Tehuelche language

Tehuelche
Patagón
Spoken in Argentina
Ethnicity Tehuelche people
Native speakers 4  (date missing)
Language family
Chonan
  • Chon proper
    • Continental Chon
      • Tehuelche
Language codes
ISO 639-3 teh
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Tehuelche (Aoniken, Inaquen, Gunua-Kena, Gununa-Kena) is a nearly extinct Chon language spoken by four people in Patagonia out of an ethnic group of 200. They were originally nomadic hunters from Chile. It is also known as Aonikenk or Aonek'o 'ajen. The decline of the language started with the Araucanization of Patagonia, when many Tehuelche tribes adopted Mapudungun as main language. Later during the 19th and 20th century Spanish replaced both as Argentina and Chile took possession of Patagonia.

Contents

Classification

Tehuelche belongs to the Chon family, together with Teushen, Selk'nam and Haush.

Phonology

Vowels

Tehuelche has 3 vocalic qualities which can be short or long. (Fernandez 1988: 87-88)

Front Central Back
Mid e eː o oː
Open a aː

Consonants

Tehuelche has 25 consonantal phonemes. Stops can be plain, glottalized or voiced. (Fernández 1998: 88-89)

Labial Dental Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasals m n
Stops plain p t tʃ (č) k q ʔ
glottalized pʼ tʼ tʃʼ (č') kʼ qʼ
voiced b d ɡ ɢ
Fricatives s ʃ (š) x χ
Semivowels j w
Lateral approximant l
Trill r

Grammar

Pronoun

Singular Dual Plural
1 person ja: okwa: ošwa:
2 person ma: mkma: mšma:
3 person ta: tkta: tšta:

Noun

Verb

References

External links