Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Puelche language
Extinct language From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
Gününa Küne (Puelche) is a now extinct language formerly spoken by the Gününa Küne people in the Pampas region of Argentina. The language is also known as Gennaken (Guenaken), Northern Tehuelche, Gününa Yajich, Ranquelche, and Pampa. It may also have been spoken by the Chechehet.[3]
 | A request that this article title be changed to Gününa Küne language is under discussion. Please do not move this article until the discussion is closed. |
Remove ads
Remove ads
Classification
Gününa Küne has long been considered a language isolate. Based on very limited evidence, Viegas Barros (1992) suggests that Gününa Küne might be closely related to the Querandí language, one of the Het peoples, and Viegas Barros (2005) that it is related to the Chon languages.[4] Further afield, inclusion in a putative Macro-Jibaro family has been posited.
Remove ads
Documentation
In 1829, D'Orbigny toured the area of southern Buenos Aires and the mouth of the Río Negro. There he collected words of the “puelches”, “aucas” and “tehuelches” —that is, in günün a iajüch, mapuzungun and teushen, respectively—in the vicinity of Carmen de Patagones, in a permanent settlement of linguistically heterogeneous groups.
The French traveler, intrigued by the indigenous languages of the area, arrived at the tolderías and contacted some interpreters:
"In a tent of friendly Patagonians I found a woman named Lunareja who spoke enough Spanish as if to serve as an interpreter; belonged to the Puelche nation and was married to a Patagonian, so that I knew both languages equally, which was of the greatest use to me. I also knew Araucanian, but the notions of this language could be better transmitted to me by the Indians."
In L'Homme américain (de l'Amérique méridionale) he includes some comments on which highlights pronunciation features, the use of the morpheme ya- prefixed to the parts of the body, the numbering system or the absence of gender markings on adjectives, as well as a list of words that compares with those of other languages of South America. [5][6]
Remove ads
Phonology
Vowels
A short sounding /e/ is realized as [ɛ].
Consonants
Gününa Küne has 25 consonants:[7][8]
It is not clear if there is a uvular ejective stop [qʼ].
Vocabulary
Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Gennaken.[9]
Comparative Vocabulary
- Below there is a list of comparative vocabulary between Chonan languages; Gününa Küne, Teushen, Selkʼnam, Tehuelche, and Haush, as well as Moseten languages; Chimane and Mosetén.[9][10][6]
Remove ads
Bibliography
- Casamiquela, Rodolfo M. (1983). Nociones de gramática del gününa küne. Paris: French National Centre for Scientific Research.
- Adelaar, Willem (2004). The Languages of the Andes. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-36275-7.
See also
References
External links
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads