The languages of the Amazon by Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (review)

As stated in the preamble, the general aim of The languages of the Amazon is to provide linguists, anthropologists, students of Latin American studies, and the general reader with an introduction to the salient features and linguistic gems of the native languages of Amazonia in an accessible form, and in this Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald has certainly succeeded. Throughout the book the reader is exposed to A’s palpable passion for Amazonian languages, which grew out of her own field experience working on eight languages from three different language families, and from the high degree of linguistic complexity and quirkiness that Amazonian languages exhibit, often contradicting assumed universals. Drawing on the upsurge over the last twenty-five years of scholarly interest in the languages of this hotspot of linguistic diversity—c. 350 languages found in fifteen language families, and perhaps as many as thirty isolates—A provides us with a well-organized, highly readable, and lively book containing fourteen chapters, several tables and diagrams, eighteen maps, a glossary of terms used, and three indices to search for subjects, languages and language families, and authors. The list of references covers forty-six pages. Several chapters include a final section giving general historical or ethnographic references for the reader to consult, while at the same time pointing out dubious sources that should be avoided. In addition, six of the chapters have boxed insets with extra factual information and/or anecdotes that spice up the book.

The book begins with a general introduction to Amazonia (Ch. 1) that includes an overview of the language families, the peoples and their demographics, and histories pre- and postconquest. The appendix to Ch. 1 consists of a list of native American words that were borrowed into European languages, such as Cariban manatee ‘large aquatic mammal’ (manati/manatï ‘breasts’), which is attested in Spanish by 1535 and in English by 1555. Ch. 2 offers a discussion of linguistic areas and the sometimes virulent language contact situations in Amazonia. The author distinguishes only one ‘long-standing linguistic area’ (73) in Amazonia, namely the Vaupés River Basin, on which she has previously published extensively, and one incipient linguistic area, or as she calls it a ‘contact zone’ (86), namely the Upper Xingu. The purported status of the Guaporé-Mamoré Basin as a linguistic area is left unresolved. A had already pointed out in Ch. 1 the need for linguists to be aware of and take into account the complex contact histories of Amazonian peoples, both pre- and post-European outthrust, since language shift and substrate phenomena are ubiquitous, often resulting from traditional kidnapping practices.

The remainder of the book follows the structure of what one would find in a descriptive grammar: phonologies, including unusual sounds and gaps in sound systems (Ch. 3); typology of word structure and word classes (Ch. 4); properties of nouns, including possession (Ch. 5); properties and versatility of verbs (Ch. 6); grammatical relations and argument structure (Ch. 7); valency-changing strategies such as passives, causatives, and applicatives (Ch. 8); evidentiality (Ch. 9); genders, noun classes, and classifiers showing how the world is categorized (Ch. 10); serial verb constructions (Ch. 11); sentence formation and nominalizations (Ch. 12); stylistic features of Amazonian languages, including numeral systems, speech styles, male and female speech, and mixed languages (Ch. 13); and, finally, a summary called the ‘treasures of Amazonian languages’ (Ch. 14). The book is written using the ‘fundamental typological theoretical apparatus’ of basic linguistic theory (xvi). Each of the chapters contains carefully chosen examples to illustrate the relevant topics.

Although it is understandable that choices have to be made while writing a book of this kind, there does seem to be some unevenness in the area covered in that several features found in the Guianas and northwestern Amazonia but less so elsewhere are not included. One example is implosive consonants (not found in the subject index), which are only mentioned on p. 108 (Ch. 3) in regard to older speakers of Mamaind...