The Indigenous languages of the Americas are the

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

s that were used by the

Indigenous peoples of the Americas In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of ...

before the arrival of non-Indigenous peoples. Over a thousand of these languages are still used today, while many more are now

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

. The Indigenous languages of the Americas are not all related to each other; instead, they are classified into a hundred or so

language families A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term ''family'' is a metaphor borrowed from biology, with the tree model used in historical linguistics ana ...

and

isolates Isolates is a term used in developmental psychology and family studies to describe members of a study group, usually children through young adults, who do not actively participate in cliques or friendship groups. Isolates are one of four types of ...

, as well as several extinct languages that are

unclassified Classified information is confidential material that a government deems to be sensitive information which must be protected from unauthorized disclosure that requires special handling and dissemination controls. Access is restricted by law or r ...

due to the lack of information on them. Many proposals have been made to relate some or all of these languages to each other, with varying degrees of success. The most widely reported is

Joseph Greenberg Joseph Harold Greenberg (May 28, 1915 – May 7, 2001) was an American linguist, known mainly for his work concerning linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages. Life Early life and education Joseph Greenberg was born on M ...

's Amerind hypothesis, which, however, nearly all specialists reject because of severe methodological flaws; spurious data; and a failure to distinguish cognation,

contact Contact may refer to: Interaction Physical interaction * Contact (geology), a common geological feature * Contact lens or contact, a lens placed on the eye * Contact sport, a sport in which players make contact with other players or objects * C ...

, and coincidence. According to

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

, most of the Indigenous languages of the Americas are critically endangered, and many are dormant (without native speakers but with a community of heritage-language users) or entirely extinct.. (Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com) The most widely spoken Indigenous languages are

Southern Quechua Southern Quechua (, ), or simply Quechua (Qichwa or Qhichwa), is the most widely spoken of the major regional groupings of mutually intelligible dialects within the Quechua language family, with about 6.9 million speakers. Besides Guaraní it ...

(spoken primarily in southern Peru and Bolivia) and Guarani (centered in Paraguay, where it shares national language status with Spanish), with perhaps six or seven million speakers apiece (including many of European descent in the case of Guarani). Only half a dozen others have more than a million speakers; these are

Aymara Aymara may refer to: Languages and people * Aymaran languages, the second most widespread Andean language ** Aymara language, the main language within that family ** Central Aymara, the other surviving branch of the Aymara(n) family, which today ...

of Bolivia and

Nahuatl Nahuatl ( ; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller popul ...

of Mexico, with almost two million each; the Mayan languages Kekchi and K’iche’ of Guatemala and

Yucatec Yucatec Maya ( ; referred to by its speakers as or ) is a Mayan language spoken in the Yucatán Peninsula, including part of northern Belize. There is also a significant diasporic community of Yucatec Maya speakers in San Francisco, though m ...

of Mexico, with about 1 million apiece; and perhaps one or two additional Quechuan languages in Peru and Ecuador. In the United States, 372,000 people reported speaking an Indigenous language at home in the 2010 census. In Canada, 133,000 people reported speaking an Indigenous language at home in the 2011 census. In Greenland, about 90% of the population speaks Greenlandic, the most widely spoken Eskaleut language.

Background

Over a thousand known languages were spoken by various peoples in North and South America prior to their first contact with Europeans. These encounters occurred between the beginning of the 11th century (with the

Nordic Nordic most commonly refers to: * Nordic countries, the northern European countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and their North Atlantic territories * Scandinavia, a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern ...

settlement of

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

and failed efforts in

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the populatio ...

) and the end of the 15th century (the voyages of

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...

). Several Indigenous cultures of the Americas had also developed their own

writing system A writing system comprises a set of symbols, called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which the script represents a particular language. The earliest writing appeared during the late 4th millennium BC. Throughout history, each independen ...

s, the best known being the

Maya script Maya script, also known as Maya glyphs, is historically the native writing system of the Maya civilization of Mesoamerica and is the only Mesoamerican writing system that has been substantially deciphered. The earliest inscriptions found which ...

. The Indigenous languages of the Americas had widely varying demographics, from the

Quechuan languages Quechua (, ), also called (, 'people's language') in Southern Quechua, is an indigenous language family that originated in central Peru and thereafter spread to other countries of the Andes. Derived from a common ancestral " Proto-Quechua" ...

, Guarani, and

, which had millions of active speakers, to many languages with only several hundred speakers. After pre-Columbian times, several Indigenous

creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable form of contact language that develops from the process of different languages simplifying and mixing into a new form (often a pidgin), and then that form expanding and elaborating into a full-fl ...

s developed in the Americas, based on European, Indigenous and African languages. The European colonizing nations and their successor states had widely varying attitudes towards Native American languages. In Brazil, friars learned and promoted the

Tupi language Old Tupi, Ancient Tupi or Classical Tupi () is a classical Tupian language which was spoken by the indigenous Tupi people of Brazil, mostly those who inhabited coastal regions in South and Southeast Brazil. In the words of Brazilian tupinol ...

. In many Spanish colonies, Spanish missionaries often learned local languages and culture in order to preach to the natives in their own tongue and relate the Christian message to their Indigenous religions. In the British American colonies, John Eliot of the

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around Massachusetts Bay, one of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of M ...

translated the Bible into the

Massachusett language The Massachusett language is an Algonquian languages, Algonquian language of the Algic languages, Algic language family that was formerly spoken by several peoples of eastern coastal and southeastern Massachusetts. In its revived form, it is s ...

, also called Wampanoag, or Natick (1661–1663); he published the first Bible printed in North America, the ''

Eliot Indian Bible The ''Eliot Indian Bible'' ( Massachusett: ; also known as the ''Algonquian Bible'') was the first translation of the Christian Bible into an indigenous American language, as well as the first Bible published in British North America. It was ...

''. The Europeans also suppressed use of Indigenous languages, establishing their own languages for official communications, destroying texts in other languages, and insisted that Indigenous people learn European languages in schools. As a result, Indigenous languages suffered from cultural suppression and loss of speakers. By the 18th and 19th centuries, Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, and Dutch, brought to the Americas by European settlers and administrators, had become the official or national languages of modern nation-states of the Americas. Many Indigenous languages have become critically endangered, but others are vigorous and part of daily life for millions of people. Several Indigenous languages have been given official status in the countries where they occur, such as

Guaraní Guarani, Guaraní or Guarany may refer to Ethnography * Guaraní people, an indigenous people from South America's interior (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia) * Guarani language, or Paraguayan Guarani, an official language of Paraguay * G ...

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

. In other cases official status is limited to certain regions where the languages are most spoken. Although sometimes enshrined in constitutions as official, the languages may be used infrequently in ''de facto'' official use. Examples are

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several Indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, an Indigenous South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language ...

in Peru and

in Bolivia, where in practice, Spanish is dominant in all formal contexts. In the North American Arctic region, Greenland in 2009 elected Kalaallisut as its sole official language. In the United States, the

Navajo language Navajo or Navaho ( ; Navajo: or ) is a Southern Athabaskan languages, Southern Athabaskan language of the Na-Dene languages, Na-Dené family, through which it is related to languages spoken across the western areas of North America. Navajo i ...

is the most spoken Native American language, with more than 200,000 speakers in the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural list of regions of the United States, region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacen ...

. The US Marine Corps recruited Navajo men, who were established as

code talkers A code talker was a person employed by the military during wartime to use a little-known language as a means of secret communication. The term is most often used for United States service members during the World Wars who used their knowledge ...

during World War II.

Origins

In ''American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America'' (1997),

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

lists several hypotheses for the historical origins of Amerindian languages. * A single, one-language migration (not widely accepted) * A few linguistically distinct migrations (favored by

Edward Sapir Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American anthropologist-linguistics, linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States ...

) * Multiple migrations * Multilingual migrations (single migration with multiple languages) * The influx of already diversified but related languages from the

Old World The "Old World" () is a term for Afro-Eurasia coined by Europeans after 1493, when they became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia in the Eastern Hemisphere, previously ...

* Extinction of

linguistic relatives (while the New World ones survived) * Migration along the Pacific coast instead of by the

Bering Strait The Bering Strait ( , ; ) is a strait between the Pacific and Arctic oceans, separating the Chukchi Peninsula of the Russian Far East from the Seward Peninsula of Alaska. The present Russia–United States maritime boundary is at 168° 58' ...

Roger Blench Roger Marsh Blench (born August 1, 1953) is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is based in Cambridge, England. He researches, publishes, and work ...

(2008) has advocated the theory of multiple migrations along the Pacific coast of peoples from northeastern Asia, who already spoke diverse languages. These proliferated in the New World.

Numbers of speakers and political recognition

Countries like Mexico, Bolivia, Venezuela, Guatemala, and Guyana recognize most Indigenous languages. Bolivia and Venezuela give all Indigenous languages official status. Canada, Argentina, and the U.S. allow provinces and states to decide. Brazil limits recognition to localities. * Bolivia: Official status for all Indigenous languages. * Venezuela: Official status for all Indigenous languages. * Mexico: Recognizes all Indigenous languages. * Guatemala: Recognizes all Indigenous languages. * Guyana: Recognizes most Indigenous languages. * Colombia: Local recognition at the department level. * Canada: Bill C-91

Indigenous Languages Act The Indigenous Languages Act () is a Canadian federal law designed to protect, promote, revive and revitalise indigenous languages in Canada. History The Truth and Reconcilliation Commission recommended an "Aboriginal Languages Act". The a ...

and Indigenous languages recognition in Parliament. * Argentina: Provincial determination of language policies. * United States: State determination of language policies. * Brazil: Local recognition of Indigenous languages. Canada Bill C-91, passed in 2019, supports Indigenous languages through sustainable funding and the Office of the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages. The first Commissioner of Indigenous languages in Canada is

Ronald E. Ignace Ronald is a masculine given name derived from the Old Norse ''Rögnvaldr'', Hanks; Hardcastle; Hodges (2006) p. 234; Hanks; Hodges (2003) § Ronald. or possibly from Old English '' Regenweald''. In some cases ''Ronald'' is an Anglicised form of ...

. Colombia Colombia delegates local Indigenous language recognition to the department level according to the

Colombian Constitution of 1991 The Political Constitution of Colombia of 1991 (), is the Constitution of the Republic of Colombia. It was promulgated in Constitutional Gazette number 114 on Sunday, July 7, 1991, and is also known as the Constitution of Human Rights. It re ...

. * Bullet points represent minority language status. Political entities with

official language An official language is defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary as, "the language or one of the languages that is accepted by a country's government, is taught in schools, used in the courts of law, etc." Depending on the decree, establishmen ...

status are highlighted in bold.

Language families and unclassified languages

Notes: *

Extinct language An extinct language or dead language is a language with no living native speakers. A dormant language is a dead language that still serves as a symbol of ethnic identity to an ethnic group; these languages are often undergoing a process of r ...

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). * For convenience, the following list of language families is divided into three sections based on political boundaries of countries. These sections correspond roughly with the geographic regions (North, Central, and South America) but are not equivalent. This division cannot fully delineate Indigenous culture areas.

Northern America

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 Na-Dene ( ; also Nadene, Na-Dené, Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit, Tlina–Dene) is a family of Native American languages that includes at least the Athabaskan languages, Eyak, and Tlingit languages. Haida was formerly included but is now general ...

Algic The Algic languages (also Algonquian–Wiyot–Yurok or Algonquian–Ritwan) are an indigenous language family of North America. Most Algic languages belong to the Algonquian subfamily, dispersed over a broad area from the Rocky Mountains to ...

, and

Uto-Aztecan The Uto-Aztecan languages are a family of native American languages, consisting of over thirty languages. Uto-Aztecan languages are found almost entirely in the Western United States and Mexico. The name of the language family reflects the common ...

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

); Na-Dené comes in second with approximately 200,000 speakers (nearly 180,000 of these are speakers of

Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...

), and Algic in third with about 180,000 speakers (mainly

Cree The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...

and

Ojibwe The Ojibwe (; Ojibwe writing systems#Ojibwe syllabics, syll.: ᐅᒋᐺ; plural: ''Ojibweg'' ᐅᒋᐺᒃ) are an Anishinaabe people whose homeland (''Ojibwewaki'' ᐅᒋᐺᐘᑭ) covers much of the Great Lakes region and the Great Plains, n ...

). 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 The Kickapoo people (; Kickapoo: Kiikaapoa or Kiikaapoi; ) are an Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe and Indigenous people in Mexico, originating in the region south of the Great Lakes. There are three federally recognized Kickapoo trib ...

) with two outliers in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

(

Yurok The Yurok people are an Algic-speaking Indigenous people of California that has existed along the or "Health-kick-wer-roy" (now known as the Klamath River) and on the Pacific coast, from Trinidad south of the Klamath’s mouth almost to Cresc ...

and

Wiyot The Wiyot ( Wiyot: Wíyot, Chetco-Tolowa: Wee-'at xee-she or Wee-yan' Xee-she', Euchre Creek Tututni: Wii-yat-dv-ne – "Mad River People", Yurok: Weyet) are an indigenous people of California living near Humboldt Bay, California and a small ...

); Na-Dené spans from Alaska and western Canada through

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, and California to the U.S. Southwest 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 Penutian is a proposed grouping of language family, language families that includes many Native Americans in the United States, Native American languages of western North America, predominantly spoken at one time in British Columbia, Washington ( ...

and Hokan, look particularly promising. However, even after decades of research, a large number of families remain. North America is notable for its linguistic diversity, especially in California. This area has 18 language families comprising 74 languages (compared to two indigenous families in Europe:

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

and

Uralic The Uralic languages ( ), sometimes called the Uralian languages ( ), are spoken predominantly in Europe and North Asia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, and Estonian. Other languages with speakers abo ...

, and one isolate,

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

). Another area of considerable diversity appears to have been the

Southeastern Woodlands Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, Southeastern cultures, or Southeast Indians are an Ethnography, ethnographic classification for Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans who have traditionally inhabited the area now ...

; 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 influenced the development of linguistic theories and practice in the US. Due to the diversity of languages in North America, it is difficult to make generalizations for the region. Most North American languages have a relatively small number of vowels (i.e. three to five vowels). Languages of the western half of North America often have relatively large consonant inventories. The languages of the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

are notable for their complex

phonotactics Phonotactics (from Ancient Greek 'voice, sound' and 'having to do with arranging') is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes. Phonotactics defines permissible syllable struc ...

(for example, some languages have words that lack

vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

s entirely). The languages of the

Plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; : plateaus or plateaux), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. ...

area have relatively rare pharyngeals and epiglottals (they are otherwise restricted to

Afroasiatic languages The Afroasiatic languages (also known as Afro-Asiatic, Afrasian, Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic) are a language family (or "phylum") of about 400 languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of th ...

and the

languages of the Caucasus The Caucasian languages comprise a large and extremely varied array of languages spoken by more than ten million people in and around the Caucasus Mountains, which lie between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Linguistic comparison allows t ...

Ejective consonant In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a Airstream mechanism#Glottalic initiation, glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with Aspirat ...

s are also common in western North America, although they are rare elsewhere (except, again, for the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

region, parts of Africa, and the

Mayan Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

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 In linguistic typology, polysynthetic languages, formerly holophrastic languages, are highly synthetic languages, i.e., languages in which words are composed of many morphemes (word parts that have independent meaning but may or may not be able t ...

(

Eskaleut languages The Eskaleut ( ), Eskimo–Aleut or Inuit–Yupik–Unangan languages are a language family native to the northern portions of the North American continent, and a small part of northeastern Asia. Languages in the family are indigenous to parts of ...

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 marking of the

Tanoan languages Tanoan ( ), also Kiowa–Tanoan or Tanoan–Kiowa, is a family of languages spoken by indigenous peoples in present-day New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Most of the languages – Tiwa (Taos, Picuris, Southern Tiwa), Tewa, and Towa � ...

, the lexical

affix In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. The main two categories are Morphological derivation, derivational and inflectional affixes. Derivational affixes, such as ''un-'', ''-ation' ...

es of the

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, on the south side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. As is typical of the Nor ...

Salishan The Salishan languages ( ), also known as the Salish languages ( ), are a family of languages found in the Pacific Northwest in North America, namely the Canadian province of British Columbia and the American states of Washington, Oregon, Ida ...

and

Chimakuan languages 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, ...

, and the unusual verb structure of Na-Dené. The classification below is a composite of Goddard (1996), Campbell (1997), and

Mithun Mithun is another name for the gayal, a species of cattle. Mithun, Midhun or Mithen or Mrithun can also refer to: Organisations *Mithun, Inc, an American integrated design firm *Mithun Agency, an American advertising agency People Given name * ...

(1999). * Adai ''†'' *

(30) *

Alsea The Alsea are a Native American tribe of Western Oregon. They are (since 1856), confederated with other Tribes on the Siletz Reservation, Oregon, and are members of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz. Their origin story says that the Yaquina, A ...

(2) ''†'' *

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 b ...

''†'' *

Beothuk The Beothuk ( or ; also spelled Beothuck) were a group of Indigenous peoples in Canada, Indigenous people of Canada who lived on the island of Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland. The Beothuk culture formed around 1500 CE. This may have been ...

''†'' *

Caddoan The Caddoan languages are a family of languages native to the Great Plains spoken by tribal groups of the central United States, from present-day North Dakota south to Oklahoma. All Caddoan languages are critically endangered, as the number of sp ...

(5) * Cayuse ''†'' * Chimakuan (2) ''†'' * Chimariko ''†'' *

Chinookan The Chinookan languages are a small family of extinct languages spoken in Oregon and Washington along the Columbia River by Chinook peoples. Although the last known native speaker of any Chinookan language died in 2012, the 2009-2013 American C ...

(3) ''†'' *

Chitimacha The Chitimacha ( ; or ) are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands in Louisiana. They are a federally recognized tribe, the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana. The Chitimacha have an Indian reservation in St. Mary Parish near Charento ...

''†'' *

Chumashan Chumashan is an extinct and revitalizing family of languages that were spoken on the southern California coast by Native American Chumash people, from the Coastal plains and valleys of San Luis Obispo to Malibu, neighboring inland and Trans ...

(6) ''†'' *

Coahuilteco Coahuilteco was one of the Indigenous languages that was spoken in southern Texas (United States) and northeastern Coahuila (Mexico). It is now extinct, and is typically considered to be a language isolate, but has also been proposed to be part o ...

''†'' *

Comecrudan Comecrudan refers to a group of possibly related languages spoken in the southernmost part of Texas and in northern Mexico along the Rio Grande of which ''Comecrudo'' is the best known. These were spoken by the Comecrudo people. Very little is ...

(United States & Mexico) (3) ''†'' *

Coosan Coosan () is a townland and suburb north of Athlone, County Westmeath in Ireland. Coosan, which is situated on the shores of Lough Ree, is surrounded by water on three sides and bordered by Athlone on the fourth. Coosan attracts tourists over t ...

(2) ''†'' *

Cotoname Cotoname is an Indigenous language of Mexico and the American state of Texas formerly spoken by Native Americans indigenous to the lower Rio Grande Valley of northeastern Mexico and extreme southern Texas (United States). Today it is extinct, a ...

''†'' * Eskaleut (7) *

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 California. Prior to Spanish col ...

''†'' *

Haida Haida may refer to: Haida people Many uses of the word derive from the name of an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. * Haida people, an Indigenous ethnic group of North America (Canada) ** Council of the Haida Nati ...

Iroquoian The Iroquoian languages () are a language family of indigenous peoples of North America. They are known for their general lack of labial consonants. The Iroquoian languages are polysynthetic and head-marking. As of 2020, almost all surviving I ...

(11) *

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 descendan ...

(3) ''†'' *

Karankawa The Karankawa were an Indigenous people concentrated in southern Texas along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, largely in the lower Colorado River and Brazos River valleys."Karankawa." In ''Cassell's Peoples, Nations and Cultures,'' edited by Joh ...

''†'' *

Karuk The Karuk people ()Andrew Garrett, Susan Gehr, Erik Hans Maier, Line Mikkelsen, Crystal Richardson, and Clare Sandy. (November 2, 2021) ''Karuk; To appear in The Languages and Linguistics of Indigenous North America: A Comprehensive Guide (De G ...

Keresan Keres (), also Keresan (), is a Native American language, spoken by the Keres Pueblo people in New Mexico. Depending on the analysis, Keres is considered a small language family or a language isolate with several dialects. If it is considered a ...

(2) *

Kutenai The Kutenai ( ), also known as the Ktunaxa ( ; ), Ksanka ( ), Kootenay (in Canada) and Kootenai (in the United States), are an indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous people of Canada and the United States. Kutenai bands live in so ...

Maiduan Maiduan (also Maidun, Pujunan) is a small endangered language family of northeastern California. Family division The Maiduan consists of 4 languages: * Maiduan ** Maidu (also known as Maidu proper, Northeastern Maidu, Mountain Maidu) ** C ...

(4) *

Muskogean Muskogean ( ; also Muskhogean) is a language family spoken in the Southeastern United States. Members of the family are Indigenous Languages of the Americas. Typologically, Muskogean languages are highly synthetic and agglutinative. One docume ...

(9) *

(United States, Canada & Mexico) (39) *

Natchez Natchez may refer to: Places * Natchez, Alabama, United States * Natchez, Indiana, United States * Natchez, Louisiana, United States * Natchez, Mississippi, a city in southwestern Mississippi, United States ** Natchez slave market, Mississippi * ...

''†'' * Palaihnihan (2) ''†'' *

Plateau Penutian Plateau Penutian (also Shahapwailutan, Lepitan, Plateau) is a family of languages spoken in northern California, reaching through central-western Oregon to northern Washington and central-northern Idaho. The family is accepted by Campbell (202 ...

(4) *

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 ...

(7) *

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 ...

''†'' *

(23) * Shastan (4) ''†'' *

Siouan Siouan ( ), also known as Siouan–Catawban ( ), is a language family of North America located primarily in the Great Plains, Ohio and Mississippi valleys and southeastern North America with a few other languages in the east. Name Authors who ...

(19) * Siuslaw ''†'' * Solano ''†'' *

Takelma The Takelma (also Dagelma) are a Native American people who originally lived in the Rogue Valley of interior southwestern Oregon. Most of their villages were sited along the Rogue River. The name ''Takelma'' means "(Those) Along the River". H ...

''†'' *

Tanoan Tanoan ( ), also Kiowa–Tanoan or Tanoan–Kiowa, is a family of languages spoken by indigenous peoples in present-day New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Most of the languages – Tiwa (Taos, Picuris, Southern Tiwa), Tewa, and Towa � ...

(7) *

Timucua The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The va ...

''†'' *

Tonkawa The Tonkawa are a Native American tribe from Oklahoma and Texas. Their Tonkawa language, now extinct language, extinct, is a linguistic isolate. Today, Tonkawa people are enrolled in the Federally recognized tribes, federally recognized Tonkawa ...

''†'' * Tsimshianic (2) * Tunica ''†'' *

Utian Utian (also Miwok–Costanoan, Miwok–Ohlone or formerly Mutsun) is a family of Indigenous languages spoken in Northern California, United States. The Miwok and Ohlone peoples both spoke languages of the Utian language family. It has been argu ...

(15) *

(33) *

(7) *

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 Yu ...

''†'' * Washo *

Wintuan The Wintun are members of several related Native American peoples of Northern California, including the Wintu (northern), Nomlaki (central), and Patwin (southern).Pritzker, 152 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 c ...

''†'' *

Yokutsan Yokuts, formerly known as Mariposa, is an endangered language spoken in the interior of Northern and Central California in and around the San Joaquin Valley by the Yokuts people. The speakers of Yokuts were severely affected by disease, mission ...

(3) *

Yuchi The Yuchi people are a Native American tribe based in Oklahoma, though their original homeland was in the southeastern United States. In the 16th century, the Yuchi lived in the eastern Tennessee River valley. By the late 17th century, they had ...

''†'' * Yuki ''†'' * Yuman–Cochimí (11) * Zuni

Central America and Mexico

Pre-contact distribution language families Mexico

In Central America the Mayan languages are among those used today. Mayan languages are spoken by at least six million Indigenous Maya, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras. In 1996, Guatemala formally recognized 21 Mayan languages by name, and Mexico recognizes eight more. The Mayan language family is one of the best documented and most studied in the Americas. Modern Mayan languages descend from Proto-Mayan, a language thought to have been spoken at least 4,000 years ago; it has been partially reconstructed using the comparative method. * Alagüilac ''(Guatemala)'' ''†'' *

Chibchan The Chibchan languages (also known as Chibchano) 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 ...

(

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

& South America) (22) *

''†'' *

(

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

& Mexico) (3) ''†'' *

''†'' * Cuitlatec ''(Mexico: Guerrero)'' ''†'' * Epi-Olmec ''(Mexico: language of undeciphered inscriptions)'' ''†'' * Guaicurian (8) ''†'' * Huave * Jicaquean (2) * Lencan (2) ''†'' * Maratino ''(northeastern Mexico)'' ''†'' *

(31) *

Misumalpan The Misumalpan languages (also Misumalpa or Misuluan) are a small family of languages spoken by different ethnic groups on the east coast of Nicaragua and the Eastern Half of HonduraThe name "Misumalpan" was devised by John Alden Mason and is com ...

(5) * Mixe–Zoquean (19) * Naolan ''(Mexico: Tamaulipas)'' ''†'' *

Oto-Manguean The Oto-Manguean or Otomanguean () languages are a large family comprising several subfamilies of indigenous languages of the Americas. All of the Oto-Manguean languages that are now spoken are indigenous to Mexico, but the Manguean languages, Ma ...

(27) * Pericú ''†'' *

Purépecha The Purépecha ( ) 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 derogatory term " Tarascan", an exonym, app ...

* Quinigua ''(northeast Mexico)'' ''†'' *

Seri Seri, Séri, or SERI may refer to: People *Camille Séri (born 1999), French hurdler *Jean Michaël Seri, an Ivorian professional footballer Places *Seri Yek-e Zarruk, Iran *Seri, Bheri, Nepal *Seri, Karnali, Nepal *Seri, Mahakali, Nepal *Seri ...

* Solano ''†'' *

Tequistlatecan The Tequistlatec languages, also called Chontal, are three close but distinct languages spoken or once spoken by the Chontal people of Oaxaca State, Mexico. Chontal was spoken by 6,000 or so people in 2020. Languages The Tequistlatecan langua ...

(3) * Totonacan (2) *

(United States & Mexico) (33) * Xincan (5) ''†'' *

Yuman The Quechan ( Quechan: ''Kwatsáan'' 'those who descended'), or Yuma, are a Native American tribe who live on the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation on the lower Colorado River in Arizona and California just north of the Mexican border. Despite ...

(United States & Mexico) (11)

South America and the Caribbean

Although both North and

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 several hundred more spoken at first contact but now extinct. 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 outh Americahas 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 (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...
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, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
, and that areamuch smaller than SA, to be sureis 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, isolates, and unclassified languages 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 section below. * Aguano ''†'' * Aikaná ''(Brazil: Rondônia)'' * Andaquí ''†'' * Andoque ''(Colombia, Peru)'' * Andoquero ''†'' *

Arauan Arawan (also Arahuan, Arauan, Arawán, Arawa, Arauán) is a family of languages spoken in western Brazil ( Amazonas, Acre) and Peru (Ucayali). Language contact Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Chapakura-Wañam, ...

(9) *

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 ...

(South America & Caribbean) (64) * Arutani *

Aymaran Aymaran (also Jaqi or Aru) is one of the two dominant language families in the central Andes alongside Quechuan. The family consists of Aymara, widely spoken in Bolivia, and the endangered Jaqaru and Kawki languages of Peru. Hardman (1978) p ...

(3) * Baenan ''(Brazil: Bahia)'' ''†'' * Barbacoan (8) * Betoi ''(Colombia)'' ''†'' * Bororoan * Botocudoan (3) * Cahuapanan (2) * Camsá ''(Colombia)'' *

Candoshi Candoshi-Shapra (also known as Candoshi, Candoxi, Kandoshi, Kandozi-Chapra, and Murato) is an indigenous American language isolate, spoken by several thousand people in western South America along the Chapuli, Huitoyacu, Pastaza, and Morona rive ...

* Canichana ''(Bolivia)'' *

Carabayo The Carabayo (who perhaps call themselves Yacumo) are an uncontacted people of Colombia living in at least three long houses, known as '' malokas'', along the Rio Puré (now the Río Puré National Park) in the southeastern corner of the cou ...

Cariban The Cariban languages are a family of languages Indigenous to north-eastern 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 in small pock ...

(29) * Catacaoan ''†'' * Cayubaba ''(Bolivia)'' *

Chapacuran The Chapacuran languages are a nearly extinct Native American language family of South America. Almost all Chapacuran languages are extinct, and the four that are extant are moribund, with the exception of Wari'. They are spoken in Rondônia in ...

(9) * Charruan ''†'' *

(Central America & South America) (22) * Chimuan (3) ''†'' * Chipaya–Uru *

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 ...

* Choco (10) *

Chon CHNOPS and CHON are mnemonic acronyms for the most common elements in living organisms. "CHON" stands for carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, which together make up more than 95 percent of the mass of biological systems. "CHNOPS" adds ...

(2) ''†'' * Chono ''†'' * Coeruna ''(Brazil)'' ''†'' *

Cofán Cofan or Cofán may refer to: * Cofán people, an ethnic group of Ecuador and Colombia * Cofán language, their language See also * Kofan (disambiguation) * Cofana ''Cofana'' is a genus of leafhoppers belonging to the family Cicadellidae. ...

''(Colombia, Ecuador)'' * Cueva ''†'' * Culle ''(Peru)'' ''†'' * Cunza ''(Chile, Bolivia, Argentina)'' ''†'' * Esmeraldeño ''†'' * Fulnió * Gamela ''(Brazil: Maranhão)'' ''†'' *

Gorgotoqui Gorgotoqui is a currently undocumented extinct language of the Chiquitania region of the eastern Bolivian lowlands. It may have been a Bororoan languages, Bororoan language. Spellings Alternate spellings include ''Borogotoqui, Brotoqui, Corocoqui ...

''(Bolivia)'' ''†'' * Guaicuruan (7) *

Guajiboan Guajiboan (also Guahiban, Wahívoan, Guahiboan) is a language family spoken in the Orinoco River region in eastern Colombia and southwestern Venezuela, a savanna region known as the Llanos. Family division Guajiboan consists of 5 languages: * ...

(4) *

Guamo Guamo is a town and municipality in the Tolima department of Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The C ...

''(Venezuela)'' ''†'' * Guató *

Harakmbut The Harakmbut (Arakmbut, Harakmbet) are indigenous people in Peru. They speak the Harakmbut language. An estimated 2,000 Harakmbut people live in the Madre de Dios Region near the Brazilian border in the Peruvian Amazon.

(2) * Hibito–Cholon ''†'' *

Himarimã The Himarimã or Hi-Merimã are an indigenous peoples in Brazil, indigenous people of Brazil. They are largely uncontacted peoples, uncontacted by outside society, and live along the Pinhuã River, between the Juruá River, Juruá and Purus River ...

Hodï The Hodï or Jotï (from the Hodï word for "people") are a small group of indigenous people of the Americas, indigenous people who live in the Amazon rainforest in Venezuela. The last census held in Venezuela, in 2011, registered 982 individuals ...

''(Venezuela)'' * Huamoé ''(Brazil: Pernambuco)'' ''†'' *

Huaorani The Waorani, Waodani, or Huaorani, also known as the Waos, are an Indigenous people from the Amazonian Region of Ecuador (Napo Province, Napo, Orellana Province, Ecuador, Orellana, and Pastaza Provinces) who have marked differences from other e ...

''(Ecuador, Peru)'' *

Huarpe The Huarpes or Warpes are an Indigenous people of Argentina, living in the Cuyo region. Some scholars assume that in the Huarpe language, this word means "sandy ground," but according to ''Arte y Vocabulario de la lengua general del Reino de C ...

''†'' * Irantxe ''(Brazil: Mato Grosso)'' * Itonama ''(Bolivia)'' * Jabutian * Je (13) * Jeikó ''†'' * Jirajaran (3) ''†'' * Jivaroan (2) * Kaimbe ''†'' * Kaliana ''†'' * Kamakanan ''†'' * Kapixaná ''(Brazil: Rondônia)'' *

Karajá The Karajá, also known as Iny, are an indigenous tribe located in Brazil.Karaja Indians.
''Hands Aro ...

* Karirí ''(Brazil: Paraíba, Pernambuco, Ceará) ''†'' * Katembrí ''†'' * Katukinan (3) *

Kawésqar The Kawésqar, also known as the Kaweskar, Alacaluf, Alacalufe or Halakwulup, are an Indigenous people who live in Chilean Patagonia, specifically in the Brunswick Peninsula, and Wellington, Santa Inés, and Desolación islands northwest of t ...

''(Chile)'' * Kwaza (Koayá) ''(Brazil: Rondônia) * Leco * Lule ''(Argentina)'' * Máku ''†'' * Malibú ''†'' *

Mapudungun Mapuche ( , ; from 'land' and 'people', meaning 'the people of the land') or Mapudungun (from 'land' and 'speak, speech', meaning 'the speech of the land'; also spelled Mapuzugun and Mapudungu) is either a language isolate or member of the s ...

''(Chile, Argentina)'' *

Mascoyan The Mascoian languages, 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 fami ...

(5) * Matacoan (4) * Matanawí ''†'' * Maxakalían (3) *

Mocana Mocana (founded 2002) is a San Jose-based company that focuses on and embedded system security for industrial control systems and the Internet of Things (IoT). One of its main products, the IoT Security Platform, is a high-performance, ultra-opt ...

''(Colombia: Tubará)'' ''†'' * Mosetenan * Movima ''(Bolivia)'' * Munichi ''(Peru)'' ''†'' * Muran (4) * Mutú * Nadahup (5) * Nambiquaran (5) * Natú ''(Brazil: Pernambuco)'' ''†'' * Nonuya ''(Peru, Colombia)'' * Ofayé * Old Catío–Nutabe ''(Colombia)'' ''†'' * Omurano ''(Peru)'' ''†'' * Otí ''(Brazil: São Paulo)'' ''†'' * Otomakoan (2) ''†'' * Paez (also known as Nasa Yuwe) * Palta ''†'' * Pankararú ''(Brazil: Pernambuco)'' ''†'' *

Pano–Tacanan Pano-Tacanan (also Pano-Takana, Pano-Takánan, Pano-Tacana, Páno-Takána) is a proposed and generally accepted family of languages spoken in Peru, western Brazil, Bolivia and northern Paraguay. There are two close-knit branches, Panoan and Tac ...

(33) *

Panzaleo Panzaleo (''Pansaleo, Quito, Latacunga'') is a poorly attested and unclassified indigenous American language that was spoken in the region of Quito until the 17th century. Attestation Much of the information on Panzaleo comes from toponyms of ...

''(Ecuador)'' ''†'' *

Patagon The Patagons or Patagonian giants were a mythical race of giant humans rumoured to be living in Patagonia described in early European accounts. They were said to have exceeded at least double normal human height, with some accounts giving heights ...

''†'' ''(Peru)'' * Peba–Yaguan (2) *

Pijao The Pijao (also Piajao, Pixao, Pinao) are an indigenous people from Colombia. Ethnography The Pijao or Pijaos formed a loose federation of anthropophagous Amerindians and were living in the present-day department of Tolima, Colombia. In p ...

† *

Pre-Arawakan languages of the Greater Antilles Several languages of the Greater Antilles, specifically in Cuba and Hispaniola, appear to have preceded the Arawakan Taíno. Almost nothing is known of them, though a couple recorded words, along with a few toponyms, suggest they were not Arawaka ...

(

Guanahatabey The Guanahatabey (also spelled Guanajatabey) were an Indigenous people of western Cuba at the time of European contact. Archaeological and historical studies suggest the Guanahatabey were archaic hunter-gatherers with a distinct language and c ...

, Macorix,

Ciguayo The Ciguayos (Spanish: Ciguayos) were a group of Indigenous people who inhabited the Samaná Peninsula and its adjoining regions in the present-day Dominican Republic. The Ciguayos appear to have predated the agricultural Taíno who inhabited mu ...

) ''†'' ''(Cuba, Hispaniola)'' * Puelche ''(Chile)'' ''†'' * Puinave *

Puquina Puquina (or Pukina) is an extinct language once spoken by a native ethnic group in the region surrounding Lake Titicaca (Peru and Bolivia) and in the north of Chile. It is often associated with the culture that built Tiwanaku. Remnants of Puquin ...

''(Bolivia)'' ''†'' * Purian (2) ''†'' *

Quechuan Quechua (, ), also called (, 'people's language') in Southern Quechua, is an indigenous language family that originated in central Peru and thereafter spread to other countries of the Andes. Derived from a common ancestral " Proto-Quechua" l ...

(46) * Rikbaktsá * Saliban (2) *

Sechura Sechura is a town in northwestern Peru, south of Piura. It is the capital of Sechura Province in the Piura Region. The city gives its name to the Sechura Desert, which extends south along most of coastal Peru. Crescent dunes lie south of the ci ...

''†'' * Tabancale ''†'' ''(Peru)'' *

Tairona Tairona or Tayrona was a Pre-Columbian cultures of Colombia, Pre-Columbian culture of Colombia, which consisted in a group of chiefdoms in the region of Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in present-day Cesar Department, Cesar, Magdalena Department, Mag ...

''(Colombia)'' ''†'' * Tarairiú ''(Brazil: Rio Grande do Norte)'' ''†'' * Taruma ''†'' * Taushiro ''(Peru)'' * Tequiraca ''(Peru)'' ''†'' *

Teushen The Teushen or Tehues were an Indigenous hunter-gatherer people of Patagonia in Argentina. They were considered "foot nomads", whose culture relied on hunting and gathering.Adelaar and Muysken 550 Their territory was between the Tehuelche people t ...

''†'' ''(Patagonia, Argentina)'' *

Ticuna The Ticuna (also Magüta, Tucuna, Tikuna, or Tukuna, ) are an indigenous people of Brazil (36,000'')'', indigenous peoples of Colombia, Colombia (6,000), and indigenous peoples in Peru, Peru (7,000). They are the most numerous tribe in the Brazi ...

''(Colombia, Peru, Brazil)'' * Timotean (2) ''†'' * Tiniguan (2) ''†'' * Trumai ''(Brazil: Xingu, Mato Grosso)'' *

Tucanoan Tucanoan (also Tukanoan, Tukánoan) is a language family of Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru. Language contact Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Arutani, Paez, Sape, Taruma, Witoto-Okaina, Saliba-Hodi, ...

(15) *

Tupian The Tupi or Tupian language family comprises some 70 languages spoken in South America, of which the best known are Tupi proper and Guarani. Homeland and ''urheimat'' Rodrigues (2007) considers the Proto-Tupian urheimat to be somewhere between ...

(70, including Guaraní) * Tuxá ''(Brazil: Bahia, Pernambuco)'' ''†'' *

Urarina The Urarina are an indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon Basin (Loreto (Department of Peru), Loreto) who inhabit the valleys of the Chambira, Urituyacu, and Corrientes Rivers. According to both archaeological and historical sources, they have ...

* Vilela * Wakona ''†'' * Warao ''(Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela)'' * Witotoan (6) * Xokó ''(Brazil: Alagoas, Pernambuco)'' ''†'' * Xukurú ''(Brazil: Pernambuco, Paraíba)'' ''†'' *

Yaghan Yaghan, Yagán or Yahgan may refer to: * Yahgan people, an ethnic group of Argentina and Chile * Yahgan language Yahgan or Yagán (also spelled Yaghan, Jagan, Iakan, and also known as Yámana, Háusi Kúta, or Yágankuta) is an extinct language ...

''(Chile)'' ''†'' *

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 Fer ...

(4) * Yaruro * Yuracare ''(Bolivia)'' *

Yuri Yuri may refer to: People Given name *Yuri (Slavic name), the Slavic masculine form of the given name George, including a list of people with the given name Yuri, Yury, etc. *Yuri (Japanese name), feminine Japanese given names, including a list o ...

''(Colombia, Brazil)'' ''†'' * Yurumanguí ''(Colombia)'' ''†'' * Zamucoan (2) * Zaparoan (5)

Language stock proposals

Hypothetical language-family proposals of American languages are often cited as uncontroversial in popular writing. However, many of these proposals have not been fully demonstrated, or even demonstrated 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

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–Siouan This is a list of different language classification proposals developed for the Indigenous languages of the Americas or Amerindian languages. The article is divided into North, Central, and South America sections; however, the classifications d ...

, which, incidentally,

called his "wastepaper basket stock"). Still other proposals are almost unanimously rejected by specialists (for example, Amerind). Below is a (partial) list of some such proposals: * Algonquian–Wakashan *

Almosan–Keresiouan Amerind is a hypothetical higher-level language family proposed by Joseph Greenberg in 1960 and elaborated by his student Merritt Ruhlen. Greenberg proposed that all of the indigenous languages of the Americas belong to one of three language fa ...

* Amerind * Algonkian–Gulf * (macro-)

* Arutani–Sape * Aztec–Tanoan *

Chibchan–Paezan Amerind is a hypothetical higher-level language family proposed by Joseph Greenberg in 1960 and elaborated by his student Merritt Ruhlen. Greenberg proposed that all of the indigenous languages of the Americas belong to one of three language fam ...

Chikitano–Boróroan Amerind is a hypothetical higher-level language family proposed by Joseph Greenberg in 1960 and elaborated by his student Merritt Ruhlen. Greenberg proposed that all of the indigenous languages of the Americas belong to one of three language fam ...

* Chimu–Chipaya *

Coahuiltecan The Coahuiltecan were various small, autonomous bands of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native Americans who inhabited the Rio Grande valley in what is now northeastern Mexico and southern Texas. The various Coahuiltecan groups were hunter ga ...

* Cunza–Kapixanan * Dené–Caucasian * Dené–Yeniseian * Esmeralda–Yaruroan *

Ge–Pano–Carib Amerind is a hypothetical higher-level language family proposed by Joseph Greenberg in 1960 and elaborated by his student Merritt Ruhlen. Greenberg proposed that all of the indigenous languages of the Americas belong to one of three language fam ...

* Guamo–Chapacuran *

Gulf A gulf is a large inlet from an ocean or their seas into a landmass, larger and typically (though not always) with a narrower opening than a bay (geography), bay. The term was used traditionally for large, highly indented navigable bodies of s ...

* Macro-Kulyi–Cholónan * Hokan *

* Je–Tupi–Carib * Jivaroan–Cahuapanan * Kalianan * Kandoshi–Omurano–Taushiro * (Macro-)Katembri–Taruma * Kaweskar language area * Keresiouan * Lule–Vilelan *

Macro-Andean Macro-Andean is a speculative proposal by Kaufman (2007) linking languages of the northern Andes. Kaufman (1990) found lexical support for proposals linking the Jivaro–Cahuapanan families as suggested by Swadesh and others. By 2007 he had t ...

Macro-Carib Amerind is a hypothetical higher-level language family proposed by Joseph Greenberg in 1960 and elaborated by his student Merritt Ruhlen. Greenberg proposed that all of the indigenous languages of the Americas belong to one of three language fa ...

Macro-Chibchan Macro-Chibchan is a proposed grouping of the languages of the Lencan, Misumalpan, and Chibchan families into a single large phylum (macrofamily). History The Lencan and Misumalpan languages were once included in the Chibchan family proper, bu ...

* Macro-Gê *

Macro-Jibaro The Macro-Jibaro proposal, also known as ''(Macro-)Andean'', is a language proposal of Morris Swadesh and other historical linguists. The two families, Jivaroan languages, Jivaroan and Cahuapanan languages, Cahuapanan are most frequently linked ...

* Macro-Lekoan *

Macro-Mayan Macro-Mayan is a proposal linking the clearly established Mayan family with neighboring families that show similarities to Mayan. The term was apparently coined by McQuown (1942), but suggestions for historical relationships relevant to this hyp ...

* Macro-Otomákoan * Macro-Paesan *

Macro-Panoan Macro-Panoan is a hypothetical proposal linking four language families of Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area ...

Macro-Puinavean Macro-Puinavean is a hypothetical proposal linking some very poorly attested languages to the Nadahup family. The Puinave language is sometimes linked specifically with the Nadahup languages and Nukak- Kakwa group, as Puinave–Maku. Paul Rivet ...

* Macro-Siouan *

Macro-Tucanoan Amerind is a hypothetical higher-level language family proposed by Joseph Greenberg in 1960 and elaborated by his student Merritt Ruhlen. Greenberg proposed that all of the indigenous languages of the Americas belong to one of three language fa ...

* Macro-Tupí–Karibe * Macro-Waikurúan *

Macro-Warpean Macro-Warpean (or Macro-Huarpean) is a provisional proposal by Kaufman (1994) that connected the extinct Huarpe language with the previously connected Muran and Matanawí ''(Mura–Matanawí)''. Morris Swadesh had included Huarpe in his Macro-J ...

* Mataco–Guaicuru * Mosan * Mosetén–Chonan * Mura–Matanawian * Sapir's

including

* Nostratic–Amerind * Paezan * Paezan–Barbacoan *

**California Penutian ** Oregon Penutian **Mexican Penutian * Puinave–Maku * Quechumaran * Saparo–Yawan * Sechura–Catacao * Takelman * Tequiraca–Canichana * Ticuna–Yuri (Yuri–Ticunan) * Totozoque * Tunican * Yok–Utian * Yuki–Wappo Good discussions of past proposals can be found in Campbell (1997) and Campbell &

(1979). Amerindian linguist

also assigned different percentage values of probability and confidence for various proposals of macro-families and language relationships, depending on his views of the proposals' strengths. For example, the

Germanic language family The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, ...

would receive probability and confidence percentage values of +100% and 100%, respectively. However, if Turkish and Quechua were compared, the probability value might be −95%, while the confidence value might be 95%. 0% probability or confidence would mean complete uncertainty.

Pronouns

It has long been observed that a remarkable number of Native American languages have a pronominal pattern with first-person singular forms in ''n'' and second-person singular forms in ''m''. (Compare first-person singular ''m'' and second-person singular ''t'' across much of northern Eurasia, as in English ''me'' and ''thee'', Spanish ''me'' and ''te'', and Hungarian ''-m'' and ''-d''.) This pattern was first noted by

Alfredo Trombetti Alfredo Trombetti (16 January 1866 in Bologna – 5 July 1929 in Venice) was an Italian linguist active in the early 20th century. Career overview Trombetti was a professor at the University of Bologna. He was a member of the Italian Academy. ...

in 1905. It caused Sapir to suggest that ultimately all Native American languages would turn out to be related.

Johanna Nichols Johanna Nichols (born 1945, Iowa City, Iowa) is an American linguist and professor emerita in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Berkeley. Career She earned her Ph.D. in Linguistics at the Univer ...

suggests that the pattern had spread through diffusion. This notion was rejected by Lyle Campbell, who argued that the frequency of the n/m pattern was not statistically elevated in either area compared to the rest of the world.Campbell 1997 Zamponi found that Nichols's findings were distorted by her small sample size. Looking at families rather than individual languages, he found a rate of 30% of families/protolanguages in North America, all on the western flank, compared to 5% in South America and 7% of non-American languages – though the percentage in North America, and especially the even higher number in the Pacific Northwest, drops considerably if Hokan and

, or parts of them, are accepted as language families. If all the proposed Penutian and Hokan languages in the table below are related, then the frequency drops to 9% of North American families, statistically indistinguishable from the world average.

Linguistic areas

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 *

Akokisa The Akokisa (also known as the Accokesaws, Arkokisa, or Orcoquiza) were an Indigenous tribe who lived on Galveston Bay and the lower Trinity and Sabine rivers in Texas, primarily in the present-day Greater Houston area. They were a band of the At ...

* Aranama * Ausaima *

Avoyel The Avoyel or Avoyelles were a small Native American tribe who at the time of European contact inhabited land near the mouth of the Red River at its confluence with the Atchafalaya River near present-day Marksville, Louisiana. Today, the Avoye ...

Bayagoula The Bayogoula (also known as the Bayagoula, Bayagola, or Bayugla) were a Native American tribe from Louisiana in the southern United States. John Reed Swanton translated the name to mean "bayou people" and wrote that they lived near Bayou Gou ...

Bidai The Bidai, who referred to themselves as the Quasmigdo, were a tribe of American Indians from eastern Texas.Sturtevant, 659John Reed Swanton''The Indians of the Southeastern United States'' page 96. The name ''Bidai'' is Caddo language term for ...

* Cacán (

Diaguita The Diaguita people are a group of South American Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous people native to the Chilean Norte Chico, Chile, Norte Chico and the Argentine Northwest. Western or Chilean Diaguitas lived mainly in the Transvers ...

–

Calchaquí The Calchaquí or Kalchakí were a tribe of South American Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indians of the Diaguita group, now extinct, who formerly occupied northern Argentina. Stone and other remains prove them to have reached a high degree ...

) *

Calusa The Calusa ( , Calusa: *ka(ra)luś(i)) were a Native American people of Florida's southwest coast. Calusa society developed from that of archaic peoples of the Everglades region. Previous Indigenous cultures had lived in the area for thousands o ...

–

Mayaimi The Mayaimi (also Maymi, Maimi) were Native Americans in the United States, Native American people who lived around Lake Mayaimi (now Lake Okeechobee) in the Belle Glade culture, Belle Glade area of Florida from the beginning of the Common Era u ...

–

Tequesta The Tequesta, also Tekesta, Tegesta, Chequesta, Vizcaynos, were a Native American tribe on the Southeastern Atlantic coast of Florida. They had infrequent contact with Europeans and had largely migrated by the middle of the 18th century. Loca ...

Cusabo The Cusabo were a group of American Indian tribes who lived along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in what is now South Carolina, approximately between present-day Charleston and south to the Savannah River, at the time of European colonization. ...

Eyeish The Eyeish were a Native American tribe from present-day eastern Texas. History The Eyeish were part of the Caddo Confederacy,Sturtevant, 616 although their relationship to other Caddo tribes was ambiguous, and they were often hostile to the Has ...

* Grigra *

Guale Guale was a historic Native American chiefdom of Mississippian culture peoples located along the coast of present-day Georgia and the Sea Islands. Spanish Florida established its Roman Catholic missionary system in the chiefdom in the late 16th ...

* Houma *

Koroa The Koroa were one of the groups of Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands who lived in the Mississippi Valley before French colonization. The Koroa lived in the Yazoo River basin in present-day northwest Mississippi. Language The Kor ...

Mayaca ''Mayaca'' is a genus of flowering plants, often placed in its own family, the Mayacaceae (or Mayaceae in earlier systems). In the APG II system of 2003, it is assigned to the order Poales in the clade commelinids. The Cronquist system, of 1981, ...

(possibly related to Ais) * Mobila * Okelousa *

Opelousa The Opelousa (also Appalousa) were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands in Louisiana. They lived near present-day Opelousas, Louisiana, west of the lower Mississippi River, in the 18th century. At various times, they allied with the ...

Pascagoula The Pascagoula (also Pascoboula, Pacha-Ogoula, Pascagola, Pascaboula, Paskaguna) were an indigenous group living in coastal Mississippi on the Pascagoula River. The name ''Pascagoula'' is a Choctaw term meaning "bread eater". Choctaw native Am ...

Pensacola Pensacola ( ) is a city in the Florida panhandle in the United States. It is the county seat and only city in Escambia County. The population was 54,312 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Pensacola metropolitan area, which ha ...

– Amacano -

Chacato The Chacatos were a Native American people who lived in the upper Apalachicola River and Chipola River basins in what is now Florida in the 17th century. The Spanish established two missions in Chacato villages in 1674. As a result of attempt ...

Chine A chine () is a steep-sided coastal gorge where a river flows to the sea through, typically, soft eroding cliffs of sandstone or clays. The word is still in use in central Southern England—notably in East Devon, Dorset, Hampshire and the Is ...

(Muscogean languages) *

Pijao language Pijao (''Piajao'', originally Pinao) is an unclassified indigenous American language that was spoken in the villages of Ortega, Coyaima (Koyai, Tupe) and Natagaima in the Magdalena River Valley of Colombia until the 1950s, by the Pijao and ...

* Pisabo (possibly the same language as

Matsés The Matsés or Mayoruna are an indigenous people of the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon. Their traditional homelands are located between the Javari and Galvez rivers. The Matsés have long guarded their lands from other indigenous tribes and stru ...

) *

Quinipissa The Quinipissa (sometimes spelled Kinipissa in French sources) were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands who were living on the lower Mississippi River, in present-day Louisiana, as reported by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Sa ...

Taensa The Taensa (also Taënsas, Tensas, Tensaw, and ''Grands Taensas'' in French) were a Native American people whose settlements at the time of European contact in the late 17th century were located in present-day Tensas Parish, Louisiana. The mean ...

* Tiou *

Yamacraw The Yamacraw were a Native American tribe that emerged in the early 18th century, occupying parts of what became Georgia, specifically along the bluffs near the mouth of the Savannah River where it enters the Atlantic Ocean. They were made up of ...

Yamasee The Yamasees (also spelled Yamassees, Yemasees or Yemassees) were a multiethnic confederation of Native Americans who lived in the coastal region of present-day northern coastal Georgia near the Savannah River and later in northeastern Florida. ...

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

Pidgins and mixed languages

Various miscellaneous languages such as

pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified form of contact language that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn f ...

mixed language A mixed language, also referred to as a hybrid language or fusion language, is a type of contact language that arises among a bilingual group combining aspects of two or more languages but not clearly deriving primarily from any single language. ...

s, trade languages, and

sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with #Non-manual elements, no ...

s are given below in alphabetical order. # American Indian Pidgin English # Algonquian-Basque pidgin # Broken Oghibbeway #

Broken Slavey Slavey Jargon (also ''Broken Slavey'', ''Broken Slavé, Broken Slave, Broken Slavee,'' and ''le Jargon esclave'') was a trade language used by Indigenous peoples and newcomers in the Yukon area (for example, in around Liard River and in the Macken ...

# Bungee # Callahuaya # Carib Pidgin # Carib Pidgin–Arawak Mixed Language # Catalangu #

Chinook Jargon Chinook Jargon (' or ', also known simply as ''Chinook'' or ''Jargon'') is a language originating as a pidgin language, pidgin trade language in the Pacific Northwest. It spread during the 19th century from the lower Columbia River, first to othe ...

# Delaware Jargon #

Eskimo Trade Jargon Eskimo Trade Jargon was an Inuit pidgin used by the Mackenzie River Inuit as a trade language with the Athabaskan peoples to their south, such as the Gwich'in (Loucheux). It was reported by Stefánsson (1909), and was apparently distinct from th ...

# Greenlandic Pidgin (West Greenlandic Pidgin) # Guajiro-Spanish # Güegüence-Nicarao #

Haida Jargon In the 1830s a pidgin trade language based on Haida, known as Haida Jargon, was used in the islands by speakers of English, Haida, Coast Tsimshian, and Heiltsuk.Lyle Campbell (1997) ''American Indian Languages'', p. 24 See also * Nootka Jar ...

# Inuktitut-English Pidgin (Quebec) # Jargonized

Powhatan Powhatan people () are Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands who belong to member tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy, or Tsenacommacah. They are Algonquian peoples whose historic territories were in eastern Virginia. Their Powh ...

Keresan Sign Language Keresan Sign Language, also known as Keresan Pueblo Indian Sign Language (KPISL) or Keresign, is a village sign language spoken by many of the inhabitants of a Keresan pueblo with a relatively high incidence of congenital deafness (the pueblo is ...

Labrador Eskimo Pidgin Labrador Inuit Pidgin French, also called Belle Isle Pidgin or Inuit French Jargon, was a French-lexified pidgin spoken between Breton and Basque fishermen and the Inuit of Labrador from the late 17th century until about 1760. History The fir ...

# Lingua Franca

Apalachee The Apalachee were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, specifically an Indigenous people of Florida, who lived in the Florida Panhandle until the early 18th century. They lived between the Aucilla River and Ochlockonee River,Bobby ...

# Lingua Franca

Creek A creek in North America and elsewhere, such as Australia, is a stream that is usually smaller than a river. In the British Isles it is a small tidal inlet. Creek may also refer to: * Creek people, a former name of Muscogee, Native Americans * C ...

Lingua Geral Amazônica Old Tupi, Ancient Tupi or Classical Tupi () is a classical Tupian language which was spoken by the indigenous Tupi people of Brazil, mostly those who inhabited coastal regions in South and Southeast Brazil. In the words of Brazilian tupinolo ...

Lingua Geral do Sul The Paulista General Language, also called Southern General Language and Austral Tupi, was a lingua franca and creole language formed in the 16th century, in the Captaincy of São Vicente. Today it is only of historical interest, as it has been ...

# Loucheux Jargon #

Media Lengua Media Lengua, also known as ''Chaupi-lengua'', ''Chaupi-Quichua'', , or , is typically a derogatory term used by Kichwa-speakers to describe their language. However, it also appears to describe Media Lengua in the Imbabura Communities. It is ...

# Mednyj Aleut #

Michif Michif (also Mitchif, Mechif, Michif-Cree, Métif, Métchif, French Cree) is one of the languages of the Métis people of Canada and the United States, who are the descendants of First Nations (mainly Cree, Nakota, and Ojibwe) and fur trade wo ...

Mobilian Jargon Mobilian Jargon (also Mobilian trade language, Mobilian Trade Jargon, Chickasaw–Choctaw trade language, Yamá) was a pidgin used as a lingua franca among Native American groups living along the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico around the time ...

# Montagnais Pidgin Basque #

Nootka Jargon Nootka Jargon or Nootka Lingo was a pidginized form of the Wakashan language Nuučaan̓uł, used for trade purposes by the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, when communicating with persons who did not share any common language ...

# Ocaneechi # Pidgin Massachusett #

Plains Indian Sign Language Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL), also known as Hand Talk, Plains Sign Talk, Plains Sign Language, or First Nation Sign Language, is an endangered sign language common to the majority of Indigenous nations of North America, notably those of ...

Writing systems

While most Indigenous languages have adopted the Latin script as the written form of their languages, a few languages have their own unique writing systems after encountering the Latin script (often through missionaries) that are still in use. All pre-Columbian Indigenous writing systems are no longer used as the primary script, but many are undergoing revitalization.

References

Bibliography

*. * * *

North America

* * * * * * * Goddard, Ives. (1999). ''Native languages and language families of North America'' (rev. and enlarged ed. with additions and corrections). ap Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press (Smithsonian Institution). (Updated version of the map in Goddard 1996). . * * * * Nater, Hank F. (1984). The Bella Coola Language. Mercury Series; Canadian Ethnology Service (No. 92). Ottawa: National Museums of Canada. * 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. *

South America

* Adelaar, Willem F. H.; & Muysken, Pieter C. (2004). ''The languages of the Andes''. Cambridge language surveys. Cambridge University Press. * Fabre, Alain. (1998). "Manual de las lenguas indígenas sudamericanas, I-II". München: Lincom Europa. * 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. . * 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, Čestmír. (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. .
Debian North American Indigenous Languages Project

External links

Catálogo de línguas indígenas sul-americanas

Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20180929134719/http://www.athenapub.com/salang1.htm South American Languages
Indigenous Peoples Languages: Articles, News, Videos

Documentation Center of the Linguistic Minorities of Panama

The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America

Indigenous Language Institute

The Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas
(SSILA)

(collection of ethnographic, linguistic, & historical material)

* ttp://www.albany.edu/anthro/maldp/ Project for the Documentation of the Languages of Mesoamerica
Programa de Formación en Educación Intercultural Bilingüe para los Países Andinos

(University of California at Davis)
Native Languages of the Americas

(Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre)

Alaska Native Language Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Indigenous Languages Of The Americas

Languages Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing. Human language is ch ...