<Li> The number of family members is indicated in parentheses (for example, Arauan (9) means the Arauan family consists of nine languages). </Li> <Li> For convenience, the following list of language families is divided into three sections based on political boundaries of countries . These sections correspond roughly with the geographic regions (North, Central, and South America) but are not equivalent . This division cannot fully delineate indigenous culture areas . </Li> <P> There are approximately 296 spoken (or formerly spoken) indigenous languages north of Mexico, 269 of which are grouped into 29 families (the remaining 27 languages are either isolates or unclassified). The Na - Dené, Algic, and Uto - Aztecan families are the largest in terms of number of languages . Uto - Aztecan has the most speakers (1.95 million) if the languages in Mexico are considered (mostly due to 1.5 million speakers of Nahuatl); Na - Dené comes in second with approximately 200,000 speakers (nearly 180,000 of these are speakers of Navajo), and Algic in third with about 180,000 speakers (mainly Cree and Ojibwe). Na - Dené and Algic have the widest geographic distributions: Algic currently spans from northeastern Canada across much of the continent down to northeastern Mexico (due to later migrations of the Kickapoo) with two outliers in California (Yurok and Wiyot); Na - Dené spans from Alaska and western Canada through Washington, Oregon, and California to the U.S. Southwest and northern Mexico (with one outlier in the Plains). Several families consist of only 2 or 3 languages . Demonstrating genetic relationships has proved difficult due to the great linguistic diversity present in North America . Two large (super -) family proposals, Penutian and Hokan, look particularly promising . However, even after decades of research, a large number of families remain . </P> <P> North America is notable for its linguistic diversity, especially in California . This area has 18 language families comprising 74 languages (compared to three families in Europe: Indo - European, Uralic and Turkic and one isolate: Basque). </P>

The largest common language group among north american natives belong to the