Mapudungun language

From Freepedia

Mapudungun
Spoken in:	Chile Argentina
Total speakers:	440 thousand
Genetic classification:	Araucanian  Mapudungun
Official status
Official language of:	none
Regulated by:	?
Language codes
ISO 639-2:	arn
SIL:	ARU

Mapudungun (mapu means 'earth' and dungun means 'to speak')is an Araucanian language spoken in Chile and Argentina by the Mapuche (mapu is 'earth' and che means 'people of')people.

It is also known as Mapudungu, Araucano (the name given to the Mapuche people by the Spanish, it sometimes has a negative connotation) and Mapuche. Its speakers number 440,000, with 400,000 others 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 1 History 2 Dialects 3 Sounds 3.1 Vowels 3.2 Consonants 3.3 Spelling 3.4 Grammar 4 Studies of Mapudungun 5 External Links 6 References

History

The Araucanian language, also known as Mapudungun, continues to be classified by some authorities as an being related to the Penutian languages of North America. Others group it among the Andean-Ecuatorial languages. It has had a lot of influence from Quechua.

When the Spanish arrived in Chile, they found three groups of Araucanos, one of which were the Pikunche (pikun is 'north' and che is 'people of')who were conquered quite rapidly. Since the 18th century the southern group has lost its specific identity, but the central group, the Mapuche retains its group identity.

Dialects

Mapudungun has a number of dialects. In Argentina, the Pehuenche dialect is spoken in Neuquén (from Valdivia to Neuquén); the Moluche or Nguluche dialect is spoken from Limay to Lake Nahuel Huapi; the Huilliche or Veliche dialect is spoken in the Lake Nahuel Huapi region as well, and also in Valdivia, Chile; and the Ranquenche dialect is spoken in Chalileo, General Acha and in the Río Colorado region.

Sounds

Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Vowels

Mapudungun has six vowel phonemes: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/ and a high central unrounded vowel, /ɨ/. The last sound is spelled ü or v depending on the alphabet used, and is pronounced as a schwa /ə/ when unstressed.

There are also two semivowels, /j/ and /w/.

Consonants

Mapudungun doesn't distinguish between voiceless and voiced consonants.

	bilabial	labiodental	interdental	dento-alveolar	postalveolar	palatal	retroflex	velar
plosive	p		t̪	t				k
nasal	m		n̪	n		ɲ		ŋ
fricative		f	θ	s	ʃ
approximant	w					j	ɹ	ɣ
affricate					ʧ		tʴ
lateral			l̪	l		ʎ

Some authors do not recognize /s/ as a separate phoneme; rather, they class it as an allophone of /ʃ/.
/tʴ/ (spelled as "tr", "tx" or even "x") is often described as a /ʧ/ sound followed by a /ɹ/ sound; it is similar to the sound of English tr in tree, but without aspiration.

Spelling

The Mapuche people did not have a system of writing when the Spanish arrived. 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 θ), U, M, CH, E, F, I, K, T, NH (for n̪), TX (for tʴ), O, Y, Q (for ɣ), G (for ŋ), LH (for l̪), Ñ (for ɲ), R, S, LL (for ʎ), P, Ü (for /ɨ/), W, L, N, SH and TC (for t̪).

Grammar

The accented syllable is generally on the second last syllable in words that end in a vowel, and on the final syllable in words that end in a consonant. There are some exceptions, such as when the first person plural ends in the semivowel 'j', where the accent is placed on the final syllable.

Mapudungun is not a gendered language as is Spanish, French, and others. Genders are described when necessary as in wentru che 'male person' and domo che 'female person'. The opposition between the animate and the inanimate is reflected in the use of pu as an plural indicator for nouns that denote animate objects and yuka as an equivalent plural for inanimate nouns. Chi can be used as a definate animate article as in chi wentru 'the man' and pu wentru for 'the men'. The number kiñe 'one' serves as an indefinate article.

• The personal pronouns are as follows:

		Number
		Singular	Dual	Plural
Person	First	iñche	iñchiw	iñchiñ
	Second	eymi	eymu	eymün
	Third	fey	fey engu	fey engün

• Interrogative pronouns are iney 'who?', chem 'what?'.
• Numbers from 1 to 10 are as follows: kiñe, epu, küla, meli, kechu, kayu, relqe/regle, pura, aylla, mari; 20 epu mari, 30 küla mari, 110 (kiñe) pataka mari.

• Verbs are transitive, neutral or impersonal and are conjugated into the first, second and third person and the singular, dual and plural having active and passive voices in four modes: indicative, imperative, optative and subjunctive. In the indicative, the present, imperfect, future and perfect tenses are distinguished.

Studies of Mapudungun

The formalization and normalization of Mapudungun was effected by the first Mapudungun grammar published by the Jesuit priest Luis de Valdivia in 1606 (Arte y Gramatica General de la Lengva que Corre en Todo el Reyno de Chile). More important is the Arte de la Lengua General del Reyno de Chile by the Jesuit Andrés Febrés (1765, Lima) composed of a grammar and dictionary. In 1776 three volumes in Latin were published in Westfalia (Chilidúgú sive Res Chilenses) by the German Jesuit Bernardo Havestadt.

The work by Febrés was used as a basic preparation from 1810 for missionary priests going into the regions occupied by the Mapuche people. A corrected version was completed in 1846 and a summary, without a dictionary in 1864. A work based on Febrés' book is the Breve Metodo della Lingua Araucana y Dizionario Italo-Araucano e Viceversa by the Italian Octaviano de Niza in 1888. It was destroyed in a fire at the Convento de San Francisco in Valdivia in 1928.

External Links

• Spanish-Mapudungun glossary
• Mapudungun-Spanish Dictionary from the U. Católica de Temuco
• Mapuche-Spanish dictionary
• Freelang Dictionary

References

• Aprueban Alfabeto Mapuche Unico (Oct 19, 1999). El Mercurio de Santiago.