History
Mapudungun, also formerly known as the Araucanian language, has been classified by some linguists as being related to the Penutian languages of North America. Others group it among the Andean languages (Greenberg 1987, Key 1978), and yet others postulate an Araucanian-Mayan relationship (Stark 1970, Hamp 1971); Croese (1989, 1991) has advanced the hypothesis that it is related to Arawak. Other authorities regard it as an isolate language. It has had some lexical influence from Quechua (pataka 'hundred', warangka 'thousand') and Spanish.
When the Spanish arrived in Chile, they found four groups of Mapuche: the Picunche (from pikum 'north' and che 'people'), the Huilliche (from willi 'south'), the Pehuenche (from Pehue 'mountain'), and the Moluche (form molu 'west'). The Picunche were conquered quite rapidly by the Spanish, whereas the Huilliche were not assimilated until the 18th century. The Mapuche have retained their ethnic identity and still speak Mapudungun. They were originally found in the historic region of Araucanía, from which the Spanish called them Araucanos, but this name is now disused and avoided by Mapuche and non-Mapuche scholars alike.
Read more about this topic: Mapuche Language
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