hidden pixel

Quechua Language Information

Quechua (endonym: Runa Simi) is a Native South American language family and dialect cluster spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from a common ancestral language. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably some 8 to 10 million speakers.[1] At the time of the conquest, the Incans referred to their language as runasimi, only later to be called quechua by conquistadors. Many contemporary Andean Quechua speakers still call it runasimi (or regional variants thereof), literally "people speech", although "runa" here has the more specific sense of "indigenous Andean" people.

Contents

History: origins and divergence

To compare with the historically known language families such as Romance, Germanic, Slavic or Arabic entails considering the linguistic process that explains other cases. Several studies (Alfredo Torero or Rodolfo Cerrón Palomino) show that the oldest form of Quechua appeared in Cajamarquilla, Lima. Afterwards, the main focus of this language was the famous zone of Pachacamac (Lima). A third period of expansion was Chincha (Ica). At this time, the Incas found out that the Quechua was very widespread and decided that this was a tool to achieve the unification of the Empire; thus, the language began to spread across the Andes more enthusiastically.

Quechua had already expanded across wide ranges of the central Andes long even before the Incas, who were just one among many groups who already spoke forms of Quechua across much of Peru. Quechua arrived at Cuzco and was influenced by languages like Aymara. This fact explains that the Cuzco variety was not the more widespread. In similar way, a diverse group of dialects appeared while the Inca Empire ruled and imposed Quechua.

After the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, Quechua continued to see considerable usage, as the "general language" and main means of communication between the Spaniards and the indigenous population, including for the Roman Catholic Church as a language of evangelisation. The range of Quechua thus continued to expand in some areas. However, the administrative and religious use of Quechua was terminated when it was banned from public use in Peru in the late 18th century in response to the Túpac Amaru II rebellion[2] – even "loyal" pro-Catholic texts such as Garcilaso de la Vega's Comentarios Reales were banned.[3] Despite a brief revival immediately after independence, the prestige of Quechua decreased sharply and it gradually became restricted to rural areas.[4]

The oldest written records of the language are those of Fray Domingo de Santo Tomás, who arrived in Peru in 1538 and learned the language from 1540, publishing his Grammatica o arte de la lengua general de los indios de los reynos del Perú in 1560. [5] [6] [7]

Current status

Today, Quechua has the status of an official language in Bolivia and Peru, along with Spanish.

Currently, the major obstacle to the diffusion of the usage and teaching of Quechua is the lack of written material in the Quechua language, namely books, newspapers, software, magazines, etc. Thus, Quechua, along with Aymara and the minor indigenous languages, remains essentially an oral language.

In recent years, Quechua has been introduced in Intercultural bilingual education (IBE) in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, which is, however reaching only a part of the Quechua-speaking population.

In spite of a growing realization of its value as a national symbol and vehicle of native culture in the respective countries, there is an ongoing process of Quechua-speaking populations shifting to Spanish for the purposes of social advancement.[8]

Quechua and Spanish are now heavily intermixed, with many hundreds of Spanish loanwords in Quechua. Conversely, 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 impact on other native languages of the Americas, for example Mapudungun.

Number of speakers

The number of speakers given varies widely according to the sources. The total in Ethnologue 16 is 10 million, mostly based on figures published 1987–2002, but with a few dating from the 1960s. The figure for Imbabura Quechua in Ethnologue, for example, is 300,000, an estimate from 1977. The missionary organization FEDEPI, on the other hand, estimated one million Imbabura speakers (published 2006). Census figures are also problematic, due to under-reporting. The 2001 Ecuador census reports only 500,000 Quechua speakers, where most sources estimate over 2 million. The censuses of Peru (2007) and Bolivia (2001) are thought to be more reliable.

Additionally, there are an unknown number of speakers in emigrant communities.

Classification

The four branches of Quechua: I (Central), II-A (North Peruvian), II-B (Northern), II-C (Southern)

There is a sharp dichotomy in Quechua between the varieties of the central Peruvian highlands and the peripheral varieties of Ecuador on the one hand and southern Peru and Bolivia on the other. These are labeled Quechua I (or Quechua B, central) and Quechua II (or Quechua A, peripheral). Within these 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, and the generally more conservative varieties of the southern highlands, Quechua II-C, which include the old Inca capital of Cuzco. The closeness is at least in part due to the influence of Cuzco Quechua on the Ecuadorean varieties during the Inca Empire, as northern nobles were required to educate their children in Cuzco, maintaining Cuzco as the prestige dialect in the north.

Speakers from different points within any one of these three regions can generally understand each other reasonably well. There are nonetheless significant local-level differences across each. (Wanka Quechua, in particular, has several very distinctive characteristics that make this variety distinctly difficult to understand, even for other Central Quechua speakers.) Speakers from different major regions, meanwhile, particularly Central vs Southern Quechua, are not able to communicate effectively.

The lack of mutual intelligibility 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 44 that they judge require separate literature.[5] As a reference point, the overall degree of diversity across the family is a little less than that of the Romance or Germanic families, and more of the order of Slavic or Arabic. The greatest diversity in within Central Quechua, AKA Quechua I, which is believed to lie close to the homeland of the ancestral Proto-Quechua language.

Family tree

Alfredo Torero devised the traditional classification, the three divisions above plus a fourth, northern Peruvian, branch. The latter cause complications in the classification, however, as they (Cajamarca-Lambayeque), Pacaraos, and Yauyos) have features of both Quechua I and Quechua II, and so are difficult to assign to either. Torero's classification is,

Adelaar (2004) adheres to the Quechua I / Quechua II (central/peripheral) bifurcation, but partially following later modifications by Torero, reassigns part of Quechua II-A to Quechua I:

Proto-Quechua
Quechua I (Central)

Ancash (Huaylas–Conchucos)

Huánuco (Alto Pativilca–Alto Marañón–Alto Huallaga)

Yaru (incl. Pacaraos)

Wanka (Jauja–Huanca)

Yauyos–Chincha (Huangáscar–Topará)
Quechua II (Peripheral)
Northern Peruvian (Quechua II-A, reduced)

Ferreñafe (Cañaris)

Cajamarca

Lincha
Northern Quechua (Quechua II-B)

Ecuadorian Quechua (Highlands and Oriente)

Chachapoyas (Amazonas)

Lamas (San Martín)
Southern Quechua (Quechua II-C)

Ayacucho

Cuzco

Puno (Callao)

Northern Bolivian (Apolo)

Southern Bolivia

Landerman (1991) does not believe a truly genetic classification is possible, and breaks up 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 that Ecuadorian is synonymous with Northern Quechua.[9]

Geographical distribution

Quechua I (Central Quechua, Waywash) is spoken in Peru's central highlands, from Ancash to Huancayo. It is the most diverse branch of Quechua,[10] to the extent that its divisions are commonly considered different languages.

Quechua II (Peripheral Quechua, Wamp'una 'Traveler')

Cognates

A sampling of words in several Quechua dialects:

Standardized Southern Quechua Ayacucho Cuzco Bolivia Ecuador Cajamarca San Martin Junin Ancash
'ten' chunka chunka /ˈt͡ʃuŋka/ chunka chunka chunga trunka chunka trunka chunka
'sweet' misk'i miski /ˈmiski/ misk'i misk'i mishki mishki mishki mishki mishki
'he gives' qun qun /χɒn/ qun qun kun qun kun un qun
'one' huk huk /huk/ hux ux shuk suh suk huk huk
'two' iskay iskay /ˈiskai/ iskay iskay iskay iskay iskay iskay ishke
'yes' arí arí /aˈɾi/ arí arí arí arí arí arí aumi
'white' yuraq yuraq /ˈjoɾaχ/ yuraq yuraq yurak yuraq yurak yulaq yuraq

Quechua and Aymara

Quechua shares a large amount of vocabulary, and some striking structural parallels, with Aymara, and these two families have sometimes been grouped together as a 'Quechumaran' family. This 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 affixal system.

Vocabulary

A number of Quechua loanwords have entered English via Spanish, including ayahuasca, coca, cóndor, guano, jerky, llama, pampa, puma, quinine, quinoa, vicuña and possibly gaucho. The word lagniappe comes from the Quechuan word yapay ("to increase; to add") with the Spanish article la in front of it, la yapa or la ñapa in Spanish.

The influence on Latin American Spanish includes such borrowings as papa for "potato", chuchaqui for "hangover" in Ecuador, and diverse borrowings for "altitude sickness", in Bolivia from Quechuan suruqch'i to Bolivian sorojchi, in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru soroche.

Quechua has borrowed a large number of Spanish words, such as piru (from pero, but), bwenu (from bueno, good), and burru (from burro, donkey).

Etymology of *qiĉwa

The native word */qiĉ.wa/ originally referred to the "temperate valley" altitude ecological zone in the Andes (suitable for maize cultivation). Use of the word to describe the language (by an indirect association) is recorded relatively early in the colonial period, and seems to have been begun by the Spaniards, not Quechua-speakers themselves. The name that native speakers give to their own language is "Runa Simi".[11]

The name quichua is first used by Domingo de Santo Tomás in his Grammatica o arte de la lengua general de los indios de los reynos del Perú, where he also mentions the mythical origin of the language, also quoted by Pedro Cieza de León and Bernabé Cobo. This myth held that the lengua general (the name by which Quechua was most widely known in the early colonial period) originated with the Quichua people, from modern Andahuaylas Province. The Hispanicised spellings Quechua and Quichua have been used in Peru and Bolivia since the 17th century, especially after the III Lima Council.

Today the various local pronunciations of Quechua include [ˈqʰeʃwa ˈsimi], [ˈχetʃwa ˈʃimi], [ˈkitʃwa ˈʃimi], [ˈʔitʃwa ˈʃimi].

Phonology

The description below applies to Cusco dialect; there are significant differences in other varieties of Quechua.

Vowels

Quechua uses only three vowel phonemes: /a/ /i/ and /u/, as in Aymara (including Jaqaru). Monolingual speakers pronounce these as [æ] [ɪ] and [ʊ] respectively, though the Spanish vowels /a/ /i/ and /u/ may also be used. When the vowels appear adjacent to the uvular consonants /q/, /qʼ/, and /qʰ/, they are rendered more like [ɑ], [ɛ] and [ɔ] respectively.

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Postalveolar/ Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ
Stop plain p t tʃ k q
aspirated pʰ tʰ tʃʰ kʰ qʰ
ejective p’ t’ tʃ’ k’ q’
Fricative s h
Approximant j w
Lateral l ʎ
Rhotic ɾ

None of the plosives or fricatives are voiced; voicing is not phonemic in the Quechua native vocabulary of the modern Cusco variety.

Voiceless bilabial plosives Pronunciation of voiceless bilabial plosive phonemes in Quechua
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

About 30% of the modern Quechua vocabulary is borrowed from Spanish, and some Spanish sounds (e.g. f, b, d, g) may have become phonemic, even among monolingual Quechua speakers.

Aspirated and ejective renderings of consonants are only phonemic in some varieties of Quechua. Others only use plain /p/, /t/, /t͡ʃ/, and /k/.

Stress

Stress is penultimate in most dialects of Quechua. In some varieties the apocope of word-final vowels or other factors may cause exceptional final stress.

Writing system

Main article: Quechua alphabet

Quechua has been written using the Roman alphabet since the Spanish conquest of Peru. However, written Quechua is not used by the Quechua-speaking people at large due to the lack of printed referential material in Quechua.

Until the 20th century, Quechua was written with a Spanish-based orthography. Examples: Inca, Huayna Cápac, Collasuyo, Mama Ocllo, Viracocha, quipu, tambo, condor. This orthography is the most familiar to Spanish speakers, and as a corollary, has been used for most borrowings into English.

In 1975, the Peruvian government of Juan Velasco adopted a new orthography for Quechua. This is the writing system preferred by the Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua. Examples: Inka, Wayna Qhapaq, Qollasuyu, Mama Oqllo, Wiraqocha, khipu, tampu, kuntur. This orthography:

In 1985, a variation of this system was adopted by the Peruvian government; it uses the Quechuan three-vowel system. Examples: 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 suggest 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 point to studies showing that teaching the five-vowel system to children causes reading difficulties in Spanish later on.

For more on this, see Quechuan and Aymaran spelling shift.

Writers differ in the treatment of Spanish loanwords. Sometimes these are adapted to the modern orthography, and sometimes they are left 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.)

The Peruvian linguist Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino has proposed an orthographic norm for all Southern Quechua. This norm, el Quechua estándar or Hanan Runasimi, which is accepted by many institutions in Peru, has been made by combining conservative features of two widespread dialects, Ayacucho Quechua and Cusco Quechua. For instance:

English Ayacucho Cusco Southern Quechua
to drink upyay uhyay upyay
fast utqa usqha utqha
to work llamkay llank'ay llamk'ay
we (inclusive) ñuqanchik nuqanchis ñuqanchik
(progressive suffix) -chka- -sha- -chka-
day punchaw p'unchay p'unchaw

To listen to recordings of these and many other words as pronounced in many different Quechua-speaking regions, see the external website The Sounds of the Andean Languages. There is also a full section on the new Quechua and Aymara Spelling.

Grammar

Morphological type

All varieties of Quechua are very regular agglutinative languages, as opposed to isolating or fusional ones. Their normal sentence order is SOV (subject–object–verb). Their large number of suffixes changes both the overall significance of words and their subtle shades of meaning. Notable grammatical features include bipersonal conjugation (verbs agree with both subject and object), evidentiality (indication of the source and veracity of knowledge), a set of topic particles, and suffixes indicating who benefits from an action and the speaker's attitude toward it, although some languages and varieties may lack some of these characteristics.

Pronouns

Number
Singular Plural
Person First Ñuqa Ñuqanchik (inclusive)

Ñuqayku (exclusive)
Second Qam Qamkuna
Third Pay Paykuna

In Quechua, there are seven pronouns. Quechua has two first person plural pronouns ("we", in English). One is called the inclusive, which is used when the speaker wishes to include in "we" the person to whom he or she is speaking ("we and you"). The other form is called the exclusive, which is used when the addressee is excluded. ("we without you"). 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.

Adjectives

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

Numbers

Nouns

Noun roots accept suffixes which indicate person (defining of possession, not identity), number, and case. In general, the personal suffix precedes that of number – in the Santiago del Estero variety, however, the order is reversed.[12] From variety to variety, suffixes may change.

Examples using the word wasi (house)
Function Suffix Example (translation)
suffix indicating number plural -kuna wasikuna houses
possessive suffix 1.person singular -y, -: wasiy, wasii my house
2.person singular -yki wasiyki your house
3.person singular -n wasin his/her/its house
1.person plural (incl) -nchik wasinchik our house (incl.)
1.person plural (excl) -y-ku wasiyku our house (excl.)
2.person plural -yki-chik wasiykichik your (pl.) house
3.person plural -n-ku wasinku their house
suffixes indicating case nominative – wasi the house (subj.)
accusative -(k)ta wasita the house (obj.)
instrumental -wan wasiwan with the house, and the house
abessive -naq wasinaq without the house
dative -paq wasipaq to the house
genitive -p(a) wasip(a) of the house
causative -rayku wasirayku because of the house
benefactive -paq wasipaq for the house
locative -pi wasipi at the house
directional -man wasiman towards the house
inclusive -piwan, puwan wasipiwan, wasipuwan including the house
terminative -kama, -yaq wasikama, wasiyaq up to the house
transitive -(rin)ta wasinta through the house
ablative -manta, -piqta wasimanta, wasipiqta off/from the house
comitative -(ni)ntin allquntin along with the dog
immediate -raq wasiraq first the house
interactive -pura wasipura among the houses
exclusive -lla(m) wasilla(m) only the house
comparative -naw, -hina wasinaw, wasihina than the house

Adverbs

Adverbs 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 demonstratives: 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", whereas ñawpa means "ahead, in front" and "past".[13] This means that local and temporal concepts of adverbs in Quechua (as well as in Aymara) 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 – i.e. it is unknown), facing the past (we can see it – i.e. we remember it).

Verbs

The infinitive forms (unconjugated) have the suffix -y (much'a= "kiss"; much'a-y = "to kiss"). The endings for the indicative are:

Present Past Future Pluperfect
Ñuqa -ni -rqa-ni -saq -sqa-ni
Qam -nki -rqa-nki -nki -sqa-nki
Pay -n -rqa(-n) -nqa -sqa
Ñuqanchik -nchik -rqa-nchik -su-nchik -sqa-nchik
Ñuqayku -yku -rqa-yku -saq-ku -sqa-yku
Qamkuna -nki-chik -rqa-nki-chik -nki-chik -sqa-nki-chik
Paykuna -n-ku -rqa-(n)ku -nqa-ku -sqa-ku

The suffixes shown in the table above usually indicate the subject; the person of the object is also indicated by a suffix (-a- for first person and -su- for second person), which precedes the suffixes in the table. 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.

Various suffixes are added to the stem to change the meaning. For example, -chi is a causative and -ku is a reflexive (example: wañuy = "to die"; wañuchiy = to kill wañuchikuy = "to commit suicide"); -naku is used for mutual action (example: marq'ay= "to hug"; marq'anakuy= "to hug each other"), and -chka is a progressive, used for an ongoing action (e.g., mikhuy = "to eat"; mikhuchkay = "to be eating").

Grammatical particles

Particles are indeclinable, that is, they do not accept suffixes. They are relatively rare. 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. Also used are yaw ("hey", "hi"), and certain loan words from Spanish, such as piru (from Spanish pero "but") and sinuqa (from sino "rather").

Evidentiality

Nearly every Quechua sentence is marked by an evidential clitic, indicating the source of the speaker's knowledge (and how certain s/he is about the statement). The enclitic =mi expresses personal knowledge (Tayta Wayllaqawaqa chufirmi, "Mr. Huayllacahua is a driver-- I know it for a fact"); =si expresses hearsay knowledge (Tayta Wayllaqawaqa chufirsi, "Mr. Huayllacahua is a driver, or so I've heard"); =chá expresses high probability (Tayta Wayllaqawaqa chufirchá, "Mr. Huayllacahua is a driver, most likely"). These become =m, =s, =ch after a vowel, although the latter is rarely used in its reduced form and the majority of speakers usually employ =chá, even after a vowel (Mariochá, "He's Mario, most likely").

The evidential clitics are not restricted to nouns; they can attach to any word in the sentence, typically the comment (as opposed to the topic).

Literature

Although the body of literature in Quechua is not as sizable as its historical and present-day prominence would suggest, it is nevertheless not negligible.

As in the case of the Mesoamerican civilizations, there are a number of surviving Andean documents in the local language that were written down in Latin characters after the European conquest, but which express to a great extent the culture of pre-conquest times. The Quechua literature of this type is somewhat scantier, but nevertheless significant. It includes the so-called Huarochiri manuscript (1598), describing the mythology and religion of the valley of Huarochirí, as well as Quechua poems quoted within the Spanish-language texts of some chronicles dealing with the pre-conquest period. There are a number of anonymous or signed Quechua dramas dating from the post-conquest period (starting from the 17th century), some of which deal with the Inca era, while most are on religious topics and of European inspiration. The most famous of these dramas are Ollanta and the plays describing the death of Atahualpa. For example, Juan de Espinosa Medrano wrote several dramas in the language. Poems in Quechua were also composed during the colonial period.[14][15]

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. 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.[15] Johnny Payne has translated two sets of Quechua oral short stories, one into Spanish and the other into English.

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 and many others.

In popular culture

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Adelaar 2004, p. 168
  2. ^ Adelaar, Willem F. H. and Pieter Muysken. 2004. The languages of the Andes. P.255, p.167.
  3. ^ Aybar cited by Hart, Stephen M. A companion to Latin American literature. P.6
  4. ^ Adelaar, Willem F. H. and Pieter Muysken. 2004. The languages of the Andes. P.167.
  5. ^ a b Ethnologue report for Quechua (macrolanguage) (SIL)
  6. ^ Torero, Alfredo (1983). "La familia lingûística quechua". América Latina en sus lenguas indígenas. Caracas: Monte Ávila. ISBN 92-3-301926-8
  7. ^ Torero, Alfredo (1974). El quechua y la historia social andina. Lima: Universidad Ricardo Palma, Dirección Universitaria de Investigación. ISBN 978-603-45-0210-9
  8. ^ Adelaar, Willem F. H. and Pieter Muysken. 2004. The languages of the Andes. P.258–259: "The Quechua speakers' wish for social mobility for their children is often heard as an argument for not transmitting the language to the next generation. ... As observed quite adequately by Cerrón Palomino, "Quechua (and Aymara) speakers seem to have taken the project of assimilation begun by the dominating classes and made it their own."
  9. ^ Peter Landerman, 1991. Quechua dialects and their classification. PhD dissertation, UCLA
  10. ^ Lyle Campbell, American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America, Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 189
  11. ^ Mann, Charles Kellogg. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. Vintage. p. 71. ISBN 1-4000-3205-9.
  12. ^ Alderetes, Jorge R. (1997). "Morfoligía Nominal del Quechua Santiagueño". http://usuarios.arnet.com.ar/yanasu/Cap3-1.htm.
  13. ^ This is not unknown in English, where "before" means "in the past", and Shakespeare's Macbeth says "The greatest is behind", meaning in the future.
  14. ^ http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robert_beer/history.htm
  15. ^ a b Adelaar, Willem F. H. and Pieter Muysken. 2004. The languages of the Andes. P.254–256

References

Notes

  1. ^ Adelaar 2004, p. 168
  2. ^ Adelaar, Willem F. H. and Pieter Muysken. 2004. The languages of the Andes. P.255, p.167.
  3. ^ Aybar cited by Hart, Stephen M. A companion to Latin American literature. P.6
  4. ^ Adelaar, Willem F. H. and Pieter Muysken. 2004. The languages of the Andes. P.167.
  5. ^ a b Ethnologue report for Quechua (macrolanguage) (SIL)
  6. ^ Torero, Alfredo (1983). "La familia lingûística quechua". América Latina en sus lenguas indígenas. Caracas: Monte Ávila. ISBN 92-3-301926-8
  7. ^ Torero, Alfredo (1974). El quechua y la historia social andina. Lima: Universidad Ricardo Palma, Dirección Universitaria de Investigación. ISBN 978-603-45-0210-9
  8. ^ Adelaar, Willem F. H. and Pieter Muysken. 2004. The languages of the Andes. P.258–259: "The Quechua speakers' wish for social mobility for their children is often heard as an argument for not transmitting the language to the next generation. ... As observed quite adequately by Cerrón Palomino, "Quechua (and Aymara) speakers seem to have taken the project of assimilation begun by the dominating classes and made it their own."
  9. ^ Peter Landerman, 1991. Quechua dialects and their classification. PhD dissertation, UCLA
  10. ^ Lyle Campbell, American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America, Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 189
  11. ^ Mann, Charles Kellogg. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. Vintage. p. 71. ISBN 1-4000-3205-9.
  12. ^ Alderetes, Jorge R. (1997). "Morfoligía Nominal del Quechua Santiagueño". http://usuarios.arnet.com.ar/yanasu/Cap3-1.htm.
  13. ^ This is not unknown in English, where "before" means "in the past", and Shakespeare's Macbeth says "The greatest is behind", meaning in the future.
  14. ^ http://homepage.ntlworld.com/robert_beer/history.htm
  15. ^ a b Adelaar, Willem F. H. and Pieter Muysken. 2004. The languages of the Andes. P.254–256

Further reading

External links

Dictionaries
This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (March 2011)
Southern Quechua edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Quechua
Kichwa test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
Links to related articles
List of primary language families
Africa

Afro-Asiatic · Austronesian · Khoe · Kx'a · Mande · Niger–Congo · Nilo-Saharan · Songhay · Tuu · Ubangian

Isolates Bangime · Hadza · Sandawe
Europe and Asia

Afro-Asiatic · Ainu · Austro-Asiatic · Austronesian · Chukotko-Kamchatkan · Dené–Yeniseian · Dravidian · Eskimo–Aleut · Great Andamanese · Hmong–Mien · Hurro-Urartian · Indo-European · Japonic · Kartvelian · Tai–Kadai · Mongolic · Northeast Caucasian · Northwest Caucasian · Ongan · Sino-Tibetan · Tungusic · Turkic · Tyrsenian · Uralic · Yukaghir · Altaic? · Austro-Tai? · Austronesian–Ongan? · Siangic?

Isolates Basque · Burushaski · Elamite · Korean · Kusunda · Nihali · Nivkh · Sumerian
Sign Languages British · French · German · Japanese · Swedish · Chinese · Indian · Other sign languages
New Guinea and the Pacific

Amto–Musan · Arafundi · Austronesian · Baining · Bayono–Awbono · Border (Tami) · Bulaka River · Central Solomons · East Bird's Head – Sentani · East Geelvink Bay · Eastern Trans-Fly · Fas · Goilalan · Kaure–Kapori · Kiwai–Porome · Kwomtari · Lakes Plain · Left May · Lower Mamberamo · Mairasi · Morehead and Upper Maro Rivers · Nimboran · North Bougainville · Pahoturi · Pauwasi · Piawi · Ramu – Lower Sepik · Senagi · Sepik · Skou · South Bougainville · Teberan · Tor–Kwerba · Torricelli · Trans–New Guinea · West Papuan · Yawa · Yuat · Trans-Fly – Bulaka River? · Yele – West New Britain?

Isolates Abinomn · Busa · Kol · Kuot · Pyu · Taiap · Yalë · Isirawa? · Massep? · Pawaia? · Sulka? · Waia?
Australia

Bunuban · Burarran · Daly · Giimbiyu (Mangerrian) · Gunwinyguan · Iwaidjan · Jarrakan · Limilngan · Mirndi · Nyulnyulan · Pama–Nyungan · Tankic · Tasmanian · Worrorran.

Isolates Enindhilyagwa · Gaagudju · Laragiya? · Ngurmbur · Tiwi · Umbugarla?
North America

Algic · Alsean · Caddoan · Chimakuan · Chinookan · Chumashan · Comecrudan · Coosan · Dené–Yeniseian · Eskimo–Aleut · Iroquoian · Kalapuyan · Keresan · Maiduan · Muskogean · Palaihnihan · Plateau Penutian · Pomoan · Salishan · Shastan · Siouan · Tanoan · Tsimshianic · Utian · Uto-Aztecan · Wakashan · Wintuan · Yokutsan · Yuman · Yuki–Wappo?

Isolates Chimariko · Guaycura · Haida · Karuk · Kutenai · Siuslaw · Takelma · Timucua · Washo · Yana · Yuchi · Zuni
Mesoamerica

Chibchan · Jicaquean · Lencan? · Mayan · Misumalpan · Mixe–Zoque · Oto-Manguean · Tequistlatecan · Totonacan · Uto-Aztecan · Xincan · Totozoquean?

Isolates Cuitlatec · Huave · Seri · Tarascan
South America

Alacalufan · Arawakan · Arauan · Araucanian · Arutani–Sape · Aymaran · Barbacoan · Bororoan · Cahuapanan · Cariban · Catacaoan · Chapacuran · Charruan · Chibchan · Choco · Chonan · Guaicuruan · Guajiboan · Jê (Gê) · Harakmbut · Jirajaran · Jivaroan · Kariri · Katembri–Taruma · Katukinan · Mascoian · Matacoan · Maxakalian · Nadahup · Nambikwaran · Otomákoan · Pano–Tacanan · Peba–Yaguan · Purian · Quechuan · Saliban · Ticuna–Yuri · Tiniguan · Tucanoan · Tupian · Uru–Chipaya · Witotoan · Yabutian · Yanomaman · Zamucoan · Zaparoan · Chimuan? · Esmeralda–Yaruro? · Hibito–Cholón? · Lule–Vilela? · Macro-Gê? · Tequiraca–Canichana?

Isolates (extant in 2000) Aikana? · Andoque? · Borowa · Camsa · Candoshi · Cofan? · Fulniô · Joti · Irantxe? · Itonama · Karajá · Krenak · Leco · Movima · Mura-Pirahã · Nukak? · Ofayé · Puinave · Rikbaktsa · Huaorani · Ticuna · Trumai · Warao · Yamana · Yuracare
See also Language isolates · Unclassified languages · Creoles · Pidgins · Mixed languages · Artificial languages · List of sign languages
Families in bold are the largest. Families in italics have no living members.
Official languages of South America by language
Aymara Dutch English French Guaraní

Bolivia Peru

Aruba Curaçao Sint Maarten Suriname

Falkland Islands Guyana Sint Maarten South Georgia Trinidad and Tobago San Andrés y Providencia (Colombia)

French Guiana

Bolivia Paraguay Corrientes (Argentina)
Papiamento Portuguese Quechua Spanish

Aruba Curaçao

Brazil

Bolivia Colombia

Ecuador Peru

Argentina Bolivia Chile

Colombia Ecuador Paraguay

Peru Uruguay Venezuela
In Peru, any native Peruvian language is official in areas where it is used by a majority of the population. In Bolivia, all 36 native languages of Bolivia are official languages of the state.

Categories:

 

The above information uses material from Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Some facts may not have been fully verified for accuracy. [Disclaimers]
This page was last archived by our server on Thu May 24 10:19:26 2012.
Displaying this page or its contents does not use any Wikimedia Foundation's resources.
The owners of this site proudly support the Wikimedia Foundation.

More Information Results for "Quechua Language"
[Hide]▼
'Quechua Language' Images
[Hide]▲