Mapudungun alphabet
Mapudungun, the language of the Mapuche of modern south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, did not have a writing system when the Spanish arrived. There have been a number of proposals for orthographies or Mapudungun alphabets, all of them using Latin script
, but no consensus has yet been achieved between authorities, linguists and Mapuche communities on the one to be used.
The main systems (in order of proposal) are the following:
- Alfabeto Mapuche Unificado ("Unified Alphabet"), used by Chilean and Mapuche linguists and used in most of the scientific literature about the language.
- Grafemario Raguileo, made by Anselmo Raguileo Lincopil (1922–1992), who was a linguist of Mapuche origin.[1] This orthography is supported by the indigenous Mapuche organization Consejo de Todas las Tierras.
- Nhewenh, an online proposal [1] by Heinrich Puschmann, based on the latin character set to facilitate international usage on the Internet.
- Azumchefi (also called Azümchefe), proposed by the Chilean Ministry of Education, but not widely used.
- Wirizüŋun, of unknown origin.
A more thorough look at the sounds of Mapudungun is available here.
Consonants
Mapudungun has the following consonant system.
| Phoneme[2] | Unified Alphabet | Ragileo | Nhewenh | Azumchefi | Wirizüŋun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /p/ | p | ||||
| /t̪/ | ṯ | t* | td | t' | ṫ (or td) |
| /t/ | t | ||||
| /k/ | k | ||||
| /tʃ/ | ch | c | c | ch | ch |
| /tʂ/* | tr | x | tr | tx | tr |
| /f/ | f | ||||
| /θ/ | d | z | sd | z | z |
| /s/ | s | s* | s | s | s* |
| /ʃ/ | sh | s* | sh | sh | s* |
| /m/ | m | ||||
| /n̪/ | ṉ | h | nd | nh | ṅ (or nd) |
| /n/ | n | ||||
| /ɲ/ | ñ | ñ | nh | ñ | ñ (or nh) |
| /ŋ/ | ng | g | g | g | ŋ (or ng) |
| /w/ | w | ||||
| /j/ | y | y | j | y | y |
| /ɣ/ | g | q | q | q | g |
| /ɻ/ | r | ||||
| /l̪/ | ḻ | b | ld | lh | ŀ (or ld) |
| /l/ | l | ||||
| /ʎ/ | ll | j | lh | ll | lh |
(*) Raguileo does not distinguish between /s/ and /ʃ/ or between /t̪/ and /t/. Also, Raguileo aims to use only one grapheme for each phoneme (no digraphs) so it uses some letters from the alphabet in an unexpected way. Wirizüŋun also does not distinguish between /s/ and /ʃ/. (*) /ʈʂ/, which is spelled "tr" is also pronounced [tɻ].
Vowels
Mapudungun has six vowels. The three high vowels also have corresponding approximant consonants.
| Phoneme[3] | Unified Alphabet | Ragileo | Nhewenh | Azumchefi | Wirizüŋun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /a/ | a | ||||
| /e/ | e | ||||
| /i/ | i | ||||
| /o/ | o | ||||
| /u/ | u | ||||
| /ɨ/ | ü / ï | v | y / v | ü | ü (or v) |
References
- S2CID 60798313.
- ^ Sadowsky et al. (2013), p. 88.
- ^ Sadowsky et al. (2013), p. 92.
Bibliography
- Sadowsky, Scott; Painequeo, Héctor; Salamanca, Gastón; Avelino, Heriberto (2013), "Mapudungun", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 43 (1): 87–96,