Puelche language

Puelche is an extinct language formerly spoken by the Puelche people in the Pampas region of Argentina. The language is also known as Gününa Küne, Gennaken (Guenaken), Northern Tehuelche, Gününa Yajich, Ranquelche, and Pampa.

Puelche
Gennaken
Gününa Küne
Native toArgentina
RegionRío Negro
Extinct1934[1]
with the death of Trruúlmani
Chonan ?
  • Puelche–Het ?
    • Puelche
Language codes
ISO 639-3pue
Glottologpuel1244
ELPGününa-Küne[2]

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.[3] Further afield, inclusion in a putative Macro-Jibaro family has been posited.

Phonology

Vowels

Puelche has 7 vowels:[4]

Front Back
Unrounded Unrounded Rounded
Close i ɯ u
Close-mid e ɤ o
Open-mid ʌ
Open a

A short sounding /e/ is realized as [ɛ].

Consonants

Puelche has 25 consonants:[4][5]

Bilabial Alveolar Retroflex Palato-
alveolar		 Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasal m n
Plosive voiceless p t k q ʔ
ejective pʼ tʼ kʼ (qʼ)
voiced b d ɡ
Affricate voiceless t͡s t͡ʂ t͡ʃ
ejective t͡sʼ t͡ʂʼ t͡ʃʼ
Fricative central s ʂ ʃ x h
lateral ɬ
Lateral l ʎ
Rhotic trill r
tap ɾ
Approximant j w

It is not clear if there is a uvular ejective stop [qʼ].

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Gennaken.[6]

glossGennaken
onechéye
twopäch
earchütsk
toothxaye
handyapal
footyapgit
sunapiúkük
moonapioxok
dogdáshü

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.

See also
  • Boreal Pehuelche

References
  1. Puelche at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Endangered Languages Project data for Gününa-Küne.
  3. Campbell, Lyle (2012). "Classification of the indigenous languages of South America". In Grondona, Verónica; Campbell, Lyle (eds.). The Indigenous Languages of South America. The World of Linguistics. 2. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 59–166. ISBN 9783110255133.
  4. Casamiquela, Rodolfo M. (1983). Nociones de gramática del gününa küne. Paris: French National Centre for Scientific Research. pp. 34–40.
  5. Barros, J. Viegas. Un nuevo análisis fonológico del gününa yajüch. CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires
  6. Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
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