Ona language facts for kids

The Ona language, also known as Selk'nam, was spoken by the Selk'nam people. They lived on Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, which is a large island at the very bottom of South America.

Sadly, the Selk'nam language is almost extinct. This happened because of difficult times in the late 1800s when many European immigrants arrived. Diseases and changes to their traditional way of life also played a part. The last people who spoke Ona fluently passed away in the 1980s. However, today, the Selk'nam community is working hard to bring their language back to life!

What is the Ona Language?

The Ona language is part of a group called the Chonan languages. These languages were spoken in a region called Patagonia. Ona is very similar to another language called Haush, which was also spoken on the island of Tierra del Fuego.

History of the Selk'nam People

The Selk'nam people, also known as the Ona, are an indigenous group who lived in the northeastern part of Tierra del Fuego. They lived there for thousands of years before Europeans arrived. They were known as "foot-people" because they hunted on land. They were not sailors like some other groups in the area.

An Ona family in their traditional clothing.

The Selk'nam were one of the last native groups in South America to meet Europeans. The last person who was fully Selk'nam, Ángela Loij, passed away in 1974. Even though the language was thought to be extinct, modern Selk'nam communities are now working to revive it. A man named Joubert Yanten Gomez, who has Selk'nam and Mapuche roots, has even taught himself the language!

Sounds of Ona

The Ona language had a small number of vowel sounds, only three. It had more consonant sounds, around 23 in total. These sounds helped make the unique words of the Selk'nam people.

How Ona Words are Put Together

The Ona language had a very interesting way of putting words in a sentence. It used an object–verb–subject (OVS) order. This means the sentence would go: what was acted upon, then the action, then who did the action. For example, instead of "The boy eats the apple," it might be "Apple eats the boy." This word order is quite rare in languages around the world!

Ona also had only two main types of words: nouns (names of things) and verbs (action words).

Ona Vocabulary

The Selk'nam language shared many words with the Haush language. However, it also borrowed some words from other languages. For example, the Selk'nam word for 'cat' was k'lattítaŭ. This word came from the Spanish word gatito, which means 'kitten'.

Comparing Ona Words

Here are some words from Ona and other nearby languages. You can see how some words are similar, while others are very different.

See also

• List of endangered languages
• Languages of Argentina
• Languages of Chile

Images for kids

• 

  An Ona family in their traditional clothing.