Buch, Englisch, Band 376, 82 Seiten, Format (B × H): 140 mm x 210 mm
Buch, Englisch, Band 376, 82 Seiten, Format (B × H): 140 mm x 210 mm
Reihe: Languages of the World/Materials
ISBN: 978-3-89586-976-1
Verlag: LINCOM
Despite the fact that the bulk of indigenous loanwords in Chilean and Argentinian Spanish comes from other languages, especially Chilean toponymy shows a profound Mapudungun influence way beyond presentday Mapuche territories.
Although there are some more or less comprehensive grammars of the language written in the 20th century, this is to be the first short reference grammar of this polysynthetic language available in English. Some remarkable features are the following: rather simple phonology (unlike its surviving neighbors, Mapudungun has neither uvular nor glottalized phonemes; there are six vowels and only few consonant clusters), simple nominal morphology (neither case nor gender, marginal number), fairly complex verbal morphology (detailed aspectual and spatial categories, several productive valency-changing operators, polypersonalism, inverse system, nominal incorporation), and clause linkage patterns that rely heavily on semantically rather vague reduced verb forms.