Languages

This may be the most critical hotspot, with extremely high diversity, very little documentation, and immediate threats of endangerment. The hotspot runs along the Andes Mountains, but also dips down into the Amazon basin. Indigenous languages are being replaced by Spanish or mor

South America - Linguistic patterns: The linguistic diversity and multiplicity of South America probably is unmatched anywhere else in the world. Thousands of languages and dialects have been cataloged, including all those that have developed since the European conquest. Classification systems vary a great deal—from more than 100 “linguistic families” and many unrelated languages at one extreme to extremely simplified schemes at the other. There also is considerable disagreement on the composition of those “stocks” and how many languages should be classified. Most are now extinct, either because the peoples who spoke them have disappeared or because of acculturation into a European language or, in

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Navigation map and statistical summary of the language situation for South America.

Read this post to learn the essential facts on Latin American languages!

The language situation in South and Central America may seem simple—Brazilians speak Portuguese, and the rest speaks Spanish, right? Not so fast.

List of official, national and spoken languages of North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Thanks to the often violent coloniz

Guarani. Tacana. Brazil, Portuguese, 130,000,000, Official language. Tupi. Arawak. Carib. Ge. Guarani. Panoan. Chile, Spanish, 10,000,000, Official language.

Most people immediately know the two most spoken languages of the continent, but are surprised to learn that five languages are actually official languages in one or more countries. Alt

South America is one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world with 37 language families, 448 languages of which over 70 are unclassified. Indigenous languages are used throughout the entire continent. They are spoken by over 11 million people alongside Spanish and Portuguese.

South America includes 14 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Falkland Islands (United Kingdom), French Guinea (France), Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. Spanish is the official languages in all South American countries except

Overview. About 300 indigenous languages are spoken today in South America, making it one of the most complex linguistic areas of the planet. Even more were spoken before the European conquest but due to diseases introduced by the Spanish and Portuguese, forced labor, massacres,

The languages of South America can be divided into three broad groups: the languages of the (in most cases, former) colonial powers many indigenous languages, some of which are co-official alongside the colonial languages and various pockets of other languages spoken by immigran