While Spanish and Portuguese are the most widely spoken tongues of Latin America, the region is also home to between 550 and 700 languages spread among an estimated 56 language families. Many of these languages are indigenous to the land itself, such as Quechua, an official language in Bolivia and Peru that is spoken by 10.4 million people. Since languages influence one another as they come into contact, words are borrowed and adapted, grammatical constructions take on new forms, and pronunciations carry over. This phenomenon often leads individuals to claim one variety of a language is superior to or "purer" than another ... To read this entire article you must be a MultiLingual subscriber. For immediate access to the current issue, subscribe to the digital version. Already a subscriber?

Above excerpt taken from the June 2009 issue of MultiLingual published by MultiLingual Computing, Inc., 319 North First Avenue, Suite 2, Sandpoint, Idaho 83864-1495 USA, 208-263-8178, Fax: 208-263-6310. Subscribe