| Macro-Siouan | |
|---|---|
| controversial | |
| Geographic distribution: |
eastern North America |
| Linguistic classification: | Macro-Siouan |
| Subdivisions: | |
Pre-contact distribution of the proposed Macro-Souian language family
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The Macro-Siouan languages are a proposed language family that would include the Siouan, Iroquoian, and Caddoan families. Most linguists remain unconvinced that these languages share a genetic relationship, and the existence of a Macro-Siouan language family remains a subject of debate.
In the 19th century, Robert Latham suggested that the Siouan languages are related to the Caddoan and Iroquoian languages. In 1931, Louis Allen presented the first list of systematic correspondences between a set of 25 lexical items in Siouan and Iroquoian. In the 1960s and 1970s, Wallace Chafe further explored the link between Siouan and Caddoan languages. In the 1990s, Marianne Mithun compared the morphology and syntax of all the three families. At present, the Macro-Siouan hypothesis based on relations among Siouan, Caddoan, and Iroquoian is not universally accepted proven.[1]
However, the Caddoan languages appear to share many cognates with the Crow language, which is within most divergent branch of the Siouan language family. [1]