Prior to an influential paper by Greenberg and Swadesh in 1953 Tol (a.k.a. Eastern Jicaque) was thought to be a language isolate, i.e., there existed no knowledge as to its possible genetic affinities. They argued that Tol should be added to the
Hokan stock, a large language stock, phylum or family, which was proposed by R. B. Dixon and Alfred D. Kroeber in 1913. In 1977, David Oltrogge proposed to link Tol to the extinct
Subtiaba language of Nicaragua, and also to
Chontal of Oaxaca, also known as
Tequistlateco. This indirectly amounted to a mere sub-classification, since all of the three languages in question were part of the proposed Hokan stock. A couple of years later, Campbell and Oltrogge published a reconstruction of Jicaquean phonemes, based on the available information on Western and Eastern Jicaque. In that same paper they expressed strong doubt in the Hokan affiliation of Tol and mild enthusiasm regarding the possible link to Chontal of Oaxaca, but stressed that much more information was needed to be able to say anything reasonable. More recently, Kaufman has expressed his continuing support of the Hokan affiliation of Tol.
Julian Granberry & Gary Vescelius (2004) propose that the extinct
Ciguayo language of Hispaniola has its closest relatives in the Tolan languages. ==Proto-language== Proto-Jicaque reconstructions by Campbell and Oltrogge (1980): ==References==