External Relationships
No genealogical relationship between Ainu and any other language family has been demonstrated, despite numerous attempts. That is, it is a language isolate. Ainu is sometimes grouped with the Paleosiberian languages, but this is merely a geographic blanket term for several unrelated language families that were present in Siberia prior to the advances of Turkic and Tungusic languages there. The most frequent proposals for relatives of Ainu are given below.
Read more about this topic: Ainu Languages
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“The boundary line between self and external world bears no relation to reality; the distinction between ego and world is made by spitting out part of the inside, and swallowing in part of the outside.”
—Norman O. Brown (b. 1913)