Quechua (Standard Quechua, Runasimi "Language of People") is an Native American language of South America. It was the official language of the Tawantinsuyu (Inca empire), and today is spoken in various dialects by some 9.6 million people throughout South America including modern southern Colombia and Ecuador, all of Peru and Bolivia, and northwestern Argentina and northern Chile. It is the most widely spoken of all American Indian languages in the Americas. Note that the geology in this article currently reflects views from the first decade of the 20th century. ... This page attempts to present a list of languages by total native speakers. ... Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families (families hereforth). ... The Quechuan languages are a family of related languages in South America. ... ISO 639 is one of several international standards that lists short codes for language names. ... SIL International is a non-profit, faith-based, scientific organization with the main purpose to study, develop and document lesser-known languages for the purpose of expanding linguistic knowledge, promoting world literacy and aiding minority language development. ... SIL International is a non-profit, faith-based, scientific organization with the main purpose to study, develop and document lesser-known languages for the purpose of expanding linguistic knowledge, promoting world literacy and aiding minority language development. ... This list of languages is alphabetical by English name. ... Native American languages are the indigenous languages of the Americas, spoken by Native Americans from Alaska and Greenland to the southern tip of South America. ... South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ... For other meanings of Inca, see Inca (disambiguation). ... Native Americans (also Indians, Aboriginal Peoples, American Indians, First Nations, Alaskan Natives, or Indigenous Peoples of America) are the indigenous inhabitants of The Americas prior to the European colonization, and their modern descendants. ... The Americas is an alternative name in the English language for the continent of America, to distinguish it from the United States of America, which is often just called America. ...

Quechua is a very regular language, but a large number of infixes and suffixes change both the overall significance of words and their subtle shades of meaning, allowing great expressiveness. It includes grammatical features such as bipersonal conjugation and conjugation dependent on mental state and veracity of knowledge, spatial and temporal relationships, and many cultural factors.

The fictional Huttese language in the Star Wars movies is largely based upon Quechua. Huttese is the language spoken by the fictional Hutt species of the Star Wars saga. ... The DVD cover of the Star Wars trilogy. ...

Origin and extension

Today's theories about Quechua's origin put its initial territorial domain in modern Peru's Central Coast, possibly in the ancient city of Caral, around 2600 BC. Inca kings of Cuzco made Quechua their official language and, with Inca conquest in 14th century, the Empire's language became Ancient Peru's lingua franca. By the time of the Spanish conquest, in 16th century, the language had already spread throughout the South American continent. Some have proposed Quechua to be related to Aymara as members of a larger Quechumaran linguistic stock. This proposal is controversial, however, because similarities appear to be born from long time contact rather than from common origins. This article needs cleanup. ... (Redirected from 2600 BC) (27th century BC - 26th century BC - 25th century BC - other centuries) (4th millennium BC - 3rd millennium BC - 2nd millennium BC) Events 2900 - 2334 BC – Mesopotamian wars of the Early Dynastic period. ... For other meanings of Inca, see Inca (disambiguation). ... The Church of La Compañía on the Plaza de Armas in Cuzco Cuzco is a city in southeastern Peru in the Huatanay Valley (Sacred Valley), of the Andes mountain range. ... (13th century - 14th century - 15th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 14th century was that century which lasted from 1301 to 1400. ... Spanish colonization of the Americas began with the arrival in the Americas of Christopher Columbus in 1492. ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... Help wikipedia by translating [Spanish article] into this article. ...

The language was further extended beyond the limits of the Inca empire by the Catholic Church, which chose it to preach to Indians in the Andes area. Today, it has the status of an official language in both Peru and Bolivia, along with Spanish and Aymara. Before the arrival of the Spaniards and the introduction of the Latin alphabet, Quechua had no written alphabet. Numerical data was kept track of by the Incas through a system of khipu-strings. The Roman Catholic Church believes its founding was based on Jesus appointment of Saint Peter as the primary church leader, later Bishop of Rome. ... Note that the geology in this article currently reflects views from the first decade of the 20th century. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world, the standard script of the English language and most of the languages of western and central Europe, and of those areas settled by Europeans. ... Khipu, or quipa, or quipu were recording devices used during the Inca Empire and its predecessor societies in the Andean region. ...

Dialect groups

There are three main dialect groups. Northern Quechua, also known as Quichua or Runashimi, is mainly spoken in Colombia and Ecuador. Central Quechua is spoken in Peru's central highlands. It is the most archaic and diverse branch of Quechua, such that its dialects have been often considered a different tongue. Southern Quechua, spoken in Peru's southern highlands, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile, is today's most important branch because it has the largest number of speakers and because of its cultural and literary legacy.

Quechua loanwords

A number of Quechua loanwords have entered English via Spanish, including coca, condor, guano, gaucho, jerky, inca, llama, pampa, potato (from papa via patata), puma, quinoa, and vicuña . The word lagniappe comes from the Quechua word yapay ("to encresse; to add") with the article la in front of it, la yapa, in Spanish. A loanword (or a borrowing) is a word taken in by one language from another. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Binomial name Erythroxylon coca For the American comedian, see Imogene Coca. ... Species Vultur gryphus Gymnogyps californianus Note that Condor is the NATO reporting name for the Russian/Soviet Antonov An-124 transport aircraft. ... The nest of the Guanay cormorant is made of guano Guano (from the Quechua wanu) is the name given to the collected droppings of seabirds and bats. ... A gaucho is a South American cattle herder, the equivalent to the North American cowboy in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and (with the spelling gaúcho) southern Brazil, and formerly the Falkland Islands. ... The name Jerky comes from the Quechua term charki, meaning dried meat. ... For other meanings of Inca, see Inca (disambiguation). ... Binomial name Lama glama (Linnaeus, 1758) The Llama (Lama glama) is a large camelid native to South America. ... The pampas (from Quechua for plain) are the fertile lowlands that extend across c. ... Binomial name Solanum tuberosum L. The potato (Solanum tuberosum) is a perennial plant of the Solanaceae, or nightshade, family, grown for its starchy tuber. ... Binomial name Puma concolor (Linnaeus, 1771) The puma (Puma concolor) is a type of large cat found in North, Central and South America. ... Binomial name Chenopodium quinoa Willd. ... Binomial name Vicugna vicugna (Molina, 1782) The vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) is a relative of the llama and a member of the camelid family which lives in the high Andes. ... This article concerns the French/Spanish loanword. ...

Quechua spelling and pronunciation

Vowels

Quechua uses only three vowels: /a/, /i/, and /u/, similar to Classical Arabic. These are usually pronounced roughly as in Spanish, however, when the vowels appear adjacent to the uvular consonants /q/, /q'/, and /q^h/, they are rendered more like [ɑ] , [e] and [o] respectively... Arabic is a Semitic language, closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ...

Consonants

The consonant inventory can be quite different from the Indo-European languages. None of the plosives or fricatives are voiced; voicing is not phonemic in Quechua. However, in the Cuzco dialect, each plosive has three forms: simple, ejective, and aspirated (a feature that is considered to be of Aymara origin). For example: Labials are consonants articulated either with both lips (bilabial articulation) or with the lower lip and the upper teeth (labiodental articulation). ... Alveolars are consonants articulated with the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge, the internal side of the upper gums (known as the alveoles of the upper teeth). ... Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the middle or back part of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. ... Glottal consonants are consonants articulated with the glottis. ... A stop or plosive or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... Laterals are L-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue. ... In music, a trill is a type of ornament; see trill (music) In phonetics, a trill is a type of consonant; see trill consonant In the fictional Star Trek universe, the Trill are two symbiotic races of aliens; see Trill (Star Trek). ... Semivowels (also called semiconsonants or glides) are vowels that function phonemically as consonants. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies Indo-European is originally a linguistic term, referring to the Indo-European language family. ... In spoken language, a phoneme is a basic, theoretical unit of sound that can distinguish words (i. ... Ejective consonants are a class of consonants which may contrast with aspirated or unaspirated consonants in a language. ... In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies the release of some stop consonants. ... Aymara is the name of a South-American people and of their language. ...

 simple ejective aspirated p p' ph t t' th ch ch' chh k k' kh q q' qh 

File links The following pages link to this file: Apollo 8 Accordion Antonio Vivaldi Aramaic language Symphony No. ... Qu-pata phata pata. ... The voiceless bilabial plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. ...

Peruvian linguist Rodolfo Cerrón Palomino has proposed an orthography norm for all Quechua, called Southern Quechua. This norm, accepted by many institutions in Peru, has been made by combining conservative features of two most common dialects: Ayacucho Quechua and Cuzco Quechua (which is also used in Bolivia and Argentina). For instance:

 Ayacucho Cuzco Southern Quechua upyay uhyay upyay "to drink" utqa usqha utqha "fast" llamkay llank'ay llamk'ay "to work" ñuqanchik nuqanchis ñuqanchik "us" kachkay kashay kachkay "to be there" punchaw p'unchay p'unchaw "day" 

Quechua morphology

• Pronouns

In Quechua, there are seven pronouns. Quechua also 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. The term inclusive, in a mathematical context, denotes that the endpoints of a set are included within that set. ... In a mathematics the term exclusive denotes that the endpoints of a set are NOT included within that set. ... In linguistics, an addressee is an intended direct recipient of the speakers communication. ...

• Adjectives

Adjectives are placed before nouns. Unlike Romance languages, Quechuan adjectives lack gender and number, nor are declined when accompanied by substantives, which they allways precede. An adjective is a part of speech which modifies a noun, usually making its meaning more specific. ...

• 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".

• Verbs

The infinitive forms (unconjugated) have the suffix -y (much'a= "kiss"; much'a-y = "to kiss"). The endings for the indicative voice are: A verb is a part of speech that usually denotes action (bring, read), occurrence (to decompose (itself), to glitter), or a state of being (exist, live, soak, stand). Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its tense, aspect, mood and voice. ...

To these are added various interfixes and suffixes to change the meaning. For example, -ku-, is added to make the actor the recipient of the action (example: wañuy = "to die"; wañukuy = "to commit suicide"); -naku-, when the action is mutual (example: marq'ay= "to hug"; marq'anakuy= "to hug each other"), and -chka-, when the condition is continuing (e.g., mikhuy = "to eat"; mikhuchkay = "to be eating").

• Particles

These are indeclinable words, that is, they do not accept suffixes. They are relatively rare. The most common are arí ("yes") and mana ("no"), although mana can take the suffix -n (manan) 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"). A particle is In particle physics, a basic unit of matter or energy. ...

See also

• Aymara language
• Andes

Help wikipedia by translating [Spanish article] into this article. ... Note that the geology in this article currently reflects views from the first decade of the 20th century. ...

External Links

• Quechua Network's Dictionary (http://www.quechuanetwork.org/dictionary.cfm?lang=e) a very good one.
• Quechua lessons (http://www.andes.org/q_grammar.html) in Spanish and English
• Quechua - English Dictionary (http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Quechua-english/): from Webster's Online Dictionary (http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org) - the Rosetta Edition.
• Ecuadorian Quechua - English Dictionary (http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Ecuadorian+Quechua-english/): from Webster's Online Dictionary (http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org) - the Rosetta Edition.