Tehuelche language
{{Short description|Recently extinct Chonan language of Patagonia}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Tehuelche
| altname = Patagón
| nativename = {{lang|teh|aonekko ʼaʼien}}
| extinct = 2019, with the death of Dora Manchado{{Cite web|url=https://globalvoices.org/2019/11/06/museums-of-the-mind-why-we-should-preserve-endangered-languages/|title=Museums of the mind: Why we should preserve endangered languages · Global Voices|date=Nov 6, 2019|access-date=Oct 12, 2020}}
| revived = few learners (2012){{Cite web |title=Did you know Tehuelche is critically endangered? |url=https://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/teh |access-date=2025-03-14 |website=Endangered Languages |language=en}}
| states = Argentina
| ethnicity = Tehuelche
| familycolor = American
| fam1 = Chonan
| fam2 = Chon proper
| fam3 = Continental Chon
| iso3 = teh
| glotto = tehu1242
| glottorefname = Tehuelche
| notice = IPA
| map = Patagonian lang.png
| mapcaption = Map with approximate distributions of languages in Patagonia at the time of the Spanish conquest. Source: W. Adelaar (2004): The Andean Languages, Cambridge University Press.
| region = Santa Cruz
| map2 = Pueblos_indígenas_de_la_Patagonia_Austral.svg
| pronunciation = {{IPA|[aonekʼo ʔaʔjen]}}
}}
Tehuelche (Aoniken, Inaquen, Gunua-Kena, Gununa-Kena) is one of the Chonan languages of Patagonia. Its speakers, the Tehuelche people, were nomadic hunters who occupied territory in present-day Chile, north of Tierra del Fuego and south of the Mapuche people. It is also known as Aonekkenk or Aonekko ʼaʼien ({{IPA|teh|aonekʼo ʔaʔjen|}}).
The decline of the language started with the Mapuche invasion in the north, that was then followed by the occupation of Patagonia by the Argentine and Chilean states and state-facilitated genocide. Tehuelche was considerably influenced by other languages and cultures, in particular Mapudungun (the language of the Mapuche). This allowed the transference of morpho-syntactic elements into Tehuelche.{{sfn|Fernández|2006}} During the 19th and 20th centuries, Spanish became the dominant language as Argentina and Chile gained independence, and Spanish-speaking settlers took possession of Patagonia. Because of these factors the language began dying out. In 1983/84 there were 29 speakers, but by the year 2000 there were only 4 speakers left, and by 2012 only 2. In 2019 the last speaker died. As of 2000, the Tehuelche ethnic group numbered 200. Today many members of the Tehuelche ethnic group have limited knowledge of the language and are doing their best to ensure language revival, as Tehuelche is still a very important symbol for the group of people who identify themselves as Tehuelche.
In spite of the death of Dora Manchado in 2019, the language has been documented (from her), recuperated and revitalized by various groups of Aonekkenks, with the collaboration of a group of linguists and anthropologists, that have made various studies and academic works about this language.{{Cite web|url=https://qadeshiakk.wordpress.com/|title=qadeshiakk|website=qadeshiakk|language=es-CL|access-date=2020-03-18}}{{Cite web |title=kketo sh m ʼekot – lengua tehuelche |url=https://kketoshmekot.wordpress.com/ |access-date=2025-02-17 |website=kketo sh m ʼekot – lengua tehuelche |language=es}}
Classification
{{main|Chonan languages}}
Tehuelche belongs to the Chonan family together with Teushen, Selkʼnam (Ona) and Haush. The latter two languages, spoken by tribes in northeast and far northeast Tierra del Fuego, have different statuses of documentation and linguistic revitalization by their corresponding communities.
Dialects
Mason (1950) lists dialects as:{{cite book |last=Mason |first=John Alden |author-link=John Alden Mason |date=1950 |chapter=The languages of South America |editor-first1=Julian |editor-last1=Steward |title=Handbook of South American Indians |volume=6 |pages=157–317 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143 |location=Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office}}
{{tree list}}
- Tehuelche
- Northern
- Payniken
- Poya
- Southern
- Inaken
{{tree list/end}}
History and demographics
The northern Tehuelche were conquered and later assimilated by the Mapuche during the Araucanization of Patagonia. Some 1.7 million Mapuche continue to live in Chile and southwest Argentina. Further south they traded peacefully with y Wladfa, the colony of Welsh settlers. Some Tehuelche learnt Welsh and left their children with the settlers for their education. A solid photographic record was made of this people. However, they were later nearly exterminated in the late 19th-century government-sponsored genocides of Patagonia.Brenzinger, 2007. Language diversity endangered. Walter de Gruyter. Of some 5000 speakers in 1900, {{As of|2005|lc=on}} there were about 20 speakers left. Tehuelche is now extinct as of 2019.
Phonology
=Vowels=
=Consonants=
Tehuelche has 25 consonantal phonemes. Stops can be plain, glottalized or voiced.{{sfn|Fernández|1998|pp=88-89}}
| class=wikitable style="text-align:center;" |
| colspan=2|
! Labial ! Dental ! Palatal ! Velar ! Uvular ! Glottal |
|---|
| colspan=2| Nasal
| {{IPAlink|m}} | {{IPAlink|n}} | | | | |
| rowspan=3| Stop
! plain | {{IPAlink|p}} | {{IPAlink|t}} | {{IPAlink|tʃ}} | {{IPAlink|k}} | {{IPAlink|q}} | {{IPAlink|ʔ}} |
| ejective
| {{IPAlink|pʼ}} | {{IPAlink|tʼ}} | {{IPAlink|tʃʼ}} | {{IPAlink|kʼ}} | {{IPAlink|qʼ}} | |
| voiced
| {{IPAlink|b}} | {{IPAlink|d}} | | {{IPAlink|ɡ}} | {{IPAlink|ɢ}} | |
| colspan=2| Fricative
| | {{IPAlink|s}} | {{IPAlink|ʃ}} | {{IPAlink|x}} | {{IPAlink|χ}} | |
| colspan=2| Approximant
| {{IPAlink|w}} | {{IPAlink|l}} | {{IPAlink|j}} | | | |
| colspan=2| Trill
| | {{IPAlink|r}} | | | | |
Morphology
=Pronoun=
| class="wikitable" |
| ! Singular
! Dual ! Plural |
|---|
| 1st person
| ia | okwa | oshwa |
| 2nd person
| ma꞉ | mkma | mshma |
| 3rd person
| ta꞉ | tkta | tshta |
=Noun=
{{Empty section|date=January 2011}}
=Verb=
{{Empty section|date=January 2011}}
= Alignment =
Tehuelche is a nominative–accusative language. Strangely, it marks the nominative but not the accusative, a phenomenon only found in 6 languages worldwide.{{Cite book |title=The indigenous languages of South America: a comprehensive guide |date=2012 |publisher=Mouton de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-025513-3 |editor-last=Campbell |editor-first=Lyle |series=The world of linguistics |location=Berlin ; Boston |editor-last2=Grondona |editor-first2=Verónica María}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{refbegin|indent=yes}}
- {{cite book
|ref={{sfnref|Fernández|1997}}
|last=Fernández Garay |first=Ana
|year=1997
|title=Testimonios de los últimos tehuelches
|location=Buenos Aires
|publisher=Universidad de Buenos Aires
|lang=es
}}
- {{cite book
|ref={{sfnref|Fernández|1998}}
|last=Fernández Garay |first=Ana
|year=1998
|title=El tehuelche: Una lengua en vías de extinción
|location=Valdivia
|publisher=Universidad Austral de Chile
|isbn=956710513-8
|series=Anejos de Estudios Filológicos 15
|lang=es
}}
- {{cite book
|ref={{sfnref|Fernández|2004}}
|last=Fernández Garay |first=Ana
|year=2004
|title=Diccionario tehuelche-español / índice español-tehuelche
|location=Leiden
|publisher=University of Leiden
|series=Indigenous Languages of Latin America 4
|lang=es
}}
- {{Cite book
|ref={{sfnref|Fernández|2006}}
|last=Fernández Garay |first=Ana
|date=2006
|title=La nominalización en lenguas indígenas de la Patagonia
|lang=es
|publisher=National University of La Pampa
|issn=1665-1200
|url=https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/594/59401506.pdf
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170829000608/https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/594/59401506.pdf
|archive-date=2017-08-29
|access-date=2023-04-22
}}
- {{cite journal
|last=Malvestitti |first=Marisa
|year=2014
|title=Aʰúnikʼənkʼ. Un vocabulario de la lengua tehuelche documentado por Roberto Lehmann-Nitsche
|journal=Indiana
|volume=31
|pages=377-408
|issn=0341-8642
|doi=10.18441/ind.v31i0.377-408 |doi-access=free
|lang=es
}}
- {{cite book
|last=Viegas Barros |first=J. Pedro
|year=2005
|title=Voces en el viento. Raíces lingüísticas de la Patagonia
|location=Buenos Aires
|publisher=Mondragón
|lang=es
}}
{{refend}}
External links
- [https://ids.clld.org/contributions/310 Tehuelche] (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)
- {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20210418122128/https://kketoshmekot.org/ kketo sh m ʼekot – lengua tehuelche]}} (Tehuelche community website)
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20211112022930/https://qadeshiakk.wordpress.com/ Qadeshiakk – Materials about the language]
{{Languages of Argentina}}
{{Languages of Chile}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tehuelche Language}}
Category:Languages of Argentina