Mapudungun - Definition and Overview

Mapudungun is an Araucanian language spoken in Chile and Argentina by the Mapuche people.

It is also known as Mapudungu, Araucano and Mapuche. It has about 440,000 speakers, with about 400,000 in the Central Valley of Chile and another 40,000 in Argentinian region of Patagonia. About 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.

Sounds

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.

Some authors don't 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 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 θ), U, M, CH, E, F, I, K, T, NH (for n̪), TX (for tʴ), O, Y, Q (for ʎ), 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).

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.