Origins
In American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America (1997), Lyle Campbell lists several hypotheses for the historical origins of Amerindian languages.
- A single, one-language migration (currently not widely accepted)
- A few linguistically distinct migrations (favored by Edward Sapir)
- Multiple migrations
- Multilingual migrations (single migration with multiple languages)
- The influx of already diversified but related languages from the Old World
- Extinction of Old World linguistic relatives (while the New World ones survived)
- Migration along the Pacific coast instead of the Bering Strait
Roger Blench (2008) advocates for multiple migrations along the Pacific coast of peoples from northeastern Asia who already spoke diverse languages.
Read more about this topic: Indigenous Languages Of The Americas
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