Mapudungun Alphabet

Mapudungun Alphabet

This article deals with the proposed orthographies of Mapudungun. The Mapuche did not have a writing system when the Spanish arrived, and historically there have been a number of proposals for a Mapudungun alphabet, all of them using Latin script. To this day, no consensus has been achieved between authorities, linguists and Mapuche communities on an unified writing system; the main systems are the following:

• Alfabeto Mapuche Unificado ("Unified Alphabet"), used by Chilean linguists and other people in many publications in/on the language. It has the support of the Chilean Catholic church.
• Grafemario Ragileo, made by Anselmo Ranguileo Lincopil (1922–1992) and defended by the indigenous Mapuche organization Consejo de Todas las Tierras. The only alphabet made by a mapuche.
• Nhewenh writing system, an online proposal by Heinrich Puschmann, based on the ascii character set in order facilitate the usage of the language on the internet.
• Azumchefi (also called Azümchefe), proposed by the Corporación Nacional de Desarrollo Indígena (CONADI) as a summary of about six earlier proposals, and recognized by the Chilean Ministry of Education, but not widely used.