An unclassified language is a language whose genetic affiliation to other languages has not been established. Languages can be unclassified for a variety of reasons, mostly due to a lack of reliable data but sometimes due to the confounding influence of language contact, if different layers of its vocabulary or morphology point in different directions and it is not clear which represents the ancestral form of the language. Some poorly known extinct languages, such as Gutian and Cacán, are simply unclassifiable, and it is unlikely the situation will ever change.
Arawakan, also known as Maipurean, is a language family that developed among ancient indigenous peoples in South America. Branches migrated to Central America and the Greater Antilles and Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean and the Atlantic, including what is now the Bahamas. Almost all present-day South American countries are known to have been home to speakers of Arawakan languages, the exceptions being Ecuador, Uruguay, and Chile. Maipurean may be related to other language families in a hypothetical Macro-Arawakan stock.
Puquina is a small, putative language family, often portrayed as a language isolate, which consists of the extinct Puquina language and Kallawaya. It is assumed that the latter is just a remnant of the former mixed with Quechuan, Puquina speakers are last mentioned in the early nineteenth century.
Zaparoan is an endangered language family of Peru and Ecuador with fewer than 100 speakers. Zaparoan speakers seem to have been very numerous before the arrival of the Europeans. However, their groups have been decimated by imported diseases and warfare, and only a handful of them have survived.
Around 99.2% of Colombians speak the Spanish language. Sixty-five Amerindian languages, two Creole languages, the Portuguese language and the Romani language are also spoken in the country. English has official status in the San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina Islands.
Saparo–Yawan is a language family proposal uniting two small language families of the western Amazon. It was first proposed by Swadesh (1954), and continues through Payne (1984) and Kaufman (1994).
The Ta-Arawakan languages, also known as Ta-Maipurean and Caribbean, are the Indigenous Arawakan languages of the Caribbean Sea coasts of Central and South America. They are distinguished by the first person pronominal prefix ta-, as opposed to common Arawakan na-.
The Upper Amazon Maipurean languages, a.k.a. North Amazonian or Inland Northern Maipuran, are Arawakan languages of the northern Amazon in Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, and Brazil.
Mato Grosso Arára is an extinct unclassified language of Brazil. The ethnic population that spoke the language numbers about 150.
Jaikó is an extinct language of southeastern Piauí, Brazil.
Cawishana is an Arawakan language, presumably extinct, of Brazil. A few speakers were reported in the 1950s, and today only one person can speak it.
Acroá is an extinct Akuwẽ language of Brazil. It was spoken by the Acroá people around the headwaters of the Parnaíba and of the Paranaíba in Bahia, who were later settled in the missions of São José do Duro (Formiga) and in São José de Mossâmedes. The language went extinct before it could be documented; it is only known through a short wordlist collected by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius. Due to an account of Martius' travels appearing in three large volumes from 1823 to 1831, the language probably went extinct sometime around then. Acroá is also known as Akroá, Acroamirim, Coroá and Koroá.
Wainumá and Mariaté are an extinct, poorly attested, and unclassified Arawakan language. Kaufman (1994) placed them in his Wainumá branch, but this is not followed in Aikhenvald (1999).
Anauyá is an extinct, poorly attested and unclassified Arawakan language of Venezuela. Kaufman (1994) placed it in his Wainumá branch, but this is not followed in Aikhenvald (1999).
Amarizana is an extinct, poorly attested, and unclassified Arawakan language. Kaufman (1994) placed it in his Piapoko branch, but this is not followed in Aikhenvald (1999).
Yumana is an extinct, poorly attested, and unclassified Arawakan language. Kaufman (1994) placed it in his Río Negro branch, but this is not followed in Aikhenvald (1999).
Pasé (Passe) is an extinct, poorly attested, and unclassified Arawakan language. Kaufman (1994) placed it in his Río Negro branch, but this is not followed in Aikhenvald (1999).
Kariaí (Cariyai) is an extinct, poorly attested, and unclassified Arawakan language. Kaufman (1994) placed it in his Manao branch, but this is not followed in Aikhenvald (1999).
Waraikú (Araikú) is an extinct, poorly attested, and unclassified Arawakan language. The only record of this language is in a wordlist published in 1867 by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius. Both Kaufman (1994) and Aikhenvald (1999) leave it unclassified within Northern Arawakan.
