Amerind languages

Amerind is a putative higher-level language family proposed by Joseph Greenberg in his 1987 book "Language in the Americas". In this book Greenberg proposed that all of the indigenous languages of the Americas belong to one of three families. According to Greenberg's hypothesis, a minority of the languages, concentrated in northern North America, belong to the previously proposed Na-Dené and Eskimo-Aleut language families.All of the remaining languages, usually considered to belong to dozens of separate unrelated language families, belong to Amerind.

The term is also occasionally used to refer (broadly) to the various indigenous languages of the Americas, without necessarily implying that they are a genetic group. To avoid ambiguity, the term Amerindian is often used instead.

Evidence for Amerind

Amerind has found supporters among Greenberg's disciples. Merritt Ruhlen, for instance, has tried to adduce more evidence for the controversial hypothesis.See Greenberg & Ruhlen 2007, Ruhlen 1994a, 1994b, 1994c, 1994d, 1995a, 1995b, 1995c, 1995d, and 2004] He thus also objects to the notion that there are over 200 families among which there is no evidence of genetic affinity.See Campbell 1997] He stresses the importance of the three-way i / u / a (i.e. "masculine" / "feminine" / "neutral") ablaut in such forms as t'ina / t'una / t'ana ("son" / "daughter" / "child"), as well as of the typical general American pronominal pattern na / ma (i.e. "I" / "you"), first noted by Alfredo Trombetti in 1905, but attributed by some linguists to other than genetic causes.See Nichols 1992] Ruhlen refers to the earliest beginnings of the dispute,See Ruhlen 1994e and Delbrück 1880] quoting from Edward Sapir's personal letter to A. L. Kroeber (1918):See Sapir 1918] It should be stressed, however, that Greenberg and Ruhlen's views on the languages of the Americas have failed to find acceptance among the vast majority of linguists working with these languages.

Criticism

The Amerind hypothesis has not received general acceptance by historical linguists, especially by those specializing in the languages of the Americas, See Campbell 1988, Goddard 1987, Goddard 1990, Matisoff 1990, Rankin 1992, and Ringe 2000] This technique is generally regarded as fundamentally flawed because it is unable to distinguish chance resemblances from those due to a historical relationship among the languages and because it provides no means of distinguishing resemblances due to common descent from those due to language contact.

In addition, critics have have pointed out large numbers of 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. See Campbell 1988, Poser 1992]

It should be noted, however, that some of these methodological issues are addressed by Merritt Ruhlen in the latest version of the Amerind Etymological Dictionary.

Notes

References

* Adelaar, Willem F. H. (1989). [Review of Greenberg, "Language in the Americas"] . "Lingua", "78", 249-255.
* Berman, Howard. (1992). A comment on the Yurok and Kalapuya data in Greenberg's Language in the Americas. "International Journal of American Linguistics", "58" (2), 230-233.
* Bonnichsen, Robson; & Steele, D. Gentry (Eds.). (1994). "Method and theory for investigating the peopling of the Americas". Peopling of the Americas publications. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University, Center for the Study of the First Americans. ISBN 0-912933-09-7.
* Campbell, Lyle. (1988). [Review of "Language in the Americas", Greenberg 1987] . "Language", "64", 591-615.
* Campbell, Lyle. (1997). "American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America". New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
* Chafe, Wallace. (1987). [Review of Greenberg 1987] . "Current Anthropology", "28", 652-653.
* citation
last = DELBRÜCK | first = Berthold
authorlink = Berthold Delbrück
title = Einleitung in das Sprachstudium. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte und Methodik der vergleichenden Sprachforschung
place = Leipzig
publisher = Breitkopf & Härtel
date = 1880
year = 1880
id = OCLC: 3961260
* Goddard, Ives. (1987). [Review of Joseph Greenberg, "Language in the Americas"] . "Current Anthropology", "28", 656-657.
* Goddard, Ives. (1990). [Review of "Language in the Americas" by Joseph H. Greenberg] . "Linguistics", "28", 556-558.
* 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. ISBN 0-16-048774-9.
* 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.
* Golla, Victor. (1987). [Review of Joseph H. Greenberg: "Language in the Americas"] . "Current Anthropology", "28", 657-659.
* Golla, Victor. (1988). [Review of "Language in the Americas", by Joseph Greenberg] . "American Anthropologist", "90", 434-435.
* 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.
*Citation
last2 = RUHLEN | first2 = Merritt
author2-link = Merritt Ruhlen
last1 = GREENBERG | first1 = Joseph H.
author1-link = Joseph Greenberg
year = 2007
title = An Amerind Etymological Dictionary
publisher = Department of Anthropological Sciences, Stanford University
place = Corvallis, Oregon
accessdate = 2008-22-07
version = 12
format = PDF
URL = http://www.merrittruhlen.com/files/AED5.pdf
* 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. ISBN 0-521-23228-7 (hbk); ISBN 0-521-29875-X.
* http://www.billposer.org/Papers/sydilia.pdf PDF]
* Rankin, Robert. (1992). [Review 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.
*Citation
contribution = Evolution of Language
last = RUHLEN | first = Merritt
author-link = Merritt Ruhlen
editor-last = MACEY
editor-first = Sam
title = Encyclopedia of Time
publisher = Garland Science
place = New York
year = 1994
ISBN = 0815306156
*Citation
last = RUHLEN | first = Merritt
author-link = Merritt Ruhlen
editor1-last = BONNICHSEN| editor1-first = Robson
editor2-last = STEELE | editor2-first = D. Gentry
title = Method and Theory for Investigating the Peopling of the Americas
contribution = Linguistic Evidence for the Peopling of the Americas
publisher = Center for the Study of the First Americans, Oregon State University
place = Corvallis, Oregon
pages = 177–188
year = 1994
ISBN = 0912933097
*citation
last = RUHLEN | first = Merritt
authorlink = Merritt Ruhlen
title = Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
journal = Mother Tongue Newsletter
issue = 23
date = November 1994
pages = 72-73
publisher = Association for the Study of Language In Prehistory (ASLIP)
year = 1994
id = OCLC: 35315526
*citation
last = RUHLEN | first = Merritt
author-link = Merritt Ruhlen
year = 1994
title = Review of 'Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time' By Johanna NICHOLS
journal = Anthropos
Publisher = Anthropos Institute
volume = 89
pages = 640–641
id = ISSN: 0257-9774
*citation
last = RUHLEN
first = Merritt
author-link = Merritt Ruhlen
title = On the Origin of Languages: Studies in Linguistic Taxonomy
place = Stanford
publisher = Stanford University Press
date = 1994
year = 1994
ISBN = 0804723214
*citation
last = RUHLEN | first = Merritt
author-link = Merritt Ruhlen
year = 1995
title = A Note on Amerind Pronouns
journal = Mother Tongue Newsletter
issue = 24
pages = 60–61
publisher = Association for the Study of Language In Prehistory (ASLIP)
date = March 1995
id = OCLC: 35315526
*citation
last = RUHLEN | first = Merritt
author-link = Merritt Ruhlen
year = 1995
title = Proto-Amerind *QETS’ 'Left (Hand)'
journal = Mother Tongue Newsletter
issue = 24
pages = 69–70
publisher = Association for the Study of Language In Prehistory (ASLIP)
date = March 1995
id = OCLC: 35315526
*citation
last = RUHLEN | first = Merritt
year = 1995
contribution = On the Origin of the Amerind Pronominal Pattern
title = In Honor of William S-Y. Wang
editor1-last = Chen | editor1-first = Matthew Y.
editor2-last = Tzeng | editor2-first = Ovid J. L.
place = Taipei
publisher = Pyramid Press
pages = 405–407
ISBN = 957926855X

*citation
last = RUHLEN
first = Merritt
author-link = Merritt Ruhlen
date = January 1995
year = 1995
title = Proto-Amerind Numerals
journal = Anthropological Science
place = Tokyo
number = 3
volume = 103
pages = 209–225
publisher = Anthropological Society of Nippon
id = ISSN: 1348-8570

*citation
last = RUHLEN | first = Merritt
author-link = Merritt Ruhlen
year = 2004
contribution = On the Amerind Origin of the Proto-Algonquian Numeral Suffix *-a:šyeka
title = Traces of ancestry: studies in honour of Colin Renfrew
editor-last = JONES | editor-first = Martin
place = Cambridge
publisher = McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
pages = 139–142
ISBN = 1902937252

* citation
last = SAPIR | first = Edward
athor-link = Edward Sapir
title = The Sapir-Kroeber correspondence: letters between Edward Sapir and A. L. Kroeber, 1905-1925
contribution = Letter to A. L. Kroeber (1918)
year = 1984
place = Berkeley
publisher = University of California at Berkeley, [http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/Survey/ Survey of California and Other Indian Languages]
id = OCLC: 17922146

See also

*Famous Advocates of the Amerind hypothesis or its predecessors
*:Edward Sapir
*:Joseph H. Greenberg
*:Merritt Ruhlen

*Non-Amerind language families
*:Na-Dene languages
*:Eskimo-Aleut languages

*Other Macrofamily hypotheses
*:Nostratic languages
*::Eurasiatic languages, of which Eskimo-Aleutian would be a part.
*::Afroasiatic languages
*:Dene-Caucasian languages, of which Na-Dene would be a part.
*:Austric languages

External links

*The [http://www.merrittruhlen.com home page of Merritt Ruhlen] , one of the advocates of the Amerind hypothesis.