Linguistic areas of the Americas

Overview

The languages of the Americas often can be grouped together into linguistic areas or Sprachbunds (also known as convergence areas). The linguistic areas identified so far deserve more research to determine their validity. Knowing about Sprachbunds helps historical linguists differentiate between shared areal traits and true genetic relationship. The pioneering work on American areal linguistics was a dissertation by Joel Sherzer, which was published as Sherzer (1976).

In American Indian Languages: the Historical Linguistics of Native America, Lyle Campbell also lists over 20 Sprachbunds or linguistic areas, many of which are still hypothetical.

Note: Some linguistic areas may overlap with others.

Northern Northwest Coast

This linguistic area was proposed by Jeff Leer (1991), and may be a subarea of the Northern Northwest Coast Linguistic Area. This sprachbund is contains languages that have strict head-final (XSOV) syntax.

Leer (1991) considers the strong areal traits to be:

lack of labial obstruents

promiscuous number marking

periphrastic possessive construction

Northwest Coast

This linguistic area is characterized by elaborate consonant systems. Phonological areal traits include:

Series of glottalized stops and affricates

Labiovelars

Multiple laterals

s/š opposition

c/č opposition

voiceless uvular stop q

one fricative series, which is voiceless

velar fricatives

highly limited inventory of labial consonants

large inventory of uvular consonants

limited vowel systems

Typical shared morphological traits include:

reduplication processes: including iterative, continuative, progressive, plural, collective

numeral classifiers

alienable/inalienable oppositions in nouns

pronominal plural

nominal plural

verbal reduplication signifying distribution, repetition, etc.

suffixation of tense-aspect markers in verbs

verbal evidential markers

locative-directional markers in the verb

visibility/invisibility opposition in demonstratives

nominal and verbal reduplication signaling the diminutive

passive-like constructions (except for Tlingit)

negative appearing as the first element in a clause regardless of the usual word order

lexically paired singular and plural verb stems

Plateau

Primary shared phonological features of this linguistic area include:

glottalized stops

velar/uvular contrasting series

multiple laterals

Other less salient shared traits are:

labiovelars

one fricative series

velar (and uvular) fricatives

series of glottalized resonants (sonorants) contrasting with plain resonants (except in Sahaptin, Cayuse, Molala, and Kiksht)

word-medial and word-final consonant clusters of four or more consonants (except in Kiksht, and uncertain in Cayuse and Molala)

vowel systems of only 3 or 4 vowel positions (except Nez Perce, which has 5)

vowel-length contrast

size-shape-affective sound symbolism involving consonantal interchanges

pronominal plural

nominal plural

prefixation of subject person markers of verbs

suffixation of tense-aspect markers in verbs

several kinds of reduplication (except in Nicola)

numeral classifiers (shared by Salishan and Sahaptian languages)

locative-directional markers in verbs

different roots of the singular and the plural for various actions, such as 'sit', 'stand', 'take' (except in Kutenai and Lillooet, uncertain in Cayuse and Molala)

quinary-decimal numerical system (Haruo Aoki 1975)

Northern California

Features of this linguistic area have been described by Mary Haas. They include:

rarity of uvular consonants: they occur in Klamath, Wintu, Chimariko, and Pomoan

retroflexed stops

rarity of a distinct series of voiced stops except in the east-west strip of languages including Kashaya Pomo, Wintu-Patwin, and Maidu (this series contains implosion in Maidu)

consonant sound symbolism: in Yurok, Wiyot, Hupa, Tolowa, Karuk, and Yana

Washo, spoken in the Great Basin area, shares some traits common to the Northern California linguistic area.

pronominal dual

quinary/decimal numeral system

absence of vowel-initial syllables

free stress

Clear Lake

This is clearly a linguistic area, and is centered around Clear Lake, California. Shared features include:

retroflexed dentals

voiceless l (ɬ)

glottalized glides

3 series of stops

South Coast Range

Languages in Sherzer's (1976) "Yokuts-Salinan-Chumash" area share the following traits.

3 series of stops - also in the Clear Lake area

retroflexed sounds - also in the Clear Lake area

glottalized resonants (sonorants)

prefixation of verbal subject markers)

presence of /h, ɨ, c, ŋ/ in the Greater South Coast Range area

t/ṭ (retroflex/non-retroflex) contrast in the Greater South Coast Range area, as well as other parts of California

Great Basin

This linguistic area is defined by Sherzer (1973, 1976) and Jacobsen (1980). Shared traits include:

k/kʷ contrast

bilabial fricatives /ɸ, β/

presence of /xʷ, ŋ, ɨ/

overtly marked nominal system

inclusive/exclusive pronominal distinction

However, the validity of this linguistic area is doubtful, as pointed out by Jacobsen (1986), since many traits of the Great Basin area are also common to California languages. It may be an extension of the Northern California linguistic area.

Southern California–Western Arizona

This linguistic area has been demonstrated in Hinton (1991). Shared traits include:

k/q distinction

presence of /kʷ, tʃ, x/

The Yuman and Cupan languages share the most areal features, such as:

kʷ/qʷ contrast

s/ʂ contrast

r/l contrast

presence of /xʷ, ɲ, lʲ/

small vowel inventory

sound symbolism

The influence is strongly unidirectional from Yuman to Cupan, since the features considered divergent within the Takic subgroup. According to Sherzer (1976), many of these traits are also common to Southern California languages.

Shaul and Andresen (1989) have proposed a Southwestern Arizona ("Hohokam") linguistic area as well, where speakers of Piman languages are hypothesized to have interacted with speakers of Yuman languages as part of the Hohokam archaeological culture. The single trait defining this area is the presence of retroflex stops (/ʈ/ in Yuman, /ɖ/ in Piman).

Plains

The Plains Linguistic Area, according to Sherzer (1973:773), is the "most recently constituted of the culture areas of North America (late eighteenth and nineteenth century)." The following areal traits are characteristic of this linguistic area, though they are also common in other parts of North America.

prefixation of subject person markers in verbs

pronominal plurals

Frequent traits, which are not shared by all languages, include:

one stop series

the voiceless velar fricative /x/

alienable/inalienable opposition in nouns

nominal plural suffix

inclusive/exclusive opposition (in first person plural pronouns)

nominal diminutive suffix

animate/inanimate gender

evidential markers in verbs

lack of labiovelars (other than Comanche and the languages of the Southern Plains subregion)

presence of /ð/ (eastern Plains subregion only)

Southern Plains areal traits include:

phonemic pitch

presence of /kʷ, r/

voiced/voiceless fricatives

Northeast

Central areal traits of the Northeast Linguistic Area include the following (Sherzer 1976).

a single series of stops (especially characteristic of the Northeast)

a single series of fricatives

presence of /h/

nominal plural

noun incorporation

In New England, areal traits include:

vowel system with /i, e, o, a/

nasalized vowels

pronominal dual

New England Eastern Algonquian languages and Iroquoian languages share the following traits.

nasalized vowels (best-known feature); for instance, Proto-Eastern Algonquian *a- is nasalized due to influence from Iroquioan languages, which have two nasalized vowels in its proto-language, *ɛ̃ and *õ.

pronominal dual

The boundary between the Northeast and Southeast linguistic areas is not clearly determined, since features often extend over to territories belonging to both linguistic areas.

Southeast

Bilabial or labial fricatives (/ɸ/, sometimes /f/) are considered by Sherzer (1976) to be the most characteristic trait of the Southeast Linguistic Area. Various other shared traits have been found by Robert L. Rankin (1986, 1988) and T. Dale Nicklas (1994).

Mesoamerican

This linguistic area consists of the following language families and branches.

Mayan

Oto-Manguean (except Chichimeco-Jonaz and some varieties of Pame north of the Mesoamerican boundary)

Mixe–Zoque

Totonacan

Aztecan (a Southern Uto-Aztecan branch)

Purépecha

Huave

Tequistlatec

Cuitlatec

Some languages formerly considered to be part of the Mesoamerican sprachbund, but are now considered to lack main diagnostic traits of Mesoamerican area languages, include Cora, Huichol, Lenca, Jicaquean, and Misumalpan.

Mayan

The Mayan Linguistic Area is considered by most scholars to be part of the Mesoamerican area. However, Holt & Bright (1976) distinguish it as a separate area, and include the Mayan, Xincan, Lencan, and Jicaquean families as part of the Mayan Linguistic Area. Shared traits include:

presence of glottalized consonants and alveolar affricates

absence of voiced obstruents and labiovelar stops

Colombian–Central American

This linguistic area is characterized by SOV word order and postpositions. This stands in contrast to the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area, where languages do not have SOV word order.

Holt & Bright (1976) define a Central American Linguistic Area as having the following areal traits. Note that these stand in direct opposition to the traits defined in their Mayan Linguistic Area.

presence of voiced obstruents and labiovelar stops (absent in the Mayan area)

absence of glottalized consonants and alveolar affricates (present in the Mayan area)

Constenla's (1991) Colombian–Central American area consists primarily of Chibchan languages, but also include Lencan, Jicaquean, Misumalpan, Chocoan, and Betoi (Constenla 1992:103). This area consists of the following areal traits.

voicing opposition in stops and fricatives

exclusive SOV word order

postpositions

mostly Genitive-Noun order

Noun-Adjective order

Noun-Numeral order

clause-initial question words

suffixation or postposed particle for negatives (in most languages)

absence of gender opposition in pronouns and inflection

absence of possessed/nonpossessed and alienable/inalienable possession oppositions

"morpholexical economy" - presence of lexical compounds rather than independent roots. This is similar to calques found in Mesoamerica, but with a more limited number of compounding elements. For instance, in Guatuso (as in Athabaskan languages), there is one compounding element of liquid substances, one compounding element for pointed extremities, one for flat surfaces, and so on.

Venezuelan–Antillean

This linguistic area is characterized by VO word order (instead of SOV), and is described by Constenla (1991). Shared traits are:

exclusive VO word order, and absence of SOV word order

absence of voicing opposition in obstruents

Numeral-Noun order

Noun-Genitive order

presence of prepositions

The Venezuelan–Antillean could also extend to the western part of the Amazon Culture Area (Amazonia), where there are many Arawakan languages with VO word order (Constenla 1991).

Andean

This linguistic area is characterized by SOV word order and elaborate suffixing.

Quechuan and Aymaran languages both have:

SOV basic word order

suffixing morphology; other similar morphological structures

Büttner's (1983:179) includes Quechuan, Aymaran, Callahuaya, and Chipaya. Puquina, an extinct but significant language in this area, appears to not share these phonological features. Shared phonological traits are:

glottalized stops and affricates (not found in all varieties of Quechuan)

aspirated stops and affricates (not found in Chipaya)

uvular stops

presence of /ɲ, lʲ/

retroflexed affricates (retroflexed /ʃ/ and /tʃ͡/) - more limited in distribution

absence of glottal stop /ʔ/

limited vowel systems with /i, a, u/ (not in Chipaya)

Constenla (1991) defines a broader Andean area including the languages of highland Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, and possibly also some lowland languages east of that Andes that have features typical of the Andean area. This area has the following areal traits.

absence of the high-mid opposition in back vowels

absence of the opposition of voiced/voiceless affricates

presence of the voiceless alveolar affricate, voiceless prepalatal fricative, palatal lateral, palatal nasal, retroflexed fricatives or affricates

Adjective-Noun order

clause-initial interrogative words

accusative case

genitive case

passive construction

Statistical Work

Quantitative studies on the Andes and overlapping areas have found the following traits to be characteristic of these areas in a statistically significant way.

Morphosyntactic features

A statistical study of argument marking features in languages of South America found that both the Andes and Western South America constitute linguistic areas, with some traits showing a statistically significant relationship to both areas. The unique and shared traits of the two areas are shown in the following table. (The wordings of the traits are directly from the source.)

Phonological features

Phonologically, the following segments and segmental features are areal for the Andes:

Consonants

A contrast between aspirated and ejective in the stops and the postalveolar affricate

A "comparatively large number of affricates, fricatives, and liquids"

The palatal place of articulation (in nasals and liquids)

The uvular place of articulation (in stops and fricatives)

The absence of the following types of consonants:

Voiced alveolar stop and affricate

Labialized velar voiceless stop and nasal

Voiced bilabial and voiceless labiodental fricatives

Glottal stop and fricative

Vowels

The presence of short /u/ and long /iː, uː, aː/

The absence of mid and non-low central vowels and nasal vowels, and "long versions of many of these vowels."

Ecuadorian–Colombian

This is a subarea of the Andean Linguistic Area, as defined by Constenla (1991). Shared traits are:

high-mid opposition in the front vowels

absence of glottalized consonants

presence of the glottal stop /ʔ/, voiceless labial fricative /ɸ/

absence of uvular stops /q, ɢ/

rounding opposition in non-front vowels

lack of person inflection in nouns

prefixes expressing tenses or aspects

Orinoco–Amazon

The Orinoco–Amazon Linguistic Area, or the Northern Amazon Culture Area, is identified by Migliazza (1985 [1982]). Common areal traits are:

a shared pattern of discourse redundancy (Derbyshire 1977)

ergative alignment (except in a few Arawakan languages)

objects preceding verbs, such as SOV and OVS word orders (except in a few Arawakan languages)

lack of active-passive distinction

relative clauses formed by apposition and nominalization

The following traits have diffused to west to east (Migliazza 1985 [1982]):

nasalization

aspiration

glottalization

Amazon

Derbyshire & Pullum (1986) and Derbyshire (1987) describe the characteristics of this linguistic area in detail. Traits include:

objects preceding subjects, such as VOS, OVS, and OSV word orders. Word order in OVS and OSV languages tends to be highly flexible.

verb agreement with both subject and object (additionally, null realization of subject and object nominals or free pronouns, which means that sentences frequently lack full noun-phrase subjects or objects)

predictability of when subjects and objects will be full noun phrases or when they will be signaled by verbal affixes (depending on whether they represent "new" or "given" information")

use of nominalizations for relative clauses and other subordinate clauses (in many cases, there are no true subordinate clauses at all)

nominal modifiers following their head nouns

no agentive passive constructions (except Palikur)

indirect speech forms are nonexistent in most languages and rare in the languages that do have them; thus, they rely on direct speech constructions.

absence of coordinating conjunctions (juxtaposition is used to express coordination instead)

extensive use of right-dislocated paratactic constructions (sequences of noun phrases, adverbials, or postpositional phrases, in which the whole sequence has only one grammatical relation in the sentence)

extensive use of particles that are phrasal subconstituents syntactically and phonologically, but are sentence operators or modifiers semantically

tendency toward ergative subject marking

highly complex morphology

Noun classifier systems are also common across Amazonian languages. Derbyshire & Payne (1990) list three basic types of classifier systems.

Numeral: lexico-syntactic forms, which are often obligatory in expressions of quantity and normally are separate words.

Concordial: a closed grammatical system, consisting of morphological affixes or clitics and expressing class agreement with some head noun. However, they may also occur on nouns or verbs.

Verb incorporation: lexical items are incorporated into the verb stem, signaling some classifying entity of the associated noun phrase.

Derbyshire (1987) also notes that Amazonian languages tend to have:

ergatively organized systems (in whole or in part)

evidence of historical drift from ergative to accusative marking

certain types of split systems

Mason (1950) has found that in many languages of central and eastern Brazil, words end in vowels, and stress is ultimate (i.e., falls on the final syllable).

Lucy Seki (1999) has also proposed an Upper Xingu Linguistic Area in northern Brazil.

Validity

The validity of Amazonia as a linguistic area has been called into question by recent research, including quantitative studies. A study of argument marking parameters in 74 South American languages by Joshua Birchall found that “not a single feature showed an areal distribution for Amazonia as a macroregion. This suggest that Amazonia is not a good candidate for a linguistic area based on the features examined in this study.” Instead, Birchall finds evidence for three “macroregions” in South America: the Andes, Western South America, and Eastern South America, with some overlap in features between Andes and Western South America.

Based on that study and similar findings, Patience Epps and Lev Michael claim that “an emerging consensus points to Amazonia not forming a linguistic area sensu strictu.”

South Cone

The languages of the South Cone area share the following traits (Klein 1992):

Semantic notions of position signaled morphologically by means of "many devices to situate the visual location of the noun subject or object relative to the speaker; tense, aspect and number are expressed as part of the morphology of location, direction, and motion" (Klein 1992:25).

palatalization

more back consonants than front consonants

SVO basic word order