The Mesoamerican Indian Languages

by Jorge A. Suarez

Overview

At least a hundred indigenous Indian languages are known to have been spoken in Mesoamerica, the cultural area that includes most of Mexico and part of South America, but it is only in the past fifty years that many of them have been adequately described. For some we still have no more than a partial description, often in an obscure source. Professor Suárez draws together this considerable mass of scholarship in a general survey that will provide an invaluable source of reference. The approach is primarily descriptive, and a major part of the volume is concerned with synchronic descriptions of phonology, morphology and syntax. The volume will be of interest and importance both to general linguists and to others with a serious interest in Mesoamerican culture and society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521296694
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/14/1983
Series:	Cambridge Language Surveys
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.59(d)

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; List of tables; Preface; Notational conventions; 1. The study of Mesoamerican Indian languages; 2. Dialects, languages and linguistic families; 3. Phonology I; 4. Phonology II; 5. Morphology I; 6. Morphology II; 7. Syntax I; 8. Syntax II; 9. Preconquest literary traditions; 10. The prehistory of Mesoamerican Indian languages; 11. Indian languages after the conquest; Appendix; References; Language index; Subject index.