Puelche was a language formerly spoken by the
Puelche people in the
Pampas region of
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, t ...
. The language is also known as ''Gününa Küne'', Gennaken (Guenaken), Northern Tehuelche, ''Gününa Yajich'', Ranquelche, and Pampa.
Classification
Puelche has long been considered a
language isolate. Based on very limited evidence, Viegas Barros (1992) suggests that Puelche might be closely related to the language of the
QuerandÃ, one of the
Het peoples, and Viegas Barros (2005) that it is related to the
Chon languages
The Chonan languages are a family of indigenous American languages which were spoken in Tierra del Fuego 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 ...
.
Further afield, inclusion in a putative
Macro-Jibaro family has been posited.
Phonology
Vowels
Puelche has 7
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (l ...
s:
A short sounding // is realized as [].
Consonants
Puelche has 25 consonants:
[Barros, J. Viegas. Un nuevo análisis fonológico del gününa yajüch. CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires]
It is not clear if there is a uvular ejective stop .
Vocabulary
Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Gennaken.
:
Bibliography
:
:
See also
*
Boreal Pehuelche
References
External links
Gününa Küne language dictionary online from IDS(select simple or advanced browsing)
WALS: ''Puelche''Gününa Küne(
Intercontinental Dictionary Series)
{{Languages of Argentina
Languages of Argentina
Chonan languages
Extinct languages of South America
Languages extinct in the 1930s
Language isolates of South America