639-3 language codes which have been retired since the standard was established in 2006, arranged by the year in which the actual retirement took effect; in most cases the change request for retirement was submitted in the preceding year. Also included is a partial list of languages (with their SIL codes) that appeared at one time in Ethnologue but were removed prior to 2006, arranged by the first edition in which they did not appear.
The list includes codes that have been retired from ISO 639-3 or languages removed from Ethnologue because the language apparently does not exist and cannot be identified with an existing language. The list does not include instances where the "language" turns out to be a spelling variant of another language or the name of a village where an already known language is spoken; these are cases of duplicates, which are resolved in ISO 639-3 by a code merger. It does include "languages" for which there is no evidence or which cannot be found. (In some cases, however, the evidence for nonexistence is a survey among the current population of the area, which would not identify extinct languages such as Ware below.)
SIL codes are upper case; ISO codes are lower case. Once retired, ISO 639-3 codes are not reused. SIL codes that were retired prior to 2006 may have been re-used or may have reappeared as ISO codes for other languages.
Removed from Ethnologue, 12th ed., 1992 (PNG) [] (Brazil) [] (PNG) [] , (Brazil) [] () [] (PNG) [] (Mexico) [] – added to Ethnologue 1988 by mistake due to a misunderstanding, removed in 1992. No evidence that it ever existed. Senoufo [] – the Tyeliri are a caste of leather workers, and do not have their own language [] [] – name of an ethnic group that speaks Yongkom [yon]
Removed from Ethnologue, 13th ed., 1996 (PNG) [] – described as "isolate in need of survey" in the 12th ed.
Removed from Ethnologue, 14th ed., 2000 2 [] – a mislabeled fragment of a word listSidwell, 2009, Classifying the Austroasiatic languages [], [], [], [], () [], [] – old names for Qiangic languages, some of uncertain correspondence to currently recognized names [] – an ethnic name for people speaking a variety of Qiangic or Jiarongic languages Scandinavian Pidgin Sign Language [] – normal inter-language contact, not an established pidgin Wutana (Nigeria) [] – an ethnic name
Removed from Ethnologue, 15th ed., 2005 [] [] - [], incl. / [] (though other languages without ISO codes, such as Wila', are also called Lowland Semang) Mutús [] – suspected to be the otherwise extinct Timote, e.g. by Adelaar and Muysken (2004) [] [] – same as Tanjijili? Also a possible synonym for Kwak (retired in 2015) () [] – no evidence it is distinct from Fungom and Bum [] []
Retired 2007 [] – unattested [] – an old town name, likely referring to Dêqên Creole []
Retired 2008 () [] Land Dayak [] – language family name, not individual language Ware [] – Ware is listed as extinct in Maho (2009). When an SIL team in Tanzania were not able to find any evidence of it being spoken, the code was retired. River Kenyah [], River Kenyah [], Kenyah [], Kenyah [] – Any current use is likely either Mainstream Kenyah [] or Uma' Lung [] [] – prison jargon - [] (Borana & Somali) Sufrai [] – two languages, Tarpia and Kaptiau, which are not close
Retired 2009 Aariya [] [] – name given to several uncontacted groups Europanto [] – a jest
Retired 2010 Chimakum [] – duplicate of Chemakum [xch] Beti (Cameroon) [] – a group name
Retired 2011 Ayi (China) [] (India) [] []
Retired 2012 [] Pongyong [] Elpaputih [] – could be either of two existing languages Wirangu-Nauo [] – the two varieties which do not form a unit
Retired 2013 Malakhel [] – likely Ormuri Forest Maninka [] – generic
Retired 2014 Gugu Mini [] – a generic name Pidgin [] – never existed [] – never existed Yugh [] – duplicate of Yug [] Lamam [] – duplicate of Romam []
Retired 2015 Mator-Taygi-Karagas [] – duplicate of Mator Yiddish Sign Language [] – no evidence that it existed The [] – duplicate of Oy Imraguen (Mauritania) [] () [] – perhaps a typo for Boma (Eboma) Bemba [] – a tribal name Songa [] – a tribal name Daza [] – retired in 2015 (with the reason "Nonexistent") but that decision was reversed in 2023, bringing [dzd] back Buya [] Kakauhua [] – Kakauhua/Caucahue is an ethnonym, language unattested – see Alacalufan languages Subi [] – duplicate of Shubi [suj] but that decision was reversed in 2019, bringing [xsj] back [] – does not exist ǂKxʼaoǁʼae ("=/Kx'au//'ein") [] – dialect of Juǀʼhoan [ktz]
Retired 2016 [btl] [cbh] [cbe] – a Saliba and Guahibo surname [kox] [] – uncontacted, and likely either Wayampi or Apalaí [rna] (Dravidian) [] Xipináwa [] – unattested and may not be distinct [yri] – dialect of Carijona
And several supposed extinct Arawakan languages of Venezuela and Colombia: [] [] [] – a Sáliba surname, perhaps just Piapoco or Achagua []
Additional languages and codes were retired in 2016, due to a lack of evidence that they existed, but were not necessarily spurious as languages.
Retired 2017 Lua' [] Rennellese Sign Language [] – a home sign system, not a full language [] [] [] – no substantive evidence that the language ever existed.
Retired 2018 [] – no substantive evidence that the language ever existed. [] Mosiro [] – a clan name
Retired 2019 [] [] – duplicate of Kriang [] [] – Meena, a tribe and caste name in India
Retired 2020 Arma [] [] [] – misunderstanding of a study on Chadian Arabic Barbacoas [] [] [] [] [] [] Lumbee [] Palpa [] [] – a recently created indigenous ethnicity, not a language
Retired 2021 Bikaru [bic] – posited based on a poor elicitation of ordinary Bisorio
Retired 2022 [] – no evidence of a distinct language spoken in Warduj [] Judeo-Tunisian Arabic [] – duplicate of Tunisian Arabic [aeb]
Retired 2023 [] – duplicate of Tupinamba [tpn] [] – duplicate of Palikur [plu] [] – duplicate of Khakas [kjh] [] Parsi [] – dialect of Gujarati [gu]
Retired 2024 (Cameroon) [] – duplicate of Suma [sqm]
Spurious according to Glottolog Glottolog, maintained at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, classifies several languages, some with ISO 639 codes, as spurious/unattested in addition to those retired by the ISO. These include:
Language Name ISO 639-3 Details ǃKhuai Duplicate of ǀXam Adabe adb Dialect of Wetarese, taken to be a Papuan language Adu adu Duplicate of Okpamheri Agaria agi all likely candidates in the area already have ISO codes Ahirani ahr Khandeshi dialect Anasi bpo Misidentification of Nisa Arakwalrkw An ethnic group, not a language Baga Kaloumbqf Should be subsumed into Koga variant Baga Sobanébsv Should be subsumed into Sitemu variant Bainouk-SamikbcbSplit from Bainouk-Gunyuño due solely to national border BhalaybhxA caste rather than a language BubiabbxBusobsoDuplicate of Kwang ChetcoctcIndistinguishable from Tolowa Chuanqiandian Cluster MiaocqdConcnoGenglegegMutually intelligible with Kugama GowlangojA caste rather than a language GowligokA caste, not a language Guajajaragub Mutually intelligble with Tenetehara IhievbeihiIbviosakan dialect InkujatSIL named jat entry Jakati, Ethnologue 16 through 28 versions suggest spoken by 29,300 people in Ukraine, but a Ukrainian linguist Aleksej Barannikov contested it as maybe covered by Vlax Romani. An alternative name "Jat" may refer to some (at least two) village-lived dialects in Afghanistan, supported by Aparna Rao and Charles Kieffer, Glottolog currently supports Charles' investigate to name Inku, consider it related with Saraiki.Irirrduplicate of Ong-Ir Judeo-BerberjbeAccording to Glottolog, Jewish Berbers speak no differently than Muslim Berbers. However, there are claims that this is not true. KangkypKannada KurumbakfiKatukínakavDialect of the same language as Kanamari Kayortkyv Duplicate of Rajbanshi KisankasakqhKofaksoDuplicate of Bata KpatilikpmPurportedly the original language of the Kpatili people, who now speak Gbayi, but any such language is unattested Kuanhuaxnh Insufficient attestion; possibly Khmu Kuku-MangkxmqLama (Myanmar)layDuplicate of Nung LambichhonglmhYakkha language; name exists due to form errors Lang'eyneLaopanglbgUndocumented Loloish language LoarkilrkAlso covered under Gade Lohar (gda) LopilovUndocumented Loloish language Lumba-YakkhaluuYakkha language; name exists due to form errors Mawa (Nigeria)listed in Ethnologue but SIL has no evidence it ever existed.MundaunxDuplicate of Mundari Ndonde HambanjdDialect of Makonde language NorranrrDuplicate of Nung Northwestern Farsfazall likely candidates in the area already have ISO codes OdutodaExtinct and unattested Nigerian language Old TurkishotkOntenuontA place rather than a language PhangduwaliphwYakkha language; name exists due to form errors PisabopigAsserted to be both unattested and non-distinct by Glottolog PokangápokSpurious misidentification of Waimajã PotiguárapogGlottolog argues is likely Old Tupi Puimei NaganpuIndistinct variety of one of the related languages PutohputQuetzaltepec MixepxmRufijiruiSkagitska duplicate of Lushootseed Snohomishsno duplicate of Lushootseed Southern Lolopoysp Confused entry duplicating either Lolopo or Miqie Southwestern NisunsvLikely confused additional Nisu language (spoken in same locations as Southern Nisu) Syerna SenoufoshzShould be subsumed into Sìcìté Sénoufo Tawang MonpatwmChinese and Indian name for Dakpakha TetetetebIntelligible with SionaThu LaotylDuplicate of Dai Zhuang Tingui-BototgvEthnic group speaking DzubukuáWelaungweuPlace name, not a language YarsunyrsYaumayax
References and notes
External links .