ABSTRACT
Central and South America present an extraordinary linguistic diversity, both from a
genetic and from a typological point of view. At the time of the European invasion
this region had apparently preserved most of its original language groups, which were
existing in a sort of numerical equilibrium. Large movements of linguistic unification, as we know them from Africa, Asia and Europe, were either absent, or had produced
limited effects. The classification of the numerous linguistic isolates and families of
native Latin America, the reconstruction of the proto-languages, and the tracing of
past migrations based on linguistic data are tasks that will occupy linguists for many
decades to come. The existence of possible genetic connections between South and
North America, let alone other areas of the world, is a question that has hardly been
touched. The only classification that proposes such connections (Greenberg 1987) has
not gained the acceptance of most of the linguists working in the indigenous Latin American field.
