All Topics  
Indigenous languages of the Americas

 
Indigenous Languages of the Americas

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Indigenous languages of the Americas
 
 
  Topics Indigenous languages of the Americas Topic Home

Indigenous languages of the Americas (or Amerindian Languages) are spoken by indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples....
 from the southern tip of South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
 to Alaska
Alaska

Alaska is the largest U.S. state of the United States by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait....
 and Greenland
Greenland

Greenland is a member country of the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago....
, encompassing the land masses which constitute the Americas. These indigenous languages consist of dozens of distinct language families
Language family

A language family is a group of languages related Genetic from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family.As with Alpha taxonomy, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics....
 as well as many language isolate
Language isolate

A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other living languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common to any other language....
s and unclassified language
Unclassified language

Unclassified languages are languages whose genetic affiliation has not been established, mostly due to lack of reliable data. The question of the genetic affiliation of languages belongs to the domain of historical linguistics....
s. Many proposals to group these into higher-level families have been made.

sands of languages were spoken in North
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
 and South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
 prior to first contact with Europeans between the beginning of the eleventh century (Norwegian settlement of Greenland and attempted settlement of Labrador and Newfoundland) and the end of the fifteenth century (the voyages of Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was a Republic of Genoa navigator, colonialist and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean?funded by Queen Isabella of Spain?led to general European awareness of the America in the Western Hemisphere....
).






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Indigenous languages of the Americas'
Start a new discussion about 'Indigenous languages of the Americas'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Indigenous languages of the Americas (or Amerindian Languages) are spoken by indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples....
 from the southern tip of South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
 to Alaska
Alaska

Alaska is the largest U.S. state of the United States by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait....
 and Greenland
Greenland

Greenland is a member country of the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago....
, encompassing the land masses which constitute the Americas. These indigenous languages consist of dozens of distinct language families
Language family

A language family is a group of languages related Genetic from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family.As with Alpha taxonomy, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics....
 as well as many language isolate
Language isolate

A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical relationship with other living languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common to any other language....
s and unclassified language
Unclassified language

Unclassified languages are languages whose genetic affiliation has not been established, mostly due to lack of reliable data. The question of the genetic affiliation of languages belongs to the domain of historical linguistics....
s. Many proposals to group these into higher-level families have been made.

Background

Thousands of languages were spoken in North
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
 and South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
 prior to first contact with Europeans between the beginning of the eleventh century (Norwegian settlement of Greenland and attempted settlement of Labrador and Newfoundland) and the end of the fifteenth century (the voyages of Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus was a Republic of Genoa navigator, colonialist and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean?funded by Queen Isabella of Spain?led to general European awareness of the America in the Western Hemisphere....
). The attitudes of most of the European colonizers and their successor states toward Native American languages ranged from benign neglect to active suppression. John Eliot
John Eliot

John Eliot may refer to:*Sir John Eliot , English politician*John Eliot , English Puritan minister and missionary*John Eliot, 1st Earl of St Germans , British politician....
 of Massachusetts
Massachusetts Bay Colony

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, centered around the present-day cities of Salem, Massachusetts and Boston, Massachusetts....
, however, translated the Bible
Bible translations

Bible has been translation into Bible translations by language from the biblical languages of Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic and Ancient Greek. The very first translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek language was the Septuagint , which later became the accepted text of the Old Testament in the church and the basis of its Biblical canon....
 into an Algonquian language usually called Wampanoag
Wampanoag

The Wampanoag are a Native Americans in the United States nation which currently consists of five tribes.In 1600 the Wampanoag lived in southeastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island, as well as within a territory that encompassed current day Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and the Elizabeth Islands....
, Massachusett
Massachusett

The Massachusett were a tribe of Native Americans in the United States who lived in areas surrounding Massachusetts Bay in what is now the state of Massachusetts....
 or Natick (1661–63; the first Bible printed in North America) and Spanish missionaries preached to the natives in local languages. They actually spread Quechua
Quechua

Quechua is a Native American language of South America. It was already widely spoken across the Central Andes long before the time of the Inca Empire, who established it as the official language of administration for their Empire, and is still spoken today in various regional forms by some 10 million people through much of South America, in...
 beyond its original geographic area. Several indigenous creole language
Creole language

A creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable language that originates seemingly as a nativization pidgin. This understanding of creole genesis culminated in Robert A....
s developed in the Americas from European languages.

But in most cases, the aboriginal languages of the Americas suffered extinction. Spanish
Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
, English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and Portugal. It is derived from the Latin language spoken by the Romanization Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago....
, French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
, and Dutch
Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic languages spoken by over 22 million people as a first language, and about 5 million people as a second language."1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language speakers of Dutch is very small. Most native...
 were brought to the Americas by European settlers and administrators, and are the official or national languages of the modern nation-states of the Americas.

That said, Bolivia
Bolivia

The Republic of Bolivia , named after Sim?n Bol?var, is a landlocked country in central South America. It is bordered by Brazil on the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina on the south, and Chile and Peru on the west....
, Paraguay
Paraguay

Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay , is one of the only two landlocked countries in South America . It lies on both banks of the Paraguay River and is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest....
, Peru
Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, and Greenland
Greenland

Greenland is a member country of the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago....
 have one or more official indigenous languages in addition to the colonial language. Several indigenous languages of the Americas had developed their own writing system
Writing system

A writing system is a type of symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language....
s, including the Mayan languages and Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec
Aztec

Aztec is a term used to refer to certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl and who achieved political and military dominance over large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the Late post-Classic period in Mesoamerican chronology....
s and nearby related peoples (e.g., the Pipil in El Salvador). These and many other indigenous languages later adapted the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumae alphabet, and was initially developed by the Ancient Romes to write the Latin....
 or Canadian Aboriginal syllabics
Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics

Canadian Aboriginal syllabic writing, or simply syllabics, is a family of abugidas used to write a number of Aboriginal peoples in Canada Canada languages of the Algonquian, Eskimo-Aleut languages, and Athabaskan languages language families....
.

Tlingit
Tlingit language

The Tlingit language is spoken by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada. It is a branch of the Na-Den? languages family. Tlingit is very endangered language, with fewer than 140 native speakers still living, all of whom are bilingual or near-bilingual in English....
 was first written by Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
n missionaries in the Cyrillic alphabet
Cyrillic alphabet

The Cyrillic alphabet is a family of alphabets, subsets of which are used by five Slavic languages national languages as well as non-Slavic . It is also used by many other languages of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Siberia and other languages in the past....
, when Alaska and the coast of North America down to Sonoma County, California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
, were in contact with the Russian Empire
Russian Empire

File:Russian Emperor Flag.jpgFile:Romanov Flag.svgThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917....
. It is now written in the Roman alphabet.

Indigenous languages vary greatly in the number of speakers, from Quechua
Quechua

Quechua is a Native American language of South America. It was already widely spoken across the Central Andes long before the time of the Inca Empire, who established it as the official language of administration for their Empire, and is still spoken today in various regional forms by some 10 million people through much of South America, in...
, Aymara
Aymara language

Aymara is an Aymaran languages language spoken by the Aymara ethnic group of the Andes. It is one of only a handful of Indigenous languages of the Americas with over a million speakers....
, Guarani
Guaraní language

Guaran? is an indigenous language of South America that belongs to the Tup?-Guaran? subfamily of the Tupian languages. It is one of the official languages of Paraguay , where it is spoken by 94% of the population....
, and Nahuatl
Nahuatl language

Nahuatl is a group of related languages and dialects of the Nahuan branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family.Collectively they are spoken by an estimated Nahua peoples, most of whom live in Central Mexico....
 with millions of active speakers to a number of languages with only a handful of elderly speakers.

Very few remain in regular usage among members of tribal communities. The Navajo language
Navajo language

Navajo or Navaho is an Athabaskan languages spoken in the southwest United States by the Navajo people . It is geographically and linguistically one of the Southern Athabaskan languages ....
 is the most spoken in the United States of America, with over 200,000 speakers in the Southwestern United States
Southwestern United States

The Southwestern area of the United States could be defined as the states west of the Mississippi River, with the qualification of a certain northern limit, such as the 37th parallel north, 38th parallel north, 39th parallel north, or 40th parallel north line....
. It was cleverly used as a radio army code by the Navajo Code Talkers during World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
 to preserve secret commands and wasn't cracked by the Nazis nor the Imperial Japanese.

Language families (& isolates)


Notes:

  • Extinct language
    Extinct language

    An extinct language is a language which no longer has any speakers .Extinct languages may be contrasted with Language death: no longer spoken as a main language....
    s or families are indicated by: †.
  • The number of family members is indicated in parentheses (for example, Arauan (9) means the Arauan family consists of nine languages).
  • Out of convenience, the following list of language families is divided in 3 sections based on political boundaries of countries. These sections correspond roughly with the geographic regions (North, Central, & South America) but are not equivalent. This division also does not cleanly delineate indigenous culture areas.


South America

Although both North and Central America
Central America

Central America is a central geography region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmus portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast....
 are very diverse areas, South America has a linguistic diversity rivalled by only a few other places in the world with approximately 350 languages still spoken and an estimated 1,500 languages at first European contact. The situation of language documentation and classification into genetic families is not as advanced as in North America (which is relatively well-studied in many areas). Kaufman (1994: 46) gives the following appraisal:

Since the mid 1950s, the amount of published material on SA [South America] has been gradually growing, but even so, the number of researchers is far smaller than the growing number of linguistic communities whose speech should be documented. Given the current employment opportunities, it is not likely that the number of specialists in SA Indian languages will increase fast enough to document most of the surviving SA languages before they go out of use, as most of them unavoidably will. More work languishes in personal files than is published, but this is a standard problem.


It is fair to say that SA and New Guinea
New Guinea

New Guinea, located just north of Australia, is the List of islands by area, having become separated from the Australian mainland when the area now known as the Torres Strait flooded after the last glacial period....
 are linguistically the poorest documented parts of the world. However, in the early 1960s fairly systematic efforts were launched in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands ....
, and that area much smaller than SA, to be sure is in general much better documented than any part of indigenous SA of comparable size.


As a result, many relationships between languages and language families have not been determined and some of those relationships that have been proposed are on somewhat shaky ground.

The list of language families and isolates below is a rather conservative one based on Campbell (1997). Many of the proposed (and often speculative) groupings of families can be seen in Campbell (1997), Gordon (2005), Kaufman (1990, 1994), Key (1979), Loukotka (1968), and in the Language stock proposals
Indigenous languages of the Americas

Indigenous languages of the Americas are spoken by Indigenous peoples of the Americas from the southern tip of South America to Alaska and Greenland, encompassing the land masses which constitute the Americas....
 section below.

  1. Aguano
    Aguano

    The Aguano are a people of Peru, consisting of 40 families. They inhabit the lower Huallaga River and upper Samiria rivers, and the right bank tributary of the Mara?on River....
     †
  2. Aikaná (Brazil: Rondônia) (also known as Aikanã, Tubarão)
  3. Andaquí
    Andaqui

    Andaqui is an extinct language from the southern highlands of Colombia. It may be one of the Paezan languages.References...
     (also known as Andaqui, Andakí) †
  4. Andoque
    Andoque language

    The Andoque language is an aboriginal language spoken by a few hundred Andoque in Northern South America, and is in decline.In 2000, there were 610 speakers in the area of the Anduche River, downstream from Aracuara, Amazonas, Colombia; 50 were monolinguals....
     (Colombia, Peru) (also known as Andoke)
  5. Andoquero †
  6. Arauan
    Arauan languages

    Arawan is a family of languages spoken in western Brazil and Peru....
      (9) †
  7. Arutani-Sape
    Arutani-Sape languages

    The Arutani-Sape are an endangered language family that includes two languages which are mainly spoken in Brazil and Venezuela. They are almost extinct....
      (2) (also known as Arutani-sapé)
  8. Aushiri (also known as Auxira)
  9. Aymaran
    Aymaran languages

    Aymaran is one of the two dominant language families of the central Andes, along with Quechuan.Quechuan languages, especially that of the south, share a large amount of vocabulary with Aymara, and the languages have often been grouped together as Quechumaran....
      (3)
  10. Baenan
    Baenan language

    Baenan is a poorly attested language of Brazil. The last remaining speaker lived in Bahia, Brazil in 1940. The language of this speaker was associated with the Baenan language as the last members of the Baenan tribe lived in Paraga??, Bahia, near where the language was attested....
     (Brazil: Bahia) (also known as Baenán, Baenã) †
  11. Barbacoan
    Barbacoan languages

    Barbacoan is a language family spoken in Colombia and Ecuador....
     (8)
  12. Betoi (Colombia) (also known as Betoy, Jirara) †
  13. Bororoan
  14. Botocudoan (3) (also known as Aimoré)
  15. Cahuapanan
    Cahuapanan languages

    The Cahuapanan languages include two languages, Chayahuita language and Jebero language. They are spoken by more than 11,300 people in Peru. Chayahuita is spoken by most of that number, but Jebero is almost extinct....
      (2) (also known as Jebero, Kawapánan)
  16. Camsá (Colombia) (also known as Sibundoy, Coche)
  17. Candoshi (also known as Maina, Kandoshi)
  18. Canichana
    Canichana language

    Canichana is a language isolate of Bolivia . The tribe has 500 members but only 20 of them speak Canichana language.See: Tequiraca-Canichana languages...
     (Bolivia) (also known as Canesi, Kanichana)
  19. Carabayo
  20. Cariban
    Cariban languages

    The Cariban languages are an indigenous language family of South America. Carib languages are widespread across northern South America, from the mouth of the Amazon River to the Colombian Andes and from Maracaibo to Central Brazil....
      (29) (also known as Caribe, Carib)
  21. Catacaoan
    Catacaoan languages

    The Catacaoan languages are an extinct family of three languages spoken in the Piura Region of Peru. The three languages in the family are:*Catacao or Katakao, once spoken around the city of Catacaos...
     (also known as Katakáoan) †
  22. Cayubaba (Bolivia)
  23. Chapacura-Wanham
    Chapacura-Wanham languages

    The Chapacuran languages are a nearly extinct language Indigenous peoples of the Americas language family of South America. There are three living Chapacuran languages, which are spoken in the southeastern Amazon Basin of Brazil and Bolivia....
      (9) (also known as Chapacuran, Txapakúran)
  24. Charruan
    Charruan languages

    The Charruan languages are an extinct group of languages once spoken in Uruguay and the Argentina province of Entre R?os Province. Four languages are considered to definitively belong to the Charruan language family:...
     (also known as Charrúan) †
  25. Chibchan
    Chibchan languages

    The Chibchan languages make up a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of these countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama....
     (Central America
    Central America

    Central America is a central geography region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmus portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast....
     & South America
    South America

    South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
    ) (22)
  26. Chimuan
    Chimuan languages

    Chimuan or Yuncan is a small extinct language language family of northern Peru and Ecuador ....
     (3) †
  27. Chipaya-Uru languages (also known as Uru-Chipaya)
  28. Chiquitano
    Chiquito-Borôro

    The Bor?roan languages of Brazil are Bororo language and the extinct Umot?na language and Otuke language. They form part of the Macro-J? proposal....
  29. Choco
    Choco languages

    The Choco languages are a small family of Native American languages spread across Colombia and Panama....
      (10) (also known as Chocoan)
  30. Cholonan †
  31. Chon
    Chon languages

    The Chon languages were spoken in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia. Two were known to exist - Selk'nam, which extinct language in 2003, and Tehuelche....
      (2) (also known as Patagonian)
  32. Coeruna (Brazil) †
  33. Cofán
    Cofán language

    The Cof?n language is the language of the Cof?n people, an Indigenous people group native to Napo Province northeast Ecuador and southern Colombia, between the Guamu?s River and the Aguarico River ....
     (Colombia, Ecuador)
  34. Cueva
  35. Culle
    Culle language

    Culle, also known as Cull? and Ilinga, is a poorly attested extinct language of northern Peru. It is the original language of the regions of La Libertad Region, Cajabamba Province, and Pallasca Province....
     (Peru) (also known as Culli, Linga, Kulyi)
  36. Cunza (Chile, Bolivia, Argentina) (also known as Atacama, Atakama, Atacameño, Lipe, Kunsa) †
  37. Esmeraldeño (also known as Esmeralda, Takame) †
  38. Fulnió
  39. Gamela (Brazil: Maranhão) †
  40. Gorgotoqui (Bolivia) †
  41. Guaicuruan
    Guaicuruan languages

    Guaicuruan is a language family spoken in northern Argentina, western Paraguay, and Brazil ....
     (7) (also known as Guaykuruan, Waikurúan)
  42. Guajiboan
    Guajiboan languages

    Guajiboan is a language family spoken in the Orinoco River region in eastern Colombia and southwestern Venezuela, which is a savannah-like area known in Colombia as the Llanos....
     (4) (also known as Wahívoan) †
  43. Guamo (Venezuela) (also known as Wamo) †
  44. Guató
    Guató

    The Guat? are a nomadic Indigenous people of the Americas Native American tribe of South America that live along the Paraguay River, along the border of modern-day Brazil and Bolivia....
  45. Harakmbut
    Harakmbut languages

    Harakmbut or Harakmbet is a small language family in Peru.es:Lenguas harakmbetqu:Harakmbet simikuna...
      (2) (also known as Tuyoneri)
  46. Hodï
    Hodï language

    The Hod? , Yuwana or Waruwaru language is a small unclassified language of Venezuela. Almost nothing is known of it; its several hundred speakers are monolingual hunter-gatherers....
     (Venezuela) (also known as Jotí, Hoti, Waruwaru)
  47. Huamoé (Brazil: Pernambuco) †
  48. Huaorani
    Huaorani language

    The Huaorani language is a language between the Napo River and Curaray Rivers. A small number of speakers with so-called uncontacted peoples groups may live in Peru....
     (Ecuador, Peru) (also known as Auca, Huaorani, Wao, Auka, Sabela, Waorani, Waodani)
  49. Huarpe (also known as Warpe) †
  50. Irantxe
    Irantxe language

    Ir?ntxe is an Indigenous peoples of the Americas language that is spoken in Mato Grosso, Brazil by about 200 people. Linguistics believe that it is possibly related to the Arawakan languages....
     (Brazil: Mato Grosso)
  51. Itonama
    Itonama language

    Itonama is a moribund language language isolate of Bolivia....
     (Bolivia) (also known as Saramo, Machoto)
  52. Jirajaran
    Jirajaran languages

    The Jirajaran languages are group of extinct languages once spoken in western Venezuela in the regions of Falc?n and Lara . All of the Jirajaran languages appear to have become extinct in the early 20th Century....
     (3) (also known as Hiraháran, Jirajarano, Jirajarana) †
  53. Jabutian
  54. Je (13) (also known as Gê, Jêan, Gêan, Ye)
  55. Jeikó †
  56. Jivaroan
    Jivaroan languages

    Jivaroan is a small language family, or perhaps a language isolate, of northern Peru and eastern Ecuador....
      (2) (also known as Hívaro)
  57. Kaimbe
  58. Kaliana (also known as Caliana, Cariana, Sapé, Chirichano)
  59. Kamakanan †
  60. Kapixaná (Brazil: Rondônia) (also known as Kanoé, Kapishaná)
  61. Karajá
  62. Karirí (Brazil: Paraíba, Pernambuco, Ceará) †
  63. Katembrí †
  64. Katukinan
    Katukinan languages

    Katukinan is a language group consisting of three languages in Brazil....
      (3) (also known as Catuquinan)
  65. Kawésqar
    Kawésqar language

    Kaw?sqar is an Alacalufan languages language spoken in southern Chile by the Alacaluf. Originally there were several distinct dialects. Kakauhua language is sometimes listed as a dialect, but is usually listed as a separate language, as in ISO 639-3 and Ethnologue....
         (Chile) (Kaweskar, Alacaluf, Qawasqar, Halawalip, Aksaná, Hekaine)
  66. Koayá (Brazil: Rondônia) †
  67. Kukurá (Brazil: Mato Grosso) †
  68. Leco
    Leco language

    Leco is a language isolate that is spoken by about 20 individuals in areas east of Lake Titicaca, Bolivia. The Leco ethnic population is about 80....
     (Lapalapa, Leko)
  69. Lule
    Lule language

    Lule is a language isolate of northern Argentina.Lule may be extinct language today. Campbell writes that in 1981 there was an unconfirmed report that Lule is still spoken by 5 families in Resistencia, Chaco in east-central Chaco Province....
     (Argentina) (also known as Tonocoté)
  70. Maipurean
    Maipurean

    Maipurean is a language family that spans from the Caribbean and Central America to every country in South America excepting Uruguay and Chile....
     (South America
    South America

    South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
     & Caribbean
    Caribbean

    The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America....
    ) (64) (also known as Maipuran, Arawakan, Arahuacan)
  71. Maku language
    Maku language

    The M?ku language is an language isolate spoken on the Brazil-Venezuela border in Roraima along the Uraricoera River. The speakers' territory was formerly between the Padamo River and Cunucunuma River rivers....
     (also known as Macu)
  72. Malibú
    Malibu languages

    The Malibu languages are a poorly attested group of extinct languages once spoken along the Magdalena River in Colombia. Material exists only for two of the numerous languages mentioned in the literature: Malib? and Mocana....
     (also known as Malibu)
  73. Mapudungu (Chile, Argentina) (also known as Araucanian, Mapuche, Huilliche)
  74. Mascoyan (5) (also known as Maskóian, Mascoian)
  75. Matacoan
    Matacoan languages

    Matacoan is a language family of northern Argentina, western Paraguay, and southeastern Bolivia....
      (4) (also known as Mataguayan)
  76. Matanawí †
  77. Maxakalían
    Maxakalían languages

    The Maxakal?an languages were first classified into the G? languages. It was only in 1931 that Loukotka separated them from the G? family. Alfred M?traux and Curt Nimuendaju Unkel considered the Maxakal?an family isolated from others....
     (3) (also known as Mashakalían)
  78. Mocana (Colombia: Tubará) †
  79. Mochita †
  80. Mosetenan (also known as Mosetén)
  81. Movima
    Movima language

    Movima is a language that is spoken by about 1400 of the Movima, a group of Native Americans that resides in Bolivia. It is considered a language isolate, as it has not been proven related to any other language....
     (Bolivia)
  82. Munichi (Peru) (also known as Muniche)
  83. Muran
    Muran languages

    Muran is a small language family of Amazonas , Brazil....
      (4)
  84. Mutú (also known as Loco)
  85. Muzo
    Muzo

    Muzo is a town and municipio in Boyac? Department, Colombia, part of the subregion of the Western Boyac? Province. It is widely known for the nearby emerald mines containing arguably the world's highest quality gems of this type....
     (Colombia) †
  86. Nambiquaran (5)
  87. Natú (Brazil: Pernambuco) †
  88. Nonuya (Peru, Colombia)
  89. Ofayé
    Ofayé

    The Ofay? are an indigenous people of Central Brazil. Although their language is listed as extinct by the Ethnologue, it is still spoken by around fifteen individuals....
  90. Old Catío-Nutabe (Colombia) †
  91. Omurano (Peru) (also known as Mayna, Mumurana, Numurana, Maina, Rimachu, Roamaina, Umurano) †
  92. Otí
    OTI

    As a three letter acronym, OTI can refer to:* On This Island - From the online magazine OnThisIsland.com* Orthopaedic Trauma Institute, at San Francisco General Hospital....
     (Brazil: São Paulo) †
  93. Otomacoan (2) †
  94. Paez
    Páez language

    P?ez is a language isolate of Colombia spoken by P?ez people in the central Andes region near Popay?n. The Ethnologue estimates about 71,400 to 83,300 speakers, among which are counted 35,700 to 41,650 monolinguals of an ethnic population of 122,638....
     (also known as Nasa Yuwe)
  95. Pakarara †
  96. Palta
    Palta

    The Palta are an Ecuadorian Indigenous peoples of the Americas ethnic group. They speak the Palta language.Palta is also a name for avocado in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru....
  97. Panche †
  98. Pankararú (Brazil: Pernambuco) †
  99. Pano-Tacanan
    Pano-Tacanan languages

    Pano-Tacanan is a family of languages spoken in Peru, western Brazil, Bolivia and northern Paraguay....
      (33)
  100. Pantagora †
  101. Panzaleo (Ecuador) (also known as Latacunga, Quito, Pansaleo)
  102. Patagón
    Patagon

    The Patagones or Patagonian giants are a mythology race of people, who first began to appear in early European accounts of the then little-known region and coastline of Patagonia....
  103. Peba-Yaguan
    Peba-Yaguan languages

    The Peba-Yaguan language family is located in the northwestern Amazon, but today Yagua is the only remaining spoken language of the family.The linguist Paul Rivet suggested that the Peba-Yaguan family divided into two branches, with Yameo in one branch, and Peba and Yagua language in the other....
      (2) (also known as Yaguan, Yáwan, Peban) †
  104. Pijao
    Pijao

    The Pijao are a people of Colombia....
  105. Puelche
    Puelche

    Puelche is the name that the Mapuche used to give the ethnic groups who inhabited the lands to the east of the Andes Mountains including the northern Tehuelches and Hets, these last ones were also known as the Pampas or Querand?es....
     (Chile) (also known as Guenaken, Gennaken, Pampa, Pehuenche, Ranquelche) †
  106. Puinavean
    Puinavean languages

    The Mak? languages, a.k.a. Puinavean languages, a.k.a. Nadahup languages, form a small language family in Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela....
     (8) (also known as Makú)
  107. Puquina (Bolivia) †
  108. Purian
    Purian languages

    Purian is an extinct language of eastern Brazil. In fact there were two such languages:Both are now extinct. Corop? was spoken in Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro ....
     (2) †
  109. Quechuan
    Quechuan languages

    The Quechuan languages are a language family of related languages in South America. Though it is traditionally referred to as a Quechua many linguists treat it as a family of languages....
      (46)
  110. Resígaro (Colombia-Peru border area)
  111. Rikbaktsá
    Rikbaktsa

    The Rikbaktsa are an Indigenous peoples in Brazil from the Mato Grosso region of Brazil....
  112. Saliban
    Saliban languages

    Saliban is a small language family of Colombia and Venezuela....
      (2) (also known as Sálivan)
  113. Salumã (Brazil)
  114. Sechura language
    Sechura language

    The Sechura language, also known as Sek, is an extinct language spoken in the Piura Region of Peru, near the port of Sechura. It appears to have become extinct by the beginning of the 20th Century....
     (Atalan, Sec) †
  115. Tairona
    Tairona

    Tairona is a group of chiefdoms in the region of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in present-day Cesar Department, Magdalena Department and Guajira Department Departments of Colombia, South America, which goes back at least to the 1st century AD and had significant demographic growth around the 11th century....
     (Colombia) †
  116. Tarairiú (Brazil: Rio Grande do Norte) †
  117. Taruma
    Tarumã

    Tarum? is a municipality in the state of S?o Paulo in Brazil. The population in 2004 was 11,342 and the area is 304.24 km?. The elevation is 441 m....
     †
  118. Taushiro (Peru) (also known as Pinchi, Pinche)
  119. Tequiraca (Peru) (also known as Tekiraka, Avishiri) †
  120. Teushen † (Patagonia, Argentina)
  121. Ticuna (Colombia, Peru, Brazil) (also known as Magta, Tikuna, Tucuna, Tukna, Tukuna)
  122. Timotean (2) †
  123. Tiniguan (2) (also known as Tiníwan, pamigua) †
  124. Tucanoan
    Tucanoan languages

    Tucanoan is a language family of Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru....
      (15)
  125. Trumai
    Trumai

    The Trumai are an indigenous group in Brazil. They currently reside within the Xingu National Park, in the state of Matto Grosso. They have a population of 120 , up from a low of 26 in 1966....
     (Brazil: Xingu, Mato Grosso)
  126. Tupian
    Tupian languages

    The Tupi or Tupian language family comprises some 70 languages spoken in South America, of which the best known are Old Tupi and Guarani language....
      (70, including Guaraní)
  127. Tuxá (Brazil: Bahia, Pernambuco) †
    Urarina Shaman B Dean
    # Urarina
    Urarina

    The Urarina are an indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon Basin who inhabit the Chambira, Urituyacu, and Corrientes Rivers. According to both archaeological and historical sources, they have resided in the Chambira Basin of contemporary northeastern Peru for centuries....
     (also known as Shimacu, Itukale, Shimaku)
  128. Vilela
  129. Wakona †
  130. Warao
    Warao

    The Warao are an Indigenous peoples in South America inhabiting northeastern Venezuela and western Guyana. Alternate common spellings of Warao are Waroa, Guarauno, Guarao, and Warrau....
     (Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela) (also known as Guarao)
  131. Wayuu
    Wayuu

    Wayuu is an Amerindian ethnic group of the La Guajira Desert in northern Colombia and northwest Venezuela. They are part of the Maipurean linguistic family....
     (Venezuela and Colombia)
  132. Witotoan
    Witotoan languages

    Bora-Wit?to is a proposal to unite the Boran languages and Witotoan languages language family of northeastern Peru , southwestern Colombia , and western Brazil ....
      (6) (also known as Huitotoan, Bora-Witótoan)
  133. Xokó (Brazil: Alagoas, Pernambuco) (also known as Shokó) †
  134. Xukurú (Brazil: Pernambuco, Paraíba) †
  135. Yaghan
    Yaghan language

    Yag?n , also known as Y?mana and H?usi K?ta, is one of the indigenous languages of Tierra del Fuego, spoken by the Yag?n people. It is regarded as a language isolate, although some linguists have attempted to relate it to Kaw?sqar language and Chon languages....
     (Chile) (also known as Yámana)
  136. Yaruro
    Yaruro

    The Yaruro are Indigenous peoples of the Americas who live primarily in Venezuela near the Orinoco River and its tributaries. Current population estimates are generally between 3,000 and 4,000....
     (also known as Jaruro)
  137. Yanomaman
    Yanomaman languages

    Yanomaman is a small language family of northwestern Brazil and southern Venezuela....
      (4)
  138. Yuracare
    Yuracaré language

    Yuracar? is an endangered language language isolate of central Bolivia in Cochabamba Department and Beni Department departments spoken by the Yuracar? people....
     (Bolivia)
  139. Yuri (Colombia, Brazil) (also known as Carabayo, Jurí) †
  140. Yurumanguí (Colombia) (also known as Yurimangui, Yurimangi) †
  141. Zamucoan
    Zamucoan languages

    Zamucoan is a small language family of Paraguay and Bolivia .The family has hardly been studied by linguists ....
      (2)
  142. Zaparoan
    Zaparoan languages

    Zaparoan is an endangered language language family of Peru and Ecuador with fewer than 100 speakers. Zaparoan speakers seem to have been very numerous before the arrival of the Europeans but their groups have been decimated by imported diseases and warfare and only a handfull of them have survived...
      (5) (also known as Záparo)


North America


Mexico and Central America
  1. Alagüilac
    Alaguilac

    Alaguilac is the name of a Nahua people located on the R?o Motagua in the eastern part of Guatemala....
     (Guatemala)'†
  2. Algic
    Algic languages

    The Algic languages are an Indigenous language language family of North America. They are all thought to descend from Proto-Algic, a second-order proto language reconstructed using Proto-Algonquian and the attested languages Wiyot language and Yurok language....
     (United States
    United States

    The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
    , Canada
    Canada

    Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
     & Mexico
    Mexico

    The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
    ) (29)
  3. Chibchan
    Chibchan languages

    The Chibchan languages make up a language family indigenous to the Isthmo-Colombian area, which extends from eastern Honduras to northern Colombia and includes populations of these countries as well as Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama....
     (Central America
    Central America

    Central America is a central geography region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmus portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast....
     & South America
    South America

    South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
    ) (22)
  4. Coahuilteco †
  5. Comecrudan
    Comecrudan languages

    Comecrudan refers to a group of possibly related languages spoken in the southernmost part of Texas and in northern Mexico along the Rio Grande....
     (Texas
    Texas

    Texas is a U.S. state located in the South Central United States, nicknamed the Lone Star State. Texas is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, spanning , and with a growing population of 24.3 million residents....
     & Mexico
    Mexico

    The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
    ) (3) †
  6. Cotoname †
  7. Cuitlatec
    Cuitlatec language

    Cuitlatec, or Cuitlateco, is an extinct language of Mexico, formerly spoken by an indigenous peoples of Mexico also known as Cuitlatec....
     (Mexico: Guerrero) †
  8. Guaicurian (8)
  9. Huetar (Costa Rica)
  10. Huave
    Huave

    Huave may refer to:*the Huave language*the Huave people...
  11. Jicaquean
  12. Lencan
  13. Maratino (northeastern Mexico)
  14. Mayan (31)
  15. Misumalpan
    Misumalpan languages

    The Misumalpan languages are a small family of Native American languages spoken on the east coast of Nicaragua and nearby areas. Joseph Greenberg considers them to constitute a subfamily of the nuclear Chibchan languages, but his classification is generally rejected....
  16. Mixe-Zoquean (19)
  17. Na-Dené
    Na-Dené languages

    Na-Dene is a Indigenous peoples of the Americas language family which includes at least the Athabaskan languages, Eyak, and Tlingit language languages....
     (United States
    United States

    The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
    , Canada
    Canada

    Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
     & Mexico
    Mexico

    The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
    ) (40)
  18. Naolan (Mexico: Tamaulipas)
  19. Oto-Manguean
    Oto-Manguean languages

    Oto-Manguean languages are a large family comprising several families of Native American languages. All of the Oto-manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but Oto-Manguean languages that are now extinct language were spoken as far south as Nicaragua....
     (27)
  20. P'urhépecha
    P'urhépecha language

    P'urh?pecha is a language isolate or small language family spoken by more than 100,000 P'urh?pecha people in the highlands of the Mexican state of Michoac?n....
  21. Quinigua (northeast Mexico)
  22. Seri
    Seri language

    Seri is a language isolate spoken by the Seri in two villages on the coast of Sonora, Mexico....
  23. Solano
    Solano language

    Solano is an unclassified language extinct language language formerly spoken in northeast Mexico and perhaps also in the neighboring U.S. state of Texas....
     †
  24. Tequistlatecan (3)
  25. Totonacan
    Totonacan languages

    The Totonacan Languages are a Language families of closely-related languages spoken by approximately 200,000 Totonac and Tepehua people in the states of Veracruz, Puebla, and Hidalgo in Mexico....
     (2)
  26. Uto-Aztecan
    Uto-Aztecan languages

    Uto-Aztecan is a Indigenous languages of the Americas language family. It is one of the largest and most well-established linguistic families of the Americas....
     (United States
    United States

    The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
     & Mexico
    Mexico

    The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
    ) (33)
  27. Xincan
  28. Yuman-Cochimí
    Yuman-Cochimí languages

    Yuman-Cochim? is a family of languages spoken in Baja California and northern Sonora in Mexico and southern California and western Arizona in the United States....
     (United States
    United States

    The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
     & Mexico
    Mexico

    The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
    ) (11)


United States, Canada and Greenland
Langs N
There are approximately 296 spoken (or formerly spoken) indigenous languages north of Mexico, 269 of which are grouped into 29 families (the remaining 27 languages are either isolates or unclassified). The Na-Dené, Algic, and Uto-Aztecan families are the largest in terms of number of languages. Uto-Aztecan has the most speakers (1.95 million) if the languages in Mexico are considered (mostly due to 1.5 million speakers of Nahuatl); Na Dene comes in second with approximately 200,000 speakers (nearly 180,000 of these are speakers of Navajo
Navajo language

Navajo or Navaho is an Athabaskan languages spoken in the southwest United States by the Navajo people . It is geographically and linguistically one of the Southern Athabaskan languages ....
) and Algic in third with about 180,000 speakers (mainly Cree
Cree language

Cree is the name for a group of closely-related Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories to Labrador, making it by far the most spoken Native American languages in Canada....
 and Ojibwe
Ojibwe language

Ojibwe is an Indigenous language of the Algonquian languages linguistic family. Ojibwe is characterized by a series of Dialect that have local names and frequently local Writing system....
). Na-Dené and Algic have the widest geographic distributions: Algic currently spans from northeastern Canada across much of the continent down to northeastern Mexico (due to later migrations of the Kickapoo
Kickapoo

The Kickapoos are one of the Algonquian peoples speaking Native Americans in the United States tribes. According to the Anishinaabeg, the name "Kickapoo" means "Stands Here and there" and refers to the tribes migratory patterns....
) with two outliers in California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
 (Yurok
Yurok language

Yurok is a moribund language Algic languages. It is the traditional language of the Yurok tribe of Humboldt County, California on the far North Coast of California, United States, most of whom now speak English language....
 and Wiyot
Wiyot language

Wiyot is an extinct language Algic languages language, spoken by the Wiyot people of Humboldt Bay, California. The language's last native speaker, Della Prince, died in 1962....
); Na-Dené spans from Alaska and western Canada
Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
 through Washington
Washington

Washington is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute....
, Oregon
Oregon

Oregon is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The area was inhabited by many indigenous tribes before the arrival of traders, explorers and settlers....
, and California to the U.S. Southwest
Southwestern United States

The Southwestern area of the United States could be defined as the states west of the Mississippi River, with the qualification of a certain northern limit, such as the 37th parallel north, 38th parallel north, 39th parallel north, or 40th parallel north line....
 and northern Mexico (with one outlier in the Plains). Several families consist of only 2 or 3 languages. Demonstrating genetic relationships has proved difficult due to the great linguistic diversity present in North America. Two large (super-)family proposals, Penutian and Hokan, look particularly promising. However, even after decades of research, a large number of families and isolates remain.

North America is notable for its linguistic diversity, especially in California where it alone has 18 genetic units consisting of 74 languages (compare to the mere 3 genetic units in all of Europe: Basque
Basque language

Basque is the language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Pyrenees in North-Central Spain and the adjoining region of South-Western France....
, Indo-European
Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a Language family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau , Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent ....
, Uralic
Uralic languages

The Uralic languages constitute a language families of 39 languages spoken by approximately 25 million people. The healthiest Uralic languages in terms of the number of native speakers are Hungarian language, Finnish language, Estonian language, Mari language and Udmurt language....
). Another area of considerable diversity appears to have been the Southeast
Southeastern United States

The US Southeast is the eastern portion of the Southern United States, but the Census Bureau does not provide a standard definition of a "Southeast" region of the United States, and organizations that need to subdivide the US are free to define a "Southeast" region to fit their needs....
; however, many of these languages became extinct from European contact and as a result they are, for the most part, absent from the historical record. This diversity has been and continues to be very influential in the development of linguistic thought in the U.S.

Due to the diversity of this area, it is difficult to make generalizations that adequately characterize the entire region. Most North American languages have a relatively small number of vowels (i.e. four or five vowels). Languages of the western half of North America often have relatively large consonant inventories. The languages of the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is a region in the northwest of North America . There are several partially overlapping definitions but the term Pacific Northwest should not be confused with the Northwest Territory or the Northwest Territories of Canada....
 are notable for their complex phonotactics
Phonotactics

Phonotactics is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes. Phonotactics defines permissible syllable structure, consonant clusters, and vowel sequences by means of phonotactical constraints....
 (for example, some languages have words that lack vowel
Vowel

In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis....
s entirely). The languages of the Plateau
Interior Plateau

The Interior Plateau comprises a large region of central British Columbia, and lies between the Cariboo Mountains and Monashee Mountains on the east, and the Hazelton Mountains, Coast Mountains and Cascade Range on the west....
 area have relatively rare pharyngeals
Pharyngeal consonant

A pharyngeal consonant is a type of consonant which is articulated with the root of the tongue against the pharynx.Pharyngeal consonants in the International Phonetic Alphabet :...
 and epiglottals
Epiglottal consonant

An epiglottal consonant is a consonant that is articulated with the aryepiglottic folds against the epiglottis. They are occasionally called aryepiglottal consonants....
 (they are otherwise restricted to Afro-Asiatic and Caucasian languages). Ejective consonant
Ejective consonant

In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspiration or tenuis consonants....
s are also common in North America, although they are rare elsewhere (except, again, for the Caucasus
Caucasus

The Caucasus or Caucas is a geopolitical region located between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. It is home to Europe's highest mountain ....
 region, parts of Africa, and the Mayan family).

Head-marking is found in many languages of North America (as well as in Central and South America), but outside of the Americas it is rare. Many languages throughout North America are polysynthetic (Eskimo-Aleut languages are extreme examples), although this is not characteristic of all North American languages (contrary to what was believed by 19th-century linguists). Several families have unique traits, such as the inverse number
Grammatical number

In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
 marking of Kiowa-Tanoan, the lexical affix
Affix

An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivation , like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed....
es of Wakashan, Salishan and Chimakuan, and the unusual verb structure of Nadene.

The classification below is a composite of Goddard (1996), Campbell (1997), and Mithun (1999).

  1. Adai
    Adai

    Adai is the name of a people and language that was spoken in northwestern Louisiana and were a Southeastern tribes of Native Americans in the United States....
     †
  2. Algic
    Algic languages

    The Algic languages are an Indigenous language language family of North America. They are all thought to descend from Proto-Algic, a second-order proto language reconstructed using Proto-Algonquian and the attested languages Wiyot language and Yurok language....
     (30)
  3. Alsean
    Alsean languages

    The Alsean language family consists of two closely related languages that were spoken along the central Oregon coast....
     (2) †
  4. Atakapa
    Atakapa language

    Atakapa is an extinct language language isolate native to southwestern Louisiana and nearby eastern Texas....
     †
  5. Beothuk
    Beothuk language

    The Beothuk language was spoken by the indigenous Beothuk people of Newfoundland . As the Beothuk are extinct and few written accounts of their language exist, little is known about it....
     †
  6. Caddoan
    Caddoan languages

    The Caddoan languages are a language family of Native American languages. They are spoken across the Great Plains of the central United States, from North Dakota to Oklahoma....
     (5)
  7. Cayuse
    Cayuse

    The Cayuse are a Native Americans in the United States tribe in the state of Oregon in the United States. The Cayuse tribe shares a Umatilla Indian Reservation in northeastern Oregon with the Umatilla and the Walla Walla tribes as part of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation....
     †
  8. Chimakuan
    Chimakuan languages

    The Chimakuan language family consists of two languages spoken in northwestern Washington, USA on the Olympic Peninsula. It is part of the Mosan languages sprachbund, and one of its languages is famous for having no nasal consonants....
     (2)
  9. Chimariko
    Chimariko language

    Chimariko is an extinct language language isolate formerly spoken in Trinity County, California in northwestern California by Chimariko peoples....
     †
  10. Chinookan
    Chinookan languages

    Chinookan is a small family of languages spoken in Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River by Chinookan peoples....
     (3)
  11. Chitimacha
    Chitimacha language

    The Chitimacha language is a language isolate historically spoken by the Chitimacha people of Louisiana, United States. It went extinct with the death of the last fluent speaker, Delphine Ducloux, in 1940....
     †
  12. Chumashan
    Chumashan languages

    Chumashan is a family of languages that were spoken on the southern California coast , in neighboring inland regions , and on three nearby islands ....
     (6) †
  13. Coahuilteco †
  14. Comecrudan
    Comecrudan languages

    Comecrudan refers to a group of possibly related languages spoken in the southernmost part of Texas and in northern Mexico along the Rio Grande....
     (United States
    United States

    The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
     & Mexico
    Mexico

    The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
    ) (3) †
  15. Coosan
    Coosan languages

    This article is about the language Hanis; for the Akkadian god see Hani The Coosan language family consists of two languages spoken along the southern Oregon coast....
     (2) †
  16. Cotoname †
  17. Eskimo-Aleut
    Eskimo-Aleut languages

    Eskimo-Aleut is a language family native to Alaska, the Northern Canada, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut, Greenland, and the Chukchi Peninsula on the eastern tip of Siberia....
     (7)
  18. Esselen
    Esselen

    The Esselen were a Native Americans in the United States linguistic group in the hypothetical Hokan languages family, who resided in what is now known as Big Sur in the Monterey Bay Area, California....
     †
  19. Haida
    Haida language

    The Haida language is the language of the Haida people. It contains eight vowels and well over 30 consonants. Linguist Edward Sapir classified Haida as one of the Na-Den? languages in 1915, a position later supported by others, notably Pinnow, Greenberg, Enrico, Ruhlen, Manaster Ramer, and Bengtson ....
  20. Iroquoian
    Iroquoian languages

    The Iroquoian languages are a First Nation and Native Americans in the United States language family. The language family, amongst others, includes Mohawk language, Wyandot language and Cherokee language....
     (11)
  21. Kalapuyan (3) †
  22. Karankawa
    Karankawa

    The Karankawa were a group of Native Americans in the United States peoples, now extinct as a tribal group, who played a pivotal part in early Texas History of Texas....
     †
  23. Karuk
    Karuk language

    Karuk or Karok is a moribund language of northwestern California, USA. It was the traditional language of the Karuk people, most of whom now speak English language....
  24. Keresan
    Keresan languages

    Keresan , also Keres , is a group of seven related lects spoken by Pueblo peoples in New Mexico, United States. Each is mutually intelligible with its closest neighbors....
     (2)
  25. Kiowa-Tanoan
    Kiowa-Tanoan languages

    Kiowa?Tanoan is a family of languages spoken in New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.Most of the languages?Tiwa languages , Tewa language, and Towa language?are spoken in the Pueblos of New Mexico and called collectively Tanoan, while Kiowa language is spoken mostly in southwestern Oklahoma....
     (7)
  26. Kutenai
    Kutenai language

    The Kutenai language is named after and is spoken by some of the Kootenai Native Americans in the United States/First Nations people who are indigenous people to the area of North America that is now Montana, Idaho, and British Columbia....
  27. Maiduan (4)
  28. Muskogean
    Muskogean languages

    Muskogean is an indigenous language family of the Southeastern United States. The Muskogean languages are generally divided into two rough branches, Eastern and Western, though these distinctions are the subject of some debate....
     (9)
  29. Na-Dené
    Na-Dené languages

    Na-Dene is a Indigenous peoples of the Americas language family which includes at least the Athabaskan languages, Eyak, and Tlingit language languages....
     (United States
    United States

    The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
    , Canada
    Canada

    Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
     & Mexico
    Mexico

    The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
    ) (39)
  30. Natchez †
  31. Palaihnihan (2)
  32. Plateau Penutian
    Plateau Penutian languages

    Plateau Penutian is a family of languages spoken in northern California, reaching through central-western Oregon to northern Washington and central-northern Idaho....
      (4) (also known as Shahapwailutan)
  33. Pomoan
    Pomoan languages

    Pomoan is a family of endangered languages spoken in northern California by the Pomo people on the Pacific Coast. According to the 2000 census, there are 255 speakers of the languages....
     (7)
  34. Salinan
    Salinan

    The Salinan Native Americans in the United States lived in what is now the Central Coast of California, in the Salinas Valley. Said to have gone extinct by the Census of 1930, the Salinan Native Americans survived and are now in the process of applying for Federally recognized tribes from the Bureau of Indian Affairs....
     †
  35. Salishan
    Salishan languages

    The Salishan languages are a group of languages of the Pacific Northwest . They are characterised by agglutinative and astonishing consonant clusters—for instance the Nux?lk language word meaning "he had had a bunchberry plant" has 13 consonants in a row with no vowels....
     (23)
  36. Shastan
    Shastan languages

    The Shastan family consisted of four languages, spoken in present-day northern California and southern Oregon....
     (4) †
  37. Siouan-Catawban
    Siouan-Catawban languages

    Siouan?Catawban is a language family of North America that is located primarily in the Great Plains of North America with a few outlier languages in the east....
     (19)
  38. Siuslaw †
  39. Solano
    Solano language

    Solano is an unclassified language extinct language language formerly spoken in northeast Mexico and perhaps also in the neighboring U.S. state of Texas....
     †
  40. Takelma
    Takelma language

    Takelma was the language spoken by the Takelma people....
     †
  41. Timucua
    Timucua language

    Timucua is a language isolate formerly spoken in northern and central Florida, southern Georgia , and eastern Alabama by the Timucua people. Timucua was the primary language used in the area at the time of Spanish colonization of the Americas, and linguistic and archaeological studies suggest that it may have been spoken from around 2,000 BC....
     †
  42. Tonkawa
    Tonkawa language

    The Tonkawa language was spoken in Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico by the Tonkawa people. A language isolate, with no known related languages, Tonkawa is now extinct, and the members of the Tonkawa tribe now speak only English....
     †
  43. Tsimshianic (2)
  44. Tunica †
  45. Utian
    Utian languages

    Utian is a Indigenous languages of the Americas spoken in the central and north portion of California, United States. The Miwok and Ohlone peoples both spoke a language in the Utian languages linguistic group....
     (15) (also known as Miwok-Costanoan)
  46. Uto-Aztecan
    Uto-Aztecan languages

    Uto-Aztecan is a Indigenous languages of the Americas language family. It is one of the largest and most well-established linguistic families of the Americas....
     (33)
  47. Wakashan
    Wakashan languages

    Wakashan is a family of languages spoken in British Columbia around and on Vancouver Island, and in the northwestern corner of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington state, on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca....
     (7)
  48. Washo
    Washo language

    The Washo language is an endangered language Native Americans in the United States language isolate spoken by the Washo people on the California?Nevada border in the drainages of the Truckee River and Carson River Rivers, especially around Lake Tahoe....
  49. Wintuan
    Wintuan languages

    Wintuan is a language family of languages spoken in the Sacramento Valley of central Northern California.All Wintuan languages are severely endangered language....
     (4)
  50. Yana
    Yana language

    Yana is an extinct language language isolate formerly spoken in north-central California between the Feather River and Pit River rivers in what is now Shasta County and Tehama County counties....
     †
  51. Yokutsan (3)
  52. Yuchi
    Yuchi language

    The Yuchi language is the language of the Yuchi people living in the southeastern United States, including eastern Tennessee, western Carolinas, northern Georgia and Alabama, in the period of early European colonization....
  53. Yuki-Wappo (2) † disputed
  54. Yuman-Cochimí
    Yuman-Cochimí languages

    Yuman-Cochim? is a family of languages spoken in Baja California and northern Sonora in Mexico and southern California and western Arizona in the United States....
     (11)
  55. Zuni
    Zuni language

    Zuni is a language of the Zuni people, indigenous to western New Mexico and eastern Arizona in the United States. It is spoken by around 9,500 people worldwide, especially in the vicinity of Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico and much smaller numbers in parts of Arizona....


Language stock proposals


Many hypothetical language phylum proposals concerning American languages are often cited as uncontroversially demonstrated in more popular writings. However, many of these proposals have, in fact, not been fully demonstrated if even at all. Some proposals are viewed by specialists in a favorable light, believing that genetic relationships are very likely to be established in the future (for example, the Penutian
Penutian languages

Penutian is a proposed grouping of language family that includes many Native Americans in the United States languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in Washington, Oregon, and California....
 stock). Other proposals are more controversial with many linguists believing that some genetic relationships of a proposal may be demonstrated but much of it undemonstrated (for example, Hokan, which, incidentally, Edward Sapir
Edward Sapir

Edward Sapir , was a Jewish-Germany-United States anthropologist-linguistics and a leader in American structuralism. He was one of the creators of what is now called the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis....
 called his "wastepaper basket stock"). Still other proposals are almost unanimously rejected by specialists (for example, Amerind
Amerind languages

Amerind is a putative higher-level language family proposed by Joseph Greenberg in his 1987 book Language in the Americas. In this book Greenberg proposed that all of the indigenous languages of the Americas belong to one of three language family....
). Below is a (partial) list of some such proposals:

  1. Ahuaque-Kalianan
  2. Algonkian-Gulf   (= Algic + Beothuk + Gulf)
  3. Algonquian-Wakashan   (also known as Almosan)
  4. Almosan-Keresiouan (= Almosan + Keresiouan)
  5. Amerind
    Amerind languages

    Amerind is a putative higher-level language family proposed by Joseph Greenberg in his 1987 book Language in the Americas. In this book Greenberg proposed that all of the indigenous languages of the Americas belong to one of three language family....
       (= all languages excepting Eskimo-Aleut & Na-Dené)
  6. (macro-)Arawakan
  7. Aztec-Tanoan   (= Uto-Aztecan + Kiowa-Tanoan)
  8. Chibchan stock
  9. Chibchan-Paezan
  10. Chikitano-Boróroan
  11. Coahuiltecan
    Coahuiltecan

    Coahuiltecan is a general name for a group of people who previously lived in the southern Texas region near the Rio Grande river. The earliest Spanish explorers to make contact with the natives in this region describe a prosperous and friendly people....
       (= Coahuilteco + Cotoname + Comecrudan + Karankawa + Tonkawa)
  12. Cunza-Kapixanan
  13. Dené-Yeniseian
    Dené-Yeniseian languages

    Den?-Yeniseian is a proposed relationship between the Yeniseian languages of central Siberia and the Na-Den? languages of northwestern North America....
  14. Dené-Caucasian
    Dene-Caucasian languages

    The Den?Caucasian language family is a proposed Superfamily containing at least the North Caucasian languages, Yeniseian languages, Burushaski language, Sino-Tibetan languages, and Na?Den? languages....
  15. Esmeralda-Yaruroan
  16. Guamo-Chapacuran
  17. Gulf
    Gulf languages

    Gulf is a proposed native North American language family composed of the Muskogean languages, along with four extinct language isolates. The four isolates are the Atakapa language [aqp], Chitimacha language [ctm], Natchez people language [ncz] and Tunica language [tun]....
       (= Muskogean + Natchez + Tunica)
  18. Hokan   (= Karok + Chimariko + Shastan + Palaihnihan + Yana + Pomoan + Washo + Esselen + Yuman-Cochimí + Salinan + Chumashan + Seri + Tequistlatecan)
  19. Hokan-Siouan
    Hokan-Siouan

    In linguistics, Hokan?Siouan is a proposed Language family of languages that includes various Indigenous peoples of the Americas languages. It is not generally accepted by linguists....
       (= Hokan + Subtiaba-Tlappanec + Coahuiltecan + Yukian + Keresan + Tunican + Iroquoian + Caddoan + Siouan-Catawba + Yuchi + Natchez + Muskogean + Timucua)
  20. Javaroan-Cahuapanan
  21. Je-Tupi-Carib
    Je-Tupi-Carib

    Je-Tupi-Carib is a proposed language family composed of the Macro-Ge languages , Tupian languages and Cariban languages of South America.Linguist Joseph Greenberg proposed a Comparative linguistics between the Macro-Je, Macro-Panoan, and Cariban families....
  22. Kalianan
  23. Kaweskar language area
  24. Keresiouan   (= Keres + Siouan + Iroquoian + Caddoan + Yuchi)
  25. Lule-Vilelan
  26. Macro-Andean
  27. Macro-Arawakan
  28. Macro-Carib
  29. Macro-Gê (also known as Macro-Jê)
  30. Macro-Katembrí-Taruma
  31. Macro-Kulyi-Cholónan
  32. Macro-Lekoan
  33. Macro-Mayan
  34. Macro-Otomákoan
  35. Macro-Paesan
  36. Macro-Panoan
    Macro-Panoan

    Macro-Panoan is a hypothetical proposal linking four language families of Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina. The Pano-Takanan connection is generally accepted....
  37. Macro-Puinávean
    Macro-Puinavean

    Macro-Puinavean is a hypothetical proposal linking some very poorly attested languages to the Mak? languages. The Puinave language is sometimes linked specifically with Mak?, as Puinave-Maku, and the coincidentally named M?ku language is sometimes connected to the Arutani-Sape languages in a Kalianan branch, a proposal which Kaufman...
  38. Macro-Siouan
    Macro-Siouan languages

    The Macro-Siouan languages are a proposed language family that would include the Siouan languages, Iroquoian languages, and Caddoan languages families....
       (= Siouan + Iroquoian + Caddoan)
  39. Macro-Tekiraka-Kanichana
  40. Macro-Tucanoan
  41. Macro-Tupí-Karibe
  42. Macro-Waikurúan
  43. Macro-Warpean
    Macro-Warpean

    Macro-Warpean is a proposal by Kaufman that connected the extinct Huarpe language with the previously connected Muran languages and Matanawi language....
  44. Mosan
    Mosan

    Mosan is a hypothetical language family consisting of the Salishan, Wakashan, and Chimakuan languages of the Pacific Northwest region of North America....
       (= Salishan + Wakashan + Chimakuan)
  45. Mosetén-Chonan
  46. Mura-Matanawian
  47. Sapir's Na-Dené
    Na-Dené languages

    Na-Dene is a Indigenous peoples of the Americas language family which includes at least the Athabaskan languages, Eyak, and Tlingit language languages....
     including Haida
    Haida

    The Haida are an Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. The Haida territories comprise the archipelago of the Queen Charlotte Islands, known in the Haida language as Haida Gwaii , and the southern half of Prince of Wales Island in the southernmost Alaska Panhandle, which is the home of a subgroup called the '...
       (= Haida + Tlingit + Eyak + Athabaskan)
  48. Nostratic-Amerind
  49. Paezan (= Andaqui + Paez + Panzaleo)
  50. Paezan-Barbacoan
  51. Penutian
    Penutian languages

    Penutian is a proposed grouping of language family that includes many Native Americans in the United States languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in Washington, Oregon, and California....
       (= many languages of California and sometimes languages in Mexico)
    1. California Penutian   (= Wintuan + Maiduan + Yokutsan + Utian)
    2. Oregon Penutian
      Oregon Penutian languages

      Oregon Penutian is a hypothetical language family in the Penutian language phylum comprising languages spoken at one time by several groups of Native Americans in the United States in present-day western Oregon and western Washington in the United States....
         (= Takelma + Coosan + Siuslaw + Alsean)
    3. Mexican Penutian   (= Mixe-Zoque + Huave)
  52. Quechumaran
    Quechumaran

    Quechumaran is a language-family proposal that unites Quechua and Aymara. Quechuan languages, especially those of the south, share a large amount of vocabulary with Aymara....
  53. Takelman   (= Takelma + Kalapuyan)
  54. Tunican   (= Tunica + Atakapa + Chitimacha)
  55. Yok-Utian
  56. Yuri-Ticunan
  57. Zaparoan-Yaguan


Good discussions of past proposals are found in Campbell (1997) and Campbell & Mithun (1979).

Pidgin
Pidgin

A pidgin is a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common, in situations such as trade....
s, mixed language
Mixed language

A mixed language is a language that arises through the fusion of two source languages, normally in situations of thorough bilingualism, so that it is not possible to classify the resulting language as belonging to either of the language families that were its source....
s, & trade languages

  1. American Indian Pidgin English
  2. Basque-Algonquian Pidgin (also known as Micmac-Basque Pidgin, Souriquois)
  3. Broken Oghibbeway (also known as Broken Ojibwa)
  4. Broken Slavey
    Broken Slavey

    Broken Slavey is a trade language used between Indians and whites in the Yukon area in the 19th century.Broken Slavey is based primarily on the Slavey language with elements from French language, Cree language, and perhaps to a lesser extent English language....
  5. Bungee
    Bungee language

    Bungee is a dialect of English that was influenced by Orkney English, Scottish English, Cree language, Anishinaabe language, and Scottish Gaelic....
     (also known as Bungi, Bungie, Bungay, or The Red River Dialect))
  6. Callahuaya (also known as Machaj-Juyai, Kallawaya
    Kallawaya language

    Kallawaya is an endangered, secret, mixed language in Bolivia. It is spoken by the Kallawaya people, a group of traditional itinerant healers in the Andes in their medicinal healing practice....
    , Collahuaya, Pohena, Kolyawaya jargon)
  7. Carib Pidgin (also known as Ndjuka-Amerindian Pidgin, Ndjuka-Trio)
  8. Carib Pidgin-Arawak Mixed Language
  9. Catalangu
  10. Chinook Jargon
    Chinook Jargon

    Chinook Jargon originated as a pidgin trade language of the Pacific Northwest, and spread quickly up the West Coast from modern Oregon to the regions now Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska....
  11. Delaware Jargon (also known as Pidgin Delaware)
  12. Eskimo Trade Jargon (also known as Herschel Island Eskimo Pidgin, Ship's Jargon)
  13. Greenlandic Eskimo Pidgin
  14. Guajiro-Spanish
  15. Güegüence-Nicarao
  16. Haida Jargon
  17. Hudson Strait Pidgin
  18. Inuktitut-English Pidgin
  19. Jargonized Powhatan
  20. Kutenai Jargon
  21. Labrador Eskimo Pidgin (also known as Labrador Inuit Pidgin)
  22. Lingua Franca Apalachee
  23. Lingua Franca Creek
  24. Lingua Geral Amazônica (also known as Nheengatú, Lingua Boa, Lingua Brasílica, Lingua Geral do Norte)
  25. Lingua Geral do Sul (also known as Lingua Geral Paulista, Tupí Austral)
  26. Loucheux Jargon (also known as Jargon Loucheux)
  27. Media Lengua
    Media Lengua

    Media Lengua is a language spoken in Salcedo, about 100 km south of Quito, Ecuador, by about 1,000 people of Indigenous peoples of the Americas ancestry....
  28. Mednyj Aleut (also known as Copper Island Aleut, Medniy Aleut, CIA)
  29. Michif (also known as French Cree, Métis, Metchif, Mitchif, Métchif)
  30. Mobilian Jargon
    Mobilian Jargon

    Mobilian Jargon was a pidgin used as a lingua franca among Native Americans in the United States groups living along the Gulf of Mexico around the time of European settlement of the region....
     (also known as Mobilian Trade Jargon, Chickasaw-Chocaw Trade Language, Yamá)
  31. Montagnais Pidgin Basque (also known as Pidgin Basque-Montagnais)
  32. Nootka Jargon
  33. Ocaneechi
  34. Pidgin Massachusett
  35. Plains Indian Sign Language
    Plains Indian Sign Language

    Plains Indian Sign Language is a sign language formerly used as an auxiliary interlanguage between Indigenous peoples of the Americas of the Great Plains of the United States of America and Canada....


Unattested languages


Several languages are only known by mention in historical documents or from only a few names or words. It cannot be determined that these languages actually existed or that the few recorded words are actually of known or unknown languages. Some may simply be from a historian's errors. Others are of known people with no linguistic record (sometimes due to lost records). A short list is below.

  • Ais
    Ais (tribe)

    The Ais, or Ays were a tribe of Native Americans in the United States who inhabited the Atlantic Coast of Florida. They ranged from present day Cape Canaveral to the St....
  • Akokisa
    Akokisa

    The Akokisa were the indigenous tribe that lived on Galveston Bay and the lower Trinity River and San Jacinto River rivers in Texas. They are regarded as a band of the Atakapa Indians, closely related to the Atakapa of Lake Charles, Louisiana....
  • Aksana (Akasanas, Kaueskar)
  • Aramana
  • Ausaima
  • Avoyel
    Avoyel

    Avoyel or Avoyelles was a small Natchez tribe in the neighborhood of the present Marksville, Louisiana, Louisiana. Numbering 280 in 1698, by 1805 they were believed to have been reduced to only two or three women....
  • Bayogoula
  • Bidai
  • Cacán (Diaguita
    Diaguita

    The Diaguita, also called Diaguita-Calchaqu?, are a group of South American indigenous peoples of the Americas. The Diaguita culture developed between the 8th and 16th centuries in what are now the provinces of Salta Province, Catamarca Province, La Rioja Province and Tucum?n Province in Argentine Northwest Argentina, and in the At...
    -Calchaquí
    Calchaquí

    The Calchaqu? were a tribe of South American Indigenous peoples of the Americas of the Diaguita group, now extinct, who formerly occupied northern Argentina....
    )
  • Calusa
    Calusa

    The Calusa, sometimes spelled Caloosa, Calos, Carlos or Caalus, were a Native Americans in the United States group that lived on the coast and along the inner waterways of Florida's southwest coast....
  • Chome
  • Cusabo
    Cusabo

    The Cusabo were a group of Native Americans in the United Statess who lived along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in what is now South Carolina, approximately between present-day Charleston, South Carolina and the Savannah River....
  • Eyeish
  • Grigra
  • Guale
    Guale

    Guale was a Native Americans in the United States chiefdom that became part of Spanish Florida's missionary system in the late 16th century. They lived along the coast of present-day Georgia and the Sea Islands....
  • Houma
    Houma Tribe

    The Houma Tribe of Indians, or more properly, The United Houma Nation are native to the Louisiana parishes of East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana and West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, and Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, about 100 miles north of the town of Houma, Louisiana named for them....
  • Koroa
    Koroa

    The Koroa were one of the groups of indigenous people who lived in Mississippi prior to the European settlement of the region. They lived in the northwest of Mississippi in the Yazoo River basin....
  • Manek'enk (Haush)
  • Mobila
  • Okelousa
    Okelousa

    The Okelousa are Native Americans in the United States people originally from the Southern United States . The name is taken from the Chocktaw word for "black water"...
  • Opelousa
  • Pascagoula
    Pascagoula

    The Pasacagoula were an indigenous peoples of the Americas group living in coastal Mississippi on the Pascagoula River.The name Pascagoula is a Mobilian Jargon term meaning "bread people"....
  • Pensacola
  • Quinipissa
    Quinipissa

    The Quinipissa were an indigenous peoples of the Americas group living on the lower Mississippi River as reported by Ren?-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle in 1682....
  • Taensa
    Taensa

    The Taensa were a people of northeastern Louisiana, specifically on Lake Saint Joseph west of the Mississippi River between the Yazoo River and Saint Catherine Creek settlements in what is present-day Tensas Parish, Louisiana, as reported by Nicolas de la Salle in 1682....
  • Tequesta
    Tequesta

    The Tequesta Native Americans in the United States tribe, at the time of first European contact, occupied an area along the southeastern Atlantic coast of Florida....
  • Tiou
  • Yamacraw
    Yamacraw

    The Yamacraw were a Native Americans in the United States tribe which settled parts of Georgia , specifically around the future site of the city of Savannah, Georgia....
  • Yamasee
    Yamasee

    The Yamasee were a Native Americans in the United States tribe that lived in coastal region of present-day northern Florida and southern Georgia near the Savannah River....
  • Yazoo


    • Loukotka (1968) reports the names of hundreds of South American languages which do not have any linguistic documentation.

    Linguistic areas


    The languages of the Americas often can be grouped together into linguistic areas or Sprachbund
    Sprachbund

    A Sprachbund , from the German language word for ?language union?, also known as a linguistic area, convergence area, diffusion area or language crossroads, is a group of languages that have become similar in some way because of geographical proximity and language contact....
    s     (also known as convergence areas). The linguistic areas identified so far deserve more research to determine their validity. Knowing about Sprachbunds help historical linguists differentiate between shared areal traits and true genetic relationship. The pioneering work on American areal linguistics was a dissertation by Joel Sherzer which was published as Sherzer (1976). The following tentative list of linguistic areas is based on primarily Campbell (1997):

    Northern Northwest Coast Northwest Coast
    • Plateau
    • Northern California
    • Clear Lake
    • South Coast Range
    • Southern California-Western Arizona
    • Great Basin
    • Pueblo
      Pueblo linguistic area

      The Pueblo linguistic area is a Sprachbund consisting of the language spoken in and near North American Pueblo locations....
    • Plains
    • Northeast
    • Southeast
    • Mesoamerican
      Mesoamerican Linguistic Area

      The Mesoamerican Linguistic Area is a sprachbund containing many of the languages natively spoken in the cultural area of Mesoamerica. This sprachbund is defined by an array of syntactic, lexical and phonological traits as well as a number of ethnolinguistic traits found in the Mesoamerican languages, which belong to a number of linguisti...
    • Colombian-Central American
    • Venezuelan-Antillean
    • Andean
      • Ecuadoran-Colombian (subarea)
    • Orinoco-Amazon
    • Amazonas (also known as Amazonia)
    • Lowland South America
    • Southern Cone
      Southern Cone

      The term Southern Cone refers to a geographic region composed of the southernmost areas of South America, south of the Tropic of Capricorn. The region includes all of Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, and some parts of Paraguay and southern portions of Brazil which include the Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina , Paran? and...


    See also

    • Classification schemes for indigenous languages of the Americas
      Classification schemes for indigenous languages of the Americas

      This article is a list of different language classification proposals developed for indigenous languages of the Americas. The article is divided into North, Central, and South America sections; however, the classifications do not always neatly correspond to these continent divisions....
    • Mesoamerican languages
      Mesoamerican languages

      Mesoamerican languages are the languages Indigenous peoples of the Americas to the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers southern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize and parts of Honduras and El Salvador....
    • Language families and languages
    • Classification of indigenous peoples of the Americas
      Classification of indigenous peoples of the Americas

      Ethnography commonly classify indigenous peoples in the United States and Canada into ten geographical regions with shared culture traits . The following list groups peoples by their region of origin, followed by the current location....
    • Indigenous peoples of the Americas
      Indigenous peoples of the Americas

      The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples....
    Category:Indigenous languages of the Americas (division into geocultural areas)
    • List of indigenous languages in Argentina
      List of indigenous languages in Argentina

      This is a list of indigenous languages of the Americas that are or were spoken in the present territory of Argentina.Although the official language of Argentina is Spanish language, several Indigenous peoples of the Americas languages are in use....
    • Languages of Peru
      Languages of Peru

      Peru is a multilingual nation. Its official language languages are Spanish language and, in the zones where they are predominant, Quechua, Aymara, and other aboriginal languages....


    Bibliography


    • Bright, William. (1984). The classification of North American and Meso-American Indian languages. In W. Bright (Ed.), American Indian linguistics and literature (pp. 3-29). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
    • Bright, William (Ed.). (1984). American Indian linguistics and literature. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-009846-6.
    • Brinton, Daniel G. (1891). The American race. New York: D. C. Hodges.
    • Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
    • Campbell, Lyle; & Mithun, Marianne (Eds.). (1979). The languages of native America: Historical and comparative assessment. Austin: University of Texas Press.
    • Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Ed.). (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. (Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com).


    South America


    • Adelaar, Willem F. H.; & Muysken, Pieter C. (2004). The languages of the Andes. Cambridge language surveys. Cambridge University Press.
    • Kaufman, Terrence. (1990). Language history in South America: What we know and how to know more. In D. L. Payne (Ed.), Amazonian linguistics: Studies in lowland South American languages (pp. 13-67). Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-70414-3.
    • Kaufman, Terrence. (1994). The native languages of South America. In C. Mosley & R. E. Asher (Eds.), Atlas of the world's languages (pp. 46-76). London: Routledge.
    • Key, Mary R. (1979). The grouping of South American languages. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
    • Loukotka, Cestmír. (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: Latin American Studies Center, University of California.
    • Mason, J. Alden. (1950). The languages of South America. In J. Steward (Ed.), Handbook of South American Indians (Vol. 6, pp. 157-317). Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology bulletin (No. 143). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
    • Migliazza, Ernest C.; & Campbell, Lyle. (1988). Panorama general de las lenguas indígenas en América. Historia general de América (Vol. 10). Caracas: Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia.
    • Rodrigues, Aryon. (1986). Linguas brasileiras: Para o conhecimento das linguas indígenas. São Paulo: Edições Loyola.
    • Rowe, John H. (1954). Linguistics classification problems in South America. In M. B. Emeneau (Ed.), Papers from the symposium on American Indian linguistics (pp. 10-26). University of California publications in linguistics (Vol. 10). Berkeley: University of California Press.
    • Sapir, Edward. (1929). Central and North American languages. In The encyclopædia britannica: A new survey of universal knowledge (14 ed.) (Vol. 5, pp. 138-141). London: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company, Ltd.
    • Voegelin, Carl F.; & Voegelin, Florence M. (1977). Classification and index of the world's languages. Amsterdam: Elsevier. ISBN 0-444-00155-7.


    North America


    • Boas, Franz. (1911). Handbook of American Indian languages (Vol. 1). Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 40. Washington: Government Print Office (Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology).
    • Boas, Franz. (1922). Handbook of American Indian languages (Vol. 2). Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 40. Washington: Government Print Office (Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology).
    • Boas, Franz. (1929). Classification of American Indian languages. Language, 5, 1-7.
    • Boas, Franz. (1933). Handbook of American Indian languages (Vol. 3). Native American legal materials collection, title 1227. Glückstadt: J.J. Augustin.
    • Bright, William. (1973). North American Indian language contact. In T. A. Sebeok (Ed.), Linguistics in North America (part 1, pp. 713-726). Current trends in linguistics (Vol. 10). The Hauge: Mouton.
    • Goddard, Ives (Ed.). (1996). Languages. Handbook of North American Indians (W. C. Sturtevant, General Ed.) (Vol. 17). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 0-16-048774-9.
    • Goddard, Ives. (1999). Native languages and language families of North America (rev. and enlarged ed. with additions and corrections). [Map]. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press (Smithsonian Institute). (Updated version of the map in Goddard 1996). ISBN 0-8032-9271-6.
    • Goddard, Ives. (2005). The indigenous languages of the southeast. Anthropological Linguistics, 47 (1), 1-60.
    • Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
    • Powell, John W. (1891). Indian linguistic families of America north of Mexico. Seventh annual report, Bureau of American Ethnology (pp. 1-142). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. (Reprinted in P. Holder (Ed.), 1966, Introduction to Handbook of American Indian languages by Franz Boas and Indian linguistic families of America, north of Mexico, by J. W. Powell, Lincoln: University of Nebraska).
    • Powell, John W. (1915). Linguistic families of American Indians north of Mexico by J. W. Powell, revised by members of the staff of the Bureau of American Ethnology. (Map). Bureau of American Ethnology miscellaneous publication (No. 11). Baltimore: Hoen.
    • Sebeok, Thomas A. (Ed.). (1973). Linguistics in North America (parts 1 & 2). Current trends in linguistics (Vol. 10). The Hauge: Mouton. (Reprinted as Sebeok 1976).
    • Sebeok, Thomas A. (Ed.). (1976). Native languages of the Americas. New York: Plenum.
    • Sherzer, Joel. (1973). Areal linguistics in North America. In T. A. Sebeok (Ed.), Linguistics in North America (part 2, pp. 749-795). Current trends in linguistics (Vol. 10). The Hauge: Mouton. (Reprinted in Sebeok 1976).
    • Sherzer, Joel. (1976). An areal-typological study of American Indian languages north of Mexico. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
    • Sletcher, Michael, ‘North American Indians’, in Will Kaufman and Heidi Macpherson, eds., Britain and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History, (2 vols., Oxford, 2005).
    • Sturtevant, William C. (Ed.). (1978-present). Handbook of North American Indians (Vol. 1-20). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. (Vols. 1-3, 16, 18-20 not yet published).
    • Vaas, Rüdiger: ‘Die Sprachen der Ureinwohner’. In: Stoll, Günter, Vaas, Rüdiger: Spurensuche im Indianerland. Hirzel. Stuttgart 2001, chapter 7.
    • Voegelin, Carl F.; & Voegelin, Florence M. (1965). Classification of American Indian languages. Languages of the world, Native American fasc. 2, sec. 1.6). Anthropological Linguistics, 7 (7): 121-150.
    • Zededa, Ofelia; Hill, Jane H. (1991). The condition of Native American Languages in the United States. In R. H. Robins & E. M. Uhlenbeck (Eds.), Endangered languages (pp. 135-155). Oxford: Berg.


    External links

    • (El Colegio de México)
    • (Proel)
      • (DCLMP)
    • (Online, Offline, Commercial & Non-Commercial)
    • (SSILA)
    • (YDLI)
    • (YDLI)
      • (YDLI)
    • (beautiful collection of ethnographic, linguistic, & historical material)
    • (University of California at Davis)
    • Map of languages in the US - William C. Sturtevant. (1967). Early Indian tribes, culture areas, and linguistic stocks.:
    • (one of the best scholarly journals devoted mostly to Native American linguistics)
    • (Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre)
    • Kansas Humanities Council