Haush language

Haush
Manekʼenk
Native to	Argentina
Region	Mitre Peninsula
Ethnicity	Haush people
Extinct	c. 1920
Language family	Chonan Chon proper Haush
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	haus1240
Haush

The Haush language (also Manekʼenk) was an indigenous language spoken by the Haush people and was formerly spoken on the island of Tierra del Fuego. The Haush were considered the oldest inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego; at the time of first European contact, they inhabited the far eastern tip of the Mitre Peninsula.

Before 1850, an estimated 300 people spoke Haush. The last speaker of Haush died around 1920 and the language is considered extinct.

Haush is considered to be related to the Selkʼnam, Gününa Yajich, Teushen, and Tehuelche languages, which collectively belong to the Chonan language family.

Vocabulary

Carlo Luigi Spegazzini (1899) cites the following Haush vocabulary.

Words

Haush	English
ča(a)wataʔ	small mushroom
se	wife
maʔčaju-	young man
kotek	to whistle
k’ero	small hawk
t’elk’en	child

Phrases

CER:certitive DEI1:deictic of minimum distance DEI3:deictic of maximum distance INFR:informality positional classifier DISP:displacement positional classifier

anan

canoe

k-as-pe-nk

AN-inside-be(.sitting)-CER.M

naʔ

DEI1

anan k-as-pe-nk naʔ

canoe AN-inside-be(.sitting)-CER.M DEI1

'He is in the canoe.'

hajketa(s)

3

sola-n(k)

be.strong-CER.M

hajketa(s) sola-n(k)

3 be.strong-CER.M

'He is strong.'

asi

INTERR

n

?

a-ma:

DISP-DEI3

čeʔne-s

come-DUB

asi n a-ma: čeʔne-s

INTERR ? DISP-DEI3 come-DUB

'Who's coming?'

a-ma(a)

DISP-DEI3

henk

man

čeʔne-s

come-DUB

a-ma(a) henk čeʔne-s

DISP-DEI3 man come-DUB

'A man comes.'

naʔ

DEI1

pe-j

be(.sitting)-IMP

ma(a)

2

n

?

naʔ pe-j ma(a) n

DEI1 be(.sitting)-IMP 2 ?

'Sit here.'

ma(a)

2

(a)jam-i

light-IMP

so:l

fire

ma(a) (a)jam-i so:l

2 light-IMP fire

'You, light the fire.'

asa ma(a)

why

k-ameč’-i

AN-grab-INF

k’om-nk

AUX.NEG-CER.M

{asa ma(a)} k-ameč’-i k’om-nk

why AN-grab-INF AUX.NEG-CER.M

'Why won't you grab?'

kar

something

k-ʔaj-Ø

AN-give-IMP

o(n)

INFR

a(a)

for

t’a-Ø

eat-INF

kar k-ʔaj-Ø o(n) a(a) t’a-Ø

something AN-give-IMP INFR for eat-INF

'Give me something to eat.'

See also

• Yaghan language
• Selkʼnam language
• Kawésqar language

References

Bibliography

• Adelaar, Willen F. H.; Muysken, Pieter (2004). The languages of the Andes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-36275-7.
• Furlong, Charles Wellington (December 1915). "The Haush and Ona, Primitive Tribes of Tierra del Fuego". Proceedings of the Nineteenth International Congress of Americanists: 432–444. Retrieved 2009-08-16.
• Spegazzini, Carlo Lugi (2019). "Un manuscrito de Carlos Spegazzini con datos inéditos sobre la lengua haush" [A Manuscript by Carlos Spegazzini with Unpublished Data on the Haush Language]. Indiana - Estudios Antropológicos Sobre América Latina y el Caribe (in Spanish). 36 (2): 101–128. doi:10.18441/ind.v36i2.101-128.