This book is the result of over 50 years of research, and it represents an intellectual journey. It is maximally accessible by tabulating the data and inserting frequent cross-references. Dictionary entries are in the alphabetical order of the deepest reconstruction in the set, and there is an English-Utian section at the end of the volume. Yokuts (or Proto Yokuts) is also inserted where there is a resemblance. This strategy is especially helpful for those who wish to use the volume for remote comparison. In this manner, it can serve as a reference book for seminars on non-traditional languages. The volume is also of interest to theoreticians because Utian languages exhibit features that are rare worldwide.

This book provides an authoritative survey of the several hundred languages indigenous to North America. These languages show tremendous genetic and typological diversity, and offer numerous challenges to current linguistic theory. Part I of the book provides an overview of structural features of particular interest, concentrating on those that are cross-linguistically unusual or unusually well developed. These include syllable structure, vowel and consonant harmony, tone, and sound symbolism; polysynthesis, the nature of roots and affixes, incorporation, and morpheme order; case; grammatical distinctions of number, gender, shape, control, location, means, manner, time, empathy, and evidence; and distinctions between nouns and verbs, predicates and arguments, and simple and complex sentences; and special speech styles. Part II catalogues the languages by family, listing the location of each language, its genetic affiliation, number of speakers, major published literature, and structural highlights. Finally, there is a catalogue of languages that have evolved in contact situations.

A collection of essays about the theory and practice of Native American lexicography, and more specifically the making of dictionaries, by some of the top scholars working in Native American language studies.