Datei:Langs N.Amer.png

Verbreitung der Nordamerikanischen Sprachen

info
Version: #1.10  (this is still a working map)


 * Ersteller: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ish_ishwar in 2005
 * released under CC-by-2.0
 * Quelle: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Langs_N.Amer.png

about sources:

Map redrawn and modified primary based on two maps by cartographer Roberta Bloom appearing in Mithun (1999:xviii-xxi). Incidentally, these maps are very derivative of the Driver map of the 1960s (which means that, although published in 1999, it is not as up-to-date as one might think). The other main source used is the up-to-date and very well-done map found in Goddard (1996), which was revised as Goddard (1999). Additional references include Sturtevant (1978-present), Mithun (1999:606-616), and Campbell (1997:353-376). Mithun and Campbell have many maps based on the maps found in Sturtevant.

about the map:


 * map delineates each language family in a unique color.
 * language isolates are all in darkish grey, e.g. there are 2 isolates in Florida. This is not meant to imply any relationship among them whatsoever. All isolates are assigned a number.
 * areas in white are either
 * uninhabited (in Alaska, Canda, Greenland),
 * unknown (due to early extinction and little or no data or yet-to-be-analyzed data), or
 * outside of subject area (in Mexico)
 * language areas are those at earliest time of European contact, as far as can be determined. Since contact occurred at different times in different areas, no maps of Native American languages are ever of a single time period.
 * this is mostly a historical map: although many languages are still spoken in North America, the extent of their distribution has been profoundly affected by European contact&mdash;many languages (and peoples) have become extinct.
 * language areas are not as well-defined as this map would suggest: borders are often fuzzy and arbitrary and the entire language area may not be fully occupied by language speakers.
 * The following groupings are disputed by some (or are not fully demonstrated):
 * Plateau Penutian (aka Shahapwailutan) = Klamath-Modoc (isolate) + Molala (isolate) + Sahaptian (family). (Sometimes Cayuse is included in Plateau Penutian, but this language is not very well documented and is now extinct. Thus, it is considered an isolate here.)
 * Takelman = Kalapuyan (family) + Takelma (isolate).
 * Yukian = Yuki (isolate) + Wappo (isolate).
 * many details, especially of rivers, lakes, & islands, have been omitted.

thank yous
Thanks goes to


 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Wapcaplet for helpful suggestions concerning form