Mataco–Guaicuru languages

Mataco–Guaicuru
Macro-Waikurúan
(obsolete?)
Geographic distribution	South America
Linguistic classification	Proposed language family
Subdivisions	Matacoan Guaicuruan Mascoian Charruan †
Glottolog	None

Mataco–Guaicuru or Macro-Waikurúan is a hypothetical language family consisting of the Guaicuruan, Matacoan, and sometimes Mascoian and Charruan families. These are spoken in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Bolivia.

Genetic relations

Jorge Suárez linked Guaicuruan and Charruan in a Waikuru-Charrúa stock. Morris Swadesh proposed a Macro-Mapuche stock that included Matacoan, Guaicuruan, Charruan, and Mascoyan. Terrence Kaufman (1990, 1994) said this proposal, which he called Macro-Waikurúan, deserved to be explored, but Campbell (1997) said that for the present it should not be accepted as anything more than a possibility, and by Campbell & Grondona (2012) he no longer bothers to evaluate it.

References

• Greenberg, Joseph H. (1987). Language in the Americas. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Kaufman, Terrence. (1990). Language history in South America: What we know and how to know more. In D. L. Payne (Ed.), Amazonian linguistics: Studies in lowland South American languages (pp. 13–67). Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-70414-3.
• Kaufman, Terrence. (1994). The native languages of South America. In C. Mosley & R. E. Asher (Eds.), Atlas of the world's languages (pp. 46–76). London: Routledge.