Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino

Native peoples > Chono

Language

It is not known what language the Chono people spoke. Some experts doubt that they had their own tongue, while others think that they spoke the same language as the Huilliche of Chiloé, and still others associate them with the languages of Tierra del Fuego. At any rate, only a few place names in the Chiloe archipelago have been attributed to the Chono, including those ending with –ec (ek) and –ac (ak). Examples of these include Laitec, Chaulinec, Quenac, Cahuac, Isquiliac, costas de Ichuac and Auchac, among a few others.