The Amazonian Languages
The Amazon Basin is the least known and the most complex linguistic region in the world today. It is the home of some 300 languages many of which (often incompletely documented and mostly endangered) show properties that constitute exceptions to received ideas about linguistic universals. This book is the first in English to provide an accessible overview of this rich and exciting linguistic area. It will provide a basis for further research on Amazonian languages as well as a point of entry to important data for theoretical linguists.
- An accessible overview of the 300-plus languages of the Amazon Basin, bringing together what is known about these little-known and endangered languages
- Of major importance to theoretical linguists and language typologists alike, since many Amazonian languages contain features that challenge received notions of language universals
- Can be used from undergraduate level upwards; also of relevance to policy-makers, NGOs and others involved with the survival of Amazonian peoples
Reviews & endorsements
..."a useful, comprehensive linguistic anthology for the Amazonian region" Notes on Linguistics
Product details
November 2006Paperback
9780521578936
476 pages
228 × 154 × 26 mm
0.688kg
14 maps 120 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- List of maps
- List of contributors
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Conventions followed
- 1. Introduction R. M. W. Dixon and Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
- 2. Carib Desmond C. Derbyshire
- 3. The Arawak language family Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
- 4. Tupà Aryon D. Rodrigues
- 5. TupÃ-Guaranà Cheryl Jensen
- 6. Macro-Jê Aryon D. Rodrigues
- 7. Tucano Janet Barnes
- 8. Pano Eugene E. Loos
- 9. Makú Silvana and Valteir Martins
- 10. Nambiquara Ivan Lowe
- 11. Arawá R. M. W. Dixon
- 12. Small language families and isolates in Peru Mary Ruth Wise
- 13. Other small families and isolates Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald and R. M. W. Dixon
- 14. Areal diffusion and language contact in the Içana-Vaupés basin, north-west Amazonia Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
- 15. The Upper Xingu as an incipient linguistic area Lucy Seki
- Index of authors
- Index of languages and language families
- Subject index.