Toponomastics of the Extreme Southern Andean Region: Contributions to Yahgan Toponymy

Abstract

Yaghan is the southernmost of the Andean languages that Adelaar and Muysken
(2004) systematise by area, from the Chibcha sphere to Tierra del Fuego. The language of
the Yaghan, a nomadic canoe people, was spoken over a wide territory stretching from the channels and coasts in the south of Tierra del Fuego to Cape Horn. This large area gave rise to numerous toponyms, most of them forgotten today, which are a valuable source of linguistic and cultural information. This work compiles and collates a set of toponyms registered in maps and exploration reports from the 19th century, to which is added a new, unpublished corpus, collected by Martin Gusinde in the framework of his ethnological work with the Yaghan at the beginning of the 20th century. This corpus is registered in a topographical chart that includes almost 400 names in the indigenous language. The theoretical-methodological framework for this study correlates morphological analysis with semantic motivations and proposes a culture-linked lexicological interpretation based on documentary sources.