The Wichí languages are an indigenous language family spoken by the
Wichí
The Wichí are an indigenous people of South America. They are a large group of tribes ranging about the headwaters of the Bermejo River and the Pilcomayo River, in Argentina and Bolivia.
Notes on designation
This ethnic group was named by the ...
in northwestern Argentina and far-southeastern Bolivia, part of the
Matacoan
Matacoan (also ''Mataguayan, Matákoan, Mataguayo, Mataco–Mataguayo, Matacoano, Matacoana'') is a language family of northern Argentina, western Paraguay, and southeastern Bolivia.
Family division
Matacoan consists of four clusters of language ...
family. They are also known as Mataco, Wichi, Wichí Lhamtés, Weenhayek, Noctenes, Matahuayo, Matako, Weʃwo. The name ''Mataco'' is common but pejorative.
Status
Currently, the Argentine government does not have education in indigenous languages in schools. Because the Wichí have to be fluent in Spanish to access government services, and children are only educated in Spanish, Wichí children only speak Spanish among themselves. This has made all Wichí dialects vulnerable to extinction.
In 2010, the province of
Chaco in Argentina declared Wichí as one of four provincial official languages alongside Spanish and the indigenous
Moqoit and
Qom.
Languages
They include the following languages:
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Noktén (a.k.a. Noctén,
Wichí Lhamtés Nocten
Wichí Lhamtés Nocten, or Weenhayek, is a Wichí language primarily spoken in Bolivia, where an estimated 1,810 Wichí people spoke it in 1994. An additional one hundred people spoke the language in Argentina in 1994. In Bolivia, the language is ...
), spoken in Bolivia and Argentina
*
Vejoz (a.k.a. Vejo, Pilcomayo, Bermejo,
Wichí Lhamtés Vejoz
Wichí Lhamtés Vejoz is a Mataco-Guaicuru language of Argentina and Bolivia. Speakers are concentrated in northern parts of Chaco, Formosa, Salta, Jujuy Provinces, as well as west of Toba, the upper Bermejo River valley, and Pilcomayo River. The ...
), spoken in Argentina and Bolivia
*
Wiznay (a.k.a. Güisnay,
Wichí Lhamtés Güisnay
Wichí Lhamtés Güisnay or Wiznay is a Wichí language. Wichí Lhamtés Güisnay had an estimated 15,000 speakers in 1999 in Argentina. The language is centered in the Pilcomayo River region. Other names for the language include Güisnay, Mataco ...
), spoken in Argentina.
The Argentine
National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) gives a figure of 36,135 Wichí speakers in Argentina.
In Rosario, the third biggest city of Argentina, there is a community of about 10,000
Wichí people
The Wichí are an indigenous people of South America. They are a large group of tribes ranging about the headwaters of the Bermejo River and the Pilcomayo River, in Argentina and Bolivia.
Notes on designation
This ethnic group was named by the ...
, all of them fluent in Wichí, and some native speakers. There are a couple of bilingual primary schools.
For Bolivia, Alvarsson estimated between 1,700 and 2,000 speakers in 1988; a census reported 1,912, and Díez Astete & Riester (1996) estimated between 2,300 and 2,600 Weenhayek in sixteen communities.
According to Najlis (1968) and Gordon (2005), three main dialects can be distinguished in the Wichí group: southwestern or Vejós (Wehwós), northeastern or Güisnay (Weenhayek) and northwestern or Nocten (Oktenay). Tovar (1981) and other authors claim the existence of only two dialects (northeastern and southwestern), while Braunstein (1992–3)
[, citing .] identifies eleven ethnic subgroups.
Wichí languages are predominantly
suffixing and
polysynthetic; verbal words have between 2 and 15 morphemes. Alienable and inalienable
possession is distinguished. The phonological inventory is large, with simple,
glottalized
Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent consonan ...
and
aspirated stops and
sonorants. The number of
vowels varies with dialect (five or six).
Notes
References
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External links
Argentinian Languages Collection of Lucía Golluscio containing audio recordings of Wichí, at the
Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America.
Wichí(
Intercontinental Dictionary Series)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wichi Language
Languages of Argentina
Languages of Bolivia
Languages of Chile
Indigenous culture of the Gran Chaco
Matacoan languages
Chaco linguistic area