South American Language Families

A language family whose living or historical member languages are documented as indigenous to South America, including a family whose documented range extends north across the Isthmus of Panama into Central America: Quechuan, Tupian, Arawakan, Cariban, Macro-Ge, Chibchan and the many other families and isolates of the Amazon basin, the Andes, the Gran Chaco and Patagonia. Belongs here: any language-family entity whose constituent languages are documented as indigenous to South America, or whose range crosses the Isthmus of Panama with a South American core. Does not belong here: a family confined to Mexico or north of it, grouped instead under North American Language Families.