Note 596 — Chapter XIII

A curious fact is brought out by the study of the linguistic chart published by Powell: that most of the families of different languages are grouped in the western, mountainous part of North America. Thus, out of 59 linguistic families, 40 are found in the limited area between the Pacific and the Rocky Mountains, while all the rest of the continent is divided among 19 linguistic families only. The same fact is observed in South America. We can reduce to a dozen groups the languages of the Atlantic slope of this continent, while in the Andes and on the Pacific slope an enormous number of linguistic families have been noted without any apparent common connection.