| Languages Of Argentina |
Article Index for Languages Of |
Website Links For Languages |
Information AboutLanguages Of Argentina |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT LANGUAGES OF ARGENTINA | |
| languages of argentinalanguages of argentina | |
| argentine culture | |
| languages of south america | |
| argentina | |
| argentine society | |
|
MORE THAN ONE MILLION SPEAKERS Spanish Argentina is predominantly a Spanish -speaking country with 33 million speakers—the fourth largest after Mexico , Spain , and Colombia . Based on the 2001 census and 2006 population figures, there may be as many as 40 million Spanish language speakers. Argentines pronounce Spanish, which they call ''castellano'', with a distinctive Italian accent—a legacy inherited from European immigration. Argentines are the only large Spanish-speaking country that universally use what is known as '' Voseo ''—the use of the Pronoun ''vos'' instead of ''tú'' (the familiar "you"). The most prevalent dialect is '' Rioplatense '', whose speakers are located primarily in the basin of the Río De La Plata . A phonetic study conducted by the Laboratory for Sensory Investigations of CONICET and the University Of Toronto showed that the accent of the inhabitants of Buenos Aires (known as '' Porteño s'') is closer to the Neapolitan dialect of Italian than any other spoken language. Italian immigration influenced '' Lunfardo '', the slang spoken in the Río de la Plata region, permeating the vernacular vocabulary of other regions as well. Italian Argentina has more than 1,500,000 Italian speakers; this tongue is the second most spoken language in the nation. Italian Immigration from the second half of the 19th Century to the beginning of the 20th Century made a lasting and significant impact on the pronunciation and vernacular of the nation's spoken Spanish, giving it an Italian flare. In fact, Italian has contributed so much to Rioplatense that many foreigners mistake it for Italian. German Argentines of German ancestry, though it has also been stated that the there could be as much as 1,800,000. "Rápida recuperación económica tras la grave crisis" German today, is the third or fourth most spoken language in Argentina. Levantine Arabic There are sources of around one million Levantine Arabic speakers in Argentina, as a result of immigration from the Middle East , mostly from Israel , Palestine and Lebanon . MORE THAN 100,000 SPEAKERS ,000 live in Buenos Aires, where many of them work on the docks. There are 70,000 estimated speakers in Salta Province . The language is also known as Central Bolivian Quechua, which has six dialects. It is classified as a Quechua II language and is referred to as Quechua IIC by linguists. Paraguayan Guaraní is the most widely spoken Guaraní Dialect in Argentina, with around 200,000 speakers. See below for other less common dialects. MORE THAN 10,000 SPEAKERS Some 60,000 people speak Santiago Del Estero Quichua , which has 81% lexical similarity with the Bolivia n variety. It is spoken in its namesake province of Santiago Del Estero and in north central Argentina, in addition to the departments of Atamisqui , Avellaneda , Brigadier J. F. Ibarra , Figueroa , Loret , Mitre , Aguirre , Moreno , Quebrachos , Robles , Salavina , San Martín , Sarmiento , and Silipica . There are also some speakers in the southeast of Salta Province and western Taboada , along the Salado River , and in Buenos Aires . Wichí Lhamtés Vejoz is spoken by around 25,000 people in the northern Chaco Province ; Welsh is spoken by some 25,000 people in the Patagonia n region, especially Chubut Province ; and Toba is spoken by 19,810 people in the Chaco Province centered around the Pilcomayo River . Another Wichí language- Wichí Lhamtés Güisnay -has 15,000 speakers. Western Argentine Guaraní has 15,000 speakers in Jujuy and Salta Province . Other guaraní language speakers can be found in the Mesopotamia , specially in Corrientes , where is also an official language. Argentina is home to a large Jewish community, some of whom speak Hebrew as a second language, while others speak Eastern Yiddish . MORE THAN 1,000 SPEAKERS MORE THAN 100 SPEAKERS Several languages spoken in Argentina are declining at rates that may result in only a handful of speakers within a generation. Kaiwá has 512 speakers, Nivaclé 200, Plautdietsch 140, Tapieté and Wichí Lhamtés Nocten only 100. These indigenous languages have suffered slow linguistic and cultural genocide. ENDANGERED LANGUAGES Some Argentine languages are critically endangered, spoken only by a handful of isolated elderly people whose children don't speak the language; they are likely to become dead languages once the remaining speakers die. Vilela has about 20 speakers; Puelche has 5 or 6 speakers; Tehuelche has 4 speakers as of the year 2000 , out of about 200 ethnic Tehuelche people, (2000 W. Adelaar); and Selknam (also known as Ona) has 1 to 3 speakers ( 1991 ) and is nearly extinct; full blooded Ona people are already extinct. EXTINCT LANGUAGES Abipón and Chané are now extinct languages that were spoken by people indigenous to Argentina before European contact; Chané was spoken in the Salta Province . Cocoliche , a Spanish-Italian creole, was spoken mainly by first and second-generation immigrants from Italy, but is no longer in daily use; it is sometimes used in comedy. Some Cocoliche terms were adopted into Lunfardo slang. OTHER LANGUAGES SEE ALSO NOTES |
|
|