Yaghan is a language isolate spoken on Navarino Island in Antártica Chilena Province, part of the Magallanes region of southern Chile. There is one native speaker of Yaghan, Christina Calderón, who was born in 1928 and lives in Puerto Williams on Navarino Island.
Yaghan is also known as Yagán, Jagan, Iakan, Yámana, Tequenica or Yágankuta. It used to be spoken along the south coast of Tierra del Fuego, on the islands between the Beagle Channel and Cape Horn, and on the islands of Keppel and Vigia in the Falkland Islands. There were also speakers of Yaghan on Isla Grande in Argentina until 1970.
The National Corporation of Indigenous Development in Chile has been planning ways to revive Yaghan since 2017, include immersion education for children, and a dictionary of the language.
This is the official version of the Latin alphabet used to write Yaghan in Chile. Other spelling systems for Yaghan are available, like the one used in the sample text below.
Acute accents (á) are used to indicate stress.
Download an alphabet chart for Yaghan (Excel)
Source: Gospel Jon Ɛcamanāci. The Gospel of S.-John. Translated into the Yahgan Language. Bridges, Thomas. British and Foreign Bible Society. 1886
Source: https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/John-Chapter-1/
Information about Yaghan language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaghan_language
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idioma_yagán
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yagan
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/yag
https://www.uchile.cl/cultura/lenguas/yaganes/2.html
https://issuu.com/annakoelle/docs/y_gankuta__independiente_
https://pueblosoriginarios.com/lenguas/imagenes/yagan_fonetica.jpg
Languages written with the Latin alphabet
Adaizan, Ainu, Basque, Burushaski, Candoshi-Shapra, Chitimacha, Eskayan, Hadza, Haida, Karuk, Kawésqar, Keres, Kuot, Kusunda, Kutenai, Natchez, Nihali, Nivkh, Páez, Purepecha, Sandawe, Seri, Sumerian, Tartessian, Ticuna, Tiwi, Tonkawa, Tunica, Urarina, Waorani, Warao, Wardaman, Washo, Yaghan, Yele, Yuchi/Euchee, Zuni
Page created: 18.10.21. Last modified: 20.10.21
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