The indigenous languages of the Americas form various

linguistic area A sprachbund (, lit. "language federation"), also known as a linguistic area, area of linguistic convergence, or diffusion area, is a group of languages that share areal features resulting from geographical proximity and language contact. The lang ...

s or

Sprachbund A sprachbund (, lit. "language federation"), also known as a linguistic area, area of linguistic convergence, or diffusion area, is a group of languages that share areal features resulting from geographical proximity and language contact. The lang ...

s that share various common (areal) traits. America lang

Overview

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

s'' (also known as ''convergence areas''). The linguistic areas identified so far deserve more research to determine their validity. Knowing about Sprachbunds helps historical linguists differentiate between shared areal traits and true genetic relationship. The pioneering work on American areal linguistics was a dissertation by

Joel Sherzer Joel Fred Sherzer (March 18, 1942 – November 6, 2022) was an American anthropological linguist known for his research with the Guna people of Panama and his focus on verbal art and discourse-centered approaches to linguistic research. He co- ...

, which was published as Sherzer (1976). In ''American Indian Languages: the Historical Linguistics of Native America'', Lyle Campbell also lists over 20 linguistic areas, many of which are still hypothetical. ''Note'': Some linguistic areas may overlap with others.

Lexical diffusion

Pache, et al. (2016)Pache, Matthias, Søren Wichmann, and Mikhail Zhivlov. 2016
Words for ‘dog’ as a diagnostic of language contact in the Americas
In: Berez-Kroeker, Andrea L., Diane M. Hintz and Carmen Jany (eds.), Language Contact and Change in the Americas: Studies in Honor of Marianne Mithun, 385-409. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. note that the word ‘ dog’ is shared across various unrelated language families of the Americas, and use this word as a case study of lexical diffusion due to trade and contact. In California, identical roots for ‘dog’ are found in: * Yurok ''cʼišah'', Karuk ''čišiːh'', Takelma ''cʼíxi'', Yokuts *''cʼɨːsas'' * Chimariko ''šičela'',

Wintu The Wintu (also Northern Wintun) are Native Americans who live in what is now Northern California. They are part of a loose association of peoples known collectively as the Wintun (or Wintuan). Others are the Nomlaki and the Patwin. The Wintu ...

''se-cilaː'' ‘to tear apart’ * Wintun *''suku'', Maiduan *''sɨː'', Washo ''súkuʔ'', Miwok *''hayu'',

Costanoan The Ohlone, formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish meaning 'coast dweller'), are a Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the ...

(

Awaswas The Awaswas people, also known as Santa Cruz people, are one of eight divisions of the Ohlone Native Americans of Northern California. The Awaswas lived in the Santa Cruz Mountains and along the coast of present-day Santa Cruz County from pre ...

and Chocheño; Chocheño has the form ''čukuti''). Pache, et al. (2016) posit a Wintun origin for this root. * *''hayu'' root in Miwok,

Pomoan The Pomoan, or Pomo , languages are a small family of seven languages indigenous to northern California spoken by the Pomo people, whose ancestors lived in the valley of the Russian River and the Clear Lake basin. Four languages are extinct, an ...

Wappo The Wappo (endonym: ''Micewal'') are an indigenous people of northern California. Their traditional homelands are in Napa Valley, the south shore of Clear Lake, Alexander Valley, and Russian River valley. They are distantly related to the Yuki ...

, and Hill Patwin * Ramaytush ''puku'',

Uto-Aztecan Uto-Aztecan, Uto-Aztekan or (rarely in English) Uto-Nahuatl is a family of indigenous languages of the Americas, consisting of over thirty languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found almost entirely in the Western United States and Mexico. The na ...

*''punku'' *

(Mutsun ''xučekniṣ'', Chalon ''xučekniṣ'', and Rumsen ''xučːiys''),

Esselen The Esselen are a Native American people belonging to a linguistic group in the hypothetical Hokan language family, who are indigenous to the Santa Lucia Mountains of a region south of the Big Sur River in Big Sur, Monterey County, Californi ...

''hučumas'' (term borrowed from Costanoan; native terms are ''šošo'' and ''šanašo''),

Salinan The Salinan are a Native American tribe whose ancestral territory is in the southern Salinas Valley and the Santa Lucia Range in the Central Coast of California. Today, the Salinan governments are now working toward federal tribal recognition f ...

(Antoniaño Salinan ''xuč'' (pl. ''xostén'') and Migueleño Salinan ''xučaːi''), Chumash (Ineseño Chumash ''huču'', likely borrowed from Salinan) In South America, a root for ‘dog’ is shared by Uru-Chipayan (''paku'' or ''paqu'') and several unrelated neighboring languages of lowland Bolivia (

Movima Movima is a language that is spoken by about 1,400 (nearly half) of the Movima, a group of Native Americans that resides in the Llanos de Moxos region of the Bolivian Amazon, in northeastern Bolivia. It is considered a language isolate, as it h ...

''pako'',

Itonama Itonama is a moribund language isolate spoken by the Itonama people in the Amazonian lowlands of north-eastern Bolivia. Greenberg’s (1987) classification of Itonama as Paezan, a sub-branch of Macro-Chibchan, remains unsupported and Itonama co ...

''u-paʔu'', and

Trinitario The Trinitarios is an Dominican American criminal organization founded by Dominicans in New York City, New York in 1993. History The Trinitarios were established in 1993 on Rikers Island, the New York City jail,Luis Ferré-Sadurní & Barbara M ...

''paku''), as well as

Guaicuruan Guaicuruan (Guaykuruan, Waikurúan, Guaycuruano, Guaikurú, Guaicuru, Guaycuruana) is a language family spoken in northern Argentina, western Paraguay, and Brazil (Mato Grosso do Sul). The speakers of the languages are often collectively called ...

(

Mocoví The Mocoví ( Mocoví: ''moqoit'') are an indigenous people of the Gran Chaco region of South America. They speak the Mocoví language and are one of the ethnic groups belonging to the Guaycuru peoples. In the 2010 Argentine census, 22,439 peopl ...

, Toba, and Pilagá ''pioq''). An identical root for ‘dog’ is also shared by Huastec (*''sul'') and

Atakapa The Atakapa Sturtevant, 659 or Atacapa were an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, who spoke the Atakapa language and historically lived along the Gulf of Mexico in what is now Texas and Louisiana. They included several distinct band ...

(''šul''), which are very geographically distant from each other although both are located along the Gulf of Mexico coast. Areal words for ‘dog’ are also shared across the U.S. Southeast ( Karankawa ''keš'' ~ ''kes'', Chitimacha ''kiš'',

Cotoname Cotoname was a Pakawan language spoken by Native Americans indigenous to the lower Rio Grande Valley of northeastern Mexico and extreme southern Texas (United States). Today it is extinct. Vocabulary The following vocabulary list of Cotoname ...

''kissa'' ‘fox’, Huavean *''kisɨ''), as well as across Mesoamerica. Mesoamerican areal words for ‘dog’ diffused unidirectionally from certain language families to others, and are listed below: *Proto- Mixe-Zoquean *''ʔuku'' > Proto- Zapotec *''kweʔkkoʔ'' (

Ixtlán Zapotec Ixtlán Zapotec is a Zapotec dialect cluster of Oaxaca, Mexico. Varieties share about 80% mutual intelligibility. They are: *Yareni (Western Ixtlán, Etla Zapotec), spoken in Santa Ana Yareni. *Atepec (Macuiltianguis Zapotec), spoken in San Ju ...

''beʔkoʔ'') > Huastec ''pik’oʔ'',

Yucatec Yucatec Maya (; referred to by its speakers simply as Maya or as , is one of the 32 Mayan languages of the Mayan language family. Yucatec Maya is spoken in the Yucatán Peninsula and northern Belize. There is also a significant diasporic commu ...

''pè:k’'' * P’urhépecha ''wiču'' > Chontal ''wičuʔ'' *

Totonacan The Totonacan languages (also known as Totonac–Tepehua languages) are a Language families, family of closely related languages spoken by approximately 290,000 Totonac (approx. 280,000) and Tepehua people, Tepehua (approx. 10,000) people in the ...

''čiči(ʔ)'' >

Classical Nahuatl Classical Nahuatl (also known simply as Aztec or Nahuatl) is any of the variants of Nahuatl spoken in the Valley of Mexico and central Mexico as a ''lingua franca'' at the time of the 16th-century Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. During the s ...

''čiči''

Northern Northwest Coast

This linguistic area was proposed by Jeff Leer (1991), and may be a subarea of the Northwest Coast Linguistic Area. This sprachbund contains languages that have strict head-final (XSOV) syntax. Languages are Aleut,

Haida Haida may refer to: Places * Haida, an old name for Nový Bor * Haida Gwaii, meaning "Islands of the People", formerly called the Queen Charlotte Islands * Haida Islands, a different archipelago near Bella Bella, British Columbia Ships * , a 1 ...

Eyak The Eyak ( Eyak: ʔi·ya·ɢdəlahɢəyu·, literally "inhabitants of Eyak Village at Mile 6"Krauss, Michael E. 1970. ''Eyak dictionary''. University of Alaska and Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1963-1970) are a Native American indigenous ...

, and Tlingit. Leer (1991) considers the strong areal traits to be: *lack of labial obstruents *promiscuous number marking *periphrastic possessive construction

Northwest Coast

This linguistic area is characterized by elaborate consonant systems. Languages are

, Tlingit,

Athabaskan Athabaskan (also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large family of indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, Pacific C ...

, Tsimshian,

Wakashan 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), Washington state, on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. As is ...

Chimakuan The Chimakuan languages are a group of extinct languages that were spoken in northwestern Washington state, United States, on the Olympic Peninsula. They were spoken by Chimakum, Quileute and Hoh tribes. They are part of the Mosan sprachbund, a ...

, Salishan, Alsea,

Coosan Coosan () is a townland and suburb just north of Athlone, County Westmeath in Ireland. The suburb is surrounded on three sides by Lough Ree and on one side by Athlone. Coosan attracts tourists over the summer months due to its location on the ...

Kalapuyan Kalapuyan (also Kalapuya) is a small extinct language family that was spoken in the Willamette Valley of Western Oregon, United States. It consists of three languages. The Kalapuya language is currently in a state of revival. Kalapuyan descenda ...

, Takelma, and

Lower Chinook Lower Chinook is a Chinookan language spoken at the mouth of the Columbia River on the west coast of North America. Dialects * Clatsop (Tlatsop) was spoken in northwestern Oregon around the mouth of the Columbia River and the Clatsop Plains ...

. Phonological areal traits include: *Series of glottalized stops and affricates *Labiovelars *Multiple laterals *s/š opposition *c/č opposition * voiceless uvular stop ''q'' *one fricative series, which is voiceless *velar fricatives *highly limited inventory of labial consonants *large inventory of uvular consonants *limited vowel systems Typical shared morphological traits include: *reduplication processes: including iterative, continuative, progressive, plural, collective *numeral classifiers *alienable/inalienable oppositions in nouns *pronominal plural *nominal plural *verbal reduplication signifying distribution, repetition, etc. *suffixation of tense-aspect markers in verbs *verbal evidential markers *locative-directional markers in the verb *visibility/invisibility opposition in demonstratives *nominal and verbal reduplication signaling the diminutive *passive-like constructions (except for Tlingit) *negative appearing as the first element in a clause regardless of the usual word order *lexically paired singular and plural verb stems

Plateau

The Plateau linguistic area includes

Sahaptian Sahaptian (also Sahaptianic, Sahaptin, Shahaptian) is a two-language branch of the Plateau Penutian family spoken by Native Americans in the United States, Native American peoples in the Columbia Plateau region of Washington (state), Washington, ...

Upper Chinook Upper Chinook, endonym Kiksht, also known as Columbia Chinook, and Wasco-Wishram after its last surviving dialect, is a recently extinct language of the US Pacific Northwest. It had 69 speakers in 1990, of whom 7 were monolingual: five Wasco and ...

, Nicola,

Cayuse Cayuse may refer to: *Cayuse people, a people native to Oregon, United States *Cayuse language, an extinct language of the Cayuse people *Cayuse, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the United States *Cayuse horse, an archaic term for a feral or ...

Molala language Molala (Molele, Molalla) is the extinct and poorly attested Plateau Penutian language of the Molala people of Oregon and Washington. It is first attested along the Deschutes River, and later moved to the Molalla and Santiam rivers, and to the h ...

Klamath Klamath may refer to: Ethnic groups *Klamath people, a Native American people of California and Oregon **Klamath Tribes, a federally recognized group of tribes in Oregon *Klamath language, spoken by the Klamath people Places in the United States * ...

, Kutenai, and

Interior Salishan The Interior Salish languages are one of the two main branches of the Salishan language family, the other being Coast Salish. It can be further divided into Northern and Southern subbranches. The first Salishan people encountered by American expl ...

. Primary shared phonological features of this linguistic area include: *glottalized stops *velar/uvular contrasting series *multiple laterals Other less salient shared traits are: *labiovelars *one fricative series *velar (and uvular) fricatives *series of glottalized resonants (sonorants) contrasting with plain resonants (except in Sahaptin, Cayuse, Molala, and Kiksht) *word-medial and word-final consonant clusters of four or more consonants (except in Kiksht, and uncertain in Cayuse and Molala) *vowel systems of only 3 or 4 vowel positions (except Nez Perce, which has 5) *vowel-length contrast *size-shape-affective sound symbolism involving consonantal interchanges *pronominal plural *nominal plural *prefixation of subject person markers of verbs *suffixation of tense-aspect markers in verbs *several kinds of reduplication (except in Nicola) *numeral classifiers (shared by Salishan and Sahaptian languages) *locative-directional markers in verbs *different roots of the singular and the plural for various actions, such as 'sit', 'stand', 'take' (except in Kutenai and Lillooet, uncertain in Cayuse and Molala) *quinary-decimal numerical system (Haruo Aoki 1975)

Northern California

The Northern California linguistic area consists of many Hokan languages. Languages include Algic,

, Yukian,

Miwokan The Miwok or Miwokan languages (; Miwok: ), also known as ''Moquelumnan'' or ''Miwuk'', are a group of endangered languages spoken in central California by the Miwok peoples, ranging from the Bay Area to the Sierra Nevada. There are seven Miwok l ...

Wintuan The Wintun are members of several related Native American peoples of Northern California, including the Wintu (northern), Nomlaki (central), and Patwin (southern).Pritzker, 152Maiduan, Klamath-Modoc, Pomo, Chimariko, Achomawi, Atsugewi, Karuk, Shasta,

Yana Yana may refer to: Locations *Yana, Burma, a village in Hkamti Township in Hkamti District in the Sagaing Region of northwestern Burma *Yana, India, a village in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, India * Yana, Nigeria, an administrative ca ...

, ( Washo). Features of this linguistic area have been described by Mary Haas. They include: *rarity of uvular consonants: they occur in Klamath, Wintu, Chimariko, and Pomoan *retroflexed stops *rarity of a distinct series of voiced stops except in the east–west strip of languages including Kashaya Pomo, Wintu-Patwin, and Maidu (this series contains implosion in Maidu) *consonant sound symbolism: in Yurok, Wiyot, Hupa, Tolowa, Karuk, and Yana Washo, spoken in the Great Basin area, shares some traits common to the Northern California linguistic area. *pronominal dual *quinary/decimal numeral system *absence of vowel-initial syllables *free stress

Clear Lake

This is clearly a linguistic area, and is centered around

Clear Lake, California Clearlake is a city in Lake County, California. Clearlake is north-northwest of Lower Lake, at an elevation of . As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 16,685, up from 15,250 in 2010. It takes its name from Clear Lake. ...

. Languages are Lake Miwok,

Patwin The Patwin (also Patween, Southern Wintu) are a band of Wintun people native to the area of Northern California. The Patwin comprise the southern branch of the Wintun group, native inhabitants of California since approximately 500 AD. The Patwi ...

, East and Southeastern Pomo, and

. Shared features include: *retroflexed dentals *voiceless l (ɬ) *glottalized glides *3 series of stops

South Coast Range

Languages in Sherzer's (1976) "Yokuts-Salinan-Chumash" area, which includes Chumash,

, and

, share the following traits. *3 series of stops - also in the Clear Lake area *retroflexed sounds - also in the Clear Lake area *glottalized resonants (sonorants) *prefixation of verbal subject markers) *presence of /h, ɨ, c, ŋ/ in the Greater South Coast Range area *t/ṭ (retroflex/non-retroflex) contrast in the Greater South Coast Range area, as well as other parts of California

Great Basin

This linguistic area is defined by Sherzer (1973, 1976) and Jacobsen (1980). Languages are Numic (Uto-Aztecan) and Washo. Shared traits include: *k/kʷ contrast *bilabial fricatives /ɸ, β/ *presence of /xʷ, ŋ, ɨ/ *overtly marked nominal system *inclusive/exclusive pronominal distinction However, the validity of this linguistic area is doubtful, as pointed out by Jacobsen (1986), since many traits of the Great Basin area are also common to California languages. It may be an extension of the Northern California linguistic area.

Southern California–Western Arizona

This linguistic area has been demonstrated in Hinton (1991). Languages are Yuman,

Cupan The Cupan languages is a branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family that comprises Cupeño, Ivilyuat (Cahuilla), Luiseño-Juaneño, and perhaps Nicoleño, all historically spoken in southern California. The branch had long been considered to be ...

(Uto-Aztecan), less extensively

Takic The Takic languages are a putative group of Uto-Aztecan languages historically spoken by a number of Indigenous peoples of California, Indigenous peoples of Southern California. Takic is grouped with the Tübatulabal language, Tubatulabal, Hopi la ...

and (Uto-Aztecan). Shared traits include: *k/q distinction *presence of /kʷ, tʃ, x/ The Yuman and Cupan languages share the most areal features, such as: *kʷ/qʷ contrast *s/ʂ contrast *r/l contrast *presence of /xʷ, ɲ, lʲ/ *small vowel inventory *sound symbolism The influence is strongly unidirectional from Yuman to Cupan, since the features considered divergent within the Takic subgroup. According to Sherzer (1976), many of these traits are also common to Southern California languages. Shaul and Andresen (1989) have proposed a Southwestern Arizona ("Hohokam") linguistic area as well, where speakers of Piman languages are hypothesized to have interacted with speakers of Yuman languages as part of the Hohokam archaeological culture. The single trait defining this area is the presence of retroflex stops (/ʈ/ in Yuman, /ɖ/ in Piman).

Pueblo

The Pueblo linguistic area consists of Keresan, Tanoan, Zuni,

Hopi The Hopi are a Native American ethnic group who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 census, there are 19,338 Hopi in the country. The Hopi Tribe is a sovereign nation within the Unite ...

, and some Apachean branches.

Plains

The Plains Linguistic Area, according to Sherzer (1973:773), is the "most recently constituted of the culture areas of North America (late eighteenth and nineteenth century)." Languages are

, Algonquian, Siouan, Tanoan,

, and Tonkawa. The following areal traits are characteristic of this linguistic area, though they are also common in other parts of North America. *prefixation of subject person markers in verbs *pronominal plurals Frequent traits, which are not shared by all languages, include: *one stop series *the voiceless velar fricative /x/ *alienable/inalienable opposition in nouns *nominal plural suffix *inclusive/exclusive opposition (in first person plural pronouns) *nominal diminutive suffix *animate/inanimate gender *evidential markers in verbs *lack of labiovelars (other than Comanche and the languages of the Southern Plains subregion) *presence of /ð/ (eastern Plains subregion only) Southern Plains areal traits include: *phonemic pitch *presence of /kʷ, r/ *voiced/voiceless fricatives

Northeast

The Northeast linguistic area consists of

Winnebago Winnebago can refer to: * The exonym of the Ho-Chunk tribe of Native North Americans with reservations in Nebraska, Iowa, and Wisconsin ** Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, a federally recognized tribe group in the state ** The Winnebago language of the ...

(Siouan), Northern Iroquoian, and

Eastern Algonquian The Eastern Algonquian languages constitute a subgroup of the Algonquian languages. Prior to European contact, Eastern Algonquian consisted of at least 17 languages, whose speakers collectively occupied the Atlantic coast of North America and adj ...

. Central areal traits of the Northeast Linguistic Area include the following (Sherzer 1976). *a single series of stops (especially characteristic of the Northeast) *a single series of fricatives *presence of /h/ *nominal plural *noun incorporation In New England, areal traits include: *vowel system with /i, e, o, a/ *nasalized vowels *pronominal dual New England Eastern Algonquian languages and Iroquoian languages share the following traits. *nasalized vowels (best-known feature); for instance, Proto-Eastern Algonquian *a- is nasalized due to influence from Iroquioan languages, which have two nasalized vowels in its proto-language, *ɛ̃ and *õ. *pronominal dual The boundary between the Northeast and Southeast linguistic areas is not clearly determined, since features often extend over to territories belonging to both linguistic areas.

Southeast

Gulf languages The Gulf languages are a proposed family of native North American languages composed of the Muskogean languages, along with four language isolates: Natchez, Tunica, Atakapa, and (possibly) Chitimacha. History of proposal Gulf was proposed as a ...

include Muskogean, Chitimacha,

, Tunica language, Natchez, Yuchi,

Ofo Ofo (), stylised as ofo, was a Beijing-based bicycle sharing company founded in 2014. It used a dockless system with a smartphone app to unlock and locate nearby bicycles, charging an hourly rate for use. In 2017, it had deployed over 10 mil ...

(Siouan), Biloxi (Siouan) –
sometimes also Tutelo,

Catawban The Catawban, or Eastern Siouan, languages form a small language family in east North America. The Catawban family is a branch of the larger Siouan a.k.a. Siouan–Catawban family. Family division The Catawban family consists of two languages: ...

, Quapaw, Dhegiha (all Siouan);

Tuscarora Tuscarora may refer to the following: First nations and Native American people and culture * Tuscarora people **''Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation'' (1960) * Tuscarora language, an Iroquoian language of the Tuscarora people * ...

, Cherokee, and Shawnee. Bilabial or labial fricatives (/ɸ/, sometimes /f/) are considered by Sherzer (1976) to be the most characteristic trait of the Southeast Linguistic Area. Various other shared traits have been found by Robert L. Rankin (1986, 1988) and T. Dale Nicklas (1994).

Mesoamerican

This linguistic area consists of the following language families and branches. * Mayan * Oto-Manguean (except Chichimeco-Jonaz and some varieties of Pame north of the Mesoamerican boundary) * Mixe–Zoque *

* Aztecan (a Southern Uto-Aztecan branch) *

Purépecha The Purépecha (endonym pua, P'urhepecha ) are a group of indigenous people centered in the northwestern region of Michoacán, Mexico, mainly in the area of the cities of Cherán and Pátzcuaro. They are also known by the pejorative "Tarascan ...

* Huave *

Tequistlatec Tequistlatec was the Chontal language of Tequisistlán town, Oaxaca. Highland Oaxaca Chontal Highland Oaxaca Chontal, or Chontal de la Sierra de Oaxaca, is one of the Chontal languages of Oaxaca, Mexico. It is sometimes called ''Tequistlate ...

* Cuitlatec Some languages formerly considered to be part of the Mesoamerican sprachbund, but are now considered to lack main diagnostic traits of Mesoamerican area languages, include Cora, Huichol, Lenca, Jicaquean, and Misumalpan.

Mayan

The Mayan Linguistic Area is considered by most scholars to be part of the Mesoamerican area. However, Holt & Bright (1976) distinguish it as a separate area, and include the Mayan, Xincan, Lencan, and Jicaquean families as part of the Mayan Linguistic Area. Shared traits include: *presence of glottalized consonants and alveolar affricates *absence of voiced obstruents and labiovelar stops

Colombian–Central American

Colombian–Central American consists of Chibchan, Misumalpan, Mangue, and

Subtiaba Subtiaba is an extinct Oto-Manguean language which was spoken on the Pacific slope of Nicaragua, especially in the Subtiaba district of León. Edward Sapir established a connection between Subtiaba and Tlapanec. When Lehmann wrote about it in 1 ...

; sometimes Lencan, Jicaquean, Chochoan, and Betoi are also included. This linguistic area is characterized by SOV word order and postpositions. This stands in contrast to the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area, where languages do not have SOV word order. Holt & Bright (1976) define a Central American Linguistic Area as having the following areal traits. Note that these stand in direct opposition to the traits defined in their Mayan Linguistic Area. *presence of voiced obstruents and labiovelar stops (absent in the Mayan area) *absence of glottalized consonants and alveolar affricates (present in the Mayan area) Constenla's (1991) Colombian–Central American area consists primarily of Chibchan languages, but also include Lencan, Jicaquean, Misumalpan, Chocoan, and Betoi (Constenla 1992:103). This area consists of the following areal traits. *voicing opposition in stops and fricatives *exclusive SOV word order *postpositions *mostly Genitive-Noun order *Noun-Adjective order *Noun-Numeral order *clause-initial question words *suffixation or postposed particle for negatives (in most languages) *absence of gender opposition in pronouns and inflection *absence of possessed/nonpossessed and alienable/inalienable possession oppositions *"morpholexical economy" - presence of lexical compounds rather than independent roots. This is similar to calques found in Mesoamerica, but with a more limited number of compounding elements. For instance, in Guatuso (as in Athabaskan languages), there is one compounding element of liquid substances, one compounding element for pointed extremities, one for flat surfaces, and so on.

Venezuelan–Antillean

This linguistic area, consisting of

Arawakan Arawakan (''Arahuacan, Maipuran Arawakan, "mainstream" Arawakan, Arawakan proper''), also known as Maipurean (also ''Maipuran, Maipureano, Maipúre''), is a language family that developed among ancient indigenous peoples in South America. Branch ...

Cariban The Cariban languages are a Language family, family of languages indigenous to northeastern South America. They are widespread across northernmost South America, from the mouth of the Amazon River to the Colombian Andes, and they are also spoken ...

Guamo Guamo is a town and municipality in the Tolima department of Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as we ...

, Otomaco, Yaruro, and Warao, is characterized by VO word order (instead of SOV), and is described by Constenla (1991). Shared traits are: *exclusive VO word order, and absence of SOV word order *absence of voicing opposition in obstruents *Numeral-Noun order *Noun-Genitive order *presence of prepositions The Venezuelan–Antillean could also extend to the western part of the Amazon Culture Area (Amazonia), where there are many Arawakan languages with VO word order (Constenla 1991).

Andean

This linguistic area, consisting of

Quechuan Quechua (, ; ), usually called ("people's language") in Quechuan languages, is an indigenous language family spoken by the Quechua peoples, primarily living in the Peruvian Andes. Derived from a common ancestral language, it is the most widely ...

Aymaran Aymaran (also Jaqi or Aru) is one of the two dominant language families in the central Andes alongside Quechua languages, Quechuan. The family consists of Aymara language, Aymara, widely spoken in Bolivia, and the endangered Jaqaru language, Jaqa ...

, Callahuaya, and Chipaya, is characterized by SOV word order and elaborate suffixing. Quechuan and Aymaran languages both have: *SOV basic word order *suffixing morphology; other similar morphological structures Büttner's (1983:179) includes Quechuan, Aymaran, Callahuaya, and Chipaya. Puquina, an extinct but significant language in this area, appears to not share these phonological features. Shared phonological traits are: *glottalized stops and affricates (not found in all varieties of Quechuan) *aspirated stops and affricates (not found in Chipaya) *uvular stops *presence of /ɲ, lʲ/ *retroflexed affricates (retroflexed /ʃ/ and /t͡ʃ/) - more limited in distribution *absence of glottal stop /ʔ/ *limited vowel systems with /i, a, u/ (not in Chipaya) Constenla (1991) defines a broader Andean area including the languages of highland Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, and possibly also some lowland languages east of that Andes that have features typical of the Andean area. This area has the following areal traits. *absence of the high-mid opposition in back vowels *absence of the opposition of voiced/voiceless affricates *presence of the voiceless alveolar affricate, voiceless prepalatal fricative,

palatal lateral The voiced palatal lateral approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a rotated lowercase letter (not to be confused with lowercas ...

palatal nasal The voiced palatal nasal is a type of consonant used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a lowercase letter ''n'' with a leftward-pointing tail protruding from the bottom ...

, retroflexed fricatives or affricates *Adjective-Noun order *clause-initial interrogative words *accusative case *genitive case *passive construction

Statistical studies

Quantitative studies on the Andes and overlapping areas have found the following traits to be characteristic of these areas in a statistically significant way.

Morphosyntactic features

A statistical study of argument marking features in languages of South America found that both the Andes and Western South America constitute linguistic areas, with some traits showing a statistically significant relationship to both areas. The unique and shared traits of the two areas are shown in the following table. (The wordings of the traits are directly from the source.)

Phonological features

Phonologically, the following segments and segmental

features Feature may refer to: Computing * Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch * Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob * Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing characteristic of a software item ...

are areal for the Andes:

=Consonants

= *A contrast between aspirated and ejective in the

stops Stop may refer to: Places *Stop, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States * Stop (Rogatica), a village in Rogatica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina Facilities * Bus stop * Truck stop, a type of rest stop for truck dri ...

and the postalveolar affricate *A "comparatively large number of affricates, fricatives, and liquids" *The palatal place of articulation (in nasals and liquids) *The uvular place of articulation (in stops and fricatives) *The absence of the following types of consonants: ** Voiced alveolar stop and

affricate An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair. ...

Labialized velar A labialized velar or labiovelar is a velar consonant that is labialized, with a -like secondary articulation. Common examples are , which are pronounced like a , with rounded lips, such as the labialized voiceless velar plosive and labialized ...

voiceless stop and nasal ** Voiced bilabial and

voiceless labiodental fricative The voiceless labiodental fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in a number of spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . Some scholars also posit the voiceless labiodental approx ...

s **

Glottal stop The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...

and fricative

=Vowels

= *The presence of short /u/ and

long Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mensur ...

/iː, uː, aː/ *The absence of mid and non-low central vowels and nasal vowels, and "long versions of many of these vowels."

Ecuadorian–Colombian

This is a subarea of the Andean Linguistic Area, as defined by Constenla (1991). Languages include Páez,

Guambiano Guambiano or Misak are an indigenous people of the department of Cauca in Colombia. he Drama of Life Guambiano Life Cycle Customs , author=Judith Branks, Juan B. Sanchez , publisher- SIL International, date=1978 , pages= 107 Their language is k ...

(Paezan), Cuaiquer, Cayapa, Colorado (Barbacoan), Camsá, Cofán, Esmeralda, and Ecuadorian Quechua. Shared traits are: *high-mid opposition in the front vowels *absence of glottalized consonants *presence of the glottal stop /ʔ/, voiceless labial fricative /ɸ/ *absence of uvular stops /q, ɢ/ *rounding opposition in non-front vowels *lack of person inflection in nouns *prefixes expressing tenses or aspects

Orinoco–Amazon

The Orinoco–Amazon Linguistic Area, or the Northern Amazon Culture Area, is identified by Migliazza (1985 982. Languages include

Yanomaman Yanomaman, also as Yanomam, Yanomáman, Yamomámi, and Yanomamana (also Shamatari, Shirianan), is a family of languages spoken by about 20,000 Yanomami people in southern Venezuela and northwestern Brazil (Roraima, Amazonas). Subdivision Ferr ...

, Piaroa (Sálivan), Arawakan/Maipurean,

, Jotí, Uruak/Ahuaqué, Sapé (Kaliana), and Máku. Common areal traits are: *a shared pattern of discourse redundancy (Derbyshire 1977) *ergative alignment (except in a few Arawakan languages) *objects preceding verbs, such as SOV and OVS word orders (except in a few Arawakan languages) *lack of active-passive distinction *relative clauses formed by apposition and nominalization The following traits have diffused to west to east (Migliazza 1985 982: *nasalization *aspiration *glottalization

Amazon

The Amazon linguistic area includes the Arawakan/Maipurean, Arauan/Arawan,

, Chapacuran, Ge/Je,

Panoan Panoan (also Pánoan, Panoano, Panoana, Páno) is a family of languages spoken in Peru, western Brazil, and Bolivia. It is possibly a branch of a larger Pano–Tacanan family. Genetic relations The Panoan family is generally believed to be relat ...

, Puinavean,

Tacanan Tacanan is a family of languages spoken in Bolivia, with Ese’ejja also spoken in Peru. It may be related to the Panoan languages. Many of the languages are endangered. Family division * Ese Ejja (a.k.a. Ese’eha, Tiatinagua, Chama, Huara ...

, Tucanoan, and Tupian families. Derbyshire & Pullum (1986) and Derbyshire (1987) describe the characteristics of this linguistic area in detail. Traits include: *objects preceding subjects, such as VOS, OVS, and OSV word orders. Word order in OVS and OSV languages tends to be highly flexible. *verb agreement with both subject and object (additionally, null realization of subject and object nominals or free pronouns, which means that sentences frequently lack full noun-phrase subjects or objects) *predictability of when subjects and objects will be full noun phrases or when they will be signaled by verbal affixes (depending on whether they represent "new" or "given" information") *use of nominalizations for relative clauses and other subordinate clauses (in many cases, there are no true subordinate clauses at all) *nominal modifiers following their head nouns *no agentive passive constructions (except Palikur) *indirect speech forms are nonexistent in most languages and rare in the languages that do have them; thus, they rely on direct speech constructions. *absence of coordinating conjunctions (juxtaposition is used to express coordination instead) *extensive use of right-dislocated paratactic constructions (sequences of noun phrases, adverbials, or postpositional phrases, in which the whole sequence has only one grammatical relation in the sentence) *extensive use of particles that are phrasal subconstituents syntactically and phonologically, but are sentence operators or modifiers semantically *tendency toward ergative subject marking *highly complex morphology Noun classifier systems are also common across Amazonian languages. Derbyshire & Payne (1990) list three basic types of classifier systems. *Numeral: lexico-syntactic forms, which are often obligatory in expressions of quantity and normally are separate words. *Concordial: a closed grammatical system, consisting of morphological affixes or clitics and expressing class agreement with some head noun. However, they may also occur on nouns or verbs. *Verb incorporation: lexical items are incorporated into the verb stem, signaling some classifying entity of the associated noun phrase. Derbyshire (1987) also notes that Amazonian languages tend to have: *ergatively organized systems (in whole or in part) *evidence of historical drift from ergative to accusative marking *certain types of split systems Mason (1950) has found that in many languages of central and eastern Brazil, words end in vowels, and stress is ultimate (i.e., falls on the final syllable). Lucy Seki (1999) has also proposed an Upper Xingu Linguistic Area in northern Brazil.

Validity

The validity of Amazonia as a linguistic area has been called into question by recent research, including quantitative studies. A study of argument marking parameters in 74 South American languages by Joshua Birchall found that “not a single feature showed an areal distribution for Amazonia as a macroregion. This suggest that Amazonia is not a good candidate for a linguistic area based on the features examined in this study.” Instead, Birchall finds evidence for three “macroregions” in South America: the Andes, Western South America, and Eastern South America, with some overlap in features between Andes and Western South America. Based on that study and similar findings, Patience Epps and Lev Michael claim that “an emerging consensus points to Amazonia not forming a linguistic area ''sensu strictu''.” Epps (2015) shows that Wanderwort are spread across the languages of Amazonia. Morphosyntax is also heavily borrowed across neighboring unrelated Amazonian languages.

Mamoré–Guaporé

Crevels and van der Voort (2008) propose a Mamoré– Guaporé linguistic area in eastern lowland Bolivia (in

Beni Department Beni (), sometimes El Beni, is a northeastern department of Bolivia, in the lowlands region of the country. It is the second-largest department in the country (after Santa Cruz), covering 213,564 square kilometers (82,458 sq mi), and it was cre ...

and Santa Cruz Department) and Rondonia, Brazil. In Bolivia, many of the languages were historically spoken at the

Jesuit Missions of Moxos The Jesuit Missions of Moxos are located in the Llanos de Moxos of Beni department in eastern Bolivia. Distinguished by a unique fusion of European and Amerindian cultural influences, the missions were founded as reductions or ''reducciones de ...

and also the

Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos The Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos are located in Santa Cruz department in eastern Bolivia. Six of these former missions (all now secular municipalities) collectively were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990. Distinguished by a un ...

. Language families and branches in the linguistic area include Arawakan, Chapacuran, Jabuti, Rikbaktsá, Nambikwaran, Pano-Tacanan, and Tupian (Guarayo, Kawahib, Arikem, Tupari, Monde, and Ramarama) languages. Language isolates in the linguistic area are Cayuvava,

, Chimane/Mosetén,

Canichana Canichana, or Canesi, Joaquiniano, is a possible language isolate of Bolivia (department of Beni). In 1991 there were 500 Canichana people, but only 20 spoke the Canichana language; by 2000 the ethnic population was 583, but the language had no L ...

, Yuracaré, Leco, Mure, Aikanã, Kanoê, and Kwazá, Irantxe, and

Chiquitano The Chiquitano or Chiquitos are an indigenous people of Bolivia, with a small number also living in Brazil. The Chiquitano primarily live in the Chiquitania tropical savanna of Santa Cruz Department, Bolivia, with a small number also living in Be ...

. Areal features include: * a high incidence of prefixes * evidentials * directionals * verbal number * lack of nominal number * lack of classifiers * inclusive/exclusive distinction Muysken et al. (2014) also performed a detailed statistical analysis of the Mamoré–Guaporé linguistic area.Muysken, Pieter; Hammarström, Harald; Birchall, Joshua; Van Gijn, Rik; Krasnoukhova, Olga; Müller, Neele (2014)
Linguistic areas: bottom-up or top-down? The case of the Guaporé-Mamoré
In: Comrie, Bernard; Golluscio, Lucia. ''Language Contact and Documentation / Contacto lingüístico y documentación''. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 205-238.

Chaco

Campbell and Grondona (2012) consider the Mataco–Guaicuru,

Mascoyan The Mascoian also known as Enlhet–Enenlhet, Lengua–Mascoy, or Chaco languages are a small, closely related language family of Paraguay. Languages The languages are:Unruh, Ernesto; Kalisch, Hannes. 2003. "Enlhet-Enenlhet. Una familia lingüí ...

, Lule-Vilelan,

Zamucoan Zamucoan (also Samúkoan) is a small language family of Paraguay (northeast Chaco Department, Chaco) and Bolivia (Santa Cruz Department (Bolivia), Santa Cruz Department). The family has hardly been studied by linguists (as of Adelaar & Muysken 2 ...

, and some southern Tupi-Guarani languages to be part of a '' Chaco'' linguistic area. Common Chaco areal features include SVO word order and active-stative verb

alignment Alignment may refer to: Archaeology * Alignment (archaeology), a co-linear arrangement of features or structures with external landmarks * Stone alignment, a linear arrangement of upright, parallel megalithic standing stones Biology * Structu ...

. Features include: *gender that not overtly marked on nouns, but is present in demonstratives, depending on the gender of the nouns modified *genitive classifiers for possessed domestic animals *SVO word order *active-stative verb alignment *large set of directional verbal affixes *demonstrative system with rich contrasts including visible vs. not visible *some adjectives as polar negatives *resistance to borrowing foreign words

South Cone

The languages of the South Cone area, including

Mapudungu Mapuche (, Mapuche & Spanish: , or Mapudungun; from ' 'land' and ' 'speak, speech') is an Araucanian language related to Huilliche spoken in south-central Chile and west-central Argentina by the Mapuche people (from ''mapu'' 'land' and ''che ...

(Araucanian),

Guaycuruan Guaicuruan (Guaykuruan, Waikurúan, Guaycuruano, Guaikurú, Guaicuru, Guaycuruana) is a language family spoken in northern Argentina, western Paraguay, and Brazil ( Mato Grosso do Sul). The speakers of the languages are often collectively calle ...

, and Chon, share the following traits (Klein 1992): *Semantic notions of position signaled morphologically by means of "many devices to situate the visual location of the noun subject or object relative to the speaker; tense, aspect and number are expressed as part of the morphology of location, direction, and motion" (Klein 1992:25). *palatalization *more back consonants than front consonants *SVO basic word order

Notes

References

*Birchall, Joshua. 2015. ''Argument marking patterns in South American languages''. Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen: PhD Dissertation. *

Campbell, Lyle Lyle Richard Campbell (born October 22, 1942) is an American scholar and linguist known for his studies of Indigenous languages of the Americas, indigenous American languages, especially those of Central America, and on historical linguistics in ...

. 1997. ''American Indian languages: the historical linguistics of Native America''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. *Epps, Patience and Lev Michael. To appear. "The areal linguistics of Amazonia." *Constenla Umaña, Adolfo. 1991. ''Las lenguas del área intermedia: introducción a su estudio areal''. San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica. * Holt, Dennis and William Bright. 1976. "La lengua paya y las fronteras lingüística de Mesoamérica." Las fronteras de Mesoamérica. ''La 14a mesa redonda, Sociedad Mexicana de Antropología'' 1:149-156. *Michael, Lev, Will Chang, and Tammy Stark. 2012
"Exploring phonological areality in the circum-Andean region using a Naive Bayes Classifier."
''Language Dynamics and Change'' 4(1): 27–86. (Page numbers in this article refer to the pages of the linked PDF, not the journal version.) *Sherzer, Joel. 1973. "Areal linguistics in North America." In ''Linguistics in North America'', ed. Thomas A. Sebeok, 749–795. (''CTL'', vol. 10.) The Hague: Mouton. *Sherzer, Joel. 1976. ''An areal-typological study of American Indian languages north of Mexico''. Amsterdam: North-Holland.

External links

Languages of hunter-gatherers and their neighbors
A collection of lexical, grammatical, and other information about languages spoken by hunter-gatherers and their neighbors.
South American Indigenous Language Structures (SAILS)
{{South American languages Indigenous languages of the Americas Linguistic typology Sprachbund