Čestmír Loukotka

Career

Loukotka proposed a classification for the languages of South America based on several previous works. This classification contained a lot of unpublished material and was therefore superior to all previous classifications. He divided the languages of South America and the Caribbean into 77 different families, based upon similarities of vocabulary and available lists. His classification of 1985 is the most influential and was based upon two previous schemes (1935, 1944), which were similar to those proposed by Paul Rivet, although the number of families was increased to 94 and 114.