Araucanian languages
The Araucanian languages are a South American language family in Chile and Argentina , which consists only of the languages Mapudungun ( ISO 639-3 : arn) and Huilliche (ISO 639-3: huh). Historically, other languages that have since become extinct belonged to the family, such as the original language of the Pehuenche , which has been completely absorbed in the Mapudungun since the 18th century. All languages belong to the indigenous American languages .
There are an estimated 200,000 active speakers of the Mapudungun in Chile and 40,000 in Argentina. The common language spoken in Chile has only a few thousand active speakers.
literature
- Lyle Campbell : American Indian languages. The historical linguistics of Native America (= Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics. 4). Oxford University Press, New York NY et al. 1997, ISBN 0-19-509427-1 .