**Some scholars continue to classify Aztecan and Sonoran together under a separate group (called variously "Sonoran", "Mexican", or "S Uto-Aztecan"). There is increasing evidence that whatever degree of additional resemblance that might be present between Aztecan and Sonoran when compared with Soshonean is probably due to proximity contact, rather than to a common immediate parent stock other than Uto-Aztecan.
Tonal
Oto-Pamean
Otomian
Otomi • Hidalgo, Guanajuato, N México(State), Querétaro • 400,000
The Salishan language family of the Pacific Northwest provides one example: the estimated time depth for the whole 24-language family is about 4000 years, which means that the parent language of the family was last spoken ca.
The method involves systematic comparison of the structures of the daughter languages, which are attested and in most cases still spoken, and it's one of the major success stories in the historical sciences.
The point is that the existence of the proto-language of a well-established language family is not a matter of guesswork: it is the only viable hypothesis that can account for the systematic correspondences found throughout the vocabulary and structure of all of the proto-language's daughter languages.
Mesoamericans’ geographical awareness tended to be limited to the particular regions in which they lived, with the exception of a few long-distance traders, and individuals primarily identified themselves with their local ethnic state.
Mesoamericans so vastly outnumbered the Spaniards that they had little choice but to rely on the well-structured organization and traditions of the local ethnic state and its ruling nobility.
And it can be seen in the ways that Mesoamericans expressed their views on the Spanish invaders of the sixteenth century (Chapter 3), on religious matters (Chapter 8), and on the moral conduct and responsibilities of children, politicians, and priests (Chapters 4 and 7– 9).
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