Puelche is an extinct or nearly extinct language spoken by the Puelche people in the Pampas region of Argentina. The language is also known as Gününa Küne, Gennaken (Guenaken), Pehuenche, Northern Tehuelche, Gününa Yajich, Ranquelche, and Pampa, and may have five speakers, according to Ethnologue, if not it has gone extinct.[1]
[edit] 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 Querandí, one of the Het peoples, and Viegas Barros (2005) that it is related to the Chon languages.[2] Further afield, inclusion in a putative Macro-Jibaro family has been posited.
[edit] Phonology
[edit] Vowels
Puelche has 7 vowels:[3]
[edit] Consonants
Puelche has 25 consonants:[3]
Puelche has an additional phoneme /r/, but its phonetic properties are badly described.[3]
[edit] Bibliography
- Casamiquela, Rodolfo M. (1983). Nociones de gramática del gününa küne. Paris: French National Centre for Scientific Research.
- Adelaar, Willem (2004). The Languages of the Andes. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-36275-7.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ a b Ethnologue
- ^ Campbell, Lyle. (in preparation) "The classification of South American languages. In Campbell & Grondona (eds.), South America. Mouton de Gruyter.
- ^ a b c Clairis, Christos (1997). "Lingüística Fueguina 1997". Onomázein 2: 421–450.
