Mapudungun

Mapudungun (from mapu 'land' and dungun 'speak, speech', meaning 'the speech of the land'; also rendered as Mapuzugun and Mapudungu) or Mapuche ( mə-POO-che, Mapuche and Spanish: [maˈputʃe]; from mapu 'land' and che 'people', meaning 'the people of the land') is a language, either a language isolate or member of the small Araucanian family related to Huilliche, spoken in south-central Chile and west-central Argentina by the Mapuche people. It was historically known as Araucanian, the name given to the Mapuche by the Spanish. The Mapuche avoid this term as a remnant of Spanish colonialism. Mapudungun is not an official national language of Chile or Argentina, having received virtually no government support throughout its history. However, since 2013, Mapuche, along with Spanish, has been granted the status of an official language by the local government of Galvarino, one of the many communes of Chile. It is not used as a language of instruction in either country's educational system despite the Chilean government's commitment to provide full access to education in Mapuche areas in southern Chile. There is an ongoing political debate over which alphabet to use as the standard alphabet of written Mapudungun. In 1982, it was estimated that there were 202,000 Mapuche speakers in Chile, including those that speak the Pehuenche and Huilliche dialects, and another 100,000 speakers in Argentina as of the year 2000. However, a 2002 study suggests that only 16% of those who identify as Mapuche speak the language (active speakers) and another 18% can only understand it (passive speakers). These figures suggest that the total number of active speakers is about 120,000 and that there are slightly more passive speakers of Mapuche in Chile. As of 2013 only 2.4% of urban speakers and 16% of rural speakers use Mapudungun when speaking with children. Only 3.8% of...