Kawésqar (sometimes spelled Qawasqar), also known as Alacaluf, is the only surviving language of the Alacalufan family. According to Viegas Barros (2005, 37), the family originally comprised three languages: Northern, Central, and Southern Alacaluf. Today, only the northern variety (commonly referred to as Kawésqar) remains, and it is spoken by a small number of elderly speakers in the vicinity of Puerto Edén, on Wellington Island, southern Chile.

After Mapudungun, Kawésqar is likely the language of the Southern Cone with the richest body of linguistic documentation. Major contributions to its description include the grammatical study by Christos Clairis (1985) and the extensive work of Óscar Aguilera and José Tonko, which ranges from a grammar (Aguilera 2001) to several collections of translated texts (Aguilera & Tonko 2007, 2013).

By contrast, much less material is available for the other, long-dormant, Alacalufan languages. For Central Alacaluf, Borgatello compiled an early wordlist (1925) and produced some grammatical notes (1928), while Skottsberg (1913) also provided limited vocabulary and brief grammatical observations. Southern Alacaluf is documented only fragmentarily, primarily through the wordlist of Fitz Roy (1839, 135–140) and the materials published by Hyades and Deniker (1891, 272–279) (see also Viegas Barros & Malvestitti 2023, 99).

The phonology of Kawésqar is notable for its inventory of eighteen consonants, none of which have voiced counterparts. Table 1 presents the consonant system as described by Aguilera (2001, 24).

Table 1: Consonants in Kawésqar (Aguilera 2001, 24)

Manner / Place	Labials	Alveolars	Palatals	Velars	Uvulars	Glottals
Voiceless stops	p	t		k	q
Ejectives	pʼ	tʼ	cʼ	kʼ
Fricatives	f	s				h
Affricates			č
Nasals	m	n
Laterals		l
Rhotics (Trills/Taps)		r
Approximants			j	w

A noteworthy feature of the language is the set of ejective stops (p’, t’, c’, k’). The author also lists a set of voiceless implossive stops [ɓ̥, ɗ̥, ɠ̊] and aspirated stops [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ] as allophones of /p, t, k/, respectively (Aguilera 2001, 20f).

Table 2 illustrates the vowels of Kawésqar (Aguilera 2001, 24).

Table 2: Vowels in Kawésqar (Aguilera 2001, 24)

	Anterior	Central	Posterior
High	i		u
Mid	e		o
Low	æ	a

References

• Aguilera, Óscar. (2001). Gramática de la lengua Kawésqar. Temuco: LOM Ediciones.
• Aguilera, Óscar & Tonko, José. (2007). Literatura oral kawésqar: cuento del pájaro carpintero y su esposa, la mujer tiuque (segunda parte). Onomázein (15), 11-38.
• Aguilera, Óscar & Tonko, José. (2013). Relatos de viaje kawésqar. Nómadas caoneros de la Patagonia Occidental. Temuco: Ofqui Editores.
• Borgatello, Maggiorino. (1925). Quadro linguistico comparativo italiano, ona, alacaluffo e tehuelce. In Malvestitti, M., Grana, R., Nicoletti, M. A., & Torreblanca, M. del P. (2023). Capítulo 7. Quadro linguistico comparativo italiano, ona, alacaluffo e tehuelce. In M. Malvestitti & M. Farro (eds.), Documentos inéditos en lenguas fuegopatagónicas (1880-1950) . Editorial UNRN. 257-338.
• Clairis, Christos (1985). El qawasqar. Lingüística fueguina, teoría y descripción. Valdivia: Estudios filológicos.
• Fitz-Roy, Robert. (1839). Appendix to the Second Volume. Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty’s ships Adventure and Beagle, between the years 1826 and 1836, describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagle’s circumnavigation of the. Henry Colburn.
• Hyades, Paul D. & Joseph Deniker. (1891). Mission scientifique du Cap Horn, t. 7. Gauthier-Villars.
• Skottsberg, Carl. (1913). Observations on the natives of the patagonian channel región. American Anthropologist, 15(4), pp. 578-616.
• Viegas Barros, Pedro. (2005). Voces en el viento. Raíces lingüísticas de la Patagonia. Buenos Aires: Mondragón Ediciones.
• Viegas Barros, Pedro & Malvestitti, Marisa. (2023). Vocabulario ona-yahgan-alakaluf del doctor Carlos Spegazzini. In M. Malvestitti & M. Farro (eds.), Documentos inéditos en lenguas fuegopatagónicas (1880-1950). UNRN. 87-136.