The Charruan languages are an extinct group of languages once spoken in Uruguay

Uruguay

Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

 and the Argentine

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 province of Entre Ríos

Entre Ríos Province

Entre Ríos is a northeastern province of Argentina, located in the Mesopotamia region. It borders the provinces of Buenos Aires , Corrientes and Santa Fe , and Uruguay in the east....

. Recently (2005) a semi-speaker of Chaná language has appeared

Four languages are considered to definitively belong to the Charruan language family:

• Balomar
  Balomar language
  Balomar is an undescribed, extinct language, formerly spoken in the Province of Entre Ríos, Argentina....
  
  
• Chaná
  Chaná language
  Chaná is an extinct Charruan language that was once spoken in Uruguay along the Uruguay and Paraná-Guazú rivers.Chaná is poorly attested. There exists a short grammar by Dámaso Larrañaga. and a few wordlists....
  
  
• Charrúa
• Güenoa

A number of unattested languages are also presumed to belong to the Charruan family:

• Bohane – spoken near Maldonado, Uruguay
  Maldonado, Uruguay
  Maldonado is the capital of Maldonado Department of Uruguay. It is located on Route 39 and shares borders with Punta del Este to the south, Pinares - Las Delicias to the south and to the east and suburb La Sonrisa to the north. Together they all for a unified metropolitan area. East of the city...
  
  
• Calchine – spoken in Santa Fe Province
  Santa Fe Province
  The Invincible Province of Santa Fe, in Spanish Provincia Invencible de Santa Fe , is a province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco , Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Santiago del Estero...
  
  , Argentina, along the Salado River
• Caracañá – spoken along the Caracañá River, Santa Fe
• Chaná-Mbegua or Begua – spoken on the Paraná River
  Paraná River
  The Paraná River is a river in south Central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina for some . It is second in length only to the Amazon River among South American rivers. The name Paraná is an abbreviation of the phrase "para rehe onáva", which comes from the Tupi language...
  
   between Crespo
  Crespo, Entre Ríos
  Crespo is a city in the Argentine province of Entre Ríos, some 40 km from the provincial capital Paraná. It has around 18,000 inhabitants , most of whom are descendants of Volga Germans who migrated from Russia to Argentina from 1875 onwards. The town's German heritage is reflected in the annual...
  
   and Victoria
  Victoria, Entre Ríos
  Victoria is a city in the southwest of the province of Entre Ríos, Argentina. It is located on the eastern shore of the Paraná River, opposite Rosario, Santa Fe, to which it is connected since 2003 by the Rosario-Victoria Bridge .The site of a 1750 defeat of a native uprising and an 1810 oratory to...
  
  
• Colastiné – spoken in Santa Fe Province near Colastiné
• Corondá – spoken in Coronda
  Coronda
  Coronda is a small and beautiful city in the . It is located in the San Jerónimo Department, 43 km south from the provincial capital . It has a population of about 17,000 inhabitants ....
  
  , Santa Fe Province
• Guaiquiaré – spoken in Entre Ríos on the Arroyo Guaiquiraré
• Mocoreta or Macurendá or Mocolete – spoken along the Mocoretá River
  Mocoretá River
  The Mocoretá River is a river in the Mesopotamic northeastern region of Argentina. It is born in the southeast of the province of Corrientes, south of Curuzú Cuatiá. It flows south, first turning east and then west until reaching the interprovincial border with Entre Ríos, where it receives the...
  
   in Entre Ríos
• Pairindi – spoken in Entre Ríos from Corrientes
  Corrientes
  Corrientes is the capital city of the province of Corrientes, Argentina, located on the eastern shore of the Paraná River, about from Buenos Aires and from Posadas, on National Route 12...
  
   to the Feliciano River
  Feliciano River
  The Feliciano River is a river in the Argentine province of Entre Ríos, in the Mesopotamia. It is born on the Lomada del Mocoretá, on the northeast of the province, east of San José de Feliciano, and flows west-southwest across the province...
  
  
• Timbu – spoken in Gaboto
  Gaboto
  Gaboto is a town in the southeast of the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It has 2,617 inhabitants per the...
  
  , Santa Fe Province
• Yaro – spoken in Uruguay between the Río Negro
  Río Negro (Uruguay)
  The Río Negro is the most important river in Uruguay. It originates in the southern highlands of Brazil, just east of Bagé, and flows west across the entire width of Uruguay to the Uruguay River. The course of the Río Negro across Uruguay effectively divides the south of the country from the north...
  
   and the San Salvador River

Vocabulary Comparison

The Charruan languages are poorly attested. However, sufficient vocabulary has been gathered for the languages to be compared:

English English language English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...	Charrua	Chaná Chaná language Chaná is an extinct Charruan language that was once spoken in Uruguay along the Uruguay and Paraná-Guazú rivers.Chaná is poorly attested. There exists a short grammar by Dámaso Larrañaga. and a few wordlists....	Güenoa
eye	i-xou
ear	i-mau
hand	guar	mbó
water	hué
sun		dioi
dog	samayoí		lochan
tree		huok
one	yú	ugil	yut
two	sam	usan
three	detí	detit

Genetic Relations

Morris Swadesh includes Charruan along with Matacoan languages

Matacoan languages

Matacoan is a language family of northern Argentina, western Paraguay, and southeastern Bolivia.-Family division:...

, Guaicuruan

Guaicuruan languages

Guaicuruan is a language family spoken in northern Argentina, western Paraguay, and Brazil .-Family division:...

, and Mascoian

Mascoian languages

The Mascoian languages are a small language family of Paraguay. They are part of the Mataco–Guaicuru proposal.The languages are:*Emok*Guana *Lengua...

within his Macro-Mapuche stock.

Kaufman (1990) suggests that the Guaicuruan–Matacoan–Charruan–Mascoyan–Lule–Vilela proposal deserves to be explored — a grouping which he calls Macro-Waikurúan. Kaufman's (1994) Macro-Waikurúan proposal excludes Lule–Vilela.