Borean (also
Boreal or
Boralean) is a hypothetical linguistic
macrofamily that encompasses almost all language families worldwide except those native to sub-Saharan Africa, New Guinea, Australia, and the Andaman Islands. Its supporters propose that the various languages of
Eurasia and adjacent regions have a
genealogical relationship, and ultimately descend from languages spoken during the
Upper Paleolithic in the millennia following the
Last Glacial Maximum. The name "Borean", based on Greek , means "northern". This reflects the fact that the group is held to include most language families native to the
northern hemisphere. Two distinct models of Borean exist: that of
Harold C. Fleming and that of
Sergei Starostin.