Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 3, 2026

Chono language

Chono is a poorly attested extinct language of confusing classification. It is attested primarily from an 18th-century catechism, which is not translated into Spanish. Various placenames in Chiloé Archipelago have Chono etymologies.

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Jun 3, 2026
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Chono
Native toChile
RegionChonos Archipelago, Chiloé Archipelago
EthnicityChono people
Extinct1875
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
Glottologchon1248

Chono is a poorly attested extinct language of confusing classification. It is attested primarily from an 18th-century catechism,1 which is not translated into Spanish. Various placenames in Chiloé Archipelago have Chono etymologies.2

Classification

Viegas Barros, who postulates a relationship between Kawésqar and Yahgan, believes that 45% of the Chono vocabulary and grammatical forms correspond to one of those languages, though it is not close to either.3

Glottolog concludes that "There are lexical parallels with Mapuche as well as Qawesqar, ... but the core is clearly unrelated." They characterize Chono as a language isolate, though only as it relates to Mapuche and Kawésqar.

Campbell (2012) concludes that a language called Wayteka or Wurk-wur-we by Llaras Samitier (1967), and which also went by the geographical name "Chono", is spurious, with the source material being a list of mixed and perhaps invented vocabulary.4

Phonology

The phonology of Chono can be tentatively reconstructed in part from the data provided by Basauni (1975).5 Syllables are frequently, but not necessarily, closed. There are few consonant clusters but frequent vowel clusters.6

Consonants

The consonant table shows the IPA representation as given by Adelaar (2004), with symbols that differ in angle brackets.7

Consonants8
Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n nʲ ⟨nʸ⟩ ŋ
Plosive/Affricate voiceless p t t͡ɕ ⟨č⟩ k
voiced b g
Fricative f za s x h
Approximant w j
Lateral l lʲ ⟨lʸ⟩
  1. ⟨z⟩ may have been realized as [θ], [ts], [z], or [s], among other possible realizations.

Vowels

Vowels8
Front Central Back
High i u
Mid e o
Low a

In addition to the five monophthongs, Chono appears to have had eight diphthongs, which Adelaar represents as a vowel and a glide: ⟨aw⟩, ⟨ew⟩, ⟨ow⟩, ⟨ay⟩, ⟨yu⟩, ⟨wa⟩, ⟨we⟩, and ⟨wi⟩.8

References

References

  1. es:Doctrina para los viejos chonos  (in Spanish) – via Wikisource. (published in Bausani 1975)
  2. Ibar Bruce, Jorge (1960). "Ensayo sobre los indios Chonos e interpretación de sus toponimías". Anales de la Universidad de Chile (in Spanish). 117: 61–70.
  3. Adelaar 2004, p. 553.
  4. 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.
  5. Bausani 1975.
  6. Adelaar 2004, pp. 564–565.
  7. Adelaar 2004, pp. xviii–xix.
  8. Adelaar 2004, p. 565.
Works cited

Works cited

  • Adelaar, Willem (2004). The Language of the Andes. with Pieter C. Muysken. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511486852. ISBN 978-0-521-36275-7.
  • Bausani, Alessandro (1975). "Nuovi materiali sulla lingua Chono". In Cerulli, Ernesta; Della Ragione, Gilda (eds.). Atti del XL Congresso Internazionale degli Americanisti (Rome-Genoa, 3–12 September 1972). Vol. 3: Linguistica – Folklore – Storia americana – Sociologia. Genoa: Tilgher. pp. 107–116.
External links