Athena Review Image Archive ™
Map of Languages in Amazonia
Language map of Amazonia (after Mason 1950, and SIL Ethnologue 1996).
The
map shows the great diversity of individual languages in the
Amazon and Orinoco Basins. Major language families, grouped by colors,
include Arawakan (green), Carib (purple), and Tupi-Guarani (light blue).
Arawakan was the largest single family, including the Taino in the
Greater Antilles, representing Neo-Indian migrations after AD 200.
Arawakan (green) includes 74 languages, divided into Aruan, Guahiban,
Harakmbet, and Maipuran branches. Later migrants to the Antilles
were the Caribs, whose languages (purple) are divided into two
branches, 21 Northern and 8 Southern.
Some 70 Tupi-Guaraní
languages (light blue, at right) are grouped into nine branches centered in southern
Amazonia, one dialect serving as a trading lingua franca during the
Colonial and recent periods in Amazonia. A total of 34 language
families and over a dozen isolated stocks combining about 1000
individual languages have been identified in South America.
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