Why is the relationship between Eskimo-Aleut and other language families still uncertain?

The relationship between the Eskimo-Aleut languages and other language families remains uncertain because there is a lack of conclusive evidence to support such connections. While various scholars have proposed links to other groups—such as Chukotko-Kamchatkan, Uralic, or Indo-European—these hypotheses remain purely conjectural.12

In the field of comparative linguistics, establishing a genetic relationship requires the systematic comparison of vocabulary and grammatical structures to demonstrate a shared ancestry. For the Eskimo-Aleut stock, researchers have not yet produced sufficient lexical or morphological evidence to confirm these proposed external ties. Consequently, in the absence of such proof, the language family is currently considered to be isolated.341

The difficulty in tracing these relationships is compounded by the fact that written records for many languages are nonexistent or cover only a small fraction of human history, limiting the ability of linguists to reconstruct deeper ancestral connections.3