This volume, the fifth in the Handbook of Middle American Indians, presents a summary of work accomplished since the Spanish conquest in the contemporary description and historical reconstruction of the indigenous languages and language families of Mexico and Central America.

The essays include the following: "Inventory of Descriptive Materials" by William Bright; "Inventory of Classificatory Materials" by Maria Teresa Fernandez de Miranda, "Lexicostatistic Classification" by Morris Swadesh, "Systemic Comparison and Reconstruction" by Robert Longacre, and "Environmental...