Novedad bibliográfica

Overview

- Includes a comprehensive history of American Indian languages

- Provides up to date classification of all the Indigenous languages of the Americas

- Offers resolution of several controversial issues, as well as new contributions of its own regarding hypotheses of language relatedness, language contact, linguistic areas, and unclassified languages

Description

The Indigenous Languages of the Americas takes stock of what is known about the history and classification of these languages and language families. It identifies the gaps in knowledge and puts them into perspective, and it assesses differences of opinion. It also resolves some issues and makes new contributions of its own.

The nine chapters of the book deal incisively with the major themes involving these languages: the classification and history of the Indigenous languages of North American, Middle American (Mexico and Central America), and South American; difficulties involving names of the languages; origins of the languages of the New World; unclassified, phantom, fake, and spurious languages in the Americas; recent hypotheses of remote linguistic relationships; the linguistic areas of the Americas; contact languages, including pidgins, lingua francas, and mixed languages; and loanwords and other new words in the native languages of the Americas.

Author information

Lyle Campbell is Professor Emeritus at the University of Hawai'i Manoa.

Preface

Acknowledgements

Phonetic symbols

Abbreviations

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. North American Indian Languages North of Mexico

Chapter 3. Middle American languages (Mexico and Central America)

Chapter 4. Indigenous Languages of South American

Chapter 5. Unclassified and Spurious Languages

Chapter 6. Distant Linguistic Relationships

Chapter 7. Linguistic Areas of the Americas

Chapter 8. Contact Languages

Chapter 9. Loanwords and other New Words in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas

References