Lexical Acculturation in Native American Languages

Brown examines the nature of acculturation - the process of the incorporation of foreign words about new concepts into a language - in the encounter between Europeans and Native Americans. Specifically, he examines how Native American languages adjusted to the introduction of foreign objects and concepts after 1492. He looks systematically at almost 200 Native American languages and the words they developed for 77 new items and concepts, discerning patterns about the various linguistic issues and patterns at play.