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Native Languages of the Americas:
Preserving and promoting American Indian languages

Welcome to Native Languages of the Americas! We are a small non-profit organization
dedicated to the survival of Native American languages, particularly through the use of Internet technology.
Our website is not beautiful. Probably, it never will be. But this site has inner beauty, for it is, or will be, a compendium of
online materials about more than 800 indigenous languages of the Western Hemisphere and the people that speak them.

Sponsored Links

Native Languages of the Americas Online Resources

, with links to specific information about each language and its native speakers.
showing the relationships between Amerindian languages.
in various American Indian languages.
including picture dictionaries, parts of the body, and pronunciation guides.
List of
featured on our site.
grouped by
continent, country, and state or province.
Maps of of the
Western Hemisphere.
of Native American information presented for younger readers.
List of
and other resources by and about American Indians.
Online collection of
from several tribes.
Links to available online.

NOTE:
Some of the links we provide are more useful than others. We are not responsible for the
content of any of the external sites we link to. We have tried to provide the most complete directory
of Native American Indian language materials available. If a link is dead, or you have one to add, or if
there is a mistake on our site you would like to correct, information you would like us to
add, or admiration you wish to express, here is our contact page, also
with answers to frequently asked questions. If you are looking for Orrin’s homepage,
we moved it from here to give more prominence to the Native American language pages.

Why aren’t there any links about how American Indian languages
are descended from Ancient Egyptian? See our new page explaining the truth behind some of
the incorrect “theories” floating around the web about Native American languages, cultures, and history.

Feel free to link to this site or to any of the pages in it. Also, you have our permission to cite this information or pass it on
to others in any way that would be useful. Our goal is to make it easier to learn about, preserve, and
revive Native American languages by using the Internet. This is a public service on our part. All the information about American Indians
and American Indian languages was written by Orrin Lewis, Laura Redish, or our friend Nancy Sherman, who has kindly agreed to let us use
them. We make every possible effort to honor any request from Indian tribes and nations regarding the information we have provided about
them, and we will listen carefully to requests from other people as well.

Thank you for your interest in Native American languages.

Laura Redish, Director
Orrin Lewis, Tribal Coordinator

Native American Language Families

Actually, Native American languages do not belong to a single Amerindian family, but 25-30 small ones; they are usually discussed together
because of the small numbers of natives speaking most of these languages and how little is known about many of them. There are around 25
million native speakers of the more than 800 surviving Amerind languages. The vast majority of these speakers live in Central and South
America, where language use is vigorous. In Canada and the United States, only about half a million native speakers of an Amerind tongue
remain.

Click on a language family to see a linguistic tree of that family and links about the group. Click on a language name to see a description and
links about that language, as well as information about the American Indian people who speak it.

Sponsored Links

Recommended Books about Native American Languages
(Affiliate links courtesy of Amazon.com)

   
    
Comprehensive Native American linguistic references from the Cambridge Language Surveys.


    
A good introduction to the diversity of indigenous languages of North, Central, and South America.


    
Interesting book about English loanwords that come from Native American languages.


    
Well-researched encyclopedia of American place names and their Indian language etymologies.


    
Collection of essays on Native American language communities, sociolinguistics, and tribal language preservation today.


    
Book about Native American language revival, storytelling, and cultural tradition.


    
Linguistic text surveying the grammar of Amerindian languages.


    
Fascinating book about the complications and perils of Native American language translations.


    
Excellent collection of materials about Native American language loss, history, and revitalization in California.


    
An in-depth look at Native American language preservation and usage in Montana.


    
Survey of Southeast Native American linguistics.


    
A list of dictionary, grammar, and language learning books in individual Native American languages.

about Native American Languages

Our site is designed to present information about American Indian languages contextually–language by language and tribe by tribe.
These are linguistically diverse languages deserving of individual attention, and it is very difficult to make accurate generalizations
about them as a group. However, our site is also unfinished and may be of limited use to people seeking information on a language
we have not yet covered. For this reason, we are providing some links to the main pages of sites with information about many different
Native American languages. Hopefully if you are looking for a language we have not finished work on yet, these sites can provide
a starting point for your search.

Teaching Indigenous Languages:
News, papers and columns about Native American language education


Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas:
Indian language news, articles, and links


Indigenous Language Institute:
Organization working on American Indian language preservation programs


Indigenous Language Institute:
Organization working on American Indian language preservation programs


Native American Languages:
Article by a Hopi writer on the languages of native North America


Endangered Languages: Revival and Revitalization:
Laura’s essay on maintaining and reviving Native American languages


Native American Languages:
Linguistic overview of the Amerindian language families, with language maps


Ethnologue of Languages:
Demographic information on American Indian and other language families


Native American Languages Spoken At Home:
US Census information about Native American language use


Native American Languages (USA):
Linguistic maps of American Indian language use in the US


First Nations Languages (Canada):
Linguistic maps of Native Canadian language use


Indigenous Mexican Languages:
Information about the Native American languages of Mexico


Languages of Modern Mexico:
Information on Central American Indian languages


Aboriginal Languages of Canada:
Site for children about indigenous Canadian languages


Numbers in North American Indian Languages:
Glossary of numerals in dozens of Native American languages

Cherokee Syllabary Symbols Blackfoot Script Cree Syllabics:
Charts showing the syllabic writing systems of three Native American languages.


Native American Language Programs:
Courses of learning for American Indian languages


Indigenous Native Americans:
Indexed resources on American Indian languages and cultures


Native American Language Resources:
Links on various American Indian languages


Native American Languages:
Links on various American Indian languages


Inwewinan Native Languages:
Links on various American Indian languages


Native Languages Page:
Links on various American Indian languages


Native American Language Resources:
Links on various American Indian languages


Native American Association of Germany:
Links on various American Indian languages


Native American Language Families:
Links on various American Indian languages


Cheyenne Language Web Site Links:
Links on various American Indian languages


Native American Languages:
Links on various American Indian languages


Native American Language Sites:
Links on various American Indian languages


Latin American Languages:
Links on the Native American languages of Central and South America


Native American Tribes:
Links on various Native American languages and cultures


Online Library: Native American Language and Culture:
Papers and articles on Native American languages


House of the Small Langauges: North Americans:
Demographics and links about Native American languages

Native American Art
Native American Religions
Native American Genealogy
Native American Names

Site mapBlogPrivacy PolicyContact UsOrrin LewisLaura Redish

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