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Concept
Yahgan language
Summary
Yahgan or Yagán (also spelled Yaghan, Jagan, Iakan, and also known as Yámana, Háusi Kúta, or Yágankuta), is an extinct language that was one of the indigenous languages of Tierra del Fuego, spoken by the Yaghan people. It was regarded as a language isolate, although some linguists have attempted to relate it to Kawésqar and Chono.
Yahgan was also spoken briefly on Keppel Island in the Falkland Islands at a missionary settlement. In 2017, Chile's National Corporation of Indigenous Development convened a workshop to plan an educational curriculum in the Yagán language, and in June 2019 it plans to inaugurate a language nest in the community of Bahía Mejillones, near Puerto Williams. The government also funded the publication of a "concise and illustrated dictionary" of the Yagán language.
Following the death of Cristina Calderón (1928–2022) of Villa Ukika on Navarino Island, Chile, no native speakers of Yahgan remain.
There are three analyses of the phonological system of Yahgan, which differ in many details from one another. The oldest analysis is from the 19th century (pre-phonological era), by Thomas Bridges (1894); from the middle of the 20th century by Haudricourt (1952) and Holmer (1953); and towards the end of the 20th century, the last phonological studies were made on this moribund language by Guerra Eissmann (1990), Salas y Valencia (1990), and Aguilera (2000).
All vowels are long in stressed syllables. Vowel /a/ is the most frequent. It may be pronounced as a schwa [ə] in syllables in pretonic or post-tonic position. In final tonic syllables, vowels /i/ and /u/ may become a diphthong. Vowels /i/ and /o/ are very unstable in final unaccented syllables, alternating with /e/ and /u/ respectively.
Yaghan shows a number of sandhi effects on consonants and vowels. For instance, the terminal -i of teki 'to see, recognize' when affixed by -vnnaka 'to have trouble/difficulty doing' becomes -e:- of teke:vnnaka 'have trouble recognizing/seeing'
In syllables reduced through morphophonetic processes, terminal vowels (-a, -u:) of original bisyllables will often drop (except for -i, which tends to remain, leaving previous material unaffected), and resultant final stops will fricativize (r becomes sh).
Official source
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