Languages of Argentina

• Italian is spoken by more than 1.5 million people in Argentina; it is the second most spoken native language in the nation.[9][lower-alpha 2] Italian immigration, which effectively began in the middle of the 19th century and reached its peak in the first two decades of the 20th century, made a lasting and significant impact on the pronunciation and vernacular of Argentina's variety of Spanish, giving it an Italian flair. In fact, Italian dialects (not Standard Italian) have contributed so much to Rioplatense that many foreigners mistake it for Italian.
• Portuñol is spoken in areas that border Brazil. It is a pidgin of Spanish and Portuguese.
• German conserved by the descendants of the immigrants coming directly from Germany as well as other German-speaking countries like Switzerland and Austria. Descendants of Volga Germans of the Volga River in Russia, speak German especially in the Santa Fe and Entre Ríos provinces, part of La Pampa, and various sectors of the Buenos Aires Province.
• Lunfardo, a dialect that originated in Buenos Aires, is strongly influenced by immigrant languages; primarily by dialects from different Italian regions, but also from Portuguese, Galician, French, English and Yiddish. They provided numerous lexical and syntactic elements to the Argentine language, as well as the typical pronunciation of Rioplatense Spanish. Lunfardo has exercised a strong influence on the informal speech throughout the country, especially through its use in tango lyrics and Porteño poetry.
• Welsh spoken in Patagonia: Indo-European language of the Brittonic Celtic languages group, spoken as a second language by descendants of Welsh immigrants from the second half of the 19th century) in Chubut Province. An estimation in 2008 indicates that the number of speakers was no greater than 5000.[10][11]
• Plautdietch or low German, spoken by Mennonite colonies disseminated especially in the La Pampa Province, although it is also spoken in small communities in other provinces.
• See also: Belgranodeutsch, Paraná-Wolga-Deutsch and Argentinien-schwyzertütsch dialect.

Argentine Sign Language, understood by around two million deaf people of Argentina, their instructors, descendants, and others. There are different regional variants, such as in Cordoba.

Southern Quechua distribution.

Southern Quechua: from the family of Quechuan languages. There are seven variations present that are marked by their geographical origin, detailed here are South Bolivian Quechua and Santiagueño Quechua:

• South Bolivian Quechua is spoken by inhabitants of Puna and their descendants. This same variety is spoken in all of Jujuy, Salta, and Tucumán; after Spanish it is the second most widespread language of the country and the most important Indigenous language of the Americas. In 1971 there were 855,000 speakers, with another possible 70,000 in Salta.[12]
• Santiagueño Quechua: which is different from Bolivian Quechua, though it has an 81 percent lexical similarity, is spoken by 100,000 people, according to data from Censabella (1999), even though other estimations raise the figure to 140,000[13] or 160,000[14] speakers[15] in the Santiago del Estero Province, southeast of the Salta Province and Buenos Aires. A department for its study and conservation exists in the National University of Santiago del Estero. The smallest calculation of talks about a minimum of 60,000 speakers in 2000.[16] Its speakers are currently composed of a Creoyle population that does not self-recognize as indigenous (even though it admits an indigenous past).[17]

Distribution of Guarani in South America.

In the provinces of Corrientes, Misiones, Chaco, Formosa, Entre Ríos,[18][19] and Buenos Aires dialects of Argentine Guarani are spoken or known by nearly one million people, including Paraguayan immigrants that speak Paraguayan Guarani or Jopara.[15] In Corrientes, the Argentine Guarani dialect was decreed co-official in 2004 and made obligatory in educational instruction and the government.

• Chiripa is a language family of Tupi-Guarani, subgroup I. There are a few speakers in the Misiones Province and among Paraguayan immigrants.
• Mbyá is from the Tupi-Guarani family, subgroup I. It has a 75 percent lexical similarity with Paraguayan Guarani. In 2002, some 3000 speakers were counted in the Misiones Province.[12]
• Eastern Bolivian Guarani is also from the Tupi-Guarani family, subgroup I. Some 15 000 speakers in the provinces of Salta and Formosa.
• Correntino Guarani or Argentine Guarani pertains to the Tupi-Guarani family. It is spoken (together with Spanish) by nearly 70 percent of the population with an origin from the Corrientes Province (around 350,000 speakers). The Correntino government decreed in 2004 the co-officiality of the Guarani language and its obligatory use in teaching and government, even though it still has not been regulated.
• Kaiwá, called pai tavyterá in Paraguay, is from the Tupi-Guarani family, subgroup I. It is spoken by no more than 510 people in Misiones Province.
• Tapieté from the Tupi-Guarani family, subgroup I, is spoken by some 100 speakers of a village near Tartagal, Salta.
• Missionary Guarani Jesuit was an old variety of Guarani spoken by Jesuit Missionaries became extinct around 1800.

The Mapuche language is an isolated language that had approximately 40,000[20] to 100,000[12] speakers in the provinces of Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut, and Santa Cruz in 2000.

Central Aymara is a language of the Aymaran group, spoken by 30,000 inhabitants of Jujuy,[12] of the North of Salta, besides the immigrants of Puna and of Peru.

Extension of the Mataco-Guaicuru languages.

From the Mataco or Mataguyao group:

• Iyojwa'ja Chorote, Ch'orti', Yofuaha or Eklenjuy is from the Mataco-Guaicuru family and is a distinct language from Chorote Iyo'wujwa. It was spoken in 1982[12] by some 1500 people in the Northeast of the Formosa Province.
• Chorote iyo'wujwa,Ch'orti', Manjuy, Majui is from the Mataco-Guaicuru family. There were some 800 speakers accounted for in 1982, 50 percent of which were monolingual, mixed with speakers of Iyojwa'ja Chorote. Recently, it is spoken by just 400 people.[16]
• Nivaclé is from the Mataco-Guaicuru family, It has about 200 speakers in the Northeast of the Formosa Province.[12] The term "chulupí" and similar terms are pejoratives and are like the word "guaycurú" (that in Guarani means something like "barbarians") which comes from the Guarani invaders.
• Wichí Lhamtés Güisnay is from the Mataco-Guaicuru family and is spoken by some 15,000 people in the Pilcomayo River area, Formosa.[12] The term "mataco" used to name the languages and towns of the Wichí people is a pejorative and comes from the invaders that were speakers of Runasimi (Quechua).
• Wichí Lhamtés Nocten is from the Mataco-Guaicuru family and is spoken by around 100 people in the Northeast border of the country, as far as the Clorinda area.[12]
• Wichí Lhamtés Vejoz is from the Mataco-Guaicuru family. There are calculated to be 25,000 speakers distributed throughout the Chaco and Formosa Provinces.[12] Its main area of influence, in general, is found at the west of the area of the Toba people, along the superior course of the Pilcomayo River. It is unintelligible with other languages of Gran Chaco, and is also spoken in Bolivia.

From the Guaicuru group:

• Mocoví is from the Mataco-Guaicuru family. In 2000, there were some 4530 speakers in Formosa, in the south of Chaco and the Northeast of the Santa Fe Province.[12] For 2008 the number had decreased from 3000 to 5000 people.
• Pilagá is from the Mataco-Guaicuru family and is spoken by some 2000 to 5000 people in the basins of the Pilcomayo and Bermejo rivers, providences Formosa and Chaco. In 2004, it was spoken by 4000 people.
• Qom is also from the Mataco-Guaicuru family. Spoken in the year 2006 by 40,000 to 60,000 people in the East of Formosa and Chaco. In 2000 it was spoken by 21,410 indigenous people (19,800 in Argentina).

• Tehuelche is from the Chonan family. In the 1966 census, there were hardly 200 speakers registered in Santa Cruz.[15]