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Languages of Argentina

The spoken languages of Argentina number at least 40, including native and immigrant languages; two languages are extinct and others are endangered, spoken by elderly people whose descendants do not speak the languages.

More than one million speakers

Spanish

Argentina is predominantly a Spanish-speaking country with 33 million speakersthe 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. \

Argentine Spanish, which they call castellano, has a distinctive Italian intonation a legacy inherited from European immigration. 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 portenos) is closer to the Neapolitan dialect of Italian than any other spoken language. Italian immigration influenced Lunfardo, the slang spoken in the Rio de la Plata region, permeating the vernacular of other regions as well.

The language itself does have its differences from the Spanish of other areas. Perhaps the most well-known to outsiders is its pronunciation. The ll and y are pronounced with a soft "j" or "sh" sound, and somewhere in between.

Also distinct is the use of the pronoun vos instead of tu (the familiar "you"). Although vos is used on a limited basis in southern Mexico, Central America, and northwestern South America, it is universally heard in Argentina.

In some places where vos is used, it takes the same verb forms as does tu. But not so in most of Argentina. Generally speaking, present-tense verbs take the endings of as added to the root of -ar verbs, es for -er verbs, and i for -ir verbs. And because the accent is on the final syllable, you won't find the stem changes that you do when tu is used. The present-tense, second-person familiar form of tener (to have), for example, is tenes, and the present-tense form of poder is podes. Among the irregular forms is sos for ser. Thus, vos sos mi amigo is the equivalent of tu eres mi amigo, or "you are my friend."

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

Standard German is spoken by between 400,000 and 500,000 Argentines of German ancestry, though it has also been stated that the there could be as much as 1,800,000. 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 Syria and Lebanon.

More than 100,000 speakers

South Bolivian Quechua is a Quechuan language spoken by some 850,000 Argentines, including natives to Argentina and immigrants from neighboring countries, particularly Peru and Bolivia. Approximately 200,000 are temporary laborers, 100,000 are in search of employment, and 500,000 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.

Yiddish is Spoken by 200,000 people and Mapudungun is spoken by 100,000 Mapuche people in the provinces of Neuquen, Rio Negro, Chubut, Buenos Aires, and La Pampa.

Paraguayan Guarani is the most widely spoken Guarani 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 Bolivian 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 Martin, 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.

Wichi Lhamtes Vejoz is spoken by around 25,000 people in the northern Chaco Province; Welsh is spoken by some 25,000 people in the Patagonian region, especially Chubut Province; and Toba is spoken by 19,810 people in the Chaco Province centered around the Pilcomayo River. Another Wichi language-Wichi Lhamtes Guisnay-has 15,000 speakers.

Western Argentine Guarani has 15,000 speakers in Jujuy and Salta Province. Other guarani language speakers can be found in the Mesopotamia, specially in Corrientes, where is also an official language.

More than 1,000 speakers

Mocovi is spoken by 4,525 people in Santa Fe, while Mbya Guarani has 3,000 speakers in the northeast. Pilaga is spoken by about 2,000 people in the Chaco. There are 1,500 Iyo'wujwa Chorote speakers, 50% of whom are monolingual; Iyo'wujwa Chorote is spoken in the Chaco region and along the Pilcomayo river.

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. Kaiwa has 512 speakers, Nivacle 200, Plautdietsch 140, Tapiete and Wichi Lhamtes 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

Abipon and Chane are now extinct languages that were spoken by people indigenous to Argentina before European contact; Chane 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

Catalan-Valencian-Balear, Turoyo, Ukrainian, and Vlax-Romani are all reportedly spoken, but the number of speakers are not known. Many Aymara speakers have migrated to Argentina for sugar mill and other work; of more than 2.2 million speakers globally, many are in Argentina. There are Mandarin-, Cantonese-, Japanese-, Korean-, and Russian-speaking immigrant communities. Chiripa is also spoken.