American Indian Languages: Cultural and Social Contexts

“There is no better introduction to American Indian languages than this volume. Highly readable and accessible to a general audience, it is a fine read for anyone interested in the subject.”–Native California

”[There are] no less than 160 languages or language families of North and South America on which substantive information is given, from Inuit to Araucanian and from Eyak to Creek. Along with topics long familiar to specialists–such as Sapir’s discussion of the northern origin of the Navajo, and Haas’s work on Koasati genderlects–there is much fresh material from Silver’s and Miller’s own field research.“–Language in Society

“It would be the perfect, authoritative book for that ideal course on American Indian languages that we all yearn to teach. But there is so much in it, so lucidly explained, that it could serve equally well as the organizing text for the more general courses on the anthropology of language that we more frequently give.”–Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas Newsletter

Shirley Sliver is a professor of anthropology at Sonoma State University. The late Wick R. Miller was on the anthropology faculty at the University of Utah.