Home to 5 dialects represented on Dialect Atlas, spanning 5 language families.
The Spanish of Chile. Known for rapid speech, heavy aspiration of /s/, distinct second-person verb forms, and a rich slang lexicon.
The Aymara of southern Bolivia and northern Chile. Distinct in vowel realisation and lexicon from the La Paz variety.
also: Mapuche, Araucanian
The language of the Mapuche people, spoken across south-central Chile and adjacent Argentina. The largest Indigenous language of Chile and one of South America's most documented language isolates.
also: Qawasqar, Alacalufe
The last surviving Alacalufan language, spoken at Puerto Edén on Wellington Island in the fjords of Chilean Patagonia. The language of the last nomadic canoe peoples of the southern channels; fewer than ten fluent speakers remain.
also: Yámana, Yágankuta
A language isolate of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago, around the Beagle Channel and Navarino Island. Source of the famously untranslatable word mamihlapinatapai; recorded in a 32,000-word missionary dictionary by Thomas Bridges. Died with Cristina Calderón in 2022; heritage revival continues at Puerto Williams.