The following list contains an overview of the languages and language families represented in the Andean region (including the Paraguayan languages and some other languages not systematically treated in this book). For some languages it also includes alternative names and names used by ethnolinguistic groups for referring to themselves. Approximative speaker numbers (s.) are given for languages still in use, but it should be remarked that many sources do not make a specific distinction between the number of speakers of a language and the number of members of an ethnic group. For instance, the Colombian statistics usually refer to the totality of ethnic communities and may be too high when used as an indication of language retention. By contrast, Peruvian figures may well be too low because they are based on the results of a census involving questions on language use, of which the answer depends on the willingness of individuals to supply the requested information. Most importantly, both the estimates of speaker numbers and of ethnic group membership may differ widely according to the sources. In this overview, minimum and maximum estimates (separated by a hyphen) are given in cases of contradiction. For very specific high estimates, round figures may be given instead of the original numbers.

Sources that have been consulted for the statistical information are, for Argentina, Censabella (1999); for Colombia, Arango and Sánchez (1998), in an extract kindly provided by Jon Landaburu, and the website Etnias de Colombia (http://www.indigenascolombia.org); for Ecuador, Juncosa (2000); for Paraguay, Meliá (1997); for Peru, Brack and Yáñez (1997), Pozzi-Escot (1998) and Chirinos Rivera (2001); for Venezuela, González Ñáñez (2000) and Mosonyi and Mosonyi (2000).