International Journal of American Linguistics

International Journal of American Linguistics
Title	International Journal of American Linguistics
Discipline	Linguistics
Language	English
Abbreviation	IJAL
Editor	Lyle Campbell
Publisher	University of Chicago Press
Country	United States
History	1917–present
Frequency	Quarterly
Issn	0020-7071

International Journal of American Linguistics is a peer-reviewed academic journal focusing on the study of Indigenous languages of the Americas. Established in 1917, it publishes descriptive, historical, and theoretical research on Native American languages, including documentation, typology, and comparative studies. The journal has been associated with prominent scholars and institutions and has influenced research practices at universities, museums, and archives.

History

Founded in 1917 by Franz Boas, the journal emerged amid work at the American Museum of Natural History, the University of Chicago, and Columbia University. Early contributors included Edward Sapir, Leonard Bloomfield, Alfred Kroeber, and Roland Dixon, with ties to the American Anthropological Association, the Linguistic Society of America, and the American Philosophical Society. Over decades the journal featured work by fieldworkers linked to institutions such as Harvard University, Yale University, the Smithsonian Institution, the University of California, Berkeley, and the School of Oriental and African Studies. During the mid-20th century, editorial leadership connected the journal to projects at the Bureau of American Ethnology, the Summer Institute of Linguistics, the Newberry Library, and the Peabody Museum. Late 20th- and early 21st-century editors collaborated with scholars at the University of Hawaii, the University of Texas at Austin, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

Scope and content

The journal publishes articles on phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, language documentation, and historical linguistics concerning languages such as Navajo, Ojibwe, Quechua, Nahuatl, Yiddish (as a contact language in the Americas), Cherokee, Cree, Lakota, Zuni, Hopi, K’iche’, Mixtec, Mayan languages, Tzotzil, Tzeltal, Aymara, Guarani, Mapudungun, Lenape, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Dakota, Hokan, Uto-Aztecan, Algonquian, Iroquoian, Siouan, Athabaskan, Salishan, Wakashan, Chibchan, Arawakan, Cariban, Tupian, and Tupinambá. Contributions often engage with methodologies from Leonard Bloomfield, Noam Chomsky, William Labov, Morris Swadesh, Edward Sapir, Marianne Mithun, and Ken Hale, and they intersect with collections at the Library of Congress, the American Philosophical Society, the British Museum, and the Newberry Library. The journal accepts field reports, grammatical descriptions, lexicographical studies, comparative reconstructions, and reviews of monographs published by Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, University of Chicago Press, and Routledge.

Editorial board and publication details

Current editorial leadership includes editors affiliated with the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Michigan, and the University of Calgary, maintaining links with professional organizations such as the Linguistic Society of America, the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas, and the American Anthropological Association. The journal is published quarterly by the University of Chicago Press and distributed through academic channels tied to JSTOR, Project MUSE, and library consortia including Research Libraries UK and the Center for Research Libraries. Editorial policies reflect standards informed by peer review practices at Harvard University, Stanford University, the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, and CNRS laboratories, and they address ethical considerations emphasized by the American Association of Museums and the International Council on Archives.

Abstracting and indexing

The journal is indexed in major bibliographic services and citation databases such as JSTOR, Project MUSE, Scopus, Web of Science, MLA International Bibliography, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, and EBSCOhost. It appears in library catalogues at the Library of Congress, the British Library, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the National Library of Canada, and the National Diet Library. Abstracting and indexing partnerships echo relationships with indexing services used by scholars at Columbia University, the University of California system, the University of Toronto, and the Australian National University.

Significant articles and contributions

The journal has published landmark descriptions and reconstructions by Edward Sapir, Leonard Bloomfield, Mary Haas, Morris Swadesh, Lyle Campbell, Marianne Mithun, and Ken Hale. Notable contributions include descriptive grammars and lexica for languages such as Yurok, Wiyot, Chibchan languages, Tsimshianic languages, and various Mayan and Uto-Aztecan languages, as well as comparative work that advanced hypotheses by Joseph Greenberg and critiques by historical linguists at the University of Hawaii. The journal has served as a venue for initial reports from fieldworkers associated with the Summer Institute of Linguistics, the American Philosophical Society’s projects, and the Smithsonian’s linguistic initiatives, and it has published obituaries and memorials for figures including Franz Boas, Edward Sapir, Leonard Bloomfield, and Mary Haas.

Reception and impact

Scholars at institutions such as Yale University, Oxford University, Cambridge University, the University of Chicago, and the University of California have cited the journal for its role in shaping descriptive and documentary linguistics for the Americas. It has influenced language revitalization programs linked to tribal governments, the Native American Rights Fund, cultural centers like the American Indian Movement-affiliated organizations, and archives at the American Philosophical Society and the Smithsonian. Reviews in venues associated with Oxford, Cambridge, and University of Chicago presses, and citations in monographs from Routledge and Elsevier, attest to the journal’s standing in the study of Indigenous languages of the Americas.

Category:Linguistics journals