Fuentes para el estudio del mapudungún. Propuesta de periodización

Abstract

The current study analyzes the sociopolitical and sociolinguistic changes undergone by the Mapuche society since the first contacts with the Spanish language and culture, as well as the consequences of these changes, reflected in the verbal production in Mapudungun language. Based on this analysis, we present a periodization of the Mapuche language considering the different kinds of texts, including their functions and features. This proposal establishes three historical periods. The first being the missionary period (1606-1894), which is characterized by the missionaries‘ works –grammar books, lexicons and Christian texts– published as part of the evangelistic policy. The ethnographic period follows (1895-1980), which is characterized by the compilations of traditional Mapuche texts, published by linguists, missionaries, anthropologists and amateur ethnographers seeking knowledge to further understand and record this newly subjugated group. Finally, the Institutional period (1981 - present) is characterized by the copious production in genres considered external to the traditional Mapuche culture, which are used in institutional spheres such as education, law and public service.

Key words. Mapudungun language, written production, speech genres, translation, sociolinguistics.