The Charruan languages are a

language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in hist ...

once spoken in

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

and the

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

province of Entre Ríos. In 2005, a

semi-speaker Within the linguistic study of endangered languages, sociolinguists distinguish between different speaker types based on the type of competence they have acquired of the endangered language. Often when a community is gradually shifting away from ...

of the Chaná language, Blas Wilfredo Omar Jaime, was found in

Entre Ríos Province Entre Ríos (, "Between Rivers") is a central province of Argentina, located in the Mesopotamia region. It borders the provinces of Buenos Aires (south), Corrientes (north) and Santa Fe (west), and Uruguay in the east. Its capital is Paraná ( ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Internal coherence

Charruan may actually consist of two or three unrelated families according to Nikulin (2019).Nikulin, Andrey V. 2019.
The classification of the languages of the South American Lowlands: State-of-the-art and challenges / Классификация языков востока Южной Америки
'. Illič-Svityč (Nostratic) Seminar / Ностратический семинар, Higher School of Economics, October 17, 2019. Nikulin notes that many of the following languages share very few basic vocabulary items with each other. # Chaná as spoken by Blas Wilfredo Omar Jaime # Chaná of Larrañaga (1923) #

Charrúa The Charrúa were an indigenous people or Indigenous Nation of the Southern Cone in present-day Uruguay and the adjacent areas in Argentina ( Entre Ríos) and Brazil ( Rio Grande do Sul). They were a semi-nomadic people who sustained themselve ...

of Vilardebó (1842) # Güenoa from a short 18th-century

catechesis Catechesis (; from Greek: , "instruction by word of mouth", generally "instruction") is basic Christian religious education of children and adults, often from a catechism book. It started as education of converts to Christianity, but as the ...

quoted by

Lorenzo Hervás y Panduro Lorenzo may refer to: People * Lorenzo (name) Places Peru * San Lorenzo Island (Peru), sometimes referred to as the island of Lorenzo United States * Lorenzo, Illinois * Lorenzo, Texas * San Lorenzo, California, formerly Lorenzo * Lorenzo State ...

Languages

Four languages are considered to definitively belong to the Charruan language family, basically Chañá (Lanték), Nbeuá, Charrúa and Guenoa. * Chaná **Lanték ''Yañá'' (proper name of Chaná language) ** Yañá ''Nbeuá'' (the wrongly named "Mbeguá", "Beguá", "Chaná-Beguá", etc.) ** Yañá ''Ntimpúc'' (the wrongly named "Timbúes", "Chaná TImbúes", "Timbó", "Chaná timbó", etc.) *

* Güenoa A number of unattested languages are also presumed to belong to the Charruan family: *Bohane – spoken near Maldonado, or Salto, in

*Calchine – spoken in

Santa Fe Province The Province of Santa Fe ( es, Provincia de Santa Fe, ) is a Provinces of Argentina, province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco Province, Chaco (divided by the 28th ...

, Argentina, along the Salado River *Caracañá – spoken along the Caracañá River, Santa Fe *Chaná-Mbegua or Begua – spoken on the

Paraná River The Paraná River ( es, Río Paraná, links=no , pt, Rio Paraná, gn, Ysyry Parana) is a river in south-central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina for some ."Parana River". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Br ...

between Crespo and

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

*Colastiné – spoken in Santa Fe Province near Colastiné *Corondá – spoken in

Coronda Coronda is a small city in the . It is located in the San Jerónimo Department, 43 km south from the provincial capital ( Santa Fe). It has a population of about 18,000 inhabitants (). The town was founded in 1867 by Governor Nicasio Oroño, ...

, Santa Fe Province *Guaiquiaré – spoken in Entre Ríos on the Arroyo Guaiquiraré *Mocoreta or Macurendá or Mocolete – spoken along the

Mocoretá River The Mocoretá River (Spanish, Río Mocoretá) is a river in the Mesopotamic northeastern region of Argentina. It is born in the southeast of the province of Corrientes, south of Curuzú Cuatiá. It flows south, first turning east and then west unt ...

*Pairindi – spoken in Entre Ríos from

Corrientes Corrientes (; Guaraní language, Guaraní: Taragüí, literally: "Currents") is the capital city of the Provinces of Argentina, province of Corrientes Province, Corrientes, Argentina, located on the eastern shore of the Paraná River, about from ...

to the

Feliciano River The Feliciano River (Spanish, Arroyo Feliciano) is a river in the Argentine province of Entre Ríos, in the Mesopotamia. It is born on the ''Lomada del Mocoretá'', on the northeast of the province, east of San José de Feliciano, and flows west-s ...

*Timbu – spoken in

Gaboto Gaboto (often referred to as Puerto Gaboto) is a town (''comuna'') in the southeast of the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It has 2,617 inhabitants per the . The town lies south of the provincial capital, by the Coronda River, and immediately ...

, Santa Fe Province *Yaro – spoken in Uruguay between the Río Negro and the San Salvador River

Genetic relations

Jorge Suárez includes Charruan with Guaicuruan in a hypothetical ''Waikuru-Charrúa'' stock.

Morris Swadesh Morris Swadesh (; January 22, 1909 – July 20, 1967) was an American linguist who specialized in comparative and historical linguistics. Swadesh was born in Massachusetts to Bessarabian Jewish immigrant parents. He completed bachelor's and mas ...

includes Charruan along with Guaicuruan,

Matacoan Matacoan (also ''Mataguayan, Matákoan, Mataguayo, Mataco–Mataguayo, Matacoano, Matacoana'') is a language family of northern Argentina, western Paraguay, and southeastern Bolivia. Family division Matacoan consists of four clusters of languag ...

, and

Mascoyan The Mascoian also known as Enlhet–Enenlhet, Lengua–Mascoy, or Chaco languages are a small, closely related language family of Paraguay. Languages The languages are:Unruh, Ernesto; Kalisch, Hannes. 2003. "Enlhet-Enenlhet. Una familia lingüí ...

within his ''Macro-Mapuche'' stock. Both proposals appear to be obsolete.

Vocabulary comparison

The Charruan languages are poorly attested. However, sufficient vocabulary has been gathered for the languages to be compared:This comparison table is a revision by Br. José Damián Torko Gómez, based on the J.C. Sábat Pébet and J.J. Figueira compilation of all terms known of the "Uruguayan" aboriginal languages. Source: https://www.estudioshistoricos-en.edu.uy/assets/080-boletín-histórico-nº-120---123---año-1969.pdf : Lexical comparison from Nikulin (2019): :

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Charruan Languages Language families Languages of Argentina Languages of Uruguay Indigenous languages of the South American Cone Extinct languages of South America Mataco–Guaicuru languages Chaco linguistic area