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Areal Linguistics and Middle America

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Native Languages of the Americas

Abstract

Middle America (also called Mesoamerica, henceforth MA), as a product of the culture area concept, is only one of the approximately 35 areas into which most anthropologists (and others) interested in the concept would divide the pre-Columbian New World. MA is of special interest in that (a) ‘civilization’ — by whatever definition — first appeared in the New World in MA, and (b) in political terms MA is divided between just two2 contemporary nations — Mexico and Guatemala — both of them officiall using Spanish as the national language.

Given Emeneau’s justly famous article on India (1956), 1 would not dare use the title ‘Middle America as a Linguistic Area’ unless I had made an equally incisive study for Middle America.

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Authors
  1. Terrence Kaufman
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center for Language and Semiotic Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA

    Thomas A. Sebeok

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© 1977 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Kaufman, T. (1977). Areal Linguistics and Middle America. In: Sebeok, T.A. (eds) Native Languages of the Americas. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1562-0_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1562-0_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-1564-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-1562-0

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