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Quechua (, ; ), usually called ("people's language") in Quechuan languages, is an indigenous
language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in h ...
spoken by the
Quechua people Quechua people (, ; ) or Quichua people, may refer to any of the aboriginal people of South America who speak the Quechua languages, which originated among the Indigenous people of Peru. Although most Quechua speakers are native to Peru, the ...
s, primarily living in the
Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
vian
Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...
. Derived from a common ancestral language, it is the most widely spoken
pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...
language family of the Americas, with an estimated 8–10 million speakers as of 2004.Adelaar 2004, pp. 167–168, 255. Approximately 25% (7.7 million) of Peruvians speak a Quechuan language. It is perhaps most widely known for being the main language family of the
Inca Empire The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, ( Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts",  "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The adm ...
. The Spanish encouraged its use until the Peruvian struggle for independence of the 1780s. As a result, Quechua variants are still widely spoken today, being the co-official language of many regions and the second most spoken language family in Peru.


History

Quechua had already expanded across wide ranges of the central Andes long before the expansion of the
Inca Empire The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, ( Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts",  "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The adm ...
. The Inca were one among many peoples in present-day Peru who already spoke a form of Quechua. In the
Cusco Cusco, often spelled Cuzco (; qu, Qusqu ()), is a city in Southeastern Peru near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region and of the Cusco Province. The city is the seventh most populous in Peru; ...
region, Quechua was influenced by neighboring languages such as
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 caused it to develop as distinct. In similar ways, diverse dialects developed in different areas, influenced by local languages, when the Inca Empire ruled and imposed Quechua as the official language. After the
Spanish conquest of Peru The Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, also known as the Conquest of Peru, was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. After years of preliminary exploration and military skirmishes, 168 Spanish s ...
in the 16th century, Quechua continued to be used widely by the indigenous peoples as the "common language." It was officially recognized by the Spanish administration, and many Spaniards learned it in order to communicate with local peoples. The clergy of the
Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
adopted Quechua to use as the language of
evangelization In Christianity, evangelism (or witnessing) is the act of preaching the gospel with the intention of sharing the message and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians who specialize in evangelism are often known as evangelists, whether they are ...
. The oldest written records of the language are by missionary
Domingo de Santo Tomás Fray Domingo de Santo Tomás, O.P. (1499 – 28 February 1570) was a Spanish Dominican missionary, bishop, and grammarian in the Viceroyalty of Peru. He compiled the first Quechua language grammar, published in 1560, and that same year pub ...
, who arrived in Peru in 1538 and learned the language from 1540. He published his ''Grammatica o arte de la lengua general de los indios de los reynos del Perú'' (Grammar or Art of the General Language of the Indians of the Kingdoms of Peru) in 1560. Given its use by the Catholic missionaries, the range of Quechua continued to expand in some areas. In the late 18th century, colonial officials ended administrative and religious use of Quechua. They banned it from public use in Peru after the
Túpac Amaru II José Gabriel Condorcanqui ( – May 18, 1781)known as Túpac Amaru II was an indigenous Cacique who led a large Andean rebellion against the Spanish in Peru. He later became a mythical figure in the Peruvian struggle for independence and ...
rebellion of indigenous peoples. The Crown banned "loyal" pro-Catholic texts in Quechua, such as Garcilaso de la Vega's '' Comentarios Reales.'' Despite a brief revival of the language immediately after the Latin American nations achieved independence in the 19th century, the prestige of Quechua had decreased sharply. Gradually its use declined so that it was spoken mostly by indigenous people in the more isolated and conservative rural areas. Nevertheless, in the 21st century, Quechua language speakers number 8 to 10 million people across South America, the most speakers of any indigenous language. As a result of Inca expansion into Central Chile, there were bilingual Quechua- Mapudungu
Mapuche The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who s ...
in Central Chile at the time of the Spanish arrival. It has been argued that Mapuche, Quechua, and Spanish coexisted in
Central Chile Central Chile (''Zona central'') is one of the five natural regions into which CORFO divided continental Chile in 1950. It is home to a majority of the Chilean population and includes the three largest metropolitan areas—Santiago, Valparaí ...
, with significant bilingualism, during the 17th century. Quechua is the indigenous language that has influenced
Chilean Spanish Chilean Spanish ( es, español chileno) is any of several varieties of the Spanish language spoken in most of Chile. Chilean Spanish dialects have distinctive pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and slang usages that differ from those of Sta ...
the most. In 2017 the first thesis defense done in Quechua in Europe was done by Peruvian Carmen Escalante Gutiérrez at
Pablo de Olavide University Pablo de Olavide University (''Universidad Pablo de Olavide (UPO)'' in Spanish) is a public university in Seville, Spain. UPO offers both undergraduate and graduate programs in the traditional majors, as well as in biotechnology, environmental s ...
(
Sevilla Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...
). The same year Pablo Landeo wrote the first novel in Quechua without a Spanish translation. A Peruvian student, Roxana Quispe Collantes of the
University of San Marcos The National University of San Marcos ( es, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, link=no, UNMSM) is a public research university located in Lima, the capital of Peru. It is considered the most important, recognized and representative educ ...
, completed and defended the first thesis in the language group in 2019; it concerned the works of poet Andrés Alencastre Gutiérrez and it was also the first non-Spanish native language thesis done at that university. Currently, there are different initiatives that promote Quechua in the Andes and across the world: many universities offer Quechua classes, a community-based organization such as Elva Ambía's Quechua Collective of New York promote the language, and governments are training interpreters in Quechua so they serve in healthcare, justice, and bureaucratic facilities.


Current status

In 1975, Peru became the first country to recognize Quechua as one of its official languages. Ecuador conferred official status on the language in its 2006 constitution, and in 2009, Bolivia adopted a new constitution that recognized Quechua and several other indigenous languages as official languages of the country. The major obstacle to the usage and teaching of Quechuan languages is the lack of written materials, such as books, newspapers, software, and magazines. The Bible has been translated into Quechua and is distributed by certain missionary groups. Quechua, along with
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 ...
and minor indigenous languages, remains essentially a
spoken language A spoken language is a language produced by articulate sounds or (depending on one's definition) manual gestures, as opposed to a written language. An oral language or vocal language is a language produced with the vocal tract in contrast with a si ...
. In recent years, Quechua has been introduced in
intercultural bilingual education Intercultural bilingual education ''(Educación bilingüe intercultural)'' is a language-planning model employed throughout Latin America in public education, and it arose as a political movement asserting space for indigenous languages and cul ...
(IBE) in
Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
,
Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
, and
Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...
. Even in these areas, the governments are reaching only a part of the Quechua-speaking populations. Some indigenous people in each of the countries are having their children study in Spanish for social advancement.
Radio Nacional del Perú Radio Nacional del Perú is the first and the oldest radio station in Peru. It had its origins in the private station Lima OAX-AM, owned by the Peruvian Broadcasting Company, which was founded in 1924 by César A. Coloma, Santiago Acuña among ...
broadcasts news and agrarian programs in Quechua for periods in the mornings. Quechua and Spanish are now heavily intermixed in much of the Andean region, with many hundreds of Spanish loanwords in Quechua. Similarly, Quechua phrases and words are commonly used by Spanish speakers. In southern rural Bolivia, for instance, many Quechua words such as ''wawa'' (infant), ''misi'' (cat), ''waska'' (strap or thrashing), are as commonly used as their Spanish counterparts, even in entirely Spanish-speaking areas. Quechua has also had a profound influence on other native languages of the Americas, such as
Mapuche The Mapuche ( (Mapuche & Spanish: )) are a group of indigenous inhabitants of south-central Chile and southwestern Argentina, including parts of Patagonia. The collective term refers to a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups who s ...
.


Number of speakers

The number of speakers given varies widely according to the sources. The total in ''
Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensi ...
'' 16 is 10 million, primarily based on figures published 1987–2002, but with a few dating from the 1960s. The figure for Imbabura Highland Quechua in ''Ethnologue'', for example, is 300,000, an estimate from 1977. The missionary organization FEDEPI, on the other hand, estimated one million Imbabura dialect speakers (published 2006). Census figures are also problematic, due to under-reporting. The 2001 Ecuador census reports only 500,000 Quechua speakers, compared to the estimate in most linguistic sources of more than 2 million. The censuses of Peru (2007) and Bolivia (2001) are thought to be more reliable. *Argentina: 900,000 (1971) *Bolivia: 2,100,000 (2001 census); 2,800,000 South Bolivian (1987) *Chile: few, if any; 8,200 in ethnic group (2002 census) *Colombia: 4,402 to 16,000 *Ecuador: 2,300,000 (Adelaar 1991) *Peru: 3,800,000 (2017 census); 3,500,000 to 4,400,000 (Adelaar 2000) Additionally, there is an unknown number of speakers in emigrant communities.


Classification

There are significant differences among the varieties of Quechua spoken in the central Peruvian highlands and the peripheral varieties of Ecuador, as well as those of southern Peru and Bolivia. They can be labeled Quechua I (or Quechua B, central) and Quechua II (or Quechua A, peripheral). Within the two groups, there are few sharp boundaries, making them dialect continua. However, there is a secondary division in Quechua II between the grammatically simplified northern varieties of Ecuador, Quechua II-B, known there as
Kichwa Kichwa (, , also Spanish ) is a Quechuan language that includes all Quechua varieties of Ecuador and Colombia ('' Inga''), as well as extensions into Peru. It has an estimated half million speakers. The most widely spoken dialects are Chimbor ...
, and the generally more conservative varieties of the southern highlands, Quechua II-C, which include the old Inca capital of
Cusco Cusco, often spelled Cuzco (; qu, Qusqu ()), is a city in Southeastern Peru near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region and of the Cusco Province. The city is the seventh most populous in Peru; ...
. The closeness is at least in part because of the influence of
Cusco Quechua Cuzco Quechua ( qu, Qusqu qhichwa simi) is a dialect of Southern Quechua spoken in Cuzco and the Cuzco Region of Peru. It is the Quechua variety used by the Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua in Cuzco, which also prefers the Spanish-based five ...
on the Ecuadorean varieties in the Inca Empire. Because Northern nobles were required to educate their children in Cusco, this was maintained as the
prestige dialect 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 ...
in the north. Speakers from different points within any of the three regions can generally understand one another reasonably well. There are nonetheless significant local-level differences across each. (
Wanka Quechua Wanka Quechua is a variety of the Quechua language, spoken in the southern part of Peruvian region of Junín by the Huancas. Wanka Quechua belongs to Quechua I, like Ancash Quechua. It has about 300,000 speakers and three main dialects: Wayll ...
, in particular, has several very distinctive characteristics that make the variety more challenging to understand, even for other Central Quechua speakers.) Speakers from different major regions, particularly Central or Southern Quechua, are not able to communicate effectively. The lack of
mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as ...
among the dialects is the basic criterion that defines Quechua not as a single language, but as a language family. The complex and progressive nature of how speech varies across the dialect continua makes it nearly impossible to differentiate discrete varieties; ''Ethnologue'' lists 45 varieties which are then divided into two groups; Central and Peripheral. Due to the non-intelligibility among the two groups, they are all classified as separate languages. As a reference point, the overall degree of diversity across the family is a little less than that of the
Romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...
or Germanic families, and more of the order of Slavic or
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
. The greatest diversity is within Central Quechua, or Quechua I, which is believed to lie close to the
homeland A homeland is a place where a cultural, national, or racial identity has formed. The definition can also mean simply one's country of birth. When used as a proper noun, the Homeland, as well as its equivalents in other languages, often has ethn ...
of the ancestral Proto-Quechua language.


Family tree

Alfredo Torero Alfredo Augusto Torero Fernández de Córdova (September 10, 1930 in Huacho, Lima Region, Peru – June 19, 2004 in Valencia, Spain) was a Peruvian anthropologist and linguist. He was a student at the National University of San Marcos, from ...
devised the traditional classification, the three divisions above, plus a fourth, a northern or Peruvian branch. The latter causes complications in the classification, however, as the northern dialects ( Cajamarca–Cañaris, Pacaraos, and Yauyos–Chincha) have features of both Quechua I and Quechua II, and so are difficult to assign to either. Torero classifies them as the following: *
Quechua I Quechua I, also known as Quechua Wáywash, or Quechua B,Alberto Escobar (comp.) '' El reto del multilingüismo en el Perú'' (1972) is one of the two branches or genealogical groups of the Quechua languages. It is composed of a great diversity of ...
or ''Quechua B,'' aka ''Central Quechua'' or ''Waywash,'' spoken in Peru's central highlands and coast. ** The most widely spoken varieties are Huaylas, Huaylla Wanca, and Conchucos. * Quechua II or ''Quechua A'' or ''Peripheral Quechua'' or ''Wanp'una'', divided into ** Yungay (Yunkay) Quechua or ''Quechua II A,'' spoken in the northern mountains of Peru; the most widely spoken dialect is Cajamarca. ** Northern Quechua or ''Quechua II B,'' spoken in Ecuador (
Kichwa Kichwa (, , also Spanish ) is a Quechuan language that includes all Quechua varieties of Ecuador and Colombia ('' Inga''), as well as extensions into Peru. It has an estimated half million speakers. The most widely spoken dialects are Chimbor ...
), northern Peru, and Colombia ( Inga Kichwa) *** The most widely spoken varieties in this group are Chimborazo Highland Quichua and Imbabura Highland Quichua. **
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 ...
or ''Quechua II C,'' spoken in Bolivia, Chile, southern Peru and Northwest Argentina. *** The most widely spoken varieties are South Bolivian, Cusco, Ayacucho, and Puno (Collao).
Willem Adelaar Willem F. H. Adelaar (born 1948 at The Hague) is a Dutch linguist specializing in Native American languages, specially those of the Andes. He is Professor of indigenous American Linguistics and Cultures at Leiden University. He has written broadl ...
adheres to the Quechua I / Quechua II (central/peripheral) bifurcation. But, partially following later modifications by Torero, he reassigns part of Quechua II-A to Quechua I: Landerman (1991) does not believe a truly genetic classification is possible and divides Quechua II so that the family has four geographical–typological branches: Northern, North Peruvian, Central, and Southern. He includes Chachapoyas and Lamas in North Peruvian Quechua so Ecuadorian is synonymous with Northern Quechua.


Geographical distribution

Quechua I (Central Quechua, ''Waywash'') is spoken in Peru's central highlands, from the
Ancash Region Ancash ( qu, Anqash; es, Áncash ) is a department and region in northern Peru. It is bordered by the departments of La Libertad on the north, Huánuco and Pasco on the east, Lima on the south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Its capital is ...
to Huancayo. It is the most diverse branch of Quechua, to the extent that its divisions are commonly considered different languages. Quechua II (Peripheral Quechua, ''Wamp'una'' "Traveler") *II-A: Yunkay Quechua (North Peruvian Quechua) is scattered in Peru's occidental highlands. *II-B: Northern Quechua (also known as ''Runashimi'' or, especially in Ecuador, ''Kichwa'') is mainly spoken in Colombia and Ecuador. It is also spoken in the Amazonian lowlands of Colombia, Ecuador, and in pockets in Peru. *II-C:
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 ...
, in the highlands further south, from Huancavelica through the
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 co ...
,
Cusco Cusco, often spelled Cuzco (; qu, Qusqu ()), is a city in Southeastern Peru near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region and of the Cusco Province. The city is the seventh most populous in Peru; ...
, and
Puno Puno (Aymara and qu, Punu) is a city in southeastern Peru, located on the shore of Lake Titicaca. It is the capital city of the Puno Region and the Puno Province with a population of approximately 140,839 (2015 estimate). The city was establ ...
regions of
Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
, across much of
Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
, and in pockets in north-western
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 List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...
. It is the most influential branch, with the largest number of speakers and the most important cultural and literary legacy.


Cognates

This is a sampling of words in several Quechuan languages:


Quechua and Aymara

Quechua shares a large amount of vocabulary, and some striking structural parallels, with
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 ...
, and the two families have sometimes been grouped together as a " Quechumaran family." That hypothesis is generally rejected by specialists, however. The parallels are better explained by mutual influence and borrowing through intensive and long-term contact. Many Quechua–Aymara cognates are close, often closer than intra-Quechua cognates, and there is little relationship in the
affix In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ...
al system. The
Puquina language Puquina (or Pukina) is a small, putative language family, often portrayed as a language isolate, which consists of the extinct Puquina language and Kallawaya, although it is assumed that the latter is just a remnant of the former mixed with Que ...
of the Tiwanaku Empire is a possible source for some of the shared vocabulary between Quechua and Aymara.


Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the
Kunza Kunza is an extinct language isolate once spoken in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile and southern Peru by the Atacama people, who have since shifted to Spanish. The last speaker was documented in 1949. Other names and spellings include Cunza ...
,
Leko Leko may refer to: * Leko (surname) * Leko languages, a small group of African Savanna languages * Leco language, a moribund isolate language of Bolivia * Lekolite or Leko, a type of stage spotlight * Alexandro da Silva Santos or Leko, Brazilian ...
,
Mapudungun Mapuche (, Mapuche & Spanish: , or Mapudungun; from ' 'land' and ' 'speak, speech') is an Araucanian language related to Huilliche spoken in south-central Chile and west-central Argentina by the Mapuche people (from ''mapu'' 'land' and ''che ...
, Mochika, Uru-Chipaya, Zaparo,
Arawak The Arawak are a group of indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. Specifically, the term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to the Lokono of South America and the Taíno, who historically lived in the Greate ...
, Kandoshi, Muniche, Pukina, Pano, Barbakoa, Cholon-Hibito, Jaqi, Jivaro, and Kawapana language families due to contact.


Vocabulary

Quechua has borrowed a large number of
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
words, such as ''piru'' (from ''pero'', "but"), ''bwenu'' (from ''bueno'', "good"), ''iskwila'' (from ''escuela'', "school"), ''waka'' (from ''vaca'', "cow") and ''wuru'' (from ''burro'', "donkey"). A number of Quechua words have entered
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
and
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
via
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
, including ''
coca Coca is any of the four cultivated plants in the family Erythroxylaceae, native to western South America. Coca is known worldwide for its psychoactive alkaloid, cocaine. The plant is grown as a cash crop in the Argentine Northwest, Bolivia, ...
'', ''
condor Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. The name derives from the Quechua ''kuntur''. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere. They are: * The Andean condor (''Vu ...
'', ''
guano Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...
'', '' jerky'', ''
llama The llama (; ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a meat and pack animal by Andean cultures since the Pre-Columbian era. Llamas are social animals and live with others as a herd. Their wool is soft ...
'', ''
pampa The Pampas (from the qu, pampa, meaning "plain") are fertile South American low grasslands that cover more than and include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos, and Córdoba; all of Uruguay; and Brazi ...
'', ''
poncho A poncho (; qu, punchu; arn, pontro; "blanket", "woolen fabric") is an outer garment designed to keep the body warm. A rain poncho is made from a watertight material designed to keep the body dry from the rain. Ponchos have been used by the ...
'', '' puma'', ''
quinine Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to '' Plasmodium falciparum'' that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. While sometimes used for nocturnal leg ...
'', ''
quinoa Quinoa (''Chenopodium quinoa''; , from Quechua ' or ') is a flowering plant in the amaranth family. It is a herbaceous annual plant grown as a crop primarily for its edible seeds; the seeds are rich in protein, dietary fiber, B vitamins, ...
'', ''
vicuña The vicuña (''Lama vicugna'') or vicuna (both , very rarely spelled ''vicugna'', its former genus name) is one of the two wild South American camelids, which live in the high alpine areas of the Andes, the other being the guanaco, which live ...
'' (''vigogne'' in French), and, possibly, ''
gaucho A gaucho () or gaúcho () is a skilled horseman, reputed to be brave and unruly. The figure of the gaucho is a folk symbol of Argentina, Uruguay, Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, and the south of Chilean Patagonia. Gauchos became greatly admired and ...
''. The word ''
lagniappe A lagniappe ( , ) is "a small gift given to a customer by a merchant at the time of a purchase" (such as a 13th doughnut on purchase of a dozen), or more broadly, "something given or obtained gratuitously or by way of good measure." It can be u ...
'' comes from the Quechuan word ''yapay'' "to increase, to add." The word first came into Spanish then
Louisiana French Louisiana French ( frc, français de la Louisiane; lou, françé la lwizyàn) is an umbrella term for the dialects and varieties of the French language spoken traditionally by French Louisianians in colonial Lower Louisiana. As of today Louisi ...
, with the French or Spanish article ''la'' in front of it, ''la ñapa'' in Louisiana French or Creole, or ''la yapa'' in Spanish. A rare instance of a Quechua word being taken into general Spanish use is given by ''carpa'' for "tent" (Quechua ''karpa''). The Quechua influence on
Latin American Spanish The different varieties of the Spanish language spoken in the Americas are distinct from each other as well as from those varieties spoken in the Iberian peninsula, collectively known as Peninsular Spanish and Spanish spoken elsewhere, such as in ...
includes such borrowings as ''papa'' "potato", ''chuchaqui'' "hangover" in
Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...
, and diverse borrowings for "
altitude sickness Altitude sickness, the mildest form being acute mountain sickness (AMS), is the harmful effect of high altitude, caused by rapid exposure to low amounts of oxygen at high elevation. People can respond to high altitude in different ways. Sympt ...
": ''suruqch'i'' in
Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
, ''sorojchi'' in
Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...
, and ''soroche'' in
Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...
. In Bolivia, particularly, Quechua words are used extensively even by non-Quechua speakers. These include ''wawa'' "baby, infant," ''ch'aki'' "hangover," ''misi'' "cat," ''juk'ucho'' "mouse," ''q'omer uchu'' "green pepper," ''jacu'' "let's go," ''chhiri'' and ''chhurco'' "curly haired," among many others. Quechua grammar also enters Bolivian Spanish, such as the use of the suffix ''-ri''. In Bolivian Quechua, ''-ri'' is added to verbs to signify an action is performed with affection or, in the imperative, as a rough equivalent to "please". In Bolivia, ''-ri'' is often included in the Spanish imperative to imply "please" or to soften commands. For example, the standard ''pásame'' "pass me omething becomes ''pasarime''.


Etymology of Quechua

At first, Spaniards referred to the language of the Inca empire as the ''lengua general'', the ''general tongue''. The name ''quichua'' was first used in 1560 by
Domingo de Santo Tomás Fray Domingo de Santo Tomás, O.P. (1499 – 28 February 1570) was a Spanish Dominican missionary, bishop, and grammarian in the Viceroyalty of Peru. He compiled the first Quechua language grammar, published in 1560, and that same year pub ...
in his ''Grammatica o arte de la lengua general de los indios de los reynos del Perú''.Adelaar 2004, p. 179. It is not known what name the native speakers gave to their language before colonial times and whether it was Spaniards who called it ''quechua''. There are two possible etymologies of Quechua as the name of the language. There is a possibility that the name Quechua was derived from ''*qiĉ.wa'', the native word which originally meant the "temperate valley" altitude ecological zone in the Andes (suitable for maize cultivation) and to its inhabitants. Alternatively,
Pedro Cieza de León Pedro Cieza de León ( Llerena, Spain c. 1520 – Seville, Spain July 2, 1554) was a Spanish conquistador and chronicler of Peru and Popayán. He is known primarily for his history and description of Peru, ''Crónicas del Perú''. He wrote th ...
and
Inca Garcilaso de la Vega Inca Garcilaso de la Vega (12 April 1539 – 23 April 1616), born Gómez Suárez de Figueroa and known as El Inca, was a chronicler and writer born in the Viceroyalty of Peru. Sailing to Spain at 21, he was educated informally there, where he ...
, the early Spanish chroniclers, mention the existence of a people called Quichua in the present
Apurímac Region Apurímac is the name of: * Apurímac River, a river in the south-eastern parts of central Perú * Apurímac Region, a region in the south-eastern parts of central Perú *Three albums by the German new-age band Cusco: ** ''Apurimac'' (album) **'' A ...
, and it could be inferred that their name was given to the entire language. The Hispanicised spellings ''Quechua'' and ''Quichua'' have been used in Peru and Bolivia since the 17th century, especially after the
Third Council of Lima The Third Council of Lima was a council of the Roman Catholic Church in Lima, at the time the capital of the Spanish Viceroyalty of Peru. It was the most important of the three councils celebrated in Lima during the 16th century, since it definitive ...
. Today, the various local pronunciations of "Quechua Simi" include , , , and . Another name that native speakers give to their own language is ''runa simi'', "language of man/people"; it also seems to have emerged during the colonial period.


Phonology

The description below applies to
Cusco Quechua Cuzco Quechua ( qu, Qusqu qhichwa simi) is a dialect of Southern Quechua spoken in Cuzco and the Cuzco Region of Peru. It is the Quechua variety used by the Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua in Cuzco, which also prefers the Spanish-based five ...
; there are significant differences in other varieties of Quechua.


Vowels

Quechua only has three vowel phonemes: and , with no diphthongs, as in Aymara (including
Jaqaru Jaqaru (''Haq'aru'') is a language of the Aymaran family. It is also known as Jaqi and Aru. It is spoken in the districts of Tupe and Catahuasi in Yauyos Province, Lima Region, Peru. Most of the 2000 ethnic Jaqaru have migrated to Lima. Kawki ...
). Monolingual speakers pronounce them as respectively, but
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
realizations may also be found. When the vowels appear adjacent to
uvular consonant Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be stops, fricatives, nasals, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not p ...
s (, , and ), they are rendered more like , respectively.


Consonants

Gemination In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...
of the tap results in a trill . About 30% of the modern Quechua vocabulary is borrowed from Spanish, and some Spanish sounds (such as , , , ) may have become phonemic even among monolingual Quechua-speakers. Voicing is not
phonemic In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west ...
in Cusco Quechua.
Cusco Quechua Cuzco Quechua ( qu, Qusqu qhichwa simi) is a dialect of Southern Quechua spoken in Cuzco and the Cuzco Region of Peru. It is the Quechua variety used by the Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua in Cuzco, which also prefers the Spanish-based five ...
, North Bolivian Quechua, and
South Bolivian Quechua South Bolivian Quechua, also known as Central Bolivian Quechua, is a dialect of Southern Quechua spoken in Bolivia and adjacent areas of Argentina, where it is also known as ''Colla''. It is not to be confused with North Bolivian Quechua, which ...
are the only varieties to have glottalized consonants. They, along with certain kinds of Ecuadorian
Kichwa Kichwa (, , also Spanish ) is a Quechuan language that includes all Quechua varieties of Ecuador and Colombia ('' Inga''), as well as extensions into Peru. It has an estimated half million speakers. The most widely spoken dialects are Chimbor ...
, are the only varieties which have
aspirated consonant In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of breath that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. In English, aspirated consonants are allophones in complementary distribution with ...
s. Because reflexes of a given Proto-Quechua word may have different stops in neighboring dialects (Proto-Quechua ''*čaki'' 'foot' becomes ''č'aki'' and ''čaka'' 'bridge' becomes ''čaka''), they are thought to be innovations in Quechua from
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 ...
, borrowed independently after branching off from Proto-Quechua.


Stress

Stress is penultimate in most dialects of Quechua. In some varieties, factors such as
apocope In phonology, apocope () is the loss ( elision) of a word-final vowel. In a broader sense, it can refer to the loss of any final sound (including consonants) from a word. Etymology ''Apocope'' comes from the Greek () from () "cutting off", fro ...
of word-final vowels may cause exceptional final stress.


Orthography

Quechua has been written using the
Roman alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...
since the
Spanish conquest of Peru The Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, also known as the Conquest of Peru, was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. After years of preliminary exploration and military skirmishes, 168 Spanish s ...
. However, written Quechua is rarely used by Quechua speakers due to limited amounts of printed material in the language. Until the 20th century, Quechua was written with a Spanish-based
orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and ...
, for example ''Inca, Huayna Cápac, Collasuyo, Mama Ocllo, Viracocha, quipu, tambo, condor''. This orthography is the most familiar to Spanish speakers, and so it has been used for most borrowings into English, which essentially always happen through Spanish. In 1975, the Peruvian government of
Juan Velasco Alvarado Juan Francisco Velasco Alvarado (June 16, 1910 – December 24, 1977) was a Peruvian general who served as the President of Peru after a successful coup d'état against Fernando Belaúnde's presidency in 1968. Under his presidency, nationalis ...
adopted a new orthography for Quechua. This is the system preferred by the
Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua The High Academy of the Quechua Language (Spanish: ''Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua''; Quechua: ''Qhichwa Simi Hamut'ana Kuraq Suntur'') or AMLQ is a Peruvian organization dedicated to the research, promotion, and dissemination of the Quech ...
, which results in the following spellings of the examples listed above: ''Inka, Wayna Qhapaq, Qollasuyu, Mama Oqllo, Wiraqocha, khipu, tampu, kuntur''. This orthography has the following features: * It uses ''w'' instead of ''hu'' for . * It distinguishes velar ''k'' from uvular ''q'', both of which were spelled ''c'' or ''qu'' in the traditional system. * It distinguishes simple, ejective, and aspirated stops in dialects that make these distinctions, such as that of the
Cusco Region Cusco, also spelled Cuzco (; qu, Qusqu suyu ), is a department and region in Peru and is the fourth largest department in the country, after Madre de Dios, Ucayali, and Loreto. It borders the departments of Ucayali on the north; Madre de D ...
, e.g. the aspirated ''khipu'' 'knot'. * It continues to use the Spanish five-vowel system. In 1985, a variation of this system was adopted by the Peruvian government that uses the Quechuan three-vowel system, resulting in the following spellings: ''Inka, Wayna Qhapaq, Qullasuyu, Mama Uqllu, Wiraqucha, khipu, tampu, kuntur''. The different orthographies are still highly controversial in Peru. Advocates of the traditional system believe that the new orthographies look too foreign and believe that it makes Quechua harder to learn for people who have first been exposed to written Spanish. Those who prefer the new system maintain that it better matches the phonology of Quechua, and they point to studies showing that teaching the five-vowel system to children later causes reading difficulties in Spanish. For more on this, see
Quechuan and Aymaran spelling shift In recent years, Peru has revised the official spelling for place-names originating from Aymara and the Quechuan languages. A standardized alphabet for Quechua was adopted by the Peruvian government in 1975; a revision in 1985 moved to a three-vo ...
. Writers differ in the treatment of Spanish loanwords. These are sometimes adapted to the modern orthography and sometimes left as in Spanish. For instance, "I am Roberto" could be written ''Robertom kani'' or ''Ruwirtum kani''. (The ''-m'' is not part of the name; it is an evidential suffix, showing how the information is known: firsthand, in this case.) The Peruvian linguist
Rodolfo Cerrón Palomino Rodolfo Cerrón Palomino (born February 10, 1940 in Huancayo, Peru) is a Peruvian linguist who has crucially contributed to the investigation and development of the Quechuan languages. He has also made outstanding contributions to the study of t ...
has proposed an orthographic norm for all 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 ...
: this Standard Quechua (''el Quechua estándar'' or ''Hanan Runasimi'') conservatively integrates features of the two widespread dialects
Ayacucho Quechua Ayacucho (also called Chanca or Chanka after the local Chanka ethnicity that dominated the area before the Inca conquest) is a variety of Southern Quechua spoken in the Ayacucho Region, Peru, as well as by immigrants from Ayacucho in Lima. With ...
and
Cusco Quechua Cuzco Quechua ( qu, Qusqu qhichwa simi) is a dialect of Southern Quechua spoken in Cuzco and the Cuzco Region of Peru. It is the Quechua variety used by the Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua in Cuzco, which also prefers the Spanish-based five ...
. For instance: The Spanish-based orthography is now in conflict with Peruvian law. According to article 20 of the decree ''Decreto Supremo No 004-2016-MC'', which approves regulations relative to Law 29735, published in the official newspaper El Peruano on July 22, 2016, adequate spellings of the
toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' ( proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
s in the normalized alphabets of the indigenous languages must progressively be proposed, with the aim of standardizing the spellings used by the National Geographic Institute ''(Instituto Geográfico Nacional, IGN)'' The IGN implements the necessary changes on the official maps of Peru.


Grammar


Morphological type

Quechua is an
agglutinating language An agglutinative language is a type of synthetic language with morphology that primarily uses agglutination. Words may contain different morphemes to determine their meanings, but all of these morphemes (including stems and affixes) tend to remai ...
, meaning that words are built up from basic roots followed by several
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carr ...
es, each of which carries you one meaning. Their large number of
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carr ...
es changes both the overall meaning of words and their subtle shades of meaning. All varieties of Quechua are very regular agglutinative languages, as opposed to isolating or fusional ones hompson Their normal sentence order is SOV ( subject–object–verb). Notable grammatical features include bipersonal
conjugation Conjugation or conjugate may refer to: Linguistics *Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form * Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language Mathematics *Complex conjugation, the change ...
(verbs agree with both subject and object),
evidentiality In linguistics, evidentiality is, broadly, the indication of the nature of evidence for a given statement; that is, whether evidence exists for the statement and if so, what kind. An evidential (also verificational or validational) is the particul ...
(indication of the source and veracity of knowledge), a set of topic
particles In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from s ...
, and suffixes indicating who benefits from an action and the speaker's attitude toward it, but some varieties may lack some of the characteristics.


Pronouns

In Quechua, there are seven
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 ...
s. First-person plural pronouns (equivalent to "we") may be inclusive or exclusive; which mean, respectively, that the
addressee Addressee may refer to: * Someone to whom mail or similar things are addressed or sent * Interlocutor (linguistics), a person to whom a conversation or dialogue is addressed See also * Address (disambiguation) * Addressee honorific In lingui ...
("you") is or is not part of the "we". Quechua also adds the suffix ''-kuna'' to the second and third person singular pronouns ''qam'' and ''pay'' to create the plural forms, ''qam-kuna'' and ''pay-kuna''. In Quechua IIB, or "Kichwa", the exclusive first-person plural pronoun, "ñuqayku", is generally obsolete.


Adjectives

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 ...
s in Quechua are always placed before nouns. They lack gender and number and are not declined to agree with
nouns 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, ...
.


Numbers

*
Cardinal number In mathematics, cardinal numbers, or cardinals for short, are a generalization of the natural numbers used to measure the cardinality (size) of sets. The cardinality of a finite set is a natural number: the number of elements in the set. ...
s. ''ch'usaq'' (0), ''huk'' (1), ''iskay'' (2), ''kimsa'' (3), ''tawa'' (4), ''pichqa'' (5), ''suqta'' (6), ''qanchis'' (7), ''pusaq'' (8), ''isqun'' (9), ''chunka'' (10), ''chunka hukniyuq'' (11), ''chunka iskayniyuq'' (12), ''iskay chunka'' (20), ''pachak'' (100), ''waranqa'' (1,000), ''hunu'' (1,000,000), ''lluna'' (1,000,000,000,000). *Ordinal numbers. To form ordinal numbers, the word ''ñiqin'' is put after the appropriate cardinal number (''iskay ñiqin'' = "second"). The only exception is that, in addition to ''huk ñiqin'' ("first"), the phrase ''ñawpaq'' is also used in the somewhat more restricted sense of "the initial, primordial, the oldest."


Nouns

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, ...
roots accept suffixes that indicate
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual number ...
,
case Case or CASE may refer to: Containers * Case (goods), a package of related merchandise * Cartridge case or casing, a firearm cartridge component * Bookcase, a piece of furniture used to store books * Briefcase or attaché case, a narrow box to ca ...
, and the
person A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...
of a possessor. In general, the possessive suffix precedes that of number. In the
Santiago del Estero Santiago del Estero (, Spanish for ''Saint-James-Upon-The-Lagoon'') is the capital of Santiago del Estero Province in northern Argentina. It has a population of 252,192 inhabitants, () making it the twelfth largest city in the country, with a surf ...
variety, however, the order is reversed. From variety to variety, suffixes may change.


Adverbs

Adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
s can be formed by adding ''-ta'' or, in some cases, ''-lla'' to an adjective: ''allin – allinta'' ("good – well"), ''utqay – utqaylla'' ("quick – quickly"). They are also formed by adding suffixes to
demonstrative Demonstratives ( abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular fram ...
s: ''chay'' ("that") – ''chaypi'' ("there"), ''kay'' ("this") – ''kayman'' ("hither"). There are several original adverbs. For Europeans, it is striking that the adverb ''qhipa'' means both "behind" and "future" and ''ñawpa'' means "ahead, in front" and "past." Local and temporal concepts of adverbs in Quechua (as well as in
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 ...
) are associated to each other reversely, compared to European languages. For the speakers of Quechua, we are moving backwards into the future (we cannot see it: it is unknown), facing the past (we can see it: it is remembered).


Verbs

The
infinitive Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is de ...
forms have the suffix ''-y'' (e.g''., much'a'' 'kiss'; ''much'a-y'' 'to kiss'). These are the typical endings for 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 ...
in a Southern Quechua (IIC) dialect: The suffixes shown in the table above usually indicate the subject; the person of the
object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an ...
is also indicated by a suffix, which precedes the suffixes in the table. For the second person, it is ''-su-'', and for the first person, it is ''-wa-'' in most Quechua II dialects. In such cases, the plural suffixes from the table (''-chik'' and ''-ku'') can be used to express the number of the object rather than the subject. There is a lot of variation between the dialects in the exact rules which determine this. In Central Quechua, however, the verbal morphology differs in a number of respects: most notably, the verbal plural suffixes ''-chik'' and ''-ku'' are not used, and plurality is expressed by different suffixes that are located ''before'' rather than after the personal suffixes. Furthermore, the 1st person singular object suffix is ''-ma-'', rather than ''-wa-''.


Grammatical particles

Particles In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from s ...
are indeclinable: they do not accept suffixes. They are relatively rare, but the most common are ''arí'' 'yes' and ''mana'' 'no', although ''mana'' can take some suffixes, such as ''-n''/''-m'' (''manan''/''manam''), ''-raq'' (''manaraq'' 'not yet') and ''-chu'' (''manachu?'' 'or not?'), to intensify the meaning. Other particles are ''yaw'' 'hey, hi', and certain loan words from Spanish, such as ''piru'' (from Spanish ''pero'' 'but') and ''sinuqa'' (from ''sino'' 'rather').


Evidentiality

The Quechuan languages have three different morphemes that mark
evidentiality In linguistics, evidentiality is, broadly, the indication of the nature of evidence for a given statement; that is, whether evidence exists for the statement and if so, what kind. An evidential (also verificational or validational) is the particul ...
. Evidentiality refers to a morpheme whose primary purpose is to indicate the source of information. In Quechuan languages, evidentiality is a three-term system: there are three evidential morphemes that mark varying levels of source information. The markers can apply to first, second, and third persons.Aikhenvald 2004, p. 377. The chart below depicts an example of these morphemes from
Wanka Quechua Wanka Quechua is a variety of the Quechua language, spoken in the southern part of Peruvian region of Junín by the Huancas. Wanka Quechua belongs to Quechua I, like Ancash Quechua. It has about 300,000 speakers and three main dialects: Wayll ...
:
DIR:direct evidence CONJ:conjecture
The parentheses around the vowels indicate that the vowel can be dropped when following an open vowel. For the sake of cohesiveness, the above forms are used to discuss the evidential morphemes. There are dialectal variations to the forms. The variations will be presented in the following descriptions. The following sentences provide examples of the three evidentials and further discuss the meaning behind each of them.


''-m(i)'' : Direct evidence and commitment

Regional variations: In
Cusco Quechua Cuzco Quechua ( qu, Qusqu qhichwa simi) is a dialect of Southern Quechua spoken in Cuzco and the Cuzco Region of Peru. It is the Quechua variety used by the Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua in Cuzco, which also prefers the Spanish-based five ...
, the direct evidential presents itself as ''–mi'' and ''–n''. The evidential ''–mi'' indicates that the speaker has a "strong personal conviction the veracity of the circumstance expressed." It has the basis of direct personal experience. Wanka Quechua


''-chr(a)'' : Inference and attenuation

In Quechuan languages, not specified by the source, the inference morpheme appears as ''-ch(i), -ch(a), -chr(a)''. The ''-chr(a)'' evidential indicates that the utterance is an inference or form of conjecture. That inference relays the speaker's non-commitment to the truth-value of the statement. It also appears in cases such as acquiescence, irony, interrogative constructions, and first person inferences. These uses constitute nonprototypical use and will be discussed later in the ''changes in meaning and other uses'' section. Wanka Quechua


''-sh(i)'' : Hearsay

Regional variations: It can appear as ''–sh(i)'' or ''–s(i)'' depending on the dialect. With the use of this morpheme, the speaker "serves as a conduit through which information from another source passes." The information being related is hearsay or revelatory in nature. It also works to express the uncertainty of the speaker regarding the situation. However, it also appears in other constructions that are discussed in the ''changes in meaning'' section. Wanka Quechua Hintz discusses an interesting case of evidential behavior found in the Sihaus dialect of
Ancash Quechua Ancash Quechua, or Huaylay (Waylay), is a Quechua variety spoken in the Peruvian department of Ancash by approximately 1,000,000 people. Like Wanka Quechua, it belongs to Quechua I (according to Alfredo Torero). Classification The Ancash Que ...
. The author postulates that instead of three single evidential markers, that Quechuan language contains three pairs of evidential markers.


Affix or clitic

The evidential morphemes have been referred to as markers or morphemes. The literature seems to differ on whether or not the evidential morphemes are acting as affixes or clitics, in some cases, such as Wanka Quechua, enclitics. Lefebvre and Muysken (1998) discuss this issue in terms of case but remark the line between affix and clitic is not clear. Both terms are used interchangeably throughout these sections.


Position in the sentence

Evidentials in the Quechuan languages are "second position enclitics", which usually attach to the first constituent in the sentence, as shown in this example. They can, however, also occur on a focused constituent. Sometimes, the affix is described as attaching to the focus, particularly in the Tarma dialect of
Yaru Quechua Yaru Quechua is a dialect cluster of Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Ande ...
, but this does not hold true for all varieties of Quechua. In Huanuco Quechua, the evidentials may follow any number of topics, marked by the topic marker ''–qa'', and the element with the evidential must precede the main verb or be the main verb. However, there are exceptions to that rule, and the more topics there are in a sentence, the more likely the sentence is to deviate from the usual pattern.


Changes in meaning and other uses

Evidentials can be used to relay different meanings depending on the context and perform other functions. The following examples are restricted to Wanka Quechua. ''The direct evidential, -mi'' The direct evidential appears in wh-questions and yes/no questions. By considering the direct evidential in terms of prototypical semantics, it seems somewhat counterintuitive to have a direct evidential, basically an evidential that confirms the speaker's certainty about a topic, in a question. However, if one focuses less on the structure and more on the situation, some sense can be made. The speaker is asking the addressee for information so the speaker assumes the speaker knows the answer. That assumption is where the direct evidential comes into play. The speaker holds a certain amount of certainty that the addressee will know the answer. The speaker interprets the addressee as being in "direct relation" to the proposed content; the situation is the same as when, in regular sentences, the speaker assumes direct relation to the proposed information. The direct evidential affix is also seen in yes/no questions, similar to the situation with wh-questions. Floyd describes yes/no questions as being "characterized as instructions to the addressee to assert one of the propositions of a disjunction." Once again, the burden of direct evidence is being placed on the addressee, not on the speaker. The question marker in Wanka Quechua, ''-chun'', is derived from the negative –chu marker and the direct evidential (realized as –n in some dialects).


Inferential evidential, -chr(a)

While ''–chr(a)'' is usually used in an inferential context, it has some non-prototypical uses. ''Mild Exhortation'' In these constructions the evidential works to reaffirm and encourage the addressee's actions or thoughts. This example comes from a conversation between husband and wife, discussing the reactions of their family and friends after they have been gone for a while. The husband says he plans to stretch the truth and tell them about distant places to which he has gone, and his wife (in the example above) echoes and encourages his thoughts. ''Acquiescence'' With these, the evidential is used to highlight the speaker's assessment of inevitability of an event and acceptance of it. There is a sense of resistance, diminished enthusiasm, and disinclination in these constructions. This example comes from a discourse where a woman demands compensation from the man (the speaker in the example) whose pigs ruined her potatoes. He denies the pigs as being his but finally realizes he may be responsible and produces the above example. ''Interrogative'' Somewhat similar to the ''–mi'' evidential, the inferential evidential can be found in content questions. However, the salient difference between the uses of the evidentials in questions is that in the ''–m(i)'' marked questions, an answer is expected. That is not the case with ''–chr(a)'' marked questions. ''Irony'' Irony in language can be a somewhat complicated topic in how it functions differently in languages, and by its semantic nature, it is already somewhat vague. For these purposes, it is suffice to say that when irony takes place in Wanka Quechua, the ''–chr(a)'' marker is used. This example comes from discourse between a father and daughter about her refusal to attend school. It can be interpreted as a genuine statement (perhaps one can learn by resisting school) or as an ironic statement (that is an absurd idea).


Hearsay evidential, -sh(i)

Aside from being used to express hearsay and revelation, this affix also has other uses. ''Folktales, myths, and legends'' Because folktales, myths, and legends are, in essence, reported speech, it follows that the hearsay marker would be used with them. Many of these types of stories are passed down through generations, furthering this aspect of reported speech. A difference between simple hearsay and folktales can be seen in the frequency of the ''–sh(i)'' marker. In normal conversation using reported speech, the marker is used less, to avoid redundancy. ''Riddles'' Riddles are somewhat similar to myths and folktales in that their nature is to be passed by word of mouth.


Omission and overuse of evidential affixes

In certain grammatical structures, the evidential marker does not appear at all. In all Quechuan languages the evidential will not appear in a dependent clause. No example was given to depict this omission. Omissions occur in Quechua. The sentence is understood to have the same evidentiality as the other sentences in the context. Quechuan speakers vary as to how much they omit evidentials, but they occur only in connected speech. An interesting contrast to omission of evidentials is overuse of evidentials. If a speaker uses evidentials too much with no reason, competence is brought into question. For example, the overuse of –m(i) could lead others to believe that the speaker is not a native speaker or, in some extreme cases, that one is mentally ill.


Cultural aspect

By using evidentials, the Quechua culture has certain assumptions about the information being relayed. Those who do not abide by the cultural customs should not be trusted. A passage from Weber (1986) summarizes them nicely below: # (Only) one's experience is reliable. # Avoid unnecessary risk by assuming responsibility for information of which one is not absolutely certain. # Do not be gullible. There are many folktales in which the villain is foiled by his gullibility. #Assume responsibility only if it is safe to do so. Successful assumption of responsibility builds stature in the community. Evidentials also show that being precise and stating the source of one's information is extremely important in the language and the culture. Failure to use them correctly can lead to diminished standing in the community. Speakers are aware of the evidentials and even use proverbs to teach children the importance of being precise and truthful. Precision and information source are of the utmost importance. They are a powerful and resourceful method of human communication.


Literature

As in the case of the pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, there are a number of Andean texts in the local language which were written down in Latin characters after the European conquest, but which express, to a great extent, the culture of pre-Conquest times. For example, Quechua poems thought to date from Inca times are preserved as quotations within some Spanish-language chronicles dealing with the pre-Conquest period. However, the most important specimen of Quechua literature of this type is the so-called Huarochirí Manuscript (1598), which describes the mythology and religion of the valley of Huarochirí and has been compared to "an Andean Bible" and to the Mayan
Popol Vuh ''Popol Vuh'' (also ''Popol Wuj'' or ''Popul Vuh'' or ''Pop Vuj'') is a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people, one of the Maya peoples, who inhabit Guatemala and the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and ...
. From the post-conquest period (starting from the middle of the 17th century), there are a number of anonymous or signed Quechua dramas, some of which deal with the Inca era, while most are on religious topics and of European inspiration. The most famous dramas are ''
Ollantay ''Ollantay'' is a dramatic play, originally written in the Quechua language. It is considered by some to be of Inca origin—and as such the oldest and deepest expression of Quechua literature—while others believe it to be of colonial ...
'' and the plays describing the death of
Atahualpa Atahualpa (), also Atawallpa ( Quechua), Atabalica, Atahuallpa, Atabalipa (c. 1502 – 26-29 July 1533) was the last Inca Emperor. After defeating his brother, Atahualpa became very briefly the last Sapa Inca (sovereign emperor) of the Inca Em ...
. Juan de Espinosa Medrano wrote several dramas in the language. Poems in Quechua were also composed during the colonial period. A notable example are the works of Juan Wallparrimachi, a participant in the
Bolivian War of Independence Bolivian may refer to: * Something of, or related to Bolivia ** Bolivian people ** Demographics of Bolivia ** Culture of Bolivia * SS ''Bolivian'', a British-built standard cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries ...
. As for Christian literature, as early as 1583, the Third Provincial Church Council of Lima, which took place in 1583, published a number of texts dealing with Christian doctrine and rituals, including a trilingual
catechism A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adul ...
in Spanish, Quechua and Aymara and a number of other similar texts in the years from 1584 to 1585. More texts of this type were published until the middle of the 17th century, mostly adhering to a Quechua literary standard that had been codified by the Third Council for this purpose. There is at least one Quechuan version of the
Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...
. Dramas and poems continued to be written in the 19th and especially in 20th centuries as well; in addition, in the 20th century and more recently, more prose has been published. However, few literary forms were made present in the 19th century as European influences limited literary criticism. While some of that literature consists of original compositions (poems and dramas), the bulk of 20th century Quechua literature consists of traditional folk stories and oral narratives.Adelaar 2004, pp. 254–256. Johnny Payne has translated two sets of Quechua oral short stories, one into Spanish and the other into English. Demetrio Túpac Yupanqui wrote a Quechuan version of ''
Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of West ...
'', under the title ''Yachay sapa wiraqucha dun Qvixote Manchamantan''.


Media

A news broadcast in Quechua, "Ñuqanchik" (all of us), began in Peru in 2016. Many Andean musicians write and sing in their native languages, including Quechua and Aymara. Notable musical groups are Los Kjarkas, Kala Marka, J'acha Mallku, Savia Andina, Wayna Picchu, Wara, Alborada,
Uchpa Uchpa is a Quechua languages, Quechua-singing Peruvian hard rock and blues band (music), band. Fredy Ortiz formed the band in 1994. History Uchpa came to fame singing in the Quechua language. Formed in Ayacucho in 1991, initially playing cov ...
and many others. There are several Quechua and Quechua-Spanish bloggers, as well as a Quechua language podcast. The 1961 Peruvian film ''
Kukuli ''Kukuli'' (Quechua for white-winged dove)Diccionario Quechua - Español - Quechua, Academía Mayor de la Lengua Quechua, Gobierno Regional Cusco, Cusco 2005 (Quechua-Spanish dictionary) is a 1961 Peruvian drama film directed by Luis Figueroa, ...
'' was the first film to be spoken in the Quechua language. In the 1977 science fiction film
Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The franchise has been expanded into various film ...
, the alien character Greedo speaks an adapted form of Quechua.


See also


References


Sources

* Rolph, Karen Sue. ''Ecologically Meaningful Toponyms: Linking a lexical domain to production ecology in the Peruvian Andes''. Doctoral Dissertation, Stanford University, 2007. * * Adelaar, Willem. ''The Languages of the Andes''. With the collaboration of P.C. Muysken. Cambridge language survey. Cambridge University Press, 2007, * Cerrón-Palomino, Rodolfo. ''Lingüística Quechua'', Centro de Estudios Rurales Andinos 'Bartolomé de las Casas', 2nd ed. 2003 *Cole, Peter. "Imbabura Quechua", North-Holland (Lingua Descriptive Studies 5), Amsterdam 1982. * Cusihuamán, Antonio, ''Diccionario Quechua Cuzco-Collao'', Centro de Estudios Regionales Andinos "Bartolomé de Las Casas", 2001, * Cusihuamán, Antonio, ''Gramática Quechua Cuzco-Collao'', Centro de Estudios Regionales Andinos "Bartolomé de Las Casas", 2001, * Mannheim, Bruce, ''The Language of the Inka since the European Invasion'', University of Texas Press, 1991, * Rodríguez Champi, Albino. (2006). Quechua de Cusco. ''Ilustraciones fonéticas de lenguas amerindias'', ed. Stephen A. Marlett. Lima: SIL International y Universidad Ricardo Palma
Lengamer.org
*Aikhenvald, Alexandra. Evidentiality. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004. Print. *Floyd, Rick. The Structure of Evidential Categories in Wanka Quechua. Dallas, TX: Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1999. Print. *Hintz, Diane. "The evidential system in Sihuas Quechua: personal vs. shared knowledge" The Nature of Evidentiality Conference, The Netherlands, 14–16 June 2012. SIL International. Internet. 13 April 2014. *Lefebvre, Claire, and Pieter Muysken. Mixed Categories: Nominalizations in Quechua. Dordrecht, Holland: Kluwer Academic, 1988. Print. *Weber, David. "Information Perspective, Profile, and Patterns in Quechua." Evidentiality: The Linguistic Coding of Epistemology. Ed. Wallace L. Chafe and Johanna Nichols. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Pub, 1986. 137–55. Print.


Further reading

* Adelaar, Willem F. H.br>Modeling convergence: Towards a reconstruction of the history of Quechuan–Aymaran interaction
About the origin of Quechua, and its relation with Aymara, 2011. * Adelaar, Willem F. H. ''Tarma Quechua: Grammar, Texts, Dictionary''. Lisse: Peter de Ridder Press, 1977. * Bills, Garland D., Bernardo Vallejo C., and Rudolph C. Troike. ''An Introduction to Spoken Bolivian Quechua''. Special publication of the Institute of Latin American Studies, the
University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
. Austin: Published for the Institute of Latin American Studies by the University of Texas Press, 1969. * Coronel-Molina, Serafín M.'' Quechua Phrasebook''. 2002 Lonely Planet * Curl, John, ''Ancient American Poets''. Tempe AZ: Bilingual Press, 2005
Red-coral.net
* Gifford, Douglas. ''Time Metaphors in Aymara and Quechua''. St. Andrews: University of St. Andrews, 1986. * * Harrison, Regina. ''Signs, Songs, and Memory in the Andes: Translating Quechua Language and Culture''. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989. * Jake, Janice L. ''Grammatical Relations in Imbabura Quechua''. Outstanding dissertations in linguistics. New York: Garland Pub, 1985. * King, Kendall A. ''Language Revitalization Processes and Prospects: Quichua in the Ecuadorian Andes''. Bilingual education and bilingualism, 24. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters LTD, 2001. * King, Kendall A., and Nancy H. Hornberger. ''Quechua Sociolinguistics''. Berlin:
Mouton de Gruyter Walter de Gruyter GmbH, known as De Gruyter (), is a German scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. History The roots of the company go back to 1749 when Frederick the Great granted the Königliche Realschule in Be ...
, 2004. * Lara, Jesús, Maria A. Proser, and James Scully. ''Quechua Peoples Poetry''. Willimantic, Conn: Curbstone Press, 1976. * Lefebvre, Claire, and
Pieter Muysken Pieter is a male given name, the Dutch form of Peter. The name has been one of the most common names in the Netherlands for centuries, but since the mid-twentieth century its popularity has dropped steadily, from almost 3000 per year in 1947 t ...
. ''Mixed Categories: Nominalizations in Quechua''. Studies in natural language and linguistic theory, . 11 Dordrecht, Holland: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1988. * Lefebvre, Claire, and Pieter Muysken. ''Relative Clauses in Cuzco Quechua: Interactions between Core and Periphery''. Bloomington, Ind: Indiana University Linguistics Club, 1982. * Muysken, Pieter. ''Syntactic Developments in the Verb Phrase of Ecuadorian Quechua''. Lisse: Peter de Ridder Press, 1977. * Nuckolls, Janis B. ''Sounds Like Life: Sound-Symbolic Grammar, Performance, and Cognition in Pastaza Quechua''. Oxford studies in anthropological linguistics, 2. New York:
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
, 1996. ISBN * Parker, Gary John. ''Ayacucho Quechua Grammar and Dictionary''. Janua linguarum. Series practica, 82. The Hague: Mouton, 1969. * Plaza Martínez, Pedro. Quechua. In: Mily Crevels and Pieter Muysken (eds.) ''Lenguas de Bolivia'', vol. I, 215–284. La Paz: Plural editores, 2009. . (in Spanish) * Sánchez, Liliana. Quechua-Spanish Bilingualism: Interference and Convergence in Functional Categories. Language acquisition & language disorders, v. 35. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins Pub, 2003. * Weber, David. ''A Grammar of Huallaga (Huánuco) Quechua''. University of California publications in linguistics, v. 112. Berkeley:
University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by facul ...
, 1989. * Quechua bibliographies online at:
quechua.org.uk
;Dictionaries and lexicons *Parker, G. J. (1969). Ayacucho Quechua grammar and dictionary. (Janua linguarum: Series practica, 82). The Hague: Mouton. *Cachique Amasifuén, S. F. (2007). Diccionario Kichwa-Castellano / Castellano- Kichwa. Tarapoto, San Martín: Aquinos. *Cerrón-Palomino, R. (1994). Quechua sureño, diccionario unificado quechua- castellano, castellano-quechua. Lima: Biblioteca Nacional del Perú. *Cusihuamán G., A. (1976). Diccionario quechua: Cuzco-Collao. Lima: Ministerio de Educación. *Shimelman, A. (2012-2014). Southern Yauyos Quechua Lexicon. Lima: PUCP. *Stark, L. R.; Muysken, P. C. (1977). Diccionario español-quichua, quichua español. (Publicaciones de los Museos del Banco Central del Ecuador, 1). Quito: Guayaquil. *Tödter, Ch.; Zahn, Ch.; Waters, W.; Wise, M. R. (2002). Shimikunata asirtachik killka inka-kastellanu (Diccionario inga-castellano) (Serie lingüística Peruana, 52). Lima: Summer Institute of Linguistics. *Weber, D. J.; Ballena D., M.; Cayco Z., F.; Cayco V., T. (1998). Quechua de Huánuco: Diccionario del quechua del Huallaga con índices castellano e ingles (Serie Lingüística Peruana, 48). Lima: Summer Institute of Linguistics. *Weber, N. L.; Park, M.; Cenepo S., V. (1976). Diccionario quechua: San Martín. Lima: Ministerio de Educación.


External links



at www.andes.org
Detailed map of the varieties of Quechua according to SIL (fedepi.org)

Quechua Collection
of Patricia Dreidemie at the
Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA) is a digital repository housed in LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections at the University of Texas at Austin. AILLA is a digital language archive dedicated to the dig ...
.
Huancavelica Quechua Fieldnotes of Willem de Ruese
copies of handwritten notes on Quechua pedagogical and descriptive materials, from the
Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA) is a digital repository housed in LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections at the University of Texas at Austin. AILLA is a digital language archive dedicated to the dig ...
.
Diccionario Quechua: Español–Runasimi–English
��Dictionary of
Ayacucho Quechua Ayacucho (also called Chanca or Chanka after the local Chanka ethnicity that dominated the area before the Inca conquest) is a variety of Southern Quechua spoken in the Ayacucho Region, Peru, as well as by immigrants from Ayacucho in Lima. With ...
from Clodoaldo Soto Ruiz.
information about Quechua in a variety of languages

Quechua dramatic and lyrical works (Dramatische und lyrische Dichtungen der Keshua-Sprache) by Ernst Middendorf
(bilingual Quechua - German edition, 1891)
Ollantay (Ollanta: ein drama der Keshuasprache), ed. by Ernst Middendorf
(bilingual Quechua - German edition, 1890) {{DEFAULTSORT:Quechua Language Agglutinative languages Indigenous languages of the Andes Language families Subject–object–verb languages