Language Families and Isolates
Further information: Classification schemes for indigenous languages of the AmericasNotes:
- Extinct languages or families are indicated by: †.
- The number of family members is indicated in parentheses (for example, Arauan (9) means the Arauan family consists of nine languages).
- Out of convenience, the following list of language families is divided in 3 sections based on political boundaries of countries. These sections correspond roughly with the geographic regions (North, Central, and South America) but are not equivalent. This division also does not cleanly delineate indigenous culture areas.
Read more about this topic: Indigenous Languages Of The Americas
Famous quotes containing the words language, families and/or isolates:
“I invented the colors of the vowels!—A black, E white, I red, O blue, U green—I made rules for the form and movement of each consonant, and, and with instinctive rhythms, I flattered myself that I had created a poetic language accessible, some day, to all the senses.”
—Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891)
“Whatever else American thinkers do, they psychologize, often brilliantly. The trouble is that psychology only takes us so far. The new interest in families has its merits, but it will have done us all a disservice if it turns us away from public issues to private matters. A vision of things that has no room for the inner life is bankrupt, but a psychology without social analysis or politics is both powerless and very lonely.”
—Joseph Featherstone (20th century)
“Lovers of painting and lovers of music are people who openly display their preference like a delectable ailment that isolates them and makes them proud.”
—Maurice Blanchot (b. 1907)