The languages of South America: deep families, areal relationships, and language contact

Abstract

After summarizing the earlier chapters, we sketch a general overview of the different phases in the development of South America. We then explore the possibility of a continental bias for typological features characteristic of South America, which may point to the early entry of a limited set of features into the continent. Subsequently we analyze possible deep families or macro-groups in the continent, and their regional distribution. We then turn to the issue of whether different subsets of structural features yield different distance matrices for the language families studied. To further explore contact possibilities, the results for language contact in our book are charted. Finally, we conclude and take stock of what has been achieved and how further research should proceed