Puelche language

*pwel*
"east"
pwel; "east"
People	Gününa künä (Puelche)
Language	Gününa Küne
Country	Pwelmapu

Puelche
Puelche
Gennaken
Gününa Küne
Native to	Argentina
Region	Río Negro
Ethnicity	Puelches
Extinct	1934, with the death of Trruúlmani
Language family	Possibly Mosetén-Chonan Chonan † ? Puelche–Het † ? Puelche; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	pue
Glottolog	puel1244
ELP	Gününa-Küne
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Puelche was a 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.

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.

Documentation

In 1829, D'Orbigny toured the area of southern Buenos Aires and the mouth of the Río Negro. There he collected words of the “puelches”, “aucas” and “tehuelches” —that is, in günün a iajüch, mapuzungun and teushen, respectively—in the vicinity of Carmen de Patagones, in a permanent settlement of linguistically heterogeneous groups.

The French traveler, intrigued by the indigenous languages of the area, arrived at the tolderías and contacted some interpreters:

"In a tent of friendly Patagonians I found a woman named Lunareja who spoke enough Spanish as if to serve as an interpreter; belonged to the Puelche nation and was married to a Patagonian, so that I knew both languages equally, which was of the greatest use to me. I also knew Araucanian, but the notions of this language could be better transmitted to me by the Indians."

In L'Homme américain (de l'Amérique méridionale) he includes some comments on which highlights pronunciation features, the use of the morpheme ya- prefixed to the parts of the body, the numbering system or the absence of gender markings on adjectives, as well as a list of words that compares with those of other languages of South America. ^[3]^[4]

Phonology

Vowels

Puelche has 7 vowels:^[5]

	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:^[5]^[6]

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Retroflex	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
Affricate	ejective		t͡sʼ	t͡ʂʼ	t͡ʃʼ
Fricative			s	ʂ	ʃ	x		h
Lateral	voiceless		ɬ
Lateral	voiced		l		ʎ
Rhotic	trill		r
Rhotic	tap		ɾ
Semivowel					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.^[7]

gloss	Gennaken
one	chéye
two	päch
ear	chütsk
tooth	xaye
hand	yapal
foot	yapgit
sun	apiúkük
moon	apioxok
dog	dáshü

Comparative Vocabulary

Below there is a list of comparative vocabulary between Chonan languages; Puelche, Teushen, Selk'nam, Tehuelche, and Haush, as well as Moseten languages; Chimane and Mosetén.^[7]^[8]^[4]


	Chon					Mosetén
English	Puelche	Teushen	Ona	Tehuelche	Haush	Chimane	Mosetén
one	chéye	cheuquen	sôs	chochieg	setaul	irit	irit
two	päch	xeukay	sôki	h'áuke	aim	pana	pára
three	gütʳsh	keash	sauke	ká'ash	shaucn	chibin	chibin
four	málǖ, mālǖ	kekaguy	koni-sôki	kague		tsis
five	tān’kǖ, tan’kü	keytzum	kismarei	k'tsáen		cánam
six	thrüman, tshüman	wenecash	kari-koni-soki	uaenecash		ebeuñ
seven	katʳshpetsh; katrshpitsh	kuka	kari-kísmarei	aiéké		yevetige
eight	pūúsha	wenekekague	karikei-konisoki	venik'cage		quencañ
nine	tsheyiba, tshiība	kekaxetzum	kauken-kísmarei	yamakeitzen		arajatec
ten	ts’amátskǚ	xaken	karai-kísmarei	kaken		tac

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.

References

^ Puelche at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ 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. Vol. 2. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 59–166. ISBN 9783110255133.
^ d'Orbigny., Alcide Dessalines (1923). L'Homme américain (de l'Amérique méridionale) (in French).
^ ^a ^b Lehmann-Nitsche, Roberto. "Vocabulario Puelche" (PDF).
^ ^a ^b Casamiquela, Rodolfo M. (1983). Nociones de gramática del gününa küne. Paris: French National Centre for Scientific Research. pp. 34–40.
^ Barros, J. Viegas. Un nuevo análisis fonológico del gününa yajüch. CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires
^ ^a ^b Loukotka, Čestmír (1968). Classification of South American Indian languages. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center.
^ "South Amerindian Languages". zompist.com. Retrieved 2023-05-09.