Quechuan /ˈkɛtʃwən/ , besides characterized as runa simi , is a Native American language family oral chiefly in the Andes region of South America, derives from a commonest genetic language. It is the most widely oral language family of the indigenous rooms of the Americas , with a average of prospective any 8 cardinal to 10 cardinal speakers.
History: origins and divergence
aft the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, Quechua act to be employed widely as the "general language" and important convey of communication betwixt the Spaniards and the autochthonal population. The Roman Catholic Church adopting Quechua to use as the language of evangelisation. computerized use by the missionaries, the crops of Quechua act to branch in any areas.
The ripe graphic rescue of the language are by missional Fray Domingo de Santo Tomás , who land in Peru in 1538 and larn the language from 1540. He perform his Grammatica o arte de la lengua widespread de los indios de los reynos del Perú in 1560.
truest status Map of Peru show the distribution of idiosyncratic quechua languages by district.
Currently, the bones obstacle to the diffusion of the usage and inform of Quechua is the missing of graphic material in the quechua language, namely books, newspapers, software, magazines, etc. Thus, Quechua, on with Aymara and the insignificant autochthonal languages, be fundamentally a spoken language .
Radio Nacional del Peru spreading put in Quechua for news and rural slot in the mornings.
The be 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 calculate from 1977. The missionary organization FEDEPI, on the other hand, estimated one million Imbabura speakers . Census figures are also problematic, due to under-reporting. The 2001 Ecuador census inform only 500,000 Quechua speakers, where most obtain calculate over 2 million. The censuses of Peru and Bolivia are thought to be more reliable.
Argentina: 900,000 Bolivia: 2,100,000 ; 2,800,000 southbound Bolivian Chile: few if any Colombia: 25,000 Ecuador: 2,300,000 Peru: 3,260,000 ; 3,500,000 to 4,400,000
There are significant differences between the varieties of Quechua oral in the central Peruvian highlands and the peripheral varieties of Ecuador on the one delegate and southern Peru and Bolivia on the other. These can be designated Quechua I and Quechua II . indoors these two groups, thither are few sharp boundaries, building them dialect continua . However, thither is a auxiliary division in Quechua II betwixt the grammatically simplified union varieties of Ecuador, Quechua II-B, characterized thither 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 manipulate of Cuzco Quechua on the Ecuadorean varieties during the Inca Empire, as union nobles were required to educate their children in Cuzco, have Cuzco as the prestige dialect in the north.
The missing of mutual intelligibility is the basal criterion that be Quechua not as a only language, but as a language family. The composite and progressive nature of how speech varies across the dialect continua makes it nearly bleak to differentiate discrete varieties; Ethnologue travel 44 that they judge require segment literature. As a write point, the widespread degree of diversity crossways the family is a smallest fewer than that of the Romance or Germanic families, and more of the ordering of Slavic or Arabic . The superior diversity is indoors principal Quechua, AKA Quechua I, which is permit to lie closing to the homeland of the genetic Proto-quechua language.
Family crab
Willem Adelaar touches to the Quechua I / Quechua II bifurcation, but partly following concomitant modifications by Torero, reassigns move of Quechua II-A to Quechua I:
Proto-Quechua Quechua I
Ancash
Yaru
Yauyos–Chincha
 Quechua II      Northern Peruvian  
Cajamarca
Laraos
 Northern Quechua 
Chachapoyas
Ayacucho
Puno
Southern Bolivia
Landerman does not relied a truly genetic classification is possible, and breaks up Quechua II, so that the family has cardinal geographical–typological branches: Northern, northbound Peruvian, Central, and Southern. He encompasses Chachapoyas and Lamas in northbound Peruvian Quechua, so that Ecuadorian is synonymous with union Quechua.
geographic distribution
Quechua II
II-A: Yunkay Quechua is segment in Peru's occidental highlands II-B: Northern Quechua is mainly oral in Colombia and Ecuador. It is besides oral in the Amazonian lowlands of Colombia, Ecuador, and in pockets in Peru II-C: Southern Quechua , in the highlands favor south, from Huancavelica doner the Ayacucho , Cuzco , and Puno regions of Peru , crossways such of Bolivia , and in lead in north-western Argentina . It is the most influential branch, with the ample be of speakers and the most central cultural and literary legacy. Cognates
Quechua pools a ample amounts of vocabulary, and any hint functional parallels, with Aymara , and these two families keep sometimes appeared group unneurotic as a 'Quechumaran ' family. This hypothesis is generally rejected by specialists, however; the parallels are better inform by mutual influence and borrowing doner severe and long-term contact. Many Quechua–Aymara cognates are close, frequently closer than intra-Quechua cognates, and thither is little relationship in the affixal system.
Vocabulary
The manipulate on Latin American Spanish encompasses untold borrowings as papa for "potato", chuchaqui for "hangover" in Ecuador , and antithetic borrowings for "altitude sickness ", in Bolivia from Quechuan suruqch'i to Bolivian sorojchi, in Colombia , Ecuador , and Peru soroche. In Bolivia particularly, Quechua express are used extensively flat by non-Quechua speakers. These include wawa , ch'aki , misi , juk'ucho , q'omer uchu , jacu , chhiri and chhurco , 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 meant an action is performed with affection, or, in the imperative, as a mountainous equivalent to please. In Bolivia -ri is frequently included in the Spanish imperative to word "please" or to soften commands. For example, the standard "pásame" , becomes pasarime.
At first, Spaniards referred to the language of the Inca empire as the lengua general, the widespread tongue. The term quichua is archetypal employed in 1560 by Domingo de Santo Tomás in his Grammatica o arte de la lengua widespread de los indios de los reynos del Perú. It is not characterized what term the autochthonal speakers give to their language earlier colonial times, and whether it was Spaniards who label it quechua.
Alternatively, Pedro Cieza de León and Garcilaso de la Vega , the aboriginal Spanish chroniclers, introduced around the existence of the populate label Quichua in the present-day Apurímac Region , and it could be reason that their term was computerized to the intact language.
different name that native speakers provide to their own language is runa simi, "language of man/people"; it besides been to have be during the colonial period.
Phonology
Quechua use lonesome cardinal vowel phonemes: /a/ /i/ and /u/, as in Aymara . Monolingual speakers pronounced these as and respectively, though the Spanish realizations may besides be used. When the vowels be closer to the uvular consonants /q/, /qʼ/, and /qʰ/, they are perform more seeking , and respectively.
Consonants Labial Alveolar Postalveolar / Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal Nasal m n ɲ Stop apparent p t tʃ k q aspirated pʰ tʰ tʃʰ kʰ qʰ ejective p’ t’ tʃ’ k’ q’ Fricative s h Approximant central j w lateral l ʎ Rhotic ɾ
around 30% of the contemporary Quechua vocabulary is gotten from Spanish, and any Spanish look may have arose phonemic, flat among monolingual Quechua speakers.
underlines is bargain in most dialects of Quechua. In any varieties the apocope of word-final vowels or variant budgets may perform bonzer close stress.
Writing system important article: Quechua alphabet
Until the 20th century, Quechua was graphic with a Spanish-based orthography . Examples: Inca, Huayna Cápac, Collasuyo, Mama Ocllo, Viracocha, quipu, tambo, condor. This orthography is the most acquainted to Spanish speakers, and as a corollary, has appeared used for most borrowings into English.
In 1985, a variation of this system was adopting by the Peruvian government; it use the Quechuan three-vowel system. Examples: Inka, Wayna Qhapaq, Qullasuyu, Mama Uqllu, Wiraqucha, khipu, tampu, kuntur.
For more on this, see Quechuan and Aymaran recite shift .
The Peruvian linguist Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino has declare an orthographic norm for all Southern Quechua . This norm, el Quechua estándar or Hanan Runasimi, which is evaluate by galore institutions in Peru, has appeared perform by combining blimpish have of two overall dialects, Ayacucho Quechua and Cusco Quechua . For instance:
English Ayacucho Cusco southerner Quechua to drink upyay uhyay upyay fast utqa usqha utqha to work llamkay llank'ay llamk'ay we ñuqanchik nuqanchis ñuqanchik -chka- -sha- -chka- day punchaw p'unchay p'unchaw Grammar morphologic type
Ñuqayku
support Qam Qamkuna ordinal Pay Paykuna
Adjectives in Quechua are ever move earlier nouns. They missing gender and number, and are not declined to compromising with substantives .
be Cardinal numbers . ch'usaq , huk , iskay , kimsa , tawa , pichqa , suqta , qanchis , pusaq , isqun , chunka , chunka hukniyuq , chunka iskayniyuq , iskay chunka , pachak , waranqa , hunu , lluna . Ordinal numbers. To form ordinal numbers, the vent ñiqin is put after the appropriate eight number . The only exception is that, in addition to huk ñiqin , the phrase ñawpaq is also employed in the somewhat more restricted sense of "the initial, primordial, the oldest". Nouns
Adverbs can be perform by increase -ta or, in any cases, -lla to an adjective: allin – allinta , utqay – utqaylla . They are besides perform by increase suffixes to demonstratives : chay – chaypi , kay – kayman .
The infinitive manufactured keep the posts -y . The endings for the declarative are:
show then upcoming Pluperfect Ñuqa -ni -rqa-ni -saq -sqa-ni Qam -nki -rqa-nki -nki -sqa-nki Pay -n -rqa -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-ku -nqa-ku -sqa-ku
antithetic posts are lengthening to the stem to improved the meaning. For example, -chi is a causative and -ku is a reflexive ; -naku is employed for mutual contest , and -chka is a progressive, employed for an actual contest .
grammatic particles
The quechua languages keep cardinal other morphemes that brands evidentiality . Evidentiality refers to a morpheme whose uppercase slate is to tell the obtain of information. In the quechua languages, evidentiality is a three-term system. This means that there are cardinal momentous morphemes that mark change levels of obtain information. These markers can use to first, second, and ordinal person. The charts beneath constitute an example of these morphemes from the Wanka quechua language.
The parentheses around the vowels tell that the vowel can be dropped in when following an opening vowel. For the sake of cohesiveness, the above forms willing be used to broadly discuss the momentous morphemes. However, it should be noted that thither are dialectal variations to the forms. The variations willing be presented in the following descriptions.
-m : operating certified and Commitment
The momentous –mi tell that the speaker has a “strong subjective conviction the veracity of the circumstance expressed.” It has the basis of operating subjective experience.
I saw them with my own eyes.
Regional variations: In quechua languages, not leased by the source, the inference morpheme been as –ch, -ch, -chr.
Wanka Quechua
kuti-mu-n'a-qa-chr ni-ya-ami return-AFAR-3FUT-now-CONJ say-IMPV-1-DIR
-sh : Hearsay
With the use of this morpheme, the speaker “serves as a conduit through which information from another source passes”. The information being related is mediate or revelatory in nature. It besides works to express the uncertainty of the speaker regarding the situation. However, it besides appears in other constructions that are discussed in the dress in Meaning section.
Shani gotten it.
posts or Clitic
deployed in the declare
formerly thither be an old man and an old woman.
It is now that Pedro is making the house.
When she peak the peak, God had already work the child up into heaven.
Evidentials can be used to covenant other meanings be on the context and make other functions. The following examples are contents to Wanka Quechua.
The operating momentous appears in Wh-Questions and Yes/No Questions. Considering the operating momentous in terms of prototypical semantics, it seems somewhat counterintuitive to have a operating evidential, basically an momentous 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, any sense can be made. The speaker is asking the addressee for information. Therefore, the speaker assumes the speaker knows the answer, or else why would they electrifying asking. This assumption is where the operating momentous 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 declare content; this situation is the same as when, in regular sentences, the speaker assumes operating relation to the declare information.
imay-mi wankayuu-pu kuti-mu-la when-DIR Huancayo-ABL return-AFAR-PAST
Is he end to Tarma?
The illative evidential, -chr
milder Exhortation
Yes, talk them, "I've went farther."
This example comes from a conversation between husband and wife enclosed the reactions of their family and friends aft they have been gone for a while. The husband express he plans to stretch the truth and tell them about far places he has gone, and his wife chirp and encourages his thoughts.
With these, the momentous is employed to highlight the speaker’s assessment of inevitability of an event and acceptance of it. thither is a sense of resistance, diminished enthusiasm, and disinclination in these constructions.
paaga-lla-shrayki-chra-a pay-POL-1›2FUT-CONJ-EMPH
Interrogative
I challenge what we willing provide our families when we arrive.
Irony
That's how you larn .
This example comes from enclosed between a forms and daughter about her refusal to attend school. It can be understand as a trusty statement, i.e., maybe one can larn by resisting school, or as an witty statement, i.e., that's an absurd idea.
Aside from be employed to word mediate and revelation, this posts besides has variant uses.
Because folktales, myths, and legends are, in essence, inform speech, it follows that the mediate marker would be employed with them. Many of these types of stories are passed drink through generations, furthering this aspect of inform speech. A difference between simple mediate and folktales can be seen in the frequency of the –sh marker. In normal conversation use inform speech, the marker is employed less to burning redundancy.
Riddles are slightly akin to myths and folktales due to their nature to be travel by vent of mouth.
ima-lla-shi ayka-lla-sh juk machray-chru puñu-ya-n puka waaka what-LIM-REP how^much-LIM-REP one cave-LOC sleep-IMPF-3 red cow
Omission and dedicated of momentous stick
An interest contrast to omission of evidentials is overuse of evidentials. If a speaker uses evidentials too much with no reason, their competence is brought into question. For example, the overuse of –m could stolen others to relied that the speaker is not a native speaker of the language or, in some intense cases, that one is mentally ill.
By using evidentials, the Quechua culture has reliable assumptions around the information be relayed. Those who do not been by the cultural customs should not be trusted. A passage from Weber summarized them nicely below:
one’s experience is reliable. Avoid unnecessary risk by assuming responsibility for information of which one is not perfectly certain Don’t 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. boffo assumption of responsibility perform stature in the community.
Although the exemplified of literature in Quechua is not as ample as its historical and present-day prominence would suggest, it is however not negligible.
Dramas and poems continued to be graphic 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 be of original compositions , the bulking of 20th century Quechua literature be of customary folk stories and spoken narratives. Johnny Payne has translated two sets of Quechua oral short stories, one into Spanish and the other into English.