2. What is Mapudungun?
Mapudungun ("the speech of the land") is the language of the Mapuche people, spoken in central-southern Chile and neighbouring parts of Argentina. Estimates vary widely but run into the hundreds of thousands of speakers, with a strong revitalization movement.
It is unrelated to Spanish or any European language — it forms the small Araucanian family. Still, centuries of contact have left many loanwords in both directions: Chilean Spanish is full of Mapudungun (guata, pichintún, place names like Temuco, "water of the temu tree").
Why learn Mapudungun?
- It's already in Chilean Spanish — You'll recognize a surprising amount of vocabulary.
- A fascinating grammar — Agglutinative verbs, a dual number, and evidential marking reshape how you think about language.
- A living, dignified language — Learning it accompanies an ongoing cultural and political reclamation.
- Rooted in the land — The hills, rivers, and towns of the south only fully make sense in Mapudungun.
4. Essential Grammar
Mapudungun is agglutinative and very verb-centred: a single verb-word can pack what English needs a whole sentence for. There is no grammatical gender.
Three numbers: singular, dual, plural
Beyond singular and plural there is a dual (exactly two). And "we" distinguishes whether it includes you:
| Mapudungun | English |
|---|---|
| inche | I |
| inchiw | we two |
| inchiñ | we (several) |
| eymi / eymu / eymün | you / you two / you (plural) |
Practice: personal pronouns (singular · dual · plural)
Practice: Mapudungun personal pronouns
Practice: Mapudungun marks three NUMBERS — singular, dual (exactly two) and plural (more than two) — across all three persons, giving nine personal pronouns and no gender marking. The dual is the category English lacks, so it is the main thing to drill. Items 1–9 complete the pronoun grid; item 10 is the everyday greeting. Type the Mapudungun word; ü may be typed u and ñ may be typed n.. Type the missing word — accents are optional.
- 1.I =
Hint: 1st person, singular
- 2.we two =
Hint: 1st person, DUAL
- 3.we (several) =
Hint: 1st person, plural
- 4.you (one person) =
Hint: 2nd person, singular
- 5.you two =
Hint: 2nd person, DUAL
- 6.you (several) =
Hint: 2nd person, plural
- 7.he / she =
Hint: 3rd person, singular (also a demonstrative)
- 8.they two =
Hint: 3rd person DUAL = fey + engu
- 9.they (several) =
Hint: 3rd person plural = fey + engün
- 10.'hello' = ___
Hint: the everyday Mapuche greeting
10 questions
Grammar reference: Mapudungun pronoun paradigm (inche/inchiw/inchiñ, eymi/eymu/eymün, fey/feyengu/feyengün) per I. Smeets, A Grammar of Mapuche (Mouton de Gruyter, 2008), cross-checked against this guide's own §'Three numbers' pronoun table; greeting mari mari per this guide's §'Mari mari'. All items original to LinguaCommons.. Sentences are original to LinguaCommons.
Verbs build on a root + suffixes marking person, number, tense, and even the source of the information (evidentiality). The infinitive is cited with -n: amun (to go), kimün (to know).
Higher numbers are Quechua loans: pataka (100), warangka (1000).
5. Pronunciation
There are six vowels — the five Spanish-like ones plus ü. Several alphabets exist (Unified, Raguileo, Azümchefe); this guide uses the Unified one.
| Letter | Sound | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ü | a high central vowel (neither "oo" nor "ee") | küyen (moon) |
| tr | a single retroflex consonant, like Chilean "tr" | trewa (dog) |
| d | often a soft "th" /ð/ | mapudungun |
| ng (g) | /ŋ/ — "ng" in "sing" | dungun (to speak) |
6. Common Mistakes
- Pronouncing tr as two sounds — it's a single retroflex consonant, not "t"+"r."
- Forgetting the dual — for exactly two people use the dual forms (inchiw, eymu), not the plural.
- Ignoring ü — it's a distinct vowel; küyen (moon) isn't "kuyen."
- Looking for gender — there's no masculine/feminine; don't force agreement.
- Mixing alphabets — Unified, Raguileo, and Azümchefe spell differently. Pick one (here, the Unified).
7. Learning Resources
- Kimeltuwebeginner — Free graphic materials (posters, vocabulary, grammar) that are very clear for starting out.
- iTalkiall levels — Find speakers to practice with (limited but valuable).
8. Culture & Context
Mari mari
The greeting mari mari (literally "ten ten") works at any time of day, often with peñi (brother, between men) or lamngen (brother/sister).
Wallmapu and the land
The idea of mapu (land) and Wallmapu (the Mapuche territory) is central: language, people (che), and land are joined in the very word mapuche, "people of the land."