Language in the Americas: Out of Beringia

Linguistically, the Western Hemisphere harbors a great typologicaldiversity, by some estimates, the greatest in the world. Controversyregarding classification aside, much work lies ahead to identify themovements up through to include the final leg of the journey ofmodern humans, in terms of distance travelled from our continent oforigin, to Tierra del Fuego. This article will briefly summarize theadvances that the language sciences have made in describing thesemigrations and the languages that accompanied them, to then discussviable proposals for collaboration with other fields. Such an interdisciplinaryprogram of study is necessary because the tools of linguisticsdo not suffice. Continuing work on the processes of origin, dispersionand convergence will help us better understand fundamentalproperties of language. Research on the description of individuallanguages and how they can be classified will contribute to thisunderstanding. For speakers and students of the American languages,these advances will also contribute to the recovery of the culturalheritage that is associated with historical language change.