Colombian–Central American Colombian–Central American consists of
Chibchan,
Misumalpan,
Mangue, and
Subtiaba; sometimes
Lencan,
Jicaquean,
Chocoan, and
Betoi are also included. This linguistic area is characterized by SOV word order and postpositions. This stands in contrast to the Mesoamerican Linguistic Area, where languages do not have SOV word order. Holt & Bright (1976) define a Central American Linguistic Area as having the following areal traits. Note that these stand in direct opposition to the traits defined in their Mayan Linguistic Area. • presence of voiced obstruents and labiovelar stops (absent in the Mayan area) • absence of glottalized consonants and alveolar affricates (present in the Mayan area) Constenla's (1991) Colombian–Central American area consists primarily of
Chibchan languages, but also include Lencan, Jicaquean, Misumalpan, Chocoan, and Betoi (Constenla 1992:103). This area consists of the following areal traits. • voicing opposition in stops and fricatives • exclusive SOV word order • postpositions • mostly Genitive-Noun order • Noun-Adjective order • Noun-Numeral order • clause-initial question words • suffixation or postposed particle for negatives (in most languages) • absence of gender opposition in pronouns and inflection • absence of possessed/nonpossessed and alienable/inalienable possession oppositions • "morpholexical economy" - presence of lexical compounds rather than independent roots. This is similar to calques found in Mesoamerica, but with a more limited number of compounding elements. For instance, in Guatuso (as in Athabaskan languages), there is one compounding element of liquid substances, one compounding element for pointed extremities, one for flat surfaces, and so on.
Venezuelan–Antillean This linguistic area, consisting of
Arawakan,
Cariban,
Guamo,
Otomaco,
Yaruro, and
Warao, is characterized by VO word order (instead of SOV), and is described by Constenla (1991). Shared traits are: • exclusive VO word order, and absence of SOV word order • absence of voicing opposition in obstruents • Numeral-Noun order • Noun-Genitive order • presence of prepositions The Venezuelan–Antillean could also extend to the western part of the Amazon Culture Area (Amazonia), where there are many Arawakan languages with VO word order (Constenla 1991).
Andean This linguistic area, consisting of
Quechuan,
Aymaran,
Callahuaya, and
Chipaya, is characterized by SOV word order and elaborate suffixing. Quechuan and Aymaran languages both have: • SOV basic word order • suffixing morphology; other similar morphological structures Büttner's (1983:179) includes Quechuan, Aymaran, Callahuaya, and Chipaya. Puquina, an extinct but significant language in this area, appears to not share these phonological features. Shared phonological traits are: • glottalized stops and affricates (not found in all varieties of Quechuan) • aspirated stops and affricates (not found in Chipaya) • uvular stops • presence of /ɲ, lʲ/ • retroflexed affricates (retroflexed /ʃ/ and /t͡ʃ/) - more limited in distribution • absence of glottal stop /ʔ/ • limited vowel systems with /i, a, u/ (not in Chipaya) Constenla (1991) defines a broader Andean area including the languages of highland Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, and possibly also some lowland languages east of that Andes that have features typical of the Andean area. This area has the following areal traits. • absence of the high-mid opposition in back vowels • absence of the opposition of voiced/voiceless affricates • presence of the
voiceless alveolar affricate,
voiceless prepalatal fricative,
palatal lateral,
palatal nasal, retroflexed fricatives or affricates • Adjective-Noun order • clause-initial interrogative words • accusative case • genitive case • passive construction
Statistical studies Quantitative studies on the Andes and overlapping areas have found the following traits to be characteristic of these areas in a statistically significant way.
Morphosyntactic features A statistical study of argument marking features in languages of South America found that both the Andes and Western South America constitute linguistic areas, with some traits showing a statistically significant relationship to both areas. The unique and shared traits of the two areas are shown in the following table. (The wordings of the traits are directly from the source.)
Phonological features Phonologically, the following
segments and segmental
features are areal for the Andes:
Consonants • A contrast between
aspirated and
ejective in the
stops and the postalveolar affricate • A "comparatively large number of affricates, fricatives, and liquids" • The palatal place of articulation (in nasals and liquids) • The uvular place of articulation (in stops and fricatives) • The absence of the following types of consonants: •
Voiced alveolar stop and
affricate •
Labialized velar voiceless stop and nasal •
Voiced bilabial and
voiceless labiodental fricatives •
Glottal stop and
fricative Vowels • The presence of short /u/ and
long /iː, uː, aː/ • The absence of mid and non-low central vowels and nasal vowels, and "long versions of many of these vowels."
Amazon The Amazon linguistic area includes the
Arawakan/Maipurean,
Arauan/Arawan,
Cariban,
Chapacuran,
Ge/Je,
Panoan,
Puinavean,
Tacanan,
Tucanoan, and
Tupian families. Derbyshire & Pullum (1986) and Derbyshire (1987) describe the characteristics of this linguistic area in detail. Traits include: • objects preceding subjects, such as
VOS, OVS, and
OSV; word order in OVS and OSV languages tends to be highly flexible • verb agreement with both subject and object (additionally, null realization of subject and object nominals or free pronouns, which means that sentences frequently lack full noun-phrase subjects or objects) • predictability of when subjects and objects will be full noun phrases or when they will be signalled by verbal affixes (depending on whether they represent "new" or "given" information) • use of nominalizations for relative clauses and other subordinate clauses (in many cases, there are no true subordinate clauses at all) • nominal modifiers following their head nouns • no agentive passive constructions (except
Palikur) • indirect-speech forms are nonexistent in most languages and rare in the languages that do have them; thus, they rely on direct speech constructions • absence of coordinating conjunctions (juxtaposition is used to express coordination instead) • extensive use of right-dislocated paratactic constructions (sequences of noun phrases, adverbials, or postpositional phrases, in which the whole sequence has only one grammatical relation in the sentence) • extensive use of particles that are phrasal subconstituents syntactically and phonologically, but are sentence operators or modifiers semantically • tendency toward ergative subject marking • highly complex morphology
Noun-classifier systems are also common across Amazonian languages. Derbyshire & Payne (1990) list three basic types of classifier systems. •
Numeral: lexico-syntactic forms, which are often obligatory in expressions of quantity and normally are separate words. •
Concordial: a closed grammatical system, consisting of morphological affixes or clitics and expressing class agreement with some head noun. However, they may also occur on nouns or verbs. •
Verb incorporation: lexical items are incorporated into the verb stem, signalling some classifying entity of the associated noun phrase. Derbyshire (1987) also notes that Amazonian languages tend to have: • ergatively organized systems (in whole or in part) • evidence of historical drift from ergative to accusative marking • certain types of split systems Mason (1950) has found that in many languages of central and eastern Brazil, words end in vowels, and stress is ultimate (i.e., falls on the final syllable). Lucy Seki (1999) has also proposed an Upper Xingu Linguistic Area in northern Brazil.
Validity The validity of Amazonia as a linguistic area has been called into question by recent research, including quantitative studies. A study of argument marking parameters in 74 South American languages by Joshua Birchall found that “not a single feature showed an areal distribution for Amazonia as a macroregion. This suggests that Amazonia is not a good candidate for a linguistic area based on the features examined in this study.” Instead, Birchall finds evidence for three “macroregions” in South America: the Andes, Western South America, and Eastern South America, with some overlap in features between the Andes and Western South America. Based on that study and similar findings,
Patience Epps and Lev Michael claim that “an emerging consensus points to Amazonia not forming a linguistic area
sensu strictu.” Epps (2015) shows that
Wanderwörter are spread across the languages of Amazonia.
Morphosyntax is also heavily borrowed across neighboring unrelated Amazonian languages.
Ecuadorian–Colombian This is a subarea of the Andean Linguistic Area, as defined by Constenla (1991). Languages include
Páez,
Guambiano (Paezan),
Cuaiquer,
Cayapa,
Colorado (Barbacoan),
Camsá,
Cofán,
Esmeralda, and
Ecuadorian Quechua. Shared traits are: • high-mid opposition in front vowels • absence of glottalized consonants • presence of the glottal stop /ʔ/ and voiceless bilabial fricative /ɸ/ • absence of uvular stops /q, ɢ/ • rounding opposition in non-front vowels • lack of person inflection in nouns • prefixes expressing tense or aspect distinctions
Vaupés (Vaupés–Içana) The Vaupés (Vaupés–Içana) linguistic area includes Eastern
Tukanoan,
Arawakan,
Nadahup, and
Kakua–
Nukak language families, along with the local
lingua franca Nheengatú. The linguistic area has been well studied by various linguists. •
Boran and
Witotoan families •
Resígaro (Arawakan) •
Andoke (language isolate) Shared traits include: Shared grammatical features (also noted by Epps (2020), Epps and Michael (2017: 948–949), and Lüpke et al. (2020: 19–21)) include: • first-person plural exclusive distinction (borrowing from
Waiwai) • nominal tense marking • marking on nouns or verbs to express ‘pity’ or ‘recognition of unfortunate circumstance’ • frustrative marker on verbs • ‘similative’ marker on nominals
Tocantins–Mearim Interfluvium The Tocantins–Mearim Interfluvium linguistic area includes several
Tupí–Guaranían and
Jêan languages.) Shared grammatical traits include: • change in a grammatical particle • change in gerund • loss of first-person plural inclusive-exclusive contrast • argumentative case
Upper Xingu The Upper Xingu linguistic area includes more than a dozen languages belonging to the Cariban, Arawakan, Jêan, and Tupían families, as well as the language isolate
Trumai. Shared linguistic traits include: • p > h shift in Cariban and Tupí-Guaranían • change to CV syllable structure in Cariban • diffusion of /ts/ into the Xingu Cariban languages from Arawakan • diffusion of nasal vowels into the Xingu Arawakan and Cariban languages from neighboring Tupí-Guaranían languages Influence is multidirectional, as noted by Epps and Michael (2017: 947). • a high incidence of prefixes • evidentials • directionals • verbal number • lack of nominal number • lack of classifiers • inclusive/exclusive distinction Muysken et al. (2014) also performed a detailed statistical analysis of the Mamoré–Guaporé linguistic area.
Chaco According to Campbell (2024), the Gran Chaco linguistic area includes
Charrúan, Enlhet-Enenlhet (
Mascoyan),
Guaicurúan,
Guachí,
Lule-Vilelan,
Matacoan,
Payaguá,
Zamucoan, and some
Tupí-Guaranían languages. Campbell and Grondona (2012) consider the
Mataco–Guaicuru,
Mascoyan,
Lule-Vilelan,
Zamucoan, and some southern
Tupi-Guarani languages to be part of a
Chaco linguistic area. Common Chaco areal features include
SVO word order and
active-stative alignment. Other shared traits, some of which are also found outside the Gran Chaco area, include: • gender that is not overtly marked on nouns, but is present in demonstratives, depending on the gender of the nouns modified • genitive classifiers for possessed domestic animals • SVO word order • active-stative verb alignment • large set of directional verbal affixes • demonstrative system with rich contrasts including visible vs. not visible • some adjectives as polar negatives • resistance to borrowing foreign words
South Cone The languages of the South Cone area, including
Mapudungun (Araucanian),
Guaycuruan, and
Chon, share the following traits (Klein 1992): • Semantic notions of position signaled morphologically by means of "many devices to situate the visual location of the noun subject or object relative to the speaker; tense, aspect and number are expressed as part of the morphology of location, direction, and motion" (Klein 1992:25). • palatalization • more back consonants than front consonants • SVO basic word order
Fuegian Adelaar and Muysken (2004: 578–582) note that the languages of the
Tierra del Fuego, namely
Chonan,
Kawesqaran,
Chono (isolate), and
Yahgan (isolate), share areal traits relating to encliticization, suffixation, compounding, and reduplication, as well as object-initial (OV) word order. ==See also==