Mapudungun

Mapudungun is a language isolate spoken by the Mapuche people in Chile and Argentina. Even after the arrival of the Spaniards, ethnic groups in Argentina such as the Patagonians and the Tehuelche adopted Mapudungun in a process called Araucanization. Today, it has 260,000 speakers, with 250,000 in the Central Valley of Chile and 10,000 in the Argentinian region of Patagonia.

The name of the boldo tree comes from the Mapudungun word foldo. The poncho was adopted by Spanish and many other languages. It may have come from the Mapudungun word pontro or from the Quechua word punchu.

References
M. Crevels (2007): South America, in Encyclopedia of the world’s endangered languages, Moseley (ed), Routledge, S.103–196, also Online Ethnologue

Category:Language isolates
Category:Languages of South America