At the end of the article, the linked article mentions that some linguists suspect the Ket language might be related to the language of Native Americans.
The Ket DNA suggests they are related to some groups in Tibet and Burma, but their language is different.
The debate: is Ket an "isolate" language, or realted to that of some American Indians (including the Tlingit and Navajo)?
if so, it would mean that there is now a Dene-Yenisaian language group.
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Wikipedia link on the Ket people.
Wikipedia on the NeDine languages.
I took a couple of classes in Navajo while working in Arizona and waiting for my visa to go to Africa. The verbal structures are complex (and often irregular), the language is tonal, and there are gutteral consonants almost impossible for an English speaker to pronounce.
Links to learning the language here.
The only phrases I remember (aside from "ya-a-ta-he" which everyone knows) is dich' e' (open your mouth) and nez gaish (does it hurt?) The sh was to make it a question, so the patient would answer Nez gai'...(etc).
The last time I had to use it was years later, in Mescalero, when the family brought in their father dying of advanced cancer to die in the hospital. He spoke English, but I know from experience that when one is sick one tends to forget how to speak in one's second language...We had Indian nurses, but they were Hopi or from Oklahoma, and didn't speak Navajo...so at least I could ask him if he still had pain. Sigh...
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