Quechuan languages

Quechua
Qhichwa Simi, Runa Simi
Native to	Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, and Argentina
Region	Central Andes
Ethnicity	Quechuas
Native speakers	(10 million cited 1987–2002)
Language family	Quechumaran? Quechua
Dialects	Quechua I     Ancash     Huánuco     Yaru     Wanka     Yauyos–Chincha Quechua II     Northern Peruvian     Northern       Kichwa (Ecuador)       Lowland Peruvian     Southern
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Official language in	Peru and Bolivia
Language codes
ISO 639-1	qu
ISO 639-2	que
ISO 639-3	que

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. 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.

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 – even "loyal" pro-Catholic texts such as Garcilaso de la Vega's Comentarios Reales were banned. Despite a brief revival immediately after independence, the prestige of Quechua decreased sharply and it gradually became restricted to rural areas.

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.

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.

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.

• Argentina: 900,000 (1971)
• Bolivia: 2,100,000 (2001 census); 2,800,000 South Bolivian (1987)
• Chile: few if any
• Colombia: 25,000 (2000–2007)
• Ecuador: 2,300,000 (Adelaar 1991)
• Peru: 3,260,000 (2007 census); 3,500,000 to 4,400,000 (Adelaar 2000)

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. 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,

• Quechua I or Quechua B or 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 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), northern Peru, and Colombia (Inga Kichwa)
    • The most widely spoken varieties are Chimborazo Highland Quichua and Imbabura Highland Quichua.
  • Southern Quechua or Quechua II C, spoken in Bolivia, southern Peru, Chile, and Argentina.
    • The most widely spoken varieties are South Bolivian, Cuzco, Ayacucho, and Puno (Collao).

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.

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, 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, in the highlands further south, from Huancavelica through the Ayacucho, Cuzco, and Puno regions of Peru, across much of Bolivia, and in pockets in north-western Argentina. It is the most influential branch, with the largest number of speakers and the most important cultural and literary legacy.

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".

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.

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:

• uses w instead of hu for the /w/ sound.
• distinguishes velar k from uvular q, where both were spelled c or qu in the traditional system.
• distinguishes simple, ejective, and aspirated stops in dialects (such as that of Cuzco) which have them – thus khipu above.
• continues to use the Spanish five-vowel system.

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

• Cardinal numbers. 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 (e.g., 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 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. 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". 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.

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. 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

• The '90s TV series The Sentinel included numerous references to the shamanism and spirituality of the Peruvian Chopec as well as including many Quechua words in several episodes.
• The sport retailer Decathlon Group brands their mountain equipment range as Quechua.
• In Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Indy has a dialogue in Quechua with Peruvians. He explains he learned the language in Mexico from a couple of the "guys" he met while briefly riding with Pancho Villa. This adventure was featured in the pilot episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. The guys were most likely Peruvian mercenaries recruited to the División del Norte.
• In The Adventures of Tintin books The Seven Crystal Balls and its sequel Prisoners of the Sun, there are Quechua characters who are in league with the Inca and facilitate the abduction and incarceration of Professor Calculus at the Temple of the Sun for committing sacrilege by wearing the funerary bangle of Rascar Capac.
• In Trading Card Game Yu-Gi-Oh!, monsters in the card series Earthbound Immortals have their name originated from Quechua. In the animated series, Earthbound Immortals are described as powerful beasts sealed in Nazca Lines, which each one of them represents.
• On the TV cartoon series The Emperor's New School, the main and other characters have quechua names as Kuzco (Cusco, that means "navel of the world"), Pacha (ground) and Chicha (kind of beer).

See also

• Andes
• Aymara language
• List of English words of Quechuan origin
• South Bolivian Quechua

References

• 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, ISBN 978-0-521-36831-5
• 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, ISBN 9972-691-36-5
• Cusihuamán, Antonio, Gramática Quechua Cuzco-Collao, Centro de Estudios Regionales Andinos "Bartolomé de Las Casas", 2001, ISBN 9972-691-37-3
• Mannheim, Bruce, The Language of the Inka since the European Invasion, University of Texas Press, 1991, ISBN 0-292-74663-6
• 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

Further reading

• Adelaar, Willem F. H.. The Languages of the Andes. With the collaboration of P.C. Muysken. Cambridge language survey. Cambridge University Press 2004. ISBN 978-0-521-36831-5
• 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. Austin: Published for the Institute of Latin American Studies by the University of Texas Press, 1969. ISBN 0-292-70019-9
• Coronel-Molina, Serafín M. Quechua Phrasebook. 2002 Lonely Planet ISBN 1-86450-381-5
• Curl, John, Ancient American Poets. Tempe AZ: Bilingual Press, 2005.ISBN 1-931010-21-8 Red-coral.net
• Gifford, Douglas. Time Metaphors in Aymara and Quechua. St. Andrews: University of St. Andrews, 1986.
• Heggarty and David Beresford-Jones, Paul (2009), Not the Incas? Weaving Archaeology and Language into a Single New Prehistory, London: British Academy Review 12: 11-15
• Harrison, Regina. Signs, Songs, and Memory in the Andes: Translating Quechua Language and Culture. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989. ISBN 0-292-77627-6
• Jake, Janice L. Grammatical Relations in Imbabura Quechua. Outstanding dissertations in linguistics. New York: Garland Pub, 1985. ISBN 0-8240-5475-X
• King, Kendall A. Language Revitalization Processes and Prospects: Quichua in the Ecuadorian Andes. Bilingual education and bilingualism, 24. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters LTD, 2001. ISBN 1-85359-495-4
• King, Kendall A., and Nancy H. Hornberger. Quechua Sociolinguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2004.
• Lara, Jesús, Maria A. Proser, and James Scully. Quechua Peoples Poetry. Willimantic, Conn: Curbstone Press, 1976. ISBN 0-915306-09-3
• Lefebvre, Claire, and Pieter Muysken. Mixed Categories: Nominalizations in Quechua. Studies in natural language and linguistic theory, [v. 11]. Dordrecht, Holland: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1988. ISBN 1-55608-050-6
• 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. ISBN 90-316-0151-9
• 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, 1996. ISBN
• Parker, Gary John. Ayacucho Quechua Grammar and Dictionary. Janua linguarum. Series practica, 82. The Hague: Mouton, 1969.
• Sánchez, Liliana. Quechua-Spanish Bilingualism: Interference and Convergence in Functional Categories. Language acquisition & language disorders, v. 35. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins Pub, 2003. ISBN 1-58811-471-6
• Weber, David. A Grammar of Huallaga (Huánuco) Quechua. University of California publications in linguistics, v. 112. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. ISBN 0-520-09732-7
• Quechua bibliographies online at: Quecha.org.uk

External links

• Spoken Cusco Quechua, language course Donald F. Solá
• Course of Classical Quechua as used in the Manuscript of Huarochiri Gerald Taylor, French Institute of Andean Studies.
• Qayna Kunan Paqarin: Una introducción al quechua chanca. 2011 Electronic book of the complete course of the grammar of quechua, R. Zariquiey, G. Córdova.
• The Little Prince (le petit prince) in the Quechua Language. Quyllur llaqtayuq warmamanta, el principito en el Quechua Sureño, Lydia Cornejo & César Itier.
• Breve gramática de Quechua RunasimiNet: aprendiendo quechua en línea. Learn Quechua with this online course from the Catholic University PUCP Lima.
• RUNASIMI About Quechua and written in the Quechua language. It offers a quantity of texts in Quechua in diverse quechua dialects and languages. In the following languages: Quechua, Spanish, English, Italian, French and German.
• El Quechua de Santiago del Estero, extensive site covering the grammar of Argentinian Quechua (in Spanish)
• Quechua Language and Linguistics an extensive site.
  • The Origins and Diversity of Quechua
  • The Sounds of the Andean Languages listen online to pronunciations of Quechua words, see photos of speakers and their home regions, learn about the origins and varieties of Quechua.
• Toponimos del Quechua de Yungay, Peru
• Sacred Hymns of Pachacutec
• Quechua lessons (www.andes.org) in Spanish and English
• Detailed map of the varieties of Quechua according to SIL (fedepi.org)
• Cuzco and Bolivian Quechua being compared, with English translations
• Modelling the Quechua-Aymara relationship. Pieter Muysken

Dictionaries

• Diccionario Quechua: Español–Runasimi–English Dictionary of Ayacucho Quechua from Clodoaldo Soto Ruiz. It explains Quechua words in Quechua itself and in Spanish and English.
• 5 Quechua dictionaries online
• runasimi.de Multilingual Quechua website with online dictionary (xls) Quechua–German–English–Spanish.
• Quechua Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)
• Multilingual Dictionary: Spanish–Quechua (Cusco, Ayacucho, Junín, Ancash) – Aymara