Ona language

Ona
Selk'nam
Native toArgentina, Chile
RegionPatagonia, Tierra del Fuego.
EthnicitySelk'nam
Extinct1970s[1]
Revivalcurrently being revitalised by the modern community. 1 fluent L2 speaker.
Chonan †
  • Chon proper †
    • Island Chon †
      • Ona
Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3ona
Glottologonaa1245
ELPOna

Ona, also known as Selk'nam (Shelknam), is a language spoken by the Selk'nam people in Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego in southernmost South America.

Part of the Chonan languages of Patagonia, Selk'nam is almost extinct, due 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.[2] A Radboud University linguist worked with two individuals to write a reference grammar of the language, namely, Herminia Vera-Ona (deceased since 2014), a semi-speaker who spoke Ona until the age of 8, and Joubert "Keyuk" Yanten, a young man who started learning the language after learning he was part-Selk'nam at the age of 8.[3] At the time the grammar was written, the latter was believed to be the only living individual fluent in Selk'nam, albeit not natively.

  1. ^ "Ona". Ethnologue. SIL International. Retrieved 17 November 2023.
  2. ^ Adelaar, Willem (2010). "South America". In Moseley, Christopher; Nicolas, Alexandre (eds.). Atlas of the world's languages in danger (3rd entirely revised, enlarged and updated ed.). Paris: UNESCO. pp. 86–94. ISBN 978-92-3-104096-2.
  3. ^ Rojas-Berscia, Luis Miguel (2014). A Heritage Reference Grammar of Selk'nam (Thesis). Nijmegen: Radboud University.