Algonquian-Wakashan is a hypothetical language family that would connect several established North American language families, and, on one interpretation, possibly a Siberian family as well.
Facts
RegionNorth America, chiefly the Pacific Northwest Coast and adjoining interior where the proposed Wakashan, Salishan (Mosan) and Kutenai components are spoken, together with the much wider-ranging Algic family; one interpretation of the original 1929 proposal extends the grouping to Siberia as well. 1 Proto-Language StatusNo proto-language has been reconstructed. The grouping is a hypothesis first proposed by Edward Sapir in 1929 and renamed Almosan by Joseph Greenberg; its Mosan subcomponent is now generally treated as a Sprachbund of contact-driven convergence rather than a genuine genetic unit, and the wider proposal remains undemonstrated and is rejected by most specialists in Native American languages. 1 Connections
Open Questions
Source Wikipedia: Algonquian-Wakashan Languages
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Sources
1. Wikipedia: Algonquian-Wakashan Languages
Wikimedia FoundationWikipedia article, lead paragraphQuote, Wikipedia article, lead paragraph
Algonquian-Wakashan (also Almosan, Algonkian-Mosan, Algonkin-Wakashan) is a hypothetical language family that would connect together several North American, and possibly Siberian according to an interpretation, established language families.
Wikidata: Algonquian-Wakashan languages
Wikidata Q3514319, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source Open Questions (1 open question)
How many speakers does the Algonquian-Wakashan grouping total today?
No aggregate speaker total is published because Algonquian-Wakashan is not accepted as a genuine genetic family; its putative member families (Algic, Wakashan, Salishan/Mosan, Kutenai) are enumerated and counted separately in the literature rather than as one unit.
What would resolve this A source treating the grouping as sufficiently established to publish one reconciled total across its proposed member families, which none currently does.
Historical and comparative linguistics, North American languages.Wikipedia: Algonquian-Wakashan Languages
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