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Araucanian languages

From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.

The Araucanian languages are an indigenous language family of central Chile and west central Argentina in South America.

Two Araucanian languages are still spoken. The most widely spoken is Mapudungun, the language of the Mapuche people. There are an estimated 240,000 active users of the language, 200,000 in Chile and 40,000 in Argentina.

Huillice (or Huilliche) has several thousand speakers, most of whom speak Spanish as a first language, south of the Mapuche in Chile's Valdivian Coastal Range and on Chiloé Island.

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