This is a list of different language classification proposals developed for the Indigenous languages of the Americas. The article is divided into North, Central, and South America sections; however, the classifications do not correspond to these divisions.
Glottolog 4.1 (2019) recognizes 42 independent families and 31 isolates in North America (73 total).[1] The vast majority are (or were) spoken in the United States, with 26 families and 26 isolates (52 total).
An early attempt at North American language classification was attempted by A. A. Albert Gallatin published in 1826, 1836, and 1848. Gallatin's classifications are missing several languages which are later recorded in the classifications by Daniel G. Brinton and John Wesley Powell. (Gallatin supported the assimilation of indigenous peoples to Euro-American culture.)
Families
Languages
Families
Languages
John Wesley Powell, an explorer who served as director of the Bureau of American Ethnology, published a classification of 58 "stocks" that is the "cornerstone" of genetic classifications in North America. Powell's classification was influenced by Gallatin to a large extent.
John Wesley Powell was in a race with Daniel G. Brinton to publish the first comprehensive classification of North America languages (although Brinton's classification also covered South and Central America). As a result of this competition, Brinton was not allowed access to the linguistic data collected by Powell's fieldworkers.
Paul Rivet (1924) lists a total of 46 independent language families in North and Central America. Olive and Janambre are extinct languages of Tamaulipas, Mexico.[2]
Below is Edward Sapir's (1929) famous Encyclopædia Britannica classification. Note that Sapir's classification was controversial at the time and it additionally was an original proposal (unusual for general encyclopedias). Sapir was part of a "lumper" movement in Native American language classification. Sapir himself writes of his classification: "A more far-reaching scheme than Powell's [1891 classification], suggestive but not demonstrable in all its features at the present time" (Sapir 1929: 139). Sapir's classifies all the languages in North America into only 6 families: Eskimo–Aleut, Algonkin–Wakashan, Na-Dene, Penutian, Hokan–Siouan, and Aztec–Tanoan. Sapir's classification (or something derivative) is still commonly used in general languages-of-the-world type surveys. (Note that the question marks that appear in Sapir's list below are present in the original article.)
The Voegelin & Voegelin (1965)[3] classification was the result of a conference of Americanist linguists held at Indiana University in 1964. This classification identifies 16 main genetic units.
Chumashan, Comecrudan, and Coahuiltecan are included in Hokan with "reservations". Esselen is included in Hokan with "strong reservations". Tsimshian and Zuni are included in Penutian with reservations.
Campbell & Mithun's 1979 classification is more conservative, since it insists on more rigorous demonstration of genetic relationship before grouping. Thus, many of the speculative phyla of previous authors are "split".
(preliminary)
Subtiaba–Tlapanec is likely part of Otomanguean (Rensch 1977, Oltrogge 1977).
Aztec–Tanoan is "undemonstrated"; Mosan is a Sprachbund.
(Consensus conservative classification)
Families
Isolates
Proposed stocks
Notable early classifications of classifications of indigenous South American language families include those by Filippo Salvatore Gilii (1780–84),[4] Lorenzo Hervás y Panduro (1784–87),[5][6] Daniel Garrison Brinton (1891),[7] Paul Rivet (1924),[2] John Alden Mason (1950),[8] and Čestmír Loukotka (1968).[9] Other classifications include those of Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño (1940–45),[10] Antonio Tovar (1961; 1984),[11][12] and Jorge A. Suárez (1974).[13][14]
Glottolog 4.1 (2019) recognizes 44 independent families and 64 isolates in South America.[1]
Paul Rivet (1924) lists 77 independent language families of South America.[2]
Classification of South American languages by J. Alden Mason (1950):[8]
Čestmír Loukotka (1968) proposed a total of 117 indigenous language families (called stocks by Loukotka) and isolates of South America.[9]
Terrence Kaufman's classification is meant to be a rather conservative genetic grouping of the languages of South America (and a few in Central America). He has 118 genetic units. Kaufman believes for these 118 units "that there is little likelihood that any of the groups recognized here will be broken apart". Kaufman uses more specific terminology than only language family, such as language area, emergent area, and language complex, where he recognizes issues such as partial mutual intelligibility and dialect continuums. The list below collapses these into simply families. Kaufman's list is numbered and grouped by "geolinguistic region". The list below is presented in alphabetic order. Kaufman uses an anglicized orthography for his genetic units, which is mostly used only by himself. His spellings have been retained below.[15]
In addition to his conservative list, Kaufman list several larger "stocks" which he evaluates. The names of the stocks are often obvious hyphenations of two members; for instance, the Páes-Barbakóa stock consists of the Páesan and Barbakóan families. If the composition is not obvious, it is indicated parenthetically. Kaufman puts question marks by Kechumara and Mosetén-Chon stocks.
"Good" stocks:
"Probable" stocks:
"Promising" stocks:
"Maybe" stocks:
Kaufman's largest groupings are what he terms clusters and networks. Clusters are equivalent to macro-families (or phyla or superfamilies). Networks are composed of clusters. Kaufman views all of these larger groupings to be hypothetical and his list is to be used as a means to identify which hypotheses most need testing.
Lyle Campbell (2012) proposed the following list of 53 uncontroversial indigenous language families and 55 isolates of South America – a total of 108 independent families and isolates.[14] Language families with 9 or more languages are highlighted in bold. The remaining language families all have 6 languages or fewer.
Campbell (2012) leaves out the classifications of these languages as uncertain.
Jolkesky (2016) lists 43 language families and 66 language isolates (and/or unclassified languages) in South America – a total of 109 independent families and isolates.[16]: 783–806
Morris Swadesh further consolidated Sapir's North American classification and expanded it to group all indigenous languages of the Americas in just 6 families, 5 of which were entirely based in the Americas.[17]
Joseph Greenberg's classification[18] in his 1987 book Language in the Americas is best known for the highly controversial assertion that all North, Central and South American language families other than Eskimo–Aleut and Na-Dene including Haida, are part of an Amerind macrofamily. This assertion of only three major American language macrofamilies is supported by DNA evidence,[19] although the DNA evidence does not provide support for the details of his classification.
In American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America, Lyle Campbell describes various pidgins and trade languages spoken by the indigenous peoples of the Americas.[20] Some of these mixed languages have not been documented and are known only by name.
Lingua francas
