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SPANISH There were 13,800,000 Spanish speakers 12 years ago(Ethnologue 1995), but the population has increased to nearly 16,000,000 and the number of Spanglophones is probably closer to that figure taking into account the low monolinguacy of non-Spanish speakers and 95-96% literacy rates. Chilean Spanish is notoriously difficult for foreigners to understand due to the dropping of final syllables and 's' sounds, the very soft pronunciation of some consonants and the high levels of slang employed, particularly in Santiago and the surrounding areas. Chileans also tend to speak much faster than natives of neighboring countries. These factors all contribute to newly arrived visitors to the country, even proficient Spanish speakers, hearing no more than indecipherable mumbles in early encounters with locals. Books have been written (such as 'How to survive in the Chilean Jungle' by John Brennan and Alvaro Taboada) which attempt to detail and explain the difficulties and idiosyncrasies of Chilean Spanish. English language learning and teaching is popular among students and higher professions, although with varying degrees of success. Even with intensive preparation, culture shock can take a real toll on communication; many words have been absorbed into everyday speech from English, although may be unrecognizable due to Non-native pronunciations of English and misuse. MAPUDUNGUN There are 928,000 Mapuche indigenous folk in Chile, of which only 200,000 about 20% can speak Mapudungun . 1,000 SPEAKERS+
LESS THAN 1000 SPEAKERS
EXTINCT LANGUAGES Some indigenous languages of Chile now extinct are Diaguita , ''' Kakauhua ''', ''' Kunza ''' and ''' Selknam '''. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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