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 families, the previously established Eskimo–Aleut and Na–Dene, and with everything else—otherwise classified by specialists as belonging to dozens of independent families—as Amerind. Due to a large number of methodological flaws in the 1987 book ''Language in the Americas'', the relationships he proposed between these languages have been rejected by the majority of historical linguists as spurious.Campbell 1997Adelaar 1989Berman 1992Chafe 1987Matisoff 1990Kimball 1992Mithun 1999Poser 1992Rankin 1992
The term ''Amerind'' is also occasionally used to refer broadly to the various indigenous languages of the Americas without necessarily implying that they are a genealogical group. To avoid ambiguity, the term Amerindian is often used for the latter meaning.
Background
The idea that all the languages of the Americas are related goes back to the 19th century when early linguists such as
Peter Stephen DuPonceau
Peter Stephen Du Ponceau (born Pierre-Étienne du Ponceau, June 3, 1760 – April 1, 1844) was a French-American linguist, philosopher, and jurist. After emigrating to the colonies in 1777, he served in the American Revolutionary War. Afterward, ...
and Wilhelm von Humboldt noticed that the languages of the Americas seemed to be very different from the better known European languages, yet seemingly also quite similar to each other. When studies of American Indian languages began in earnest in the early 20th century linguists quickly realized that the indigenous languages were in fact not all that similar, but had a diversity much greater than among the languages of Europe. After a period of uncertainty about whether indigenous languages could be described and investigated by the methods applied to European languages, the first linguists began the daunting task of trying to classify the languages of the Americas by using the comparative method.
Among the most prolific and gifted linguists of his times was Edward Sapir, who was among the first to apply the comparative method to Native American languages. However, contrary to current practice in historical linguistics, Sapir also often relied on "hunches" and "gut feeling" when proposing new language families. Some of these suggestions have been proven correct while others have not. Sapir entertained the idea that ultimately all languages of the Americas might turn out to be provably related and such a phenomenon as the apparent Pan-American tendency to have first person forms with a prefixed n- was suggestive for this line of thought.
Since Sapir's death in 1939, linguists have spent their time researching his proposals; typically, there have been two opposing camps in this endeavor: the so-called " lumpers" who usually look towards notions of genetic relationships, and the "splitters" who are widely critical of such proposals and expect successful family relations to be proven by the most rigorous standards of scholarship. Joseph Greenberg worked in the tradition of "lumpers" and following Sapir, was mindful of evidence not generally acceptable to those who hold that only actual linguistic reconstruction—through the comparative method—can yield reliable proof of genetic relationships between languages. In elaborating his classification of the Amerind languages, Greenberg relied heavily on Sapir's early work on the North American languages and the highly impressionist classification of South American languages by Paul Rivet.
Pronouns
The main argument for the validity of Amerind is a pronominal pattern in many Native American languages that have first person forms with ''n'' and second person forms with ''m''.
This pattern was first noted by Alfredo Trombetti in 1905. Sapir suggested that it indicated that ultimately all Native American languages would turn out to be related. However, it is not universal, being confined primarily to western North America and to a lesser extent Mesoamerica; the incidence elsewhere is not statistically significant, and in western North American it is more an argument for the Hokan and Penutian phyla than for Amerind.Raoul Zamponi (2017) 'First-person n and second-person m in Native America: a fresh look'. ''Italian Journal of Linguistics'', 29.2
Gender
Ruhlen reconstructed a morphological ( ablaut) gender system for proto-Amerind, with masculine kinship terms containing the vowel *i and feminine the vowel *u, that he claims proves Greenberg's reconstruction. This is based on Greenberg's *t'a'na 'child', to which Ruhlen adds a masculine derivation *t'i'na 'son, boy' and a feminine *t'u'na 'daughter, girl'.
Unlike the n-/m- pattern in the pronouns, an intact i/u gender system is not attested across language families, and the consensus is that the pattern is a spurious one.
Reception
The consensus among historical linguists specializing in Native American languages is that the Amerind hypothesis is unsupported by valid evidence,Mithun 1999 particularly because the basis for the proposal is mass comparison, but also because of many other methodological flaws made by Greenberg in the elaboration of the hypothesis.Matisoff 1990Rankin 1992Campbell 1988 Critics regard this technique as fundamentally flawed, unable to distinguish chance resemblances from those due to a historical relationship among the languages and providing no means of distinguishing resemblances due to common descent from those due to
language contact
Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. When speakers of different languages interact closely, it is typical for th ...
. In addition, critics have pointed out errors in the citation of data, including erroneous forms, erroneous glosses, unjustified morphological segmentation, attribution to the wrong language, and citation of entirely spurious forms.Adelaar 1989Berman 1992Chafe 1987Kimball 1992Poser 1992
A further criticism is that, contrary to normal scholarly practice, no source references are given for the data, which in most cases come from languages for which there is no standard, authoritative source. In addition, Greenberg does not normalize the spelling of the data, so it is impossible without knowing the source of each form to know what the notation represents.
While sympathetic to the idea of an Amerind language family,
Morris Swadesh
Morris Swadesh (; January 22, 1909 – July 20, 1967) was an American linguist who specialized in comparative and historical linguistics.
Swadesh was born in Massachusetts to Bessarabian Jewish immigrant parents. He completed bachelor's and mas ...
was critical of many of Greenberg's subdivisions and believed it was due to an insufficient number of comparisons by Greenberg.
Classification
The 1960 proposal, in its outlines, was as follows:
#Almosan–Keresiouan
#Hokan
#Penutian (incl. Macro-Mayan)
#Aztec–Tanoan
#Oto-Mangean
#''
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 ...
''
#Macro-Chibchan
##Chibchan
##Paezan
#Andean–Equatorial
##Andean
##Jivaroan
##Macro-Tucanoan
##Equatorial (with Macro-Arawakan and Tupian)
#Ge–Pano–Carib
##Macro-Ge
##Macro-Panoan
##Macro-Carib
##'' Nambikwara''
##'' Huarpe''
##'' Taruma''
Below is the current state of Amerindian classification, as given in ''An Amerind Etymological Dictionary'', by Joseph Greenberg and Merritt Ruhlen, Stanford University, 2007.
# North–Central Amerind
## Northern Amerind
### Almosan–Keresiouan
#### Almosan
##### Algic
##### Kutenai
##### Mosan
###### Chimakuan
###### Salishan
######
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Macro-Paezan
Macro-Paesan (also spelled Macro-Paezan) is a proposal linking several small families and language isolates of northwest South America. Kaufman (2007) proposes the structure at the right. Paez–Barbacoan is commonly proposed, though Curnow (1998) ...
#####
Allentiac
Allentiac (Alyentiyak), also known as Huarpe (Warpe), was one of two known Warpean languages. It was native to Cuyo in Argentina, but was displaced to Chile in the late 16th century. Luis de Valdivia, a Jesuit missionary, wrote a grammar, voca ...
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 ...
#####
Jirajara
Jirajara is an extinct language of western Venezuela. Other than being part of the Jirajaran family, its classification is uncertain due to a lack of data. See Jirajaran languages
The Jirajaran languages are group of extinct languages once spo ...
Sabela
Sabela is a dialect of several major South African languages used primarily in South Africa. Sabela was originally developed inside Prisons in South Africa, national prisons as a means of communication within Prison gang, gangs, primarily The ...
Macro-Arawakan
Macro-Arawakan is a proposed language family of South America and the Caribbean centered on the Arawakan languages. Sometimes, the proposal is called Arawakan, and the central family is called ''Maipurean''.
Proposals
Kaufman (1990) includes the ...
Kariri
Kiriri people are indigenous peoples of Brazil, indigenous people of Eastern Brazil. Their name is also spelled Cariri or Kariri and is a Tupi language, Tupi word meaning "silent" or "tactiturn."
History
The French Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, ...
–
Tupi Tupi may refer to:
* Tupi people of Brazil
* Tupi or Tupian languages, spoken in South America
** Tupi language, an extinct Tupian language spoken by the Tupi people
* Tupi oil field off the coast of Brazil
* Tupi Paulista, a Brazilian municipalit ...
Zamuco
The Ayoreo (Ayoreode, Ayoréo, Ayoréode) are an indigenous people of the Gran Chaco. They live in an area surrounded by the Paraguay, Pilcomayo, Parapetí, and Grande Rivers, spanning both Bolivia and Paraguay. There are approximately 5,600 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Shukuru
''Shukuru'' is an album led by saxophonist Pharoah Sanders recorded in 1981 and released on the Theresa label in 1985.Ticuna–Yuri
#### Tucanoan
#### Uman
## Ge–Pano–Carib
### Macro-Carib
#### Andoke
#### Bora–Uitoto
#### Carib
####
Kukura Kukura may be,
* Juraj Kukura (born 1947), Slovak actor
* Philipp Kukura (born 1978), Slovak physical chemist
*Kukurá language
Kukurá (Cucurá, Kokura) is a spurious language, fabricated by an interpreter in Brazil.
History
When Alberto Vo ...
*Principal advocates of the Amerind hypothesis or its predecessors
** Alfredo Trombetti
**
Joseph H. 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 ...
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*Campbell, Lyle; Poser, William J. (2008) Language Classification, History and Method, Cambridge University Press
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* Goddard, Ives. (1996). The classification of native languages of North America. In I. Goddard (Ed.), ''Languages'' (pp. 290–323). Handbook of North Americans Indians (Vol. 17). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution.
* Goddard, Ives (Ed.). (1996). ''Languages''. Handbook of North American Indians (W. C. Sturtevant, General Ed.) (Vol. 17). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution. .
* Goddard, Ives; & Campbell, Lyle. (1994). The history and classification of American Indian languages: What are the implications for the peopling of the Americas?. In R. Bonnichsen & D. Steele (Eds.), ''Method and theory for investigating the peopling of the Americas'' (pp. 189–207). Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University.
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* Greenberg, Joseph H. (1960). General classification of Central and South American languages. In A. Wallace (Ed.), ''Men and cultures: Fifth international congress of anthropological and ethnological sciences (1956)'' (pp. 791–794). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
* Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). ''Language in the Americas''. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
* Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). Language in the Americas: Author's précis. ''Current Anthropology'', ''28'', 647-652.
* Greenberg, Joseph H. (1989). Classification of American Indian languages: A reply to Campbell. ''Language'', ''65'', 107-114.
* Greenberg, Joseph H. (1996). In defense of Amerind. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', ''62'', 131-164.
*
* Kimball, Geoffrey. (1992). A critique of Muskogean, 'Gulf,' and Yukian materials in Language in the Americas. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', ''58'', 447-501.
* Matisoff, James. (1990). On megalo-comparison: A discussion note. ''Language'', ''66'', 106-120.
* Mithun, Marianne. (1999). ''The languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (hbk); .
* PDF * Rankin, Robert. (1992). eview of ''Language in the Americas'' by J. H. Greenberg ''International Journal of American Linguistics'', ''58'' (3), 324-351.
* Ringe, Don (2000). Some relevant facts about historical linguistics. In: Renfrew, Colin (Ed.), ''America Past, America Present: Genes and Languages in the Americas and Beyond'' (pp. 139–62). Cambridge, UK: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
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