Algonquian–Wakashan languages explained

Algonquian–Wakashan
Also Known As:	Almosan
Region:	North America, Sakhalin Island, and Southern Siberia
Familycolor:	American
Family:	proposed language family
Child1:	Algic
Child2:	Sapir, 1929: Kutenai
Child3:	Mosan
Child4:	or Nikolaev, 2015–2016: Nivkh
Child5:	Wakashan
Glotto:	none
Map:	Almosan languages.png
Mapcaption:	Not shown: Yurok, Wiyot

Algonquian–Wakashan (also Almosan, Algonkian–Mosan, Algonkin–Wakashan) is a hypothetical language family composed of several established language families that was proposed in 1929. The proposal consists of the following:

• Algonquian–Wakashan
  • Algic (Algonkin–Ritwan)
    • Algonquian (Algonkin)
    • Beothuk
    • Wiyot–Yurok (Ritwan)
  • Kutenai (also known as Kootenay; a language isolate)
  • Mosan
    • Wakashan
    • Chimakuan
    • Salishan

Kutenai may possibly be distantly related to the Salishan family, but this link has not been demonstrated. The Mosan family proposal is also hypothetical and is currently considered undemonstrated, rather appearing to be a Sprachbund.

External relationships

Joseph Greenberg renamed Sapir's proposal Almosan and grouped it in an even more inclusive Almosan–Keresiouan phylum with the Caddoan, Iroquoian, Keresan, and Siouan families. This proposal has been rejected by linguists specializing in Native American languages.^[1]

Murray Gell-Mann, Ilia Peiros, and Georgiy Starostin group Chukotko-Kamchatkan and Nivkh with Almosan.^[2]

In the mid-2010s, Sergei Nikolaev argued in two papers for a systematic relationship between the Nivkh language of Sakhalin and the Amur basin and the Algic languages. He also proposed a secondary relationship between these two together and the Wakashan languages.^{[3] [4]}

In 1998, Vitaly V. Shevoroshkin rejected the Amerind affinity of the Almosan (Algonquian-Wakashan) languages, suggesting instead that they had a relationship with Dené–Caucasian.^[5] Several years later, he offered a number of lexical and phonological correspondences between the North Caucasian, Salishan, and Wakashan languages, concluding that Salishan and Wakashan may represent a distinct branch of North Caucasian and that their separation from it must postdate the dissolution of the Northeast Caucasian unity (Avar-Andi-Tsezian), which took place around the 2nd or 3rd millennium BC.^[6]

See also

• Chukotko-Kamchatkan–Amuric

References

• Distant Language Relationship: The Current Perspective. Journal of Language Relationship. 1. 2009. Murray. Gell-Mann. Ilia Peiros. George Starostin.

Bibliography

• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. .
• Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). Language in the Americas. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Sapir, Edward. (1929). Central and North American languages. In The encyclopædia britannica: A new survey of universal knowledge (14 ed.) (Vol. 5, pp. 138–141). London: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company, Ltd.

Notes and References

1. Book: Lyle Campbell. American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America. 9 November 2012. 2000. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-514050-7. 327–328.
2. Gell-Mann et al., pp. 13–30
3. https://www.academia.edu/15693360/S.L._Nikolaev._2015._Toward_the_reconstruction_of_Proto-Algonquian-Wakashan._Part_1_Proof_of_the_Algonquian-Wakashan_relationship Nikolaev, S. (2015)
4. https://www.academia.edu/28569450/S.L.Nikolaev._2016._Toward_the_reconstruction_of_Proto-Algonquian-Wakashan._Part_2_Algonquian-Wakashan_sound_correspondences Nikolaev, S. (2016)
5. Shevoroshkin, Vitaliy V., 2003. "Salishan and North Caucasian." Mother Tongue 8: 39–64.
6. Shevoroshkin, Vitaliy V., 2004. "Proto-Salishan and Proto-North-Caucasian Consonants: a few cognate sets." in Nostratic Centennial Conference: the Pécs Papers. ed. by. I. Hegedűs & P. Sidwell, pp. 181–191. Pécs: Lingua Franca Group.