| Je–Tupi–Carib | |
|---|---|
| (tentative) | |
| Geographic distribution: |
eastern South America, Caribbean |
| Linguistic classification: | Je–Tupi–Carib |
| Subdivisions: | |
Je–Tupi–Carib is a proposed language family composed of the Macro-Je (or Macro-Gê), Tupian and Cariban languages of South America.
Rodrigues (2000) finds evidence relating Macro-Je to Tupian, and Eduardo Ribeiro of the University of Chicago, who has worked with Macro-Je and Tupian languages, has found further that these families share irregular morphology with each other and with Cariban. Shared grammatical irregularities are strong supporting evidence for putative language families, as they are unlikely to be borrowed or to be due to chance.
Joseph Greenberg's Language in the Americas (1987) linked Macro-Ge and Macro-Carib together, but also with Macro-Panoan rather than Tupian. He further suggested that Macro-Ge and Macro-Panoan were particularly close, with Macro-Carib more distant but forming Ge–Pano–Carib as one of six branches of Amerind.[1] Greenberg noted that "the greatest uncertainty exists in the case of the two new vast groupings in South America, Andean–Equatorial and Ge–Pano–Carib".[2]
Greenberg's hypothesis, however, has been rejected by most linguists working with the languages in question due to the many issues raised by his methods and the poor quality of much of his data. The evidence presented by Rodrigues and Ribeiro does not extend to Panoan.