Mapuche Language - Phonology

Phonology

Prosody

Mapudungun has predictable, non-contrastive stress. The stressed syllable is generally the last one if it's closed (awkán 'game', tralkán 'thunder'), and the one before last if the last one is open (rúka 'house', lóngko 'head'). There is no phonemic tone.

Vowels

Mapudungun has six vowel phonemes: /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/ and a high central unrounded vowel, /ɨ/. The last sound is spelled ï, ü or v depending on the alphabet used, and is pronounced as a schwa /ə/ when unstressed.

Consonants

Mapudungun does not distinguish between voiceless and voiced plosives. There are three approximants (or glides). Liquids consist of the three lateral sounds and what is phonetically close to a retroflex approximant. Some authors do not recognize /s/ as a separate phoneme; rather, they class it as an allophone of /ʃ/. /ʈʂ/ (spelled as "tr", "tx" or even "x") is often described as a /tʃ/ sound followed by a /ɻ/ sound; it is similar to the sound of English tr in tree, but without aspiration. Particularly interesting are the relatively rare interdental sounds t̪, n̪ and l̪, which contrast with their dentoalveolar counterparts; roots may have either only interdental ( 'sea, lake') or only dentoalveolar ( 'guanaco') consonants.

Spelling

The Mapuche are not believed to have had a writing system when the Spanish arrived. Historically, there have been a number of proposals for Mapudungun spelling, all of them using the Latin alphabet. The alphabet used in this article is the one used by Chilean linguists and other people in many publications in the language ("alfabeto mapuche unificado"). This alphabet consists of the following letters: a, ch, d (for /θ/), e, f, g (for /ɣ/), i, k, l, ḻ (for /l̪/), ll (for /ʎ/), m, n, ṉ (for /n̪/), ñ (for /ɲ/), ng (for /ŋ/), o, p, r, s(h), t, ṯ (for /t̪/), tr (for /ʈʂ/), u, ü (for /ɨ/), w, and y.