Yahgan
Yámana, Yaagan, Yagán, Háusi Kúta, Inchikut, Tekeenika (Tequenica)
Language Family: Isolate.
ISO 639: yag
Glottolog: yama1264
Status:Dormant.
Yámana (also known as Háusi kúta and Yagán) is a dormant language formerly spoken along the southern coast of Tierra del Fuego in the Southern Cone.
Major sources on the language include the extensive dictionary compiled by Bridges (1993), a brief grammar by Adam (1885), phonological descriptions by Gusinde (1926) and Poblete Mendoza & Salas (1999), and the broader descriptive work of Golbert de Goodbar (1977; 1985).
Tables 1 and 2 present the consonant and vowel inventories of Yámana as analyzed by Golbert de Goodbar (1977) and Poblete Mendoza & Salas (1999). Phonemes shown in parentheses are reported only in Poblete Mendoza & Salas (1999) (for a comprehenisive overview cf. Adelaar & Muysken 2004, 568).
Table 1: Consonants in Yahgan (Golbert de Goodbar 1977; Poblete Mendoza & Salas 1999)
| Labial | Dental | Palatal | Retroflex | Velar | Laryngeal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Obstruents | p | t | č | (č̣) | k | (ʔ) |
| Fricatives | f | s | š | x | ||
| Nasals | m | n | ||||
| Lateral | l | |||||
| Vibrants | r | |||||
| Glides | w | y | (ɹ) |
Table 2: Vowels in Yahgan (Golbert de Goodbar 1977; Poblete Mendoza & Salas 1999)
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | e | ə | o |
| Low | (æ) | a | (ɑ) |
References
- Adam, Lucien. (1885) Grammaire de la langue jâgane. Paris: Maisonneuve.
- Adelaar, Willem & Peter Muysken. (2004). The languages of the Andes [Las lenguas de los Andes]. Cambridge University Press.
- Bridges, Thomas. (1933 [MS 1879]). Yamana–English: a Dictionary of the Speech of Tierra del Fuego, ed. D. Hestermann and M. Gusinde. Mödling near Vienna: Verlag der Internationalen Zeitschrift Anthropos.
- Golbert de Goodbar, Perla (1977) Yagán I. Las partes de la oración, II. Morfología nominal. VICUS Cuadernos. Lingüística 1 (1977), pp. 87–101; 2 (1978), pp. 5–60. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- -- (1985) Hacia una morfología verbal del Yagán. International Journal of American Linguistics 51, 4, pp. 421–4.
- Gusinde, Martin (1926) Das Lautsystem der feuerländischen Sprachen. Anthropos 21, pp. 1000–24.Poblete Mendoza, María Teresa & Adalberto Salas (1999). Fonemas yamana (yagan): Estructura fonológica de la palabra. Revista de Lingüística Teórica y Aplicada 37, pp. 107–22.