Editing Mapuche language (section)

== Classification and history ==
[[File:Mapudungun.jpg|thumb| Chilean [[proverb]] written in Mapuche and [[Chilean Spanish]]. The [[Mapudungun alphabet]] used here does not reflect an agreed-upon standard. In fact, there are three distinct alphabets currently used to write the Mapuche language.<ref>{{cite book |last=Montrul |first=Silvina |title=El Bilinguismo En El Mundo Hispanohablante |date=2013 |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] Inc |location=Hoboken |page=249 |language=es}}</ref>]]

There is no consensus among experts regarding the relation between Mapuche and other indigenous languages of [[South America]]<ref name="Fabre">{{cite book |last=Fabre |first=Alain |url=http://butler.cc.tut.fi/~fabre/BookInternetVersio/Dic=Mapuche.pdf |title=Diccionario etnolingüíntico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos |year=2005 |language=es |chapter=Mapuche |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070212010034/http://butler.cc.tut.fi/~fabre/BookInternetVersio/Dic%3DMapuche.pdf |archive-date=12 February 2007}}</ref> and it is classified as a [[language isolate]], or more conservatively, an [[unclassified language]] while researchers await more definitive evidence linking it to other languages.<ref name="Zúñiga" />

The origin of Mapuche is a historically debated topic and hypotheses have changed over time.<ref name="Zúñiga" /> In a 1970 publication, Stark argued that Mapuche is related to [[Mayan languages]] of [[Mesoamerica]]. The following year, Hamp adopted this same hypothesis. Stark later argued in 1973 that Mapuche descended from a language known as 'Yucha' which is a sister of [[Proto-Mayan language]] and a predecessor of the [[Chimuan languages]], which hail from the northern coast of [[Peru]], and Uru-Chipaya ([[Uru language|Uruquilla]] and [[Chipaya language|Chipaya]]) languages, which are spoken by those who currently inhabit the islands of Lake [[Titicaca]] and peoples living in [[Oruro Department]] in [[Bolivia]], respectively. This hypothesis was later rejected by Campbell in the same year.

The research carried out by Mary R. Key in 1978 considered Mapuche to be related to other [[languages of Chile]]: specifically Kawésgar language and Yagán language which were both spoken by nomadic canoer communities from the [[Zona Austral]] and also with [[Chonan languages]] of [[Patagonia]], some of which are now extinct.  However, according to Key, there is a closer relation still between Mapuche and the [[Pano-Tacanan languages]] from Bolivia and Peru, a connection also made by Loos in 1973. Key also argued that there is a link to two Bolivian language isolates: the [[Chimane language|Mosetén]] and [[Yuracaré language]]s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Key |first=Mary Ritchie |url=https://www.pueblos-originarios.ucb.edu.bo/digital/106001836.pdf |title=The History and Distribution of the Indigenous Languages of Bolivia |date=1978 |publisher=Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Society |location=Los Angeles, United States |access-date=2021-11-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005151327/https://www.pueblos-originarios.ucb.edu.bo/digital/106001836.pdf |archive-date=2021-10-05 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1987, [[Joseph Greenberg]], a linguist from the United States, proposed a system of classification of the many indigenous languages of the Americas in which the Amerindian language family would include the large majority of languages found on the South American continent, which were formerly grouped in distinct families.<ref>{{cite book |last=Greenberg |first=Joseph H. |author-link=Joseph H. Greenberg |title=Language in the Americas |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |year=1987 |isbn=0-8047-1315-4 |location=Stanford |id=456 p.}}</ref> The only families that fell outside of his framework were the [[Eskimo–Aleut languages]] and [[Na-Dene languages]]. According to this classification, Mapuche would be considered part of the Andean language family, within the Meridional subgroup which also includes the Kawésgar language, the [[Puelche language]], the [[Tehuelche language]] and the Yagán language. To Greenberg, Araucano isn't an individual language, but rather a subgroup composed of four languages: Araucano, Mapuche, Moluche, and Pehuenche.<ref name="Zúñiga" /> However, the comparative methods employed by Greenberg are controversial.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bolnick |first1=Deborah |author2=Beth Shook |author3=Lyle Campbell  |author4=Ives Goddard |year=2004 |title=Problematic Use of Greenberg's Linguistic Classification of the Americas in Studies of Native American Genetic Variation |journal=[[American Journal of Human Genetics]] |volume=75 |issue=3 |pages=519–523 |doi=10.1086/423452 |pmc=1182033 |pmid=15284953 |id=75(3): 519–523.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Ringe |first=Don |year=1999 |title=How hard is it to match CVC-roots? |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-968X.00049 |url-status=live |journal=Transactions of the Philological Society |location=Transactions of the Philological Society |volume=97 |issue=2 |pages=213–244 |doi=10.1111/1467-968X.00049 |id=97 (2), 213–244. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005200831/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-968X.00049 |archive-date=2021-10-05 |access-date=2021-11-09|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In 1994, Viegas Barros directly contradicted Greenberg's hypothesis and part of Key's, arguing that a connection between the Merindonal subgroup mentioned above and the Mapuche language does not exist.<ref>Viegas Barros, J. Pedro (1994). La clasificación de las lenguas patagónicas. Revisión de hipótesis del grupo lingüístico "andino meridional" de Joseph H. Greenberg. CINA 15:167:184.</ref> Current linguists reject Greenberg's findings due to methodological concerns and opt instead for more conservative methods of classification.<ref name="Zúñiga" /> Moreover, many linguists do not accept the existence of an Amerindian language family due to the lack of available information needed to confirm it.

Other authorities such as [[SIL International]] classify Mapuche as one of the two languages that form that Araucana family along with Huilliche.<ref>{{cite web |year=2005 |editor-last=Gordon |editor-first=Raymond G. Jr. |title=Ethnologue report for Araucanian |url=http://www.ethnologue.org/show_family.asp?subid=91394 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070213091042/http://www.ethnologue.org/show_family.asp?subid=91394 |archive-date=2007-02-13 |access-date=2021-11-09 |work=Ethnologue: Languages of the World |publisher=SIL Publications |pages=1272 |language=en |format=Online |edition=15th}}</ref> However, most current linguists maintain a more conservative stance, classifying Mapuche as a language that remains separated from other indigenous languages of South America while its differences and similarities to them are being studied.<ref name="Zúñiga" />