Je-Tupi-Carib

Several of the major language stocks of South America are thought to be related. Greenberg, for instance, linked Macro-Je, Macro-Panoan, and Cariban. However, although initially greeted with excitement, Greenberg's classification for the Americas was not accepted by many linguists who worked with the languages in question once they had a look at his evidence.

Eduardo Ribeiro of the University of Chicago has worked with Macro-Je and Tupian languages, and has noted that these share irregular morphology with each other and with Cariban (but not Panoan, pace Greenberg). Shared grammatical irregularities, such as English good, better vs. German gut, besser, are strong supporting evidence for putative language families, as they are unlikely to be borrowed or to be due to chance.

Ribeiro finds no evidence to classify Fulniô, Guató, or the Yabutian languages as Macro-Je, pace Greenberg, but adds the previously unclassified Kariri languages. A tentative classification is:

Je-Tupi-Carib

Carib (30 languages in four closely related branches: Carib/Galibi [10,000 speakers], Macushi [7000 speakers], Hixkaryana [500 speakers], Panare [1200 speakers] are representative)
Tupian (70 languages)
- Tupi-Guarani (50 languages: Tupinambá [extinct], Guaraní [5 million speakers], etc.)
- Arikem
- Awetí
- Mawé [9000 speakers]
- Mondé (6 languages)
- Mundurukú (2 languages)
- Puruborá
- Ramarama (Rôndonia) (2 languages)
- Tuparí (4 languages)
- Yurúna (2 languages)
Macro-Gê [Macro-Je] (30 languages)
- Gê-Kaingang (15 languages in two branches. Kaingáng [18,000 speakers], Xavánte [8000 speakers])
- Botocudo (Krenak)
- Chiquito-Borôro (4 languages in two-three branches. Chiquitano [20,000 speakers])
- Jeikó [extinct]
- Kamakán [extinct]
- Karajá
- Karirí [extinct]
- Maxakalí
- Ofayé (Opaye)
- Purí [extinct]
- Rikbaktsá

and possibly Otí [extinct]