美洲印第安语起源新论评介

Greenberg’s Hypothesis of Linguistic Origins of Native Americans: A Survey

0.引言:一大世界难题 在世界语言大家庭中,还没有得到“充分”研究的语言可能要首推占世界语言总数约三分之一(这是最保守的估计数)的“美洲印第安语”(American Indian languages)。到目前为止,语言学家对美洲印第安语诸语言的谱系以及它们同世界其他语言的关系仍极不清楚,“美洲印第安语”目前“只是一种基于地域概念的归类”(黄长著,1987:10)。然而。

Scholars haye long wondered about the linguistic origins of native Americans. This paper introduces a bold hypothesis * proposed by Joseph H. Greenberg, which indicates that the many native American tongues belong to just three families: Eskimo -Aleut, Na -Dene and Amerind, and traces this new hypothesis to its source, the Norstratic Hypothesis. Finally, the author suggests that diachronical evidences will help evaluate it from linguists' point of view.