Indigenous languages of the Americas

Many of the subcategories group these languages into geographic culture areas.

Languages that are within the same culture area are not necessarily related genetically (e.g. Chiricahua Apache is a language of the Southwest but it is not related to Hopi, another language of the Southwest. However, Chiricahua is related to Dena’ina, a language of the Subarctic spoken in Alaska).

South America[]

For South America, the subcategories follow Terrence Kaufman's "geolinguistic regions":

• Northwest (includes southern Central America)
• Northeastern Brazil
• Eastern Brazil
• Amazonia
  • Northern Amazonia
  • Central Amazonia
  • Western Amazonia (Kaufman actually has 2 regions here: Western Amazonia I & II)
• the Foothills (or Montaña)
  • Northern Foothills
  • Southern Foothills
• Andes
• The Cone
• The Chaco

Central America[]

For Central America, are mostly

• Mesoamerica (parts of Mesoamerica are also included in North America)
• Northwest (parts of Northwest are also included in South America)

North America[]

The culture areas for North America follow the general received consensus:

• Arctic
• Subarctic
• Northwest Coast
• Plateau
• Great Basin
• California
• Southwest
• Plains (sometimes divided into Plains and Prairie regions)
• Southeast
• Northeastern Woodlands
• Southwest
• Mesoamerica (part of Mesoamerica is also included in Central America)

See also[]

• Category:Languages of North America
• Category:Languages of South America