Aztec-Tanoan languages

Aztec-Tanoan is a hypothetical and undemonstrated language family proposing a genealogical relationship between the Tanoan and Uto-Aztecan language families. Originally proposed by Edward Sapir in 1921, supporting evidence was published in 1937 by Benjamin Lee Whorf and G. L. Trager, who offered some 67 proposed cognates, though later reviews have found most of them unconvincing. A 1997 review by Lyle Campbell judged a small number of the proposed cognates to have some merit and called the hypothesis not implausible but in need of detailed study, while a more recent article by Jane H. Hill argues the evidence Whorf and Trager cited is better explained as the result of language contact between the Uto-Aztecan and Tanoan proto-languages rather than common descent.