Language and the prehistory of North America

Abstract

Abstract This paper addresses some of the problems involved in correlating a language spoken in the past with a particular archaeological site or geographical location, within the context of North America. It discusses both the values and limitations of linguistic data in attempting to assign a language to a particular location in prehistoric times or arrive at archaeological site/language correlations. Speculations regarding the area in which the ancestral forms of specific languages or language families were spoken, and procedures available to linguists and archaeologists in determining earlier residence of a linguistic group, are presented and discussed. The presentation and analysis of evidence bearing on the language group inhabiting a specific North American archaeological site, the Cape Alava or Ozette site in the state of Washington, concludes the paper.