ICE-AGE GEOGRAPHY AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF NATIVE NORTH-AMERICAN LANGUAGES

Wisconsinan biogeographic zones and physical geographic barriers resulting from glaciation appear to have played a role in the distribution of native North American languages. Wisconsinan glacial ice appears to have been an important isolating agent, leading to linguistic divergence. The end of the Wisconsinan was followed by the establishment of the radically different biogeographic zones of the Holocene and widespread retreat of continental glaciation. Evidence suggests that some language groups adapted more successfully than others to those new environmental conditions, and extended their ranges. -from Authors