Quechua… The Language of the Inca

*History *Contemporary Issues *Linguistic Background *Linguistic Sketch 1.Syntax 2.Morphology 3.Phonetics 4.Orthography *Quechua Links

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The History of Quechua…

Quechua is thought to haveoriginated around 2600 BC in the Central Coast of Peru. It was used as a trade language and hadspread throughout the Andes into Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, andArgentina. At this time it was only a spoken language and lacked a writingsystem. This is not to say that it was without oral tradition. Epic poetry andplays such as Ollantay and The Tragedy of the End of Atahualpa are still performed inCusco. In the 15^th century, the Inca made Quechua (more specificallythe Cusco dialect) the official language of the Empire and therefore the linguafranca of Peru and the surrounding region. By the time of the Spanish conquest,Quechua was spoken throughout the Andes.

Withthe Spanish conquest of the Inca came the conquest of Quechua. In 1532 theSpanish banned the use of Quechua. Despite this ban, the written form ofQuechua was introduced, somewhat abruptly, with the arrival of the Spanish. TheRoman Catholic Church opposed the use of native language because it helped tomaintain pagan practices. It was thought that if the natives spoke the languageof their conquerors, they would be more inclined to conform to and acceptSpanish rule. As conquistador captain Sebastian Garcilaso said “Similarity andconformity of words almost always leads to reconciliation and brings true unionand friendship to people.” The Spanish came to require the use of the linguafranca, which, through physical and cultural genocide, led to the decline oflocal vernaculars.

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Contemporary IssuesSurrounding Quechua…

Today, Quechua is an officiallanguage in both Peru and Bolivia, though it does not carry very much power. Itholds this status alongside Spanish and Aymara, and it is the Spanish-speakingminority that still holds control of political and legal institutions. For Quechuaspeakers, learning Spanish is a double-edged sword. In this day and age Spanishis considered necessary for physical and cultural survival, but is also athreat to Quechua culture. Many Quechua-speaking parents don’t pass theirlanguage on to their kids, and instead teach them Spanish.

Spanish dominates social,political, and economic life in the Andes through mainly Spanish-onlyeducation, legal process, business, and trade. It is difficult to teach andacquire due to the lack of written material in Quechua. Newspapers, books, andmagazines are predominately written and published in Spanish. Because of this,Quechua (as well as Aymara) remains primarily an oral language. Quechua is nowconsidered a rural language, and its use is declining in towns and cities.

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Linguistic Background…

Mostlinguists consider Quechua to have two main dialects: Waywash and Wanp’una.Waywash is spoken mostly in the central highlands off Peru. Wanp’una isgenerally divided into three branches: Yunkay Quechua (spoken in Peru’soccidental highlands), Runashimi (spoken in Colombia and Ecuador), and SouthernQuechua (spoken in Peru’s southern highlands, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile).Southern Quechua accounts for the largest number of Quechua speakers and is themost studied of the Quechua dialects. On a national level the distribution ofQuechua speakers in total number and percent of national population is asfollows:

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Southern Quechua

Waywash

Yunkay

Runashimi

* Peru = 3,200,000 (14%)

* Ecuador = 2,200,000 (23%)

* Bolivia = 2,100,000 (33%)

* Argentina = 1o0,000 (.25%)

Linguistic Sketch…

*Syntax…

Quechuais an SOV (subject, object, verb), though this isn’t a firm syntactical rule.The word order is relatively free, except in the case of subordinate clauses,which usually have SOV order. It contains seven pronouns, including two firstperson plural pronouns (“we”). The first of these is inclusive (we and you”),and the second of these is exclusive (“we without you”). Adjectives generallyprecede the noun they modify, though they don’t necessarily agree. Adjectiveslack gender and number. The language does not have definite articles distinctfrom demonstrative nouns and adjectives. There is also no indefinite article ornatural conjugations. In the past few centuries some conjugations have beenborrowed from Spanish such as: “y” (from the Spanish “y”), “piru” (from theSpanish “peru”), and “akesee” (from the Spanish “aun que sea”).

*Morphology…

Quechuais an agglutinative language, The only affixes that are used in Quechua aresuffixes. Suffixes are used to mark many different things. The suffix –tamarks the accusative and dative cases, -chaw marks location, -man signifies agoal, and -paq shows purpose. The language features bipersonal conjugation.This means that verbs agree with both the sunject and the object of thesentence. Yes and No questions are marked with the suffix –chu. Suffixesare also used to show verb tense. The following chart shows the suffix endingsthat mark the tenses of indicative verbs:

(pronouns)	Present	Past	Perfect	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-ku	-nqa-ku	-sqa-ku

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*Phonetics…

Muchof Quechua has been borrowed from Spanish, including many of the sounds. Spanishsounds such as f, d, b, and g have become phonemic in Quechua, even amongmonolingual speakers. Quechua contains 3 vowels (see table below). The vowelsare: i, a, u. They are pronouncepronounced I (as in the English word “bit”), Æ (as in the English “fat”), and U(as in the English word “hook”). The I is a near-close near-front unroundedvoiced the Æ is a near-open front unrounded vowel, and the U is as near-closenear-back rounded vowel. All the plosives and the fricatives in the languageare voiceless. The consonants are as follow:

	labial	alveolar	palatal	velar	uvular	glottal
plosives	p	t	ch	k	q
fricative		s				h
nasal	m	n	ñ
lateral		l	ll
flap		r
semivowel	w		j

	front		back
high	i		u
low		a

*Orthography…

The Quechua writing system wasintroduced by the Spanish, and, therefore, has a Spanish-based orthography. It uses the Roman alphabet. In 1975 the Peruvian government adopted an orthography for Quechua, and it was a variation of this orthography that was adopted by the new Peruvian government in 1985. This newer orthography uses the previously mentioned three vowel system rather than the five vowel system that had been used by some. The orthography has not been standardized due to the vast variation that separates the different dialects. There has been little call for a standardized orthography because Quechua is mostly used as a spoken language. Speakers rarely write or read the language.

*Quechua Links…

Languages ofthe World

Virtual Machu Picchu

Ethnologue, CuscoQuechua

Wikipedia

Google Quechua

Webster’sQuechua-English Dictionary

*Sources…

Heggarty,Paul. “Quechua” (Dec 10, 2006) <http://www.quechua.org.uk/Eng/Main/i_HOME.HTM>

Howard-Malverde,Rosaleen. Creating Context in Andean Cultures. Oxford University Press:New York, 1997.

Mannheim,Bruce. The Language of the Inka since the European Invasion. Universityof Texas Press: Austin, 1991.

Slowinski,Mike. “Quechua Culture” (Dec 9, 2006) <www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/southamerica/quechuan.html>

Weber,David John. “Relativization and Nominalized Clauses in Huallaga (Huanuco)Quechua.” Linguistics 103 (1983).

“Quechua”(Dec 14, 2006) <www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quechua>

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Thiswebsite was completed on December 18, 2006 by Katherine Whitmore forLinguistics 194 “Endangered Languages” at Macalester College.

Disclaimer:

Thisebpage has been created in the interest of presenting information on thelanguage of Quechua. It is not intended as an instrument of instruction nordoes it claim to provide in-depth descriptions concerning the many dialects ofQuechua. This webpage is merely a survey of Quechua created by a collegestudent for a linguistics class.