Mapudungun language
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| Mapudungun | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Chile Argentina |
| Total speakers: | 440 thousand |
| Genetic classification: | |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | none |
| Regulated by: | ? |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2: | arn |
| SIL: | ARU |
Mapudungun is an Araucanian language spoken in Chile and Argentina by the Mapuche people.
It is also known as Mapudungu, Araucano and Mapuche. Its speakers number 440,000, with 400,000 otherse in the Central Valley of Chile and 40,000 in Argentinian region of Patagonia. Some 200,000 people use the language regularly.
Mapadungun lacks substantive protection or promotion, despite the Chilean government's commitment to improve the situation and provide full access to education in Mapuche areas in southern Chile.
| Contents |
Sounds
Vowels
Mapudungun has six vowel phonemes: , , , , and a high central unrounded vowel, . The last sound is spelled ü or v depending on the alphabet used, and is pronounced as a schwa when unstressed.
There are also two semivowels, and .
Consonants
Mapudungun doesn't distinguish between voiceless and voiced consonants.
| bilabial | labiodental | dental | alveolar | postalveolar | palatal | velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plosive | |||||||
| nasal | |||||||
| fricative | |||||||
| approximant | |||||||
| affricate | |||||||
| lateral |
Some authors don't recognize as a separate phoneme; rather, they class it as an allophone of . (spelled as "tr", "tx" or even "x") is often described as a sound followed by a sound.
Spelling
Historically, there have been many proposals for a spelling system of Mapudungun, using the Latin alphabet. The chilean Corporación Nacional de Desarrollo Indígena (Conadi) proposed the following alphabet as a summary of about six earlier proposals. This alphabet is composed of the following 28 letters:
A, Z (for ), U, M, CH, E, F, I, K, T, NH (for ), TX (for ), O, Y, Q (for ), G (for ), LH (for ), Ñ (for ), R, S, LL (for ), P, Ü (for ), W, L, N, SH and TC (for ).
External Links
- Spanish-Mapudungun glossary (http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Erehue/lang/gloss.html)
References
- Aprueban Alfabeto Mapuche Unico (Oct 19, 1999). El Mercurio de Santiago.de:Mapudungun