Mapudungun Mapuche (, Mapuche & Spanish: , or Mapudungun; from ' 'land' and ' 'speak, speech') is an Araucanian language related to Huilliche spoken in south-central Chile and west-central Argentina by the Mapuche people (from ''mapu'' 'land' and ''che ...

, the language of 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 ...

of modern south-central

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 southwestern

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 ...

, did not have a writing system when the Spanish arrived. There have been a number of proposals for

orthographies An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...

or Mapudungun alphabets, all of them using

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...

, but no consensus has yet been achieved between authorities, linguists and Mapuche communities on the one to be used. The main systems (in order of proposal) are the following: * Alfabeto Mapuche Unificado ("''Unified Alphabet''"), used by Chilean and Mapuche linguists and used in most of the scientific literature about the language. * Grafemario ''Raguileo'', made by

Anselmo Raguileo Lincopil Anselmo Raguileo Lincopil (3 May 1922 - 29 February 1992) was a Chilean linguist, historian, researcher and poet of the Mapuche people. He developed the Raguileo Alfabet. Life Raguileo Anselmo was born May 3, 1922, in Saltapura, Chile, 16 kilome ...

(1922–1992), who was a linguist of Mapuche origin. This orthography is supported by the indigenous Mapuche organization ''

Consejo de Todas las Tierras Consejo de Todas las Tierras or ''Aukiñ Wallmapu Ngulam'' (AWNg) is an indigenismo, indigenista organization that defines itself as aimed to create a "Mapuche state" in Chile and Argentina. Its leader is the werkén Aucán Huilcamán. The organiza ...

''. * Nhewenh, an online proposa

by Heinrich Puschmann, based on the Latin alphabet, latin character set to facilitate international usage on the Internet. * Azumchefi (also called ''Azümchefe''), proposed by the

Corporación Nacional de Desarrollo Indígena The National Corporation for Indigenous Development, or Corporación Nacional de Desarrollo Indígena (CONADI') in Spanish, is a Chilean institution founded on September 28, 1993, by the "Ley Indigena 19253" (“Indigenous Law”). CONADI's mai ...

(CONADI) as a summary of about six earlier proposals, and recognized by the

Chilean Ministry of Education The Ministry of Education of Chile (MINEDUC) is the Ministry of State responsible for promoting the development of education at all levels, to assure all people access to basic education, to stimulate scientific and technological research and arti ...

, but not widely used. A more thorough look at the sounds of Mapudungun is available

here Here is an adverb that means "in, on, or at this place". It may also refer to: Software * Here Technologies, a mapping company * Here WeGo (formerly Here Maps), a mobile app and map website by Here Television * Here TV (formerly "here!"), a TV ...

Consonants

Mapudungun has the following consonant system. (*) Raguileo does not distinguish between and or between and . Also, Raguileo aims to use only one grapheme for each phoneme (no digraphs) so he uses some letters from the alphabet in an unexpected way. (*) , which is spelled "tr" is also pronounced [].

Vowels

Mapudungun has six vowels. The three high vowels also have corresponding approximant consonants.

References

Bibliography

* {{Language alphabets Latin alphabets .Alphabet