Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics.pdf

A-Z 811JournalJournal of Nonverbal Behavior.animal communication, face-to-face interaction, semiotics, sign languageNootkaSalishanNordicScandinaviannormative grammargrammarprescriptiveNorth and Central American languagesBefore colonization, about 200–300 languages were spoken in North America by approx.1.5 million inhabitants; these languages can be divided into numerous language familiesand language isolates.History of research: the first important attempt at classifying these languages wasmade by Powell (1891), who counted fifty-eight language families based on comparingword lists. Under F.Boas, the first volume of the Handbook of American IndianLanguages appeared with detailed descriptions of individual languages, influencingAmerican structuralism. Sapir assumed six major language groups in 1929.Subsequently, Sapir’s groupings were largely given up in favour of smaller but morecertain classifications, but groupings remain controversial. Campbell and Mithun (1979)cautiously assume thirty-two language families and thirty language isolates. In contrast,Suarez (1983) suggests seven language families and seven isolates, and Greenberg (1956,1987) assigns all languages of North, Central and South America, with the exception ofthe Na-Dené and Eskimo-Aleut languages, to one large Amerindian group. Accordingto Greenberg, the speakers of Amerindian represent the oldest wave of immigrants,followed by speakers of Na-Dené and Eskimo-Aleut. In Central America about seventynative languages are spoken today by over 7.5 million speakers. Research into theselanguages started in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with missionaries (grammars,dictionaries, development of writing systems, and collection of texts). The first attemptsat classification were carried out by L.Hervas y Panduro (1800–5), F. Pimentel (1874)