Classification
Viegas Barros, who postulates a relationship between Kawésqar and Yahgan, believes that 45% of the Chono vocabulary and grammatical forms correspond to one of those languages, though it is not close to either.
Glottolog concludes that "There are lexical parallels with Mapuche as well as Qawesqar, ... but the core is clearly unrelated." They characterize Chono as a language isolate, though only as it relates to Mapuche and Kawésqar.
Campbell (2012) concludes that a language called Wayteka or Wurk-wur-we by Llaras Samitier (1967), and which also went by the geographical name "Chono", is spurious, with the source material being a list of mixed and perhaps invented vocabulary.
Phonology
The phonology of Chono can be tentatively reconstructed in part from the data provided by Basauni (1975). Syllables are frequently, but not necessarily, closed. There are few consonant clusters but frequent vowel clusters.
Consonants
The consonant table shows the IPA representation as given by Adelaar (2004), with symbols that differ in angle brackets.
- ↑ ⟨z⟩ may have been realized as [θ], [ts], [z], or [s], among other possible realizations.
Vowels
In addition to the five monophthongs, Chono appears to have had eight diphthongs, which Adelaar represents as a vowel and a glide: ⟨aw⟩, ⟨ew⟩, ⟨ow⟩, ⟨ay⟩, ⟨yu⟩, ⟨wa⟩, ⟨we⟩, and ⟨wi⟩.
