Indigenous languages of the Americas

The indigenous languages of the Americas are the languages that were used by the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, before the arrival of Europeans. Over a thousand of these languages are still used in the 21st century, while many more are now extinct. The indigenous languages of the Americas are not all related to each other; instead, they are classified into a hundred or so language families and isolates, as well as several extinct languages that are unclassified 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's Amerind hypothesis; however, nearly all specialists reject it because of severe methodological flaws; spurious data; and a failure to distinguish cognation, contact, and coincidence.
According to UNESCO, most of the indigenous languages of the Americas are critically endangered, and many are dormant or entirely extinct. The most widely spoken indigenous languages are Southern Quechua and Guarani, with perhaps six or seven million speakers apiece. Only half a dozen others have more than a million speakers; these are Aymara of Bolivia and Nahuatl of Mexico, with almost two million each; the Mayan languages Kekchi and K'iche' of Guatemala and Yucatec 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 and the end of the 15th century. Several indigenous cultures of the Americas had also developed their own writing systems, the best known being the Maya script. The indigenous languages had widely varying demographics, from the Quechuan languages, Aymara, Guarani, and Nahuatl, which had millions of active speakers, to many languages with only several hundred speakers. After pre-Columbian times, several indigenous creole languages 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. 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 made a Bible translation in the Massachusett language, also called Wampanoag, or Natick ; it was the first Bible printed in North America, the Eliot Indian Bible.
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 have been given official status in the countries where they occur, such as Guarani in Paraguay. 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 in Peru and Aymara 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 is the most spoken Native American language, with more than 200,000 speakers in the Southwestern United States. The US Marine Corps recruited Navajo men, who were established as code talkers during World War II.

Origins

In American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America, Lyle Campbell lists several hypotheses for the historical origins of Amerindian languages.

A single, one-language migration
A few linguistically distinct migrations
Multiple migrations
Multilingual migrations
The influx of already diversified but related languages from the Old World
Extinction of Old World linguistic relatives
Migration along the Pacific coast instead of by the Bering Strait

Roger Blench 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 Americas.

Numbers of speakers and political recognition

Countries like Mexico, Guatemala, and Guyana recognize most indigenous languages. Bolivia and Venezuela give all indigenous languages official status. Canada, Argentina, and the US allow provinces and states to decide. Brazil limits recognition to localities. Colombia delegates indigenous language recognition to its departments according to the Colombian Constitution of 1991. In Canada, Bill C-91: the Indigenous Languages Act passed in 2019, and 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.
In the following table, languages marked with asterisks have minority status. Political entities bestowing official language status are highlighted in bold. International and unrecognized organizations are in italics.

Language families and unclassified languages

Northern America

There are approximately 314 spoken indigenous languages north of Mexico grouped into 30 families and 24 isolates not counting about hundred unclassified languages. The Na-Dené, Algic, and Uto-Aztecan families are the largest in terms of number of languages. Uto-Aztecan has the most speakers if the languages in Mexico are considered ; Na-Dené comes in second with approximately 200,000 speakers, and Algic in third with about 180,000 speakers. Na-Dené and Algic have the widest geographic distributions: Algic currently spans from northeastern Canada across much of the continent down to northeastern Mexico with two outliers in California ; Na-Dené spans from Alaska and western Canada through Washington, Oregon, and California to the southwestern US and northern Mexico. 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 family proposals, Penutian and Hokan, have been proposed. 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.
Another area of considerable diversity appears to have been the Southeastern Woodlands; 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. Languages of the western half of North America often have relatively large consonant inventories. The languages of the Pacific Northwest are notable for their complex phonotactics. The languages of the Plateau area have relatively rare pharyngeals and epiglottals. Ejective consonants are also common in western North America, although they are rare elsewhere.
Head-marking is found in many languages of North America, but outside of the Americas it is rare. Many languages throughout North America are polysynthetic, although this is not characteristic of all North American languages. Several families have unique traits, such as the inverse number marking of the Tanoan languages, the lexical affixes of the Wakashan, Salishan and Chimakuan languages, and the unusual verb structure of Na-Dené.
The classification below is a composite of Goddard, Campbell, and Mithun.

Central America and 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 ' †
Chibchan
Coahuilteco †
Comecrudan †
Cotoname †
Cuitlatec ' †
Epi-Olmec ' †
Guaicurian †
Huave
Jicaquean
Lencan †
Maratino ' †
Mayan
Misumalpan
Mixe–Zoquean
Naolan ' †
Oto-Manguean
Pericú †
Purépecha
Quinigua ' †
Seri
Solano †
Tequistlatecan
Totonacan
Uto-Aztecan
Xincan †
Yuman

South America and the Caribbean

Although both North and Central America are very diverse areas, South America has a linguistic diversity rivalled by only a few other places in the world with approximately 330 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. Kaufman gives the following appraisal:

Since the mid 1950s, the amount of published material on SA has 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 are linguistically the poorest documented parts of the world. However, in the early 1960s fairly systematic efforts were launched in Papua New Guinea, 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. Many of the proposed groupings of families can be seen in Campbell, Gordon, Kaufman, Key, Loukotka, and in the Language stock proposals section below.

Aguano †
Aikaná '
Andaquí †
Andoque '
Andoquero †
Arauan
Arawakan
Arutani
Aymaran
Baenan ' †
Barbacoan
Betoi ' †
Bororoan
Botocudoan
Cahuapanan
Camsá '
Candoshi
Canichana ' †
Cariban
Cayubaba ' †
Chapacuran †
Charruan †
Chibchan
Chimuan †
Chipaya–Uru
Chiquitano
Choco
Chon †
Chono †
Cofán '
Cueva †
Culle ' †
Cunza ' †
Esmeraldeño †
Fulnió
Gamela ' †
Gorgotoqui ' †
Guaicuruan
Guajiboan
Guamo ' †
Guató
Harakmbut
Hibito–Cholon †
Himarimã
Hodï '
Huamoé ' †
Huaorani '
Huarpe †
Irantxe '
Itonama ' †
Jabutian
Je
Jeikó †
Jirajaran †
Jivaroan
Jukude †
Kaimbe †
Kaliana †
Kamakanan †
Kapixaná '
Karajá
Karirí ' †
Katembrí †
Katukinan
Kawésqar '
Kwaza '
Leco †
Lule-Vilela ' †
Malibú †
Mapudungun '
Mascoyan
Matacoan
Matanawí †
Maxakalían
Mocana ' †
Mosetenan
Movima '
Munichi ' †
Muran
Nadahup
Nambiquaran
Natú ' †
Ofayé
Old Catío–Nutabe ' †
Omurano ' †
Otí ' †
Otomakoan †
Paez
Palta †
Pankararú ' †
Pano–Tacanan
Panzaleo ' †
Peba–Yaguan
Pijao †
Pre-Arawakan languages of the Greater Antilles † '
Puinave
Puquina ' †
Purian †
Quechuan
Rikbaktsá
Saliban
Sechura †
Tabancale † '
Tairona ' †
Tallan †
Tarairiú ' †
Taruma †
Taushiro ' †
Tequiraca ' †
Teushen † '
Ticuna-Yuri '
Timotean †
Tiniguan †
Trumai '
Tucanoan
Tupian
Tuxá ' †
Urarina
Wakona †
Warao '
Witotoan
Xokó ' †
Xukurú ' †
Yaghan ' †
Yanomaman
Yaruro
Yuracare '
Yurumanguí ' †
Zamucoan
Zaparoan

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. Other proposals are more controversial, with many linguists believing that some genetic relationships of a proposal may be demonstrated but much of it undemonstrated. Still other proposals are almost unanimously rejected by specialists. Below is a list of some such proposals:

Discussions of past proposals can be found in Campbell and Campbell & Mithun.
Amerindian linguist Lyle Campbell 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 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.

Language family	Probability	Confidence
Algonkian–Gulf	−50%	50%
Almosan	−75%	50%
Atakapa–Chitimacha	−50%	60%
Aztec–Tanoan	0%	50%
Coahuiltecan	−85%	80%
Eskaleut, Chukotan	−25%	20%
Guaicurian–Hokan	0%	10%
Gulf	−25%	40%
Hokan–Subtiaba	−90%	75%
Jicaque–Hokan	−30%	25%
Jicaque–Subtiaba	−60%	80%
Jicaque–Tequistlatecan	+65%	50%
Keresan and Uto-Aztecan	0%	60%
Keresan and Zuni	−40%	40%
Macro-Mayan	+30%	25%
Macro-Siouan	−20%	75%
Maya–Chipaya	−80%	95%
Maya–Chipaya–Yunga	−90%	95%
Mexican Penutian	−40%	60%
Misumalpan–Chibchan	+20%	50%
Mosan	−60%	65%
Na-Dene	0%	25%
Natchez–Muskogean	+40%	20%
Nostratic–Amerind	−90%	75%
Otomanguean–Huave	+25%	25%
Purépecha–Quechua	−90%	80%
Quechua as Hokan	−85%	80%
Quechumaran	+50%	50%
Sahaptian–Klamath–	+75%	50%
Sahaptian–Klamath–Tsimshian	+10%	10%
Takelman	+80%	60%
Tlapanec–Subtiaba as Otomanguean	+95%	90%
Tlingit–Eyak–Athabaskan	+75%	40%
Tunican	0%	20%
Wakashan and Chimakuan	0%	25%
Yukian–Gulf	−85%	70%
Yukian–Siouan	−60%	75%
Zuni–Penutian	−80%	50%

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. This pattern was first noted by Alfredo Trombetti in 1905. It caused Sapir to suggest that ultimately all Native American languages would turn out to be related. Joseph Greenberg used the pattern as evidence to support his Amerind languages proposal, a controversial grouping. Johanna Nichols 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. Zamponi found that Nichols's findings were distorted by her small sample size. Looking instead at data from protolanguages and isolates to represent whole families rather than individual languages, he found that about 30% of 70 languages analyzed followed the n/m pattern in North America, compared to only 5% in South America and 7% of non-American languages. Nevertheless, Zamponi concludes that because most languages of the world base their pronouns on common consonants, this shared pattern cannot be used as the only proof of common ancestry.

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. A short list is below.

Loukotka 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 pidgins, mixed languages, trade languages, and sign languages are given below in alphabetical order.

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 that are still in use. All pre-Columbian indigenous writing systems are no longer used as the primary script, but many are undergoing revitalization.

Writing system	Type	Language	Region	Dates in use	Status	Inventor
Quipu	Logographic, potentially phonetic at least during the colonial period and possibly the pre-Columbian era.	Aymara, Quechua, Puquina, Mapuche and other Andean languages	Andean civilizations	2600s BCE – 1900s CE	Extinct
Olmec hieroglyphs	Undeciphered, likely logosyllabary	Likely Mixe–Zoque languages, but linguistic status remains debatable	Isthmus of Tehuantepec	1500 BCE – 400 BCE	Extinct
Zapotec script	Undeciphered, likely logosyllabary	Likely Zapotecan languages	Oaxaca	500 BCE – 900 CE	Extinct
Epi-Olmec script	Undeciphered, likely logosyllabary	Likely Zoque languages	Isthmus of Tehuantepec	400 BCE – 500 CE	Extinct
Izapan scripts	Undeciphered, likely logosyllabary	Likely an unknown Mixe–Zoquean language, Highland Mayan languages	Southern Guatemala	300s BCE – 100s CE	Extinct
Maya script	Logographic Syllabary	Mayan languages: Chʼolan languages, most notably Classic Maya Tzeltalan languages Yucatec Maya	Maya civilization: Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize	200s BCE – 1700 CE	Extinct
Teotihua script	Undeciphered, likely logosyllabary	Nahuatl, other	Central Mexico	100 BCE – 750 CE	Extinct
Mixtec script	Logographic Syllabary	Mixtecan languages	Oaxaca, Puebla, Guerrero	1100s–1600s	Extinct
Aztec script	Logographic Syllabary	Classical Nahuatl	Central Mexico	1100s–1600s	Extinct
Komqwejwi'kasikl (Miꞌkmaw hieroglyphs)	Logographic Syllabary Alphabet	Mi'kmaq	Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick	1675–1800s	Extinct	Father Le Clercq
Cherokee syllabary	Syllabary	Cherokee	Cherokee Nation, US	1820s–present	Active	Sequoyah ᏍᏏᏉᏯ
Canadian Aboriginal syllabics	Abugida	Algonquian languages Eskaleut languages Athabaskan languages	Canada, Midwestern United States	1840s–present	Active	James Evans
Blackfoot Syllabics	Abugida	Blackfoot	Alberta, CanadaMontana, United States	1888–present	Endangered	John Tims
Carrier syllabics	Abugida	Dakelh and some other Athabaskan languages	British Columbia, Canada	1885–1920s	Endangered	Adrien-Gabriel Morice
Great Lakes Algonquian syllabics	Alphasyllabary	Anishinaabemowin, Fox, Ho-Chunk, Potawatomi	Iowa, Michigan, and Nebraska, US Coahuila, Mexico	1800s–present	Endangered
Yugtun script	Syllabary	Central Alaskan Yup'ik	Alaska	1900–present	Endangered	Uyaquq
Afaka syllabary	Syllabary	Ndyuka	Suriname, French Guiana	1910–present	Endangered	Afáka Atumisi
Saanich alphabet	Alphabet	North Straits Salish	Southern Salish Sea islands: British Columbia and Washington state	1978–present	Active	Dave Elliott
Osage script	Alphabet	Osage	Osage Nation, United States	2006–present	Active	Herman Mongrain Lookout

North America

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South America

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Key, Mary R.. The grouping of South American languages. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.
Loukotka, Čestmír.. Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: Latin American Studies Center, University of California.
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