Kawésqar language
Kawésqar | |
---|---|
Alacaluf | |
Native to | Chile |
Region | Channel Region, western Patagonia, Wellington Island off south Chilean coast, 49° south, with centre in Puerto Edén. |
Ethnicity | 2,600 Alacaluf people (2002 census)[1] |
Native speakers | 12 (2006)[1] |
Alacalufan
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 |
alc |
Glottolog |
qawa1238 [2] |
Kawésqar (Qawasqar), also known as Alacaluf,[3] is a critically endangered language isolate spoken in southern Chile by the Kawésqar people. Originally part of a small family,[2] only the northern language remains. Only a dozen speakers of remain, half of them on Wellington Island off the southwestern coast of Chile.
Phonology
Vowels
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Mid | e | o | |
Open | æ | a |
Consonants
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||
Plosive | p | t | t͡ʃ | k | q | ʔ |
Ejective | pʼ | tʼ | t͡ʃʼ | kʼ | ||
Fricative | f | s | h | |||
Rhotic | r - ɾ | |||||
Approximant | w | l | j |
Writing system
The alphabet in use is as follows : a, æ, c, c', e, f, h, i, j, k, k', l, m, n, o, p, p', q, r, rr, s, t, t', u, w, x. However, there are reported to be differences between dialects, and some sounds that are not represented here.
Morphology and syntax
Kawésqar has a complex system of grammatical tense, which includes a basic morphological contrast between future, present, immediate past, recent past, distant past, and mythological past events.
Bibliography
- Aguilera Faúndez, Óscar (2001): Gramática de la lengua kawésqar. Temuco: Corporación de Desarrollo Indígena.
- Clairis, Christos (1987): El qawasqar. Lingüística fueguina. Teoría y descripción. Valdivia: Universidad Austral de Chile [Anejo de Estudios Filológicos 12].
- Pieter C. Muysken. 2004. The Languages of the Andes. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
References
- 1 2 Kawésqar at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- 1 2 Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Qawasqar". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- ↑ Spelling variants include Kaweskar, Kawaskar, Qawashqar, Kaueskar and Alakaluf, Halakwulup, Halakwalip; other names include Aksanás, Aksana and Hekaine.
External links
- Qawasqar dictionary online (select simple or advanced browsing)
- Kawésqar
- SerIndigena - Territorio Kawesqar
- Kawésqar at the World Atlas of Language Structures Online
- Chilean Languages Collection of Oscar Aguilera and José Tonko - including recordings and transcriptions of stories, myths, and conversations in Kawésqar at AILLA.
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