Kawésqar (Qawasqar), also known as Alacaluf, is a critically endangered
language isolate
Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The num ...
spoken in southern
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 ...
by the
Kawésqar people. Originally part of a
small family,
only the northern language remains. In 2009, only a handful of elderly people spoke the language, most of whom lived on
Wellington Island
Wellington Island is an island west of Southern Patagonian Ice Field, Chile. It has an area of 5,556 km2 and most of the island forms part of Bernardo O'Higgins National Park
Bernardo O'Higgins National Park () is the largest of the prot ...
off the southwest coast of Chile.
Phonology
Vowels
Consonants
Alphabet
The alphabet in use has the following letters: 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, differences are reported between dialects, and some sounds are not represented.
Morphology and syntax
Kawésqar has a complex system of
grammatical tense
In grammar, tense is a grammatical category, category that expresses time reference. Tenses are usually manifested by the use of specific forms of verbs, particularly in their grammatical conjugation, conjugation patterns.
The main tenses foun ...
, which includes a basic morphological contrast between future, present, immediate past, recent past, distant past, and mythological past events.
See also
*
Alacalufe people
*
List of endangered languages in South America
An endangered language is a language that it is at risk of falling out of use, generally because it has few surviving speakers. If it loses all of its native speakers, it becomes an extinct language. UNESCO defines four levels of language endang ...
Bibliography
*
Aguilera Faúndez, Oscar (1978). Léxico Kawesqar-Español, Español-Kawesqar. Boletín de filología (Universidad de Chile, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras) 29.
*
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
nejo de Estudios Filológicos 12
*
Pieter C. Muysken. 2004. ''The Languages of the Andes''. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
References
External links
Qawasqar dictionary online(select simple or advanced browsing)
KawésqarKawésqar at the World Atlas of Language Structures Online- including recordings and transcriptions of stories, myths, and conversations in Kawésqar at
AILLA.
Qawasqar(
Intercontinental Dictionary Series
The Intercontinental Dictionary Series (commonly abbreviated as IDS) is a large database of topical vocabulary lists in various world languages. The general editor of the database is Bernard Comrie of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary An ...
)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kawesqar Language
Indigenous languages of the South American Cone
Languages of Chile
Alacalufan languages
Critically endangered languages
Endangered Alacalufan languages
Fuegian languages
Kawésqar