South Bolivian Quechua, also known as Central Bolivian Quechua, is a dialect of
Southern Quechua
Southern Quechua ( qu, Urin qichwa, es, quechua sureño), or simply Quechua (Qichwa or Qhichwa), is the most widely spoken of the major regional groupings of mutually intelligible dialects within the Quechua language family, with about 6.9 mil ...
spoken in
Bolivia and adjacent areas of
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
, where it is also known as ''Colla''. It is not to be confused with
North Bolivian Quechua
North Bolivian Quechua is a dialect of the Southern Quechua
Southern Quechua ( qu, Urin qichwa, es, quechua sureño), or simply Quechua (Qichwa or Qhichwa), is the most widely spoken of the major regional groupings of mutually intelligible di ...
, which is spoken on the northern Andean slopes of Bolivia and is phonologically distinct from the South Bolivian variety. Estimates of the number of speakers of South Bolivian Quechua range from 2.3
[Moseley, Christopher (ed.). 2010]
"Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, 3rd edn."
Paris, UNESCO Publishing. Online version." to 2.8 million,
["Bolivia"](_blank)
at '' Ethnologue'' (17th ed., 2013) making it the most spoken
indigenous language in Bolivia, just slightly greater than
Aymara
Aymara may refer to:
Languages and people
* Aymaran languages, the second most widespread Andean language
** Aymara language, the main language within that family
** Central Aymara, the other surviving branch of the Aymara(n) family, which today ...
, with roughly 2 million speakers in Bolivia. In comparison, the North Bolivian dialect has roughly 116,000 speakers.
History and dialect classification
South Bolivian Quechua is a member of the Southern branch of the
Quechuan languages, making it closely related to other Southern Quechua dialects including
Ayacucho
Ayacucho (, qu, Ayak'uchu) is the capital city of Ayacucho Region and of Huamanga Province, Ayacucho Region, Peru.
During the Inca Empire and Viceroyalty of Peru periods the city was known by the name of Huamanga (Quechua: Wamanga), and it c ...
and particularly the
Cuzco Quechua language,
[Adelaar, Willem F.H., and Pieter C. Muysken. ''The Languages of the Andes.'' Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004. Print.] varieties which are both spoken in Peru.
The Quechua language family spans an extremely diverse set of languages, many of which are mutually unintelligible, which is why linguists have classified Quechua as a language family as opposed to one language with many dialects. Though it is believed that all Quechuan languages descended from a single ancestor, Proto-Quechua, there is still debate on how the modern Quechuan languages evolved into their current states, and what this timeline would look like. As a result of this, there have been numerous suggested classifications and theories of the relatedness of specific languages and dialects of Quechua.
[Landerman, Peter Nelson. ''Quechua Dialects and Their Classification.'' Ann Arbor: UMI Dissertation Services, 1991. Print.] However, the current broad division of Quechua into four main branches is generally accepted.
Joseph Greenberg
Joseph Harold Greenberg (May 28, 1915 – May 7, 2001) was an American linguist, known mainly for his work concerning linguistic typology and the genetic classification of languages.
Life Early life and education
Joseph Greenberg was born on ...
, in his highly contested theory of the
Amerind superfamily, places the Quechua language family in the Andean branch of Amerind, which is part of the larger Southern Amerind branch that encompasses all indigenous South American languages. Much of Greenberg's proposal has been disproved, and his claims regarding Quechua are equally suspect. Even at one of his lower subgroupings, the Andean language family, the idea that Andean languages such as Quechua and Aymara are related is still debated, and the common consensus is that similarities between Quechua and Aymara arose from language contact as opposed to a genetic relationship.
[Heggarty, Paul]
"Origins and Diversity of Aymara"
last updated 21 March 2006.
There are some dialectal differences in South Bolivian Quechua across the regions of Bolivia. These dialects include Chuquisaca, Cochabamba, Oruro, Potosi, and Sucre in Bolivia, along with Northwest Jujuy in Argentina. There are perhaps still a few speakers, out of 8,000 ethnic Quechua, in Chile.
Santiagueño Quechua in Argentina, though divergent, appears to derive at least partly from South Bolivian Quechua.
Language status
Quechua is recognized as an official language of Bolivia, one of the
36 indigenous languages declared official in the nation's constitution. South Bolivian Quechua has a large number of speakers compared to other indigenous languages. However, Quechua is still in danger of devaluing and encroachment from the
prestige language
Prestige refers to a good reputation or high esteem; in earlier usage, ''prestige'' meant "showiness". (19th c.)
Prestige may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Films
* ''Prestige'' (film), a 1932 American film directed by Tay Garnet ...
Spanish.
[Coronel-Molina, Serafin M]
"Revitalization of Endangered Languages: Quechua in the Andes"
''Droit et cultures'', online 10 May 2012. In addition, the linguistic, ideological, and cultural differences among its many dialects make it difficult for policymakers to approach Quechua as a whole, as each Quechua community provides different challenges in regard to language policy and planning.
The
Ethnologue lists South Bolivian Quechua as "developing", which indicates that "the language is in vigorous use, with literature in a standardized form being used by some though this is not yet widespread or sustainable."
["Language Status"](_blank)
at '' Ethnologue'' However,
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
's Atlas of Endangered Languages categorizes South Bolivian Quechua as "vulnerable",
defined as the following: "Most but not all children or families of a particular community speak the language as their first language, but it may be restricted to specific social domains (such as at home, where children interact with their parents and grandparents)."
["UNESCO: Language Vitality and Endangerment"](_blank)
10–12 March 2003.
Over the past few decades, there has been a surge in
revitalization efforts for Quechua and other indigenous languages due to factors such as a growth in international tourism promoting cultural pride.
[Heggarty, Paul]
"How Endangered is Quechua?"
last updated 21 March 2006. Efforts have been made to increase the linguistic and cultural status of the Quechua language and peoples. In Bolivia, many policymakers are advocating the teaching of Quechua and other indigenous languages like Aymara in all public schools and government offices.
[Reel, Monte]
The Washington Post, 30 January 2007. However, these revitalization efforts are often met with resistance, and their effectiveness in halting Quechua's decline is still questionable.
Phonology
Vowels
South Bolivian Quechua has three basic vowel sounds: unrounded front vowel /i/, rounded back vowel /u/, and low central vowel /a/. The front vowel /i/ is lowered to
or
when next to a uvular stop or when separated from a uvular stop only by a non-stop consonant. The back vowel /u/ is similarly lowered in this environment, to
or
Consonants
The following table displays the consonant sounds in South Bolivian Quechua using the orthographic system employed by Bills (1969).
[Bills, Garland D., Bernardo Vallejo C., and Rudolph C. Troike. ''An Introduction to Spoken Bolivian Quechua.'' Austin: U of Texas P, 1969. Print.] IPA equivalents are included in brackets where necessary.
There are four stops and one affricate /ch/ in the basic sound system. The five sounds contrast with both their aspirated and glottalized versions, a characteristic that occurs in many dialects of the Quechua language family and is believed to be as a result of exposure to
Aymara
Aymara may refer to:
Languages and people
* Aymaran languages, the second most widespread Andean language
** Aymara language, the main language within that family
** Central Aymara, the other surviving branch of the Aymara(n) family, which today ...
, which makes the same distinctions.
Aspiration and glottalization can be seen to be contrastive in minimal pairs such as ''puñun'' "he sleeps" versus ''p'uñun'' "his jug", and ''piña'' "pineapple" versus ''p"iña'' "wild".
All stops, affricates, and fricatives are voiceless with the exception of /q/, which becomes a voiced uvular fricative
syllable-initially.
Additional phonological alternations include fricativization of /k/ and /q/ syllable-finally, to velar
and uvular
respectively. The fricative /s/ has allophones
and
of which the latter occurs quite infrequently. All fricatives occur only word-initially and medially, never finally.
The three nasal sounds assimilate to the point of articulation of the following consonant sound. Word-finally, /n/ is the only nasal that occurs; it becomes
Syllable structure
South Bolivian Quechua generally has a simple CV(C) syllable structure, where the coda consonant is optional. The onset consonant is also optional word-initially, as in the words ''ima'' "what" and ''uk'' "one", and Spanish borrowings can contain word-initial consonant clusters of the form CCV(C), as in ''bwenos diyas'' "good morning". No more than two consonants are allowed in a consonant cluster.
Proto-Quechua has few constraints on the combinations of consonant clusters allowed, but due to consonant
lenition
In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language at a pa ...
syllable-finally, there are greater restrictions on the types of consonant clusters that occur in South Bolivian Quechua.
Some of the possible consonant clusters can be seen in the following examples:
* ''čilwi'' "chick, baby chicken"
* ''p'isqu'' "bird"
* ''qan munanki'' "you want it"
* ''kayqa'' "this"
* ''waliqlla rirquy'' "may you go well"
Stress
Primary stress generally occurs on the penultimate syllable of the word, with secondary stresses on alternating syllables. This can be seen in the following analyses for the words ''munankičis'' and ''munankičisñaču'' (root verb ''muna'' "want, desire"), where stress has been numbered below:
Rare exceptions exist where the final syllable of the word carries the primary stress, such as in ''ari'' "yes". There also exist some 'emotive' suffixes in the language that are always stressed, resulting in stress on the last syllable of the word.
Stress on the final syllable can also occur through the dropping of some single-syllable suffixes (for instance, the yes/no question marker ''-chu'') without a subsequent shifting of the stress.
Morphology
South Bolivian Quechua is an
agglutinative
In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative lang ...
,
polysynthetic language
In linguistic typology, polysynthetic languages, formerly holophrastic languages, are highly synthetic languages, i.e. languages in which words are composed of many morphemes (word parts that have independent meaning but may or may not be able ...
with a rich
derivational morphology
Morphological derivation, in linguistics, is the process of forming a new word from an existing word, often by adding a prefix or suffix, such as For example, ''unhappy'' and ''happiness'' derive from the root word ''happy.''
It is different ...
, allowing the language to convey a large amount of information in a single word. As a result of this, words in South Bolivian Quechua can be very long.
[Heggarty, Paul]
"Quechua: Main Points of Interest for Linguists"
last updated 21 March 2006.
Words in the language are purely
suffixal; no other types of
affixes are used. These suffixes are also highly regular, with alternations generally only occurring to maintain syllable structure.
Morphemes within a word are ordered as follows:
* root + derivational suffixes + inflectional suffixes + clitics
Derivational morphology
South Bolivian Quechua has many clearly derivational suffixes, where a noun, verb, or adjective is derived from a different lexical category.
[Heggarty, Paul]
"Some Intriguing Aspects of Quechua"
last updated 21 March 2006. The following are a few examples:
''Note:'' -y ''is the verb infinitive marker.''
* ''-cha'' (factive): ''wasi'' "house", ''wasi-cha-y'' "to build a house"
* ''-naya'' (desiderative): ''aycha'' "meat", ''aycha-naya-y'' "to feel like eating some meat"
* ''-ya'' (autotransformative): ''wira'' "fat", ''wira-ya-y'' "to get fat, put on weight"
* ''-na'' (obligative): ''tiya'' "sit", ''tiya-na'' "seat, chair"
* ''-yuq'' (possessive): ''wasi'' "house", ''wasi-yuq'' "householder"
* ''-li'' (adjective formative from verb): ''mancha'' "fear", ''mancha-li'' "cowardly, fearful"
Other suffixes are less clearly categorized as derivational or inflectional, including some aspectual suffixes as well as a class of suffixes termed “auxiliary”. For example, the causative suffix ‘’-chi’’ may seem straightforwardly inflectional in some instances:
* ''mik"u-chi-'' "make (someone) eat"
* ''puri-chi-'' "make (someone) walk"
* ''paka-chi-'' "cause (someone) to hide"
But in other cases it can be derivational:
* ''runa wañu-chi'' "man killer, murderer"
* ''puma wañu-chi'' "puma hunter"
* ''wasi saya-chi'' "house builder, carpenter"
Inflectional morphology
Verbs
There are several categories of
verb
A verb () is a word ( part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descr ...
al suffixes in South Bolivian Quechua. These include
modal suffixes,
object markers,
tense and
aspect
Aspect or Aspects may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art
* Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company
* Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England
* ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
markers, and
person markers.
South Bolivian Quechua has a great amount of modal suffixes that are used to express a range of concepts. Some examples include:
* ''-ra'' "un-, undo"; ''wata-ra-'' "unknot, untie"
* ''-naya'' "intend to, about to, do as if to"; ''willa-naya-'' "act as if to tell"
* ''-ysi'' "help someone"; ''mik”u-ysi-y'' "help him eat"
* ''-na'' "have to, be able to" (obligative); ''willa-na-'' "have to tell"
* ''-pu'' "for someone else" (benefactive); ''qu-pu-y'' "give it to him"
Some of these modal suffixes can be derivational if used with a non-verb—for example,
''-naya'' and ''-na''.
Person markers differentiate between first, second, and third persons and plurality, as well as an inclusive and exclusive first person plural. Object markers and subject markers are used in the language, and object markers appear before subject markers. The object marker is ''-wa'' for a first person object and ''-su'' for a second person object. The following table details possible combinations of object and subject markers.
Some person categories lack a subject and/or object marker.
All non-present tenses in the
indicative
A realis mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is a statement of fact; in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentences. Mos ...
are marked by a suffix directly preceding the person marking. The present subjunctive is marked with a suffix following the person marking. Examples of tense markers include the simple past suffix ''-rqa'', past imperfect ''-yka'', and past perfect ''-sqa''. Tense suffixes can change form depending on person and can alter person marking in some cases: for instance, in the past imperfect tense, both the third person singular and plural subject markers (typically ''-n'', ''-nchiq'', or ''-nku'' depending on object) become ''-q'', meaning that a verb in the past imperfect with a third person subject would end in ''-yka-q''.
Nouns
Apart from case-marking suffixes,
noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, ...
s in South Bolivian Quechua can also be pluralized with the suffix ''-kuna'' (or by a numeral modifier preceding the noun). However, most speakers use the suffix -s, borrowed from Spanish, when the noun ends in a vowel. For example, wasi ("house") becomes wasis ("houses") or runa ("person") becomes runas ("people/persons"). The Quechua suffix -kuna is usually only used when a noun ends in a consonant, such as with yan (road), which becomes yankuna (roads). A collective marker, ''-ntin'', also exists to denote “togetherness”, as in ''alqu michi-ntin'' "the dog, together with the cat". Possessiveness is marked by a suffix attached to the noun, with the form that the morpheme takes dependent on person, plurality, and whether it is following a vowel or consonant.
Other lexical categories
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not c ...
s in the language have no person markers, but do have plural markers that vary by person. Possessive pronouns are marked by the addition of the appropriate genitive suffix.
Adjective
In linguistics, an adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ma ...
s can be made into superlatives with the suffix ''-puni'', as in ''kosa'' "good"; ''kosa-puni'' "good above all others, best".
Independent suffixes
Some suffixes in South Bolivian Quechua can be used with words of any lexical category, and are generally found at the end of the word after all other suffixes. Some examples are:
* ''-ri'' "please, nicely, with delight" (polite)
* ''-pis'' "even though, even if, and, also" (additive)
* ''-chu'' "is it so?" (non-factual, question marker)
* ''-chus'' "if, maybe" (dubitative)
Reduplication
Reduplication is used extensively for various purposes, and can be derivational:
* ''llañuy'' "thin"; ''llañuy llañuy'' "very thin"
* ''wasi'' "house"; ''wasi wasi'' "settlement, collection of houses"
* ''rumi'' "stone"; ''rumi rumi'' "rocky"
Reduplicated stems can be suffixal as well:
* ''taq'' "sound of hammer blow"; ''taq-taq-ya-y'' "to hit with a hammer"
Syntax
Word order
The basic word order of South Bolivian Quechua is stated to be
SOV.
However, because nouns are marked for case, word order is in fact very flexible and is generally varied for the purposes of emphasis. For instance, the following sentences all mean "Atahuallpa had Huascar killed":
* Atawallpa sipi-chi-rqa Waskar-ta.
* Atawallpa Waskar-ta sipi-chi-rqa.
* Waskara-ta Atawallpa sipi-chi-rqa.
* Waskar-ta sipi-chi-rqa Atawallpa.
One aspect of word order that is constant in the language is the fact that noun modifiers must directly precede the noun (
adjective-noun).
Case marking
South Bolivian Quechua is
nominative-accusative. Nouns can have the following case markers:
* Genitive ''-q/-qpa/-qpata''
* Accusative ''-ta''
* Dative ''-man''
* Ablative ''-manta''
* Locative ''-pi''
* Purposive ''-paq''
* Causal ''-rayku''
* Instrumental ''-wan''
* Comitative ''-tawan''
* Allative ''-kama''
Lack of a case marker indicates the nominative.
Passives
Passives are marked by suffixes, including ''-sqa'' on the verb, ''-manta'' "from, by" on the agent, and ''-wan'' "with" on the instrument, as in the following examples:
* ''Chay runa alqu-manta k"ani-sqa'' "That man was bitten by the dog"
* ''Runa rumi-wan maqa-sqa'' "The man was hit with a rock"
Subordination
Subordination is mostly indicated by participles, and can be marked for tense only relative to the main verb. Subordination need not be explicitly marked, as certain participles can be understood as subordinative—for example, a literal gloss of ''His coming, I will leave'' can be interpreted as ''When he comes, I will leave'' or ''If he comes, I will leave''. Other suffixes such as ''-qti'' "when" and ''-rayku'' "because" can also be used to mark a subordinate clause.
In addition, subordination can also be indicated lexically by ''ukta...chaymanta...'' "first...then..." or ''ukta...q"ipanta...'' "first...afterwards...", as in the following examples:
* ''Ukta q"awa-wa-n, chaymanta chaski-n'' "First he saw me, then he ran"
* ''Ukta q"awa-wa-spa, q"ipanta pay chaski-n'' "First seeing me, afterwards he ran" ("After seeing me, he ran")
Notes
References
External links
A Course in Bolivian Quechua- Audio recordings of language lessons in South Bolivian Quechua accompanying ''An Introduction to Spoken Bolivian Quechua'' (1969)
Quechua Collection of Patricia Dreidemie- Collection of audio recordings of South Bolivian Quechua recorded in Buenos Aires, 2004-2007
Duck and Frog Stories in Chuquisaca Quechua- Collection of audio and video in South Bolivian Quechua transcribed and translated into Spanish, 2016
{{Languages of Chile
Languages of Chile
Languages of Bolivia
Languages of Argentina
Southern Quechua