At least a hundred indigenous Indian languages are known to have been
spoken in Mesoamerica, the cultural area that includes most of Mexico
and part of South America, but it is only in the past fifty years that
many of them have been adequately described. For some we still have no
more than a partial description, often in an obscure source. Professor
Suárez draws together this considerable mass of scholarship in a general
survey that will provide an invaluable source of reference. The approach
is primarily descriptive, and a major part of the volume is concerned
with synchronic descriptions of phonology, morphology and syntax. The
volume will be of interest and importance both to general linguists and
to others with a serious interest in Mesoamerican culture and society.