Indigenous peoples of the AmericasThe Indigenous peoples of the Americas, also called Indians, Amerindians, Indigenous Americans or simply Natives, are the peoples who are native to the Americas or the Western Hemisphere. Their ancestors are among the pre-Columbian population of South or North America, including Central America and the Caribbean. Indigenous peoples live throughout the Americas. There are at least 1,000 different Indigenous languages of the Americas still in use in the 21st century.
Amerind languagesAmerind is a widely rejected 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.
Language familyA 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 analogous to a family tree, or to phylogenetic trees of taxa used in evolutionary taxonomy. Linguists thus describe the daughter languages within a language family as being genetically related.
Language isolateLanguage that has no demonstrable genetic relationship with other languagesLocations of a few examples of language isolatesA language isolate, sometimes called an isolated language, is a language that has no demonstrable genealogical relationship with any other language. That is, an isolate is a language family that only contains one member.
Unclassified languageLanguage whose genetic affiliation has not been established An unclassified language is a language whose genetic affiliation to other languages has not been established.
Language contactLanguage contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or linguistic varieties interact with and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. Language contact can occur at language borders, between adstratum languages, or as the result of migration, with an intrusive language acting as either a superstratum or a substratum.
Extinct languageAn extinct language or dead language is a language with no living native speakers. A heritage language, or sometimes a dormant language, is an extinct language that still serves as a symbol of ethnic identity to an ethnic group; these languages are often undergoing a process of revitalisation. Languages that have first-language speakers are known as living languages.
LanguageStructured system of communicationA mural in Teotihuacan, Mexico (c. 2nd century) depicting a person emitting a speech scroll from his mouth, symbolizing speechA Cuneiform tabletChildren of deaf adults using American Sign LanguageBraille, a tactile writing systemLanguage is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary.Joseph GreenbergAmerican linguist (1915–2001) Joseph GreenbergGreenberg c. 1967BornJoseph Harold Greenberg(1915-05-28)May 28, 1915Brooklyn, New York, U.S.DiedMay 7, 2001(2001-05-07) (aged 85)Stanford, California, U.S.Spouse Selma Berkowitz (m. 1943)AwardsHaile Selassie I Prize for African Research (1967)Talcott Parsons Prize for Social Science (1997)Academic backgroundEducationColumbia CollegeNorthwestern UniversityYale UniversityDoctoral advisorMelville J. HerskovitsAcademic workDisciplineLinguistInstitutionsUniversity of MinnesotaColumbia UniversityStanford UniversityDoctoral studentsGeorge W. GraceMain interestsLinguistic typologyGenetic classification of languagesAmerind languagesInfluencedMerritt Ruhlen 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.
Pre-Columbian eraThe Americas prior to European influenceThe Mayan Temple of Kukulcán (top), the Aztec sun stone (middle) and the Inca city of Machu Picchu (bottom) are amongst the longest standing objects by pre-Columbian civilizations.CognateIn historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical effects on both the sound and the meaning of a word, cognates may not be obvious, and it often takes rigorous study of historical sources and the application of the comparative method to establish whether lexemes are cognate.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.