It's been a month since anybody posted! Well I got some ideas, so
here goes --
I stole this name from a conlang someone on the conlang group made
up: Boreanesian, meaning "Northern Island", as opposed to
Austronesian, "Southern Island".
Boreanesian may be a real family, a phylum, a mere geographical
grouping, or a branch (or two) distantly related to Altaic. The
members:
Japanese (inc. Ryukyuan)
Korean
Gilyak or Nivkh (Amur and Sahalin dialects)
Ainu (?)
Opinions? Remember, this is a mere theory and it needs to be
researched and proved or disproved.