The Chonan languages are a family of indigenous American languages which were spoken in

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of the Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla G ...

and Patagonia. Two Chon languages are well attested: Selk'nam (or Ona), spoken by the people of the same name who occupied territory in the northeast of Tierra del Fuego; and Tehuelche spoken by the people of the same name who occupied territory north of Tierra del Fuego. The name 'Chon', or ''Tshon'', is a blend of 'Tehuelche' and 'Ona'.

Previous studies

The

Selk'nam people The Selk'nam, also known as the Onawo or Ona people, are an indigenous people in the Patagonian region of southern Argentina and Chile, including the Tierra del Fuego islands. They were one of the last native groups in South America to be enco ...

were widely studied by anthropologists such as Martin Gusinde and Anne Chapman throughout the 20th century. However, their language went extinct in the 1970s.

History and demographics

The northern Tehuelche were conquered and later assimilated by the

Mapuche The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who sha ...

during the

Araucanization of Patagonia The Araucanization of Patagonia ( es, Araucanización de la Patagonia) was the process of the expansion of Mapuche culture, influence, and its Mapudungun language from Araucanía across the Andes into the plains of Patagonia. Historians disagree ...

. Some 1.7 million Mapuche continue to live in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

and southwest Argentina. Further south they traded peacefully with

y Wladfa Y Wladfa (, "The Colony"), also occasionally Y Wladychfa Gymreig (, "The Welsh Settlement"), refers to the establishment of settlements by Welsh immigrants in Patagonia, beginning in 1865, mainly along the coast of the lower Chubut Valley. In ...

, the colony of Welsh settlers. Some Tehuelche learnt

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...

and left their children with the settlers for their education. A solid photographic record was made of this people. However, they were later nearly exterminated in the late 19th-century government-sponsored

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...

s of Patagonia. Of some 5000 speakers in 1900, there were about 20 speakers left. Tehuelche language is now extinct as of 2019.

Classification

The Haush spoke a language similar to Ona. Some scholars also add to the family the Teushen language —once spoken by the Teushen, located between the Tehuelche and Puelche —though it is poorly attested. Viegas Barros (2005) attempts to demonstrate that Puelche to the north is related to the Chon languages and would constitute one branch of an extended Chonan family. This proposal has been picked up by Lyle Campbell.Campbell, Lyle. (in preparation) "The classification of South American languages. In Campbell & Grondona (eds.), ''South America''. Mouton de Gruyte

/ref> Based on the scanty evidence that is available, the Het peoples (or at least the Didiuhet) might be speakers of languages within the proposed Puelche branch. If this is correct, the Chon family would be as follows:

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for the ''Patagon'' (Chonan) languages. :

References

External links

*Alain Fabre, 2005, ''Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos: CHON

{{South American languages Chonan languages, Language families Languages of Argentina Languages of Chile