Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to describe two syntactic systems that coexist in Tehuelche or Aonekˀo ʔaʔjen, an almost extinct indigenous language of the Chon family in the Argentinian Patagonia. The first description of this language showed it to have a marked nominative system, where the agent (A) of the transitive as well as the unique participant of the intransitive (S) is marked by means of an adposition, while the patient of the transitive (O) remains unmarked. An additional ergative system exists for this language in a special set of verbs, here called Group 1, where S is indexed on the verb in the same way as O. Evidence shows that this system is older than the marked nominative, and that the adpositions marking A/S arose late in the evolution of the Tehuelche.
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