| Kawésqar | |
| Also Known As: | Alacaluf |
| Nativename: | Kawésqar, Qawasqar |
| States: | Chile |
| Region: | Channel Region, western Patagonia, Wellington Island off south Chilean coast, 49° south, with centre in Puerto Edén. |
| Ethnicity: | Alacaluf people (2002 census) |
| Speakers: | 10 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| Familycolor: | American |
| Fam1: | Alacalufan |
| Iso3: | alc |
| Glotto: | qawa1238 |
| Glottorefname: | Qawasqar |
| Map: | Kawésqar.png |
| Map2: | Lang Status 20-CR.svg |
| Notice: | IPA |
Kawésqar (Qawasqar), also known as Alacaluf,[1] is a critically endangered Alacalufan language spoken in southern Chile by the Kawésqar people. Originally part of a small family,[2] only the northern language remains. In 2009, only a handful of elderly people spoke the language, most of whom lived on Wellington Island off the southwest coast of Chile.[3]
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ |
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Plosive | Plain | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| Ejective | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| Tap / flap | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Trill | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
The alphabet in use has the following letters: a, æ, c, cꞌ, e, f, h, i, j, k, kꞌ, l, m, n, o, p, pꞌ, q, r, rr, s, t, tꞌ, u, w, x. However, differences are reported between dialects, and some sounds are not represented.
Kawésqar has a complex system of grammatical tense, which includes a basic morphological contrast between future, present, immediate past, recent past, distant past, and mythological past events.