Parrot Time Magazine

Southern Paiute indians

Classifying American Indian Languages

Edward Sapir did a lot of work with Native American Indian languages and people, a few of which were on the very brink of extinction. Among the languages and cultures studied by Sapir were:

• Wishram Chinook - One of the three varieties of Chinookian which is a language used by the Chinook people in Oregon and Washington.
  
  
• Navajo - Also called Navaho. An Athabaskan language spoken in the southwest United States by the Navajo people.
  
  
• Nootka - Also called Nuu-chah-nulth. A Wakashan language spoken in the Pacific Northwest on the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.
  
  
• Paiute - A group of languages belonging to the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan family, spoken by the Paiute people of the western United States.
  
  
• Takelma - Takelma was the language spoken by the Takelma people of southwestern Oregon. The last fluent speaker of Takelma worked with Sapir in writing about the language.
  
  
• Yana - Also called Yanan. An extinct language spoken in north-central California by the Yahi people.
  
  

In 1921, Sapir published a single page summary of a six-unit classification of the American Indian languages from his studies. He produced a complete version in 1929 with justifications and a classification of twenty-three units based on his work and that of his colleagues from almost twenty years. He viewed this classification as a series of hypothesis, and while some found it controversial and too bold in some of the combinations, many anthropologists instantly accepted them as a concrete guide to language classification and tribal relationships.