[No Title Available]

Abstract

Other published results, besides the present volume, include a special issue of the International Journal of American Linguistics edited by Spike Gildea and Ana Vilacy Galucio (to appear), and a collection of articles in book form edited by Denny Moore and Hein van der Voort 1. The collaborative project was inspired by the growing and renewed interest in the historical relations among the languages and language families of South America. Over the last two or three decades, the available knowledge on South American languages has increased dramatically. In Brazil, there are about 154 indigenous languages spoken in the country 2. Based in part on an estimate by Franchetto 3 , Moore (2007) describes the following situation for the level of study of those languages in the year 2000: 9% of the languages had a complete description, 23% had a PhD thesis or many articles, 40% had a MA dissertation or a few articles, and 28% nothing of scientific relevance. Though this situation shows an improvement in a longer run, much is still lacking-for 68% of the languages there is still little or no study. There is more information available now than ever before, however. In other countries, more and more work is also being done. One may mention the descriptions of Colombian languages published by the CCELA in Bogotá, ongoing projects for the documentation of a number of lesser known languages in Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. The time is thus ripe for the beginning of more fruitful historical-comparative endeavors, leading to a better understanding of the linguistic prehistory of South America. The main objective of our cooperation project was to provide a forum for the exchange of information, results, and ideas on the linguistic prehistory of South America. For this purpose, specialists in the various language families and/ or isolates from the participant institutions (among whom there are already long-standing contacts) came to extended workshops (one every year for three years, hosted by each of the participant institutions) to attempt to integrate their current research results with those of their colleagues, thus arriving at a general picture. In addition to linguists, specialists of other areas (archaeologists, anthropologists) were also invited, so that non-linguistic approaches and knowledge can also be brought to bear on the issue. The basic idea is that the amount of extant knowledge on the various aspects of