Dene–Yeniseian languages

Dene–Yeniseian (/dɪˈneɪ ˌjɛnɪˈseɪ.ən/, dih-NAY YEN-ih-SAY-ən) is a proposed language family consisting of the Yeniseian languages of central Siberia and the Na-Dene languages of northwestern North America.

Reception among experts has been somewhat favorable; thus, Dene–Yeniseian has been called "the first demonstration of a genealogical link between Old World and New World language families that meets the standards of traditional comparative-historical linguistics". Other linguistic scholars have deemed Dene–Yeniseian only as "plausible". In 2025, a team of geneticists provided evidence that the ancient Paleo-Siberian genetic contribution to Athabaskan populations in Alaska stemmed from a population that lived to the west of Lake Baikal in the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age, and that this population also contributed genetically to modern Yeniseian populations . The authors of the study interpret this as 'providing the first genetic data in support of the "Dene-Yeniseian' hypothesis."