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Ona, also known as Selk'nam (Shelknam), is a language spoken by the Selk'nam people in Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego in southernmost South America.

Part of the Chonan languages of Patagonia, Selk'nam is almost extinct, due to the late 19th-century Selk'nam genocide by European immigrants, high fatalities due to disease, and disruption of traditional society. One source states that the last fluent native speakers died in the 1980s. A Radboud University linguist worked with two individuals to write a reference grammar of the language, namely, Herminia Vera-Ona (deceased since 2014), a semi-speaker who spoke Ona until the age of 8, and Joubert "Keyuk" Yanten, a young man who started learning the language after learning he was part-Selk'nam at the age of 8. At the time the grammar was written, the latter was believed to be the only living individual fluent in Selk'nam, albeit not natively.

Classification

Within the Southern Chon language family, Selk'nam is closest to Haush, another language spoken on the island of Tierra del Fuego.

There is speculation that Chon together with the Moseten languages, a small group of languages in Bolivia, form part of a Moseten-Chonan language family. Another proposal is, that it is related to the Pano-Tacanan languages.

Joseph Greenberg classifies Selk'nam as an Amerind language of the Southern Andean group, but this categorization is universally rejected by linguists.

History

The Selk'nam people, also known as the Ona, are an indigenous people who inhabited the northeastern part of the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego for thousands of years before Europeans arrived. They were nomads known as "foot-people," as they did their hunting on land, rather than being seafarers.

The last full-blooded Selk'nam, Ángela Loij, died in 1974. They were one of the last aboriginal groups in South America to be reached by Europeans. Their language, believed to be part of the Chonan family, is considered extinct as the last native speakers died in the 1980s. Currently, Selk'nam communities are revitalizing the language. A man of mixed Selk'nam and Mapuche ancestry, Joubert Yanten Gomez (indigenous name: Keyuk) has successfully taught himself the language.

Phonology

Based on available data, Selk'nam seems to have had 3 vowels and 23 consonants.

Selk'nam has three vowels: /a, ɪ, ʊ/.

Grammar

The Ona language is an object–verb–subject language (OVS). This is a rare word order: only 1% of languages use it as their default word order. There are only two word classes in Selk'nam: nouns and verbs.

Vocabulary

The Selk'nam language has Chonan vocabulary similar to the Haush language, though some words have been adopted from Spanish and English, such as the word for "cat", in Selk'nam, k'lattítaŭ; from the Spanish word gatito, which translates to "kitten".

Comparative vocabulary

The following is a list of examples of comparative vocabulary from Chonan languages: Ona, Haush and Tehuelche; and also vocabulary from the unrelated Yahgan (Yámana).

See also

• List of endangered languages
• Languages of Argentina
• Languages of Chile

References

1. "Ona". Ethnologue. SIL International. Retrieved 17 November 2023.
2. ^ Adelaar, Willem (2010). "South America". In Moseley, Christopher; Nicolas, Alexandre (eds.). Atlas of the world's languages in danger (3rd entirely revised, enlarged and updated ed.). Paris: UNESCO. pp. 86–94. ISBN 978-92-3-104096-2.
3. ^ Rojas-Berscia, Luis Miguel (2014). A Heritage Reference Grammar of Selk'nam (Thesis). Nijmegen: Radboud University.
4. Bolnick, Deborah; Shook, Beth; Campbell, Lyle; Goddard, Ives (2004). "Problematic Use of Greenberg's Linguistic Classification of the Americas in Studies of Native American Genetic Variation". American Journal of Human Genetics. 75 (3): 519–523. doi:10.1086/423452. PMC 1182033. PMID 15284953.
5. "Angela Loij". Research Institute for the Study of Man – The Reed Foundation. 27 May 1975. Archived from the original on 14 September 2023. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
6. Thurman, Judith (23 March 2015). "A loss for words: Can a dying language be saved?". The New Yorker. Condé Nast. Archived from the original on 14 August 2023. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
7. Najlis, Elena L. (1973). Lengua selknam. Filología y lingüística (in Spanish). Vol. 3. Buenos Aires: Universidad de Salvador.
8. Lehmann-Nitsche, Roberto (1913). Selk'nam words. The Ōōna vocabulary collected by Roberto Lehmann-Nitsche.
9. "Lengua Haush. Vocabulario". pueblosoriginarios.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-04-27.
10. "Lenguas Ona o Selknam. Prospecto comparativo Idioma Tehuelche". pueblosoriginarios.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-04-27.
11. "Lengua Tehuelche. Diccionario Aónikenk - Español". pueblosoriginarios.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-04-27.
12. "Lenguas Yámana y Kawésqar. Vocabulario comparativo". pueblosoriginarios.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-04-27.

External links

• Guillermo Latorre, Sustrato y superestrato multilingües en la toponimia del extremo sur de Chile, Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades de la Universidad Austral de Chile
• WALS
• Selk'nam dictionary online (select simple or advanced browsing).
• Selknam (Intercontinental Dictionary Series)

• Chonan languages
• Extinct languages of South America
• Fuegian languages
• Object–verb–subject languages
• Selk'nam people
• Languages of Argentina
• Languages of Chile