This book collects Joseph Greenberg's most important writings on the genetic classification of the world's languages. Fifty years ago Joseph Greenberg put forward the now widely accepted classification of African languages. This book charts the progress of his subsequent work on language classification in Oceania, the Americas, and Eurasia, in which he proposed the language families Indo-Pacific, Amerind and Eurasiatic.

• Part I: Classification, Grouping, and Subgrouping


• 1: Historical Linguistics and Unwritten Languages (1953)


• 2: Genetic Relationship Among Languages (1957)


• 3: The Problem of Linguistic Subgroupings (1957)


• 4: The General Classification of Central and South American Languages (1960)


• 5: The Methodology of Language Classification (1963)


• Part II: Classification, Sound Correspondences and Reconstruction


• 6: The Principles of Genetic Linguistic Classification (1987)


• 7: On Lumping and Splitting in Linguistics and Biology (1999)


• 8: The Concept of Proof in Genetic Linguistics (2000)


• 9: Review of Vladimir E. Orel and Olga V. Stolbova, Hamito-Semitic etymological dictionary: Materials for a Reconstruction (1996)


• 10: Proto-linguistic Variation: A Link Between Historical Linguistics and Sociolinguistics (1989)


• 11: Indo-European Practice and American Indianist Theory in Linguistic Classification (1990)


• Part III: Indo-Pacific, Amerind, Eurasiatic


• 12: The Indo-Pacific Hypothesis (1971)


• 13: Classification of American Indian Languages: A Reply to Campbell (1989)


• 14: In Defense of Amerind (1996)


• 15: Does Altaic Exist? (1997)


• 16: The Convergence of Eurasiatic and Nostratic (1998)


• Part IV: Genetic Linguistics and Human History


• 17: Linguistic Typology and History: Review of Johanna Nichols, Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time (1993)


• 18: Are There Mixed Languages (1999)


• 19: Language and Archaeology: Review of Colin Renfrew, Archaeology and Language: The Puzzle of Indo-European Origins and Merritt Ruhlen, A Guide to the World's Languages, vol. 1: Classification (1988)


• 20: Beringia and New World Origins: The Linguistic Evidence (1996)


• Bibliography of Works Related to Joseph H. Greenberg's Theory and Methods for Genetic Linguistics


• Appendix A


• Works by Joseph H. Greenberg on Genetic Linguistics


• Appendix B


• Reviews, Commentaries and Discussion of Joseph H. Greenberg's Works on Genetic Linguistics


• Index

Joseph H.Greenberg (1915-2001) was one of the twentieth-century's most original and influential linguists. He was Professor of Linguistics at Stanford University, 1962-85, where he was also Director of the African Languages and Area Center, 1967-78. His books include The Languages of Africa (1963), Anthropological Linguistics (1968) Language Typology: A Historical and Analytic Overview (1974), Language in the Americas (1987), and Indo-European and its Closest Relatives: The Eurasiatic Language Family (2000/2002).
William Croft received his Ph.D. in linguistics at Stanford University in 1986. His publications include Typology and Universals (1990), Syntactic Categories and Grammatical Relations (1991), Studies in Typology and Diachrony (coedited with Keith Denning and Suzanne Kemmer, 1990), Explaining Language Change: An Evolutionary Approach (2000), and a large number of scholarly articles. His current research areas include syntax, semantics, typology, and historical linguistics. Forthcoming books include Cognitive Linguistics (with D. Alan Cruse) and Verbs: Aspect and Argument Structure.