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Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most commonly cited examples, although Korean is actually a member of the Koreanic language family. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The number of language isolates is unknown.
Lorenzo Hervás y Panduro was a Spanish Jesuit and famous philologist; born at Horcajo, 1 May 1735; died at Rome, 24 August 1809. He is one of the most important authors, together with Juan Andrés, Antonio Eximeno or Celestino Mutis, of the Spanish Universalist School of the 18th century.
This is a list of different language classification proposals developed for the indigenous languages of the Americas. The article is divided into North, Central, and South America sections; however, the classifications do not correspond to these divisions.
Arawakan, also known as Maipurean, is a language family that developed among ancient indigenous peoples in South America. Branches migrated to Central America and the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean and the Atlantic, including what is now the Bahamas. Almost all present-day South American countries are known to have been home to speakers of Arawakan languages, the exceptions being Ecuador, Uruguay, and Chile. Maipurean may be related to other language families in a hypothetical Macro-Arawakan stock.
Spanish is the language that is predominantly understood and spoken as a first, or second language by nearly all of the population of Argentina. According to the latest estimations, the population is currently greater than 45 million.
Spanish is the de facto official and administrative language of Chile. Spoken by 99.3% of the population in the form of Chilean Spanish, as well as Andean Spanish and Chilean Catalan, Spanish in Chile also receives the title of "castellano." Although an officially recognized Hispanic language does not exist at the governmental level, the Constitution itself- as well as all official documents- is written in this language.
Chiquitano is an indigenous language isolate spoken in the central region of Santa Cruz Department of eastern Bolivia and the state of Mato Grosso in Brazil.
Bauré is an endangered Arawakan language spoken by only 40 of the thousand Baure people of the Beni Department of northwest of Magdalena, Bolivia. Some Bible portions have been translated into Bauré. Most speakers have been shifting to Spanish.
Reyesano, or Chirigua (Chiriba), is a nearly extinct Tacanan language that was spoken by only a few speakers, including children, in 1961 in Bolivia. It is spoken by the Maropa people who number 4,505 in 2012.
Canichana, or Canesi, Joaquiniano, is a possible language isolate of Bolivia. In 1991 there were 500 Canichana people, but only 20 spoke the Canichana language; by 2000 the ethnic population was 583, but the language had no L1 speakers left.
Cuncos or Juncos is a poorly known subgroup of Huilliche people native to coastal areas of southern Chile and the nearby inland. Mostly a historic term, Cuncos are chiefly known for their long-running conflict with the Spanish during the colonial era of Chilean history.
The Charruan languages are a language family once spoken in Uruguay and the Argentine province of Entre Ríos. In 2005, a semi-speaker of the Chaná language, Blas Wilfredo Omar Jaime, was found in Entre Ríos Province, Argentina.
Movima is a language that is spoken by about 1,400 of the Movima, a group of Native Americans that resides in the Llanos de Moxos region of the Bolivian Amazon, in northeastern Bolivia. It is considered a language isolate, as it has not been proven to be related to any other language.
Moxo is any of the Arawakan languages spoken by the Moxo people of the Llanos de Moxos in northeastern Bolivia. The two extant languages of the Moxo people, Trinitario and Ignaciano, are as distinct from one another as they are from neighboring Arawakan languages. The extinct Magiana was also distinct.
Güenoa is a sparsely documented, extinct Charruan language once spoken in Uruguay and Argentina.
Mure is an extinct language of Bolivia. It was long considered a Chapacuran language, but the similarities are few, and are likely loans, as the Mure were missioned together with speakers of Chapacuran languages. Apart from those few words, the languages are "utterly different" according to Glottolog, a view that is shared by Birchall (2013).
The indigenous languages of South America are those whose origin dates back to the pre-Columbian era. The subcontinent has great linguistic diversity, but, as the number of speakers of indigenous languages is diminishing, it is estimated that it could become one of the least linguistically diverse regions of the planet.
The Spanish Universalist School of the 18th century is mainly defined by Juan Andrés, Lorenzo Hervás and Antonio Eximeno as main Authors, but also by his close collaborators: the botanist Antonio José Cavanilles and the great Americanists Francisco Javier Clavijero, José Celestino Mutis, Juan Ignacio Molina and Joaquín Camaño, the bibliographer Ramón Diosdado Caballero, the Cosmographer-major of the Indies Juan Bautista Muñoz, the Philippine Juan de la Concepción and Miguel Casiri, a Lebanese-born Arabic-language expert.
The Jesuit Missions of Moxos are located in the Llanos de Moxos of Beni department in eastern Bolivia. Distinguished by a unique fusion of European and Amerindian cultural influences, the missions were founded as reductions or reducciones de indios by Jesuits in the 17th and 18th centuries to convert local tribes to Christianity.