Native American languages are the languages of the Aboriginal peoples of America , as a rule, with the exception of the Eskimo-Aleut languages . They are divided into three territorial and cultural zones, each of which, in turn, is divided into many independent families:
- Native American Languages of North America
- Mesoamerican Native American Languages
- Native American Languages South America
The variety of Native American languages is very large, so the term "Native American languages" is very arbitrary. True, the famous American linguist Joseph Greenberg proposed in 1987 to combine all the Indian languages, except for the languages of the Na-Den family (which are related to the Sino-Caucasian macro - family of the Old World), into a single macro-family - the so-called “ Amerindian ” ( English Amerindian languages ). Later, Merritt Roulin published a set of factual materials in support of this hypothesis: according to Roulin, the similarity of the foundations of personal pronouns 1 and 2 was especially impressive. The progressive step of Greenberg and Roulin was that, in addition to linguistic data proper, they also used anthropological and genetic data. However, most Native American language specialists were skeptical of this hypothesis and the underlying methodology of "mass comparison" of languages.
In fact, in English, the term "Amerindian" is an abbreviation of "American Indian" - the equivalent of Russian "Indian" or "Native American languages", since the English adjective "Indian" refers to both India and Indians. In Russian, the term “Amerindian languages” is itself redundant and is used only when it is necessary to emphasize the alleged genetic unity of the Indian languages.
Content
Native American Languages by Number of
The largest Native American languages are in South America , where they became supranational even in the era before European colonization:
- Quechua (various dialects) - 14 million. Mutual understanding between dialects is limited.
- Guarani - 7 million
- Aymara - 2.3 million
- Guahiro - 305 thousand
The Arawak language lags behind them - about 100 thousand native speakers. Other South American languages, by contrast, are extremely fragmented and fall into the category of dysfunctional or endangered.
The Native American languages of Mesoamerica , where in the pre-Columbian era there were many large and developed states, occupy the second place in number.
- Nahuatl - 1.45 million (Uto-Astek languages)
- Yucatec - 800 thousand (Mayan languages)
- Mishtek dialect continuum - more than 550 thousand (Oto-Mangan languages)
- Kekchi - 500 thousand (Mayan languages)
- Sapotek - 450 thousand (Oto-Mangan languages)
- Masaua - 350 thousand (Oto-Mango languages)
- Quiche - 250 thousand (Mayan languages)
- Totonak languages - 250 thousand
- Purepecha - 120 thousand
Interacting for a long time, these languages formed the Mesoamerican language union .
The Native American languages of North America are the least prosperous. The only exception is the Navajo language , the number of speakers of which, as of the beginning of the 21st century, is 178 thousand people and continues to grow slowly, although as a percentage of the US population, on the contrary, its share is reduced. The Chinook jargon was about the same in the beginning of the 20th century , but it was not for anyone the native language, but only an auxiliary language of interethnic communication, and almost disappeared by the end of the 20th century. Many languages are on the verge of extinction.
- Navajo - 178 thousand (languages on-den)
- Cree - 117 thousand (Algian languages)
- Ojibwa - 55 thousand (Algian languages)
Famous Native American Researchers
- Baker, Mark
- Boas, Franz
- Gleason, Henry Allan (Jr.)
- Greenberg, Joseph
- Justeson, John
- Kaufman, Terrence
- Knorozov, Yuri Valentinovich
- Coe, Michael
- Kroeber, Alfred
- Loukotka, Chestmir
- Munroe, Pamela
- Mithun, Marianne
- Powell, John Wesley
- Roulin, Merritt
- Swedish, Morris
- Sapir, Edward
- Swanton John
- Product, Antonio
- Haas, Mary
- Harrington, John Peabody
- Chafe, Wallace
See also
- Native American Languages of North America
- Mesoamerican Native American Languages
- Native American Languages South America
- Native American Macro Families
- US languages
- Languages of Canada
- Languages of Mexico
- Brazilian languages
Links
- Native American Languages // Linguistic Encyclopedic Dictionary, M., 1990.
- Sepir E. Languages of Central and North America // Sepir E. Selected works on linguistics and cultural studies. - M., 1993 .-- S. 409-421.