#mapudungun
On Sunday, Chileans elected Elisa Loncon, a Mapuche activist, professor, and linguist, to lead their constitutional convention. After a year of protests over income inequality sparked initially by a raise in subway fare, Chileans are holding a convention with elected representatives to re-write the old constitution left to them by the Pinochet dictatorship. The election of a woman from Chile’s largest indigenous group is an incredible gesture that, just a few years ago, would have seemed unfathomable.
As a linguist and professor, one of the many changes she advocates for is minority language rights. In her acceptance speech, she uses several words and phrases from Mapudungun. There are approximately 250,000 speakers of Mapudungun in Chile and Argentina, despite colonial practices that sought to eradicate the language. Here is what she says:
Feley = así está, así es
Mari mari (pu lamngen) = hello (brothers & sisters)
Mari mari (kom pu che) = hello (everyone)
Mari mari (Chile mapu*) = hello Chile
She then begins to greet each part of Chile by region (I don’t know enough Mapudungun to transcribe that accurately) before repeating the same greeting in Spanish.
At the end of her speech, she again speaks Mapudungun, using a slogan that has been popular on the Latin American left for decades:
Marichiweu = diez veces venceremos!
*Mapu means “earth,” and “che” means “person,” therefore Mapuche means “people of the earth.” The ancestral territory of the Mapuche is called Wallmapu (roughly, “universe”), and is located in southern Chile and Argentina.
Hi guys! I was just thinking about how different Spanish vocabulary can be from region to region, and how so much of that comes from local languages. So, here are some regional words I’ve noticed in my travels that are pretty essential! (This is obviously not an exhaustive list of all words or regions, but I’ve chosen some of the most common words I’ve come across personally).
★From Nahuatl (Central Mexico)
aguacate| avocado [from ahuacatl]
atole | atole (traditional Mesoamerican drink) [from atolli]
cacahuate | peanut [from tlacucahuatl]
chamaco | young boy [from chamahuac]
chapulín | grasshopper [from chapol-in]
chayote | chayote (type of squash) [from chayotli]
chicle | gum [from chictli]
chipotle | chipotle (pepper) [from xipoctli]
comal | comal (type of flat pan used for making tortillas) [from comalli]
cuate | twin, buddy, friend [from cuatl*, which means serpent and twin]
elote | corn (on the cob) [from ēlō-tl]
esquite | corn (in a cup) [from izquitl]
escuincle | small child [from itzcuintli]
guacamole | guacamole [from ahuaca-molli]
guajalote | turkey [from wueh-xōlō-tl]
huarache | sandal; also a type of food, like an elongated taco. [from
kwarachi]
jícama | jicama (root) [from xicamatl]
jitomate | tomato [from xictomatl]
milpa | corn field [from milpa]
molcajete | kitchen mortar & pestle [from molcaxitl]
mitote | *it’s a dance, but can also mean ‘party’ or ‘disturbance’ or ‘racket’ [from mitotiqui]
nopal | cactus (edible variety) [from nopalli]
papalote | kite [from papalotl,originally ‘butterfly’]
petate | a woven matt [from petatl]
popote | drinking straw [from popotl]
pozole | a pre-Colombian stew [from potzolli]
pulque | pulque (alcohol) [from poliuhqui, originally ‘spoiled’]
tamal | tamale [from tamalli]
tecolote | owl [from tecolotl]
tianguis | market [from tianquiztli]
tlacuache| opossum [from tlacuatzin]
tocayo | namesake (person with the same name or named after) [from toca-yō-tl]
zacate | grass, weeds, lawn [from saka-tl]
★From Quechua (Inca Empire, primarily modern day Peru but also dialects in Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, and others in diaspora)
callampa | mushroom [from k’allampa]
cancha | soccer field [from kancha]
carpa | tent [from karpa]
chacra | small farm [from chakra]
charqui | jerky [from ch’arki]
Chile | Chile (country) [*one theory is that Chile was named for the Quechua word chiri meaning ‘cold,’ though this is unproven.]
choclo | corn [from choqllo]
chullo | hat with earflaps [from ch’ullu]
cochayuyo | an edible type of kelp/seaweed [from kochu=lake and yuyu=vegetable]
cura | priest [from kuraq]
guacho |cowboy [from wakcha(orphan) –> huacho (alone)]. *I think this is also likely related to waxo/wacho/wachito/guacho which in Chile I heard used to mean both ‘orphan’ or ‘young boy.’
guagua | baby, infant [from wawa]
guano | bird droppings, fertilizer [from wanu]
mate | a small gourd used to hold tea [from mati]
Pachamama | mother earth [from pacha= earth] *religious concept
poncho | poncho [*likely from punchu]
poroto | bean [from purutu]
quinua | quinoa [from kinwa]
tincar | to have a presentiment or feeling about something in the future [from tinku, which means ‘hit’ or ‘collision’]
yapa/llapa | a bonus, something free, a sale (in advertising) [from yapa=help, increase, something extra]
zapallo | a type of squash/pumpkin [from sapallu]
★ From Mapudungun (southern Chile & Argentina)
cahuin | mess, riot, disturbance [from cahuin(?)]
guata | belly [from huata]
huinca | foreigner; or, person who is not Mapuche [from wigka]
pichintún | a little bit [from pichintun(?)]
pilgua | a large bag [from pilguay]
pilucho | naked [from piluchi (?)]
pololo/a | boyfriend/girlfriend [from piulliu, which means ‘fly’ (insect) that circles someone]
ruca | a thatched hut [from ruka]
quiltro | street dog, mutt [from quiltro (?)]
October is not October
In 1492 nothing altered the daily life of Wallmapu. We greeted Antü as every day, continued with the tasks in our lands, the wampo led us through rivers and lakes, drank our pulku and kissed our pichikeche.
October is not October in the WALLMAPU because it took 40 years for the invaders to come to the Pikunmapu. And even there, they didn’t dare to enter. Only in 1541 the wezache Valdivia raised Penco, in the north margin of the Bío Bío and our futrakecheyem immediatly went to confront them. Here, with no gods or expected prophecies…
October is not October because the war was merciless and meant extermination for our people, but here, the Spanish couldn’t against us. They couldn’t defeat us and after three decades of incredible mortality, unspeakable suffering, tears and blood, our elders balanced the account and in 1598, threw the Winka north of the sacred river. They lost. They where expelled.
Here, the king, his governors, knights and soldiers could not defeat us. And in 1641 pita winka, Spain had to admit the Mapuche independence and sovereignty of the Bío Bío to the south. In Ngulumapu and Puelmapu. Of sea to sea.
And we greeted Antü as every day, we returned to our lands to feed us, returned the wampo and on horseback the Mapuche freedom extended throught all the territory. And we drank our pulku and kissed our pichikeche. And we grew and we lived.
One decade, two decades, three… Many that transformed into centuries. More than 300 years of freedom, of culture, of wind in the face, of kütral in our homes, of wangelen shining in the nights, of well-being… Of az mongen, küme mongen.
On October 12, 1492 nothing happened at the WALLMAPU. October is not October for the Mapuche of Puelmapu. That colonial nightmare was not dreamt by us, until May 25, 1879, when the wezache Roca formed his troops in Choele Choel and sounded his bugles, his cannons.
October is not October for the Mapuche.
October is May.
~Kalffu Nawel
TÜFA IÑCHIN,
PU CHE TAIÑ WEWÜN!!
WEWAIÑ!
Illustration: Rosenfeldtown
