Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- I Introduction -- A Résumé of Comparative Studies in South American Indian Languages -- II Classification and Typological Problems -- How to Deal with Unclassified Languages: An Ethnolinguistic View of Comparative Linguistics -- Vowel Shift in the Tupi-Guarani Language Family: A Typological Approach -- A Spatial Model of Lexical Relationships Among Fourteen Cariban Varieties -- III Comparative Linguistics -- The Phonology of Ranquel and Phonological Comparisons with Other Mapuche Dialects -- Southern Peruvian Quechua Consonant Lenition -- IV Grammatical Matters -- Variations in Tense-Aspect Markers Among Inga (Quechuan) Dialects -- The Minimal Finite Verbal Paradigm in Mapuche or Araucanian at the End of the Sixteenth Century -- V Ethnolinguistics -- The Talátur: Ceremonial Chant of the Atacama People -- VI Distant Relationships -- Amazonian Origins and Affiliations of the Timucua Language -- Uto-Aztecan Affinities with Panoan of Peru I: Correspondences -- Appendix: Language Families -- Bibliography of Comparative Studies -- Contributors -- Index -- Backmatter