Native to Argentina Chile ISO 639-3 ona | Ethnicity Selk'nam | |
Region Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego. Native speakers 2 (2014)
Probably no remaining speakers (Adelaar 2000). Language family Chonan
Chon proper
Island Chon
Ona | ||
Ona (Aona), also known as Selk'nam (Shelknam), is a language that is spoken by the Selk'nam people in Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego in southernmost South America.
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Part of the Chonan languages of Patagonia, Selk'nam is almost extinct, due both to the late 19th-century Selk'nam genocide by European immigrants, high fatalities due to disease, and disruption of traditional society. One source states that the last fluent native speakers died in the 1980s, but another claims that two speakers had survived into 2014.
History
The Selk'nam people, also known as the 'Ona, were an indigenous people who inhabited the northeastern part of the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego for thousands of years before Europeans arrived. They were nomads known as "foot-people," as they did their hunting on land, rather than being seafarers.
The last full-blooded Selk'nam, Ángela Loij, died in 1974. They were one of the last aboriginal groups in South America to be reached by Europeans. Their language, believed to be part of the Chonan family, is considered extinct as the last speakers died in the 1980s.
Grammar
The Ona language is an Object–verb–subject language.