Notes on Quechua

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culúrien
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Notes on Quechua

Postby culúrien » 2011-03-31, 2:00

*As of 04/07/2011 (April 7, 2011) all spelling is verified

As some of you know, I am taking a one semester (12 week) introduction to quechua class for spanish/portuguese speakers. I will write some notes I take in class here. My professor is a native speaker of the bolivian dialect, which doesn't have as much diialectal variation as you find in peru or ecuador.

*Our textbooks haven't come in yet so don't quote me on the spelling, I'll doublecheck it tomorroow or tuesday when my book comes in

Culture


One cultural note is that in Quechua if you want to give someone something you shouldn't say do you want X? because it implies you're only asking as a courtesy and you don't really want to give it. Instead you should say "This is for you". Another cultural thing to know is that quechua culture is very family oriented and welcoming. Sharing resources is important, especially as most quechua speakers are very poor. There aren't really cities where quechua is spoken, everyone lives in small communities.

Language

There is no gender distinction, not in nouns or pronouns.

Pronouns:

I - noqa
you - qan
he/she - pay

we inclusive - noqayku
we exclusive -noqanchis
you plural - qankuna
they - paykuna

*You will note there is no informal/formal you distinction.

Interrogatives:

ima - what?
imayna - how?
may - where?
mayqen - which?
jayk'a - how much/many?
jayk'aq - when?
pi - who?

All quechuan verbs end in -y. To conjugate you remove the -y, leaving you with the stem (no stem changers).

Some verbs:

maskhay - to search for
kasay - to be (spanish estar, not ser)
ruway - to do
reqsiy - to know a person/place (spanish conocer)
yachakuy - to learn, to study, to get accuostomed/get used to
yachay - to know (how to) (spanish saber)
munakuy - to love (can be used with frieends/pets)
parlay - to talk
mikhuy - to eat

Preseent Tense Conjugation:

Add these endings to the stem

-ni
-nki
-n

-yku
-nchis
-nkichis
-nku

To be - kay (spanish ser) conjugation

kani
kanki
kan

kayku
kanchis
kankichis
kanku

If you are using a direct object you need to add -ta to the word. Word order is SOV, though it is flexible that is the most natural way. When quechua doesn't have a native word for something, it often borrows from spanish.

I speak English.
Noqa inglesta parlani.
*ingles=inglés in spanish

We (ex.) learn quechua.
Noqayku qheshwata yachakuyku.

He eats bread.
Pay t'antata mikhun.

You (pl) are americans.
Qankuna americanos kankichis.
*americanos another directly from spanish. Use americano in singular.

She knows English.
Pay inglesta yachan.

That's it for now.
Last edited by culúrien on 2011-04-07, 13:55, edited 1 time in total.
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Struthiomimus
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Re: Notes on Quechua

Postby Struthiomimus » 2011-03-31, 23:41

Cool. 8-)

So you’re learning Bolivian Quechua? What book are y’all gonna use in the course? I’m using Introduction to Quechua by Noble and Lacasa, and the Quechua used in the book is a kind of standardized southern Quechua. Some of the words are different:

I = ñoqa (ñuqa/noqa/nuqa are also possible)

We (inclusive) = ñoqancheh (ñuqancheh/noqancheh/nuqancheh)
We (exclusive) = ñoqayku (ñuqayku/noqayku/nuqayku)

To speak = rimay/parlay

"To do" can be “ruay/ruray/ruway.”

“Reqsiy” becomes “rehsiy” and "yachaquy" is “yachakuy.”

It's great to see someone learning Quechua! How many people are in your class?
[flag=]wbp[/flag] [flag=]qu[/flag] [flag=]eo[/flag] [flag=]wo[/flag] [flag=]rom[/flag] [flag=]csb[/flag] [flag=]lkt[/flag]

"Beshav me akana kai le chirikle chi gilaban." kaj, "Beidh ceol, caint agus craic againn."

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Re: Notes on Quechua

Postby culúrien » 2011-04-01, 3:17

Hi Struthiomimus :)

Our books still haven't come in (the professor ordered them) so I don't know what book we are using. There are 8 people in our class - which is really small at my university of over 50,000 students. The reason it's so small just isn't because not many have even heard about it, but because you needed to pass the minimum spanish/portuguese to graduate to take the class, you have to be already pretty interested in languages to take the class.

My professor has horrible handwriting, so I don't know exactly how things should be spelled. We put a lot of emphasis on speaking in class, much more than when I took spanish, probably due to the lack of writteen material in quechua.

Culture

Men shake hands when they greet each other. Men kiss women's hand when greeting them.

Language

Pronouns are not obligatory, they are used to mark special emphasis. Also an alternative form of noqanchis is noqancheq, with it's present tense suffix -ncheq instead of -nchis. Also qankuna can have it's present tense suffix in -nkicheq instead of -nkichis.

One thing to remember about quechua is that it is extremely regular. Coming from a background in indo-european languages, it is a strange thing to get used to.

In quechua when asking a question with a direct object (even if it isn't directly stated) you need to add -ta to the question word. So to ask what do you know? you say Imata (qan) yachanki? And your answer might be (noqa) inglesta yachani.

In quechua adjectives come beforee nouns. The demonstratives are kay (this), chay (that) and jaqay (that over there). To say What's this? you say ¿Ima kay (kan)? Kan (to be) is not necesary here because it is implied. But it can be used.

To form the present progressive you add -sa or -sha right after the verb stem, and follow it by the pronoun suffixes.

I am eating bread.
Noqa t'antata mikhusani.

You all are learning quechua.
Qankuna qheshwata yachakusankicheq.

What are you learning?
¿Imata qan yachakusanki?

If you want to say you do something too, you add -pis to the pronoun.

We (ex) are learning quechua too.
Noqaykupis qheshwata yachakusayku.

To ask someone how they are you say ¿Imayna(lla) (qan) kasanki? Remember you use kasay here becausee it is how you are right now, we use kay to talk about a pernament state. The lla you seee is not necesary, but it makes it more polite. To say "I'm good, thanks and you?" you say ¿Waleqlla kasani, agradisiyki qanri? Waleq or waleqlla means well (in the adverb sense). Agradisiyki is a fusion of spanish agradecr (to thank, appreciate) and quechua. As you've probably noticed, spanish loans are really common. Qanri means and you, but you can add -ri to any pronoun to get and (x)?

Paykuna qheshwata yachakusanku. ¿Noqapis qheshwata yachakusani qankunari?
They are learning quechua. I'm learning quechua too and you?

Finally, if you want to ask someone what they do for a living, you literally ask What are you? - ¿Ima kanki? The words for student and teacher are yachakoq and yachacheq respectively.

Dialogue:

A: Imaynalla kasanki?
B: Waleqlla kasani, agradisiyki qanri?
A: Noqapis waleq kasani. Ima kanki?
B: Yachacheq kani.
A: Noqapis yachacheq kani.
Last edited by culúrien on 2011-04-07, 13:50, edited 1 time in total.
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Struthiomimus
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Re: Notes on Quechua

Postby Struthiomimus » 2011-04-05, 2:15

Yeah, I guess 8 out of 50,000 is like a drop in the bucket, but it still seems like a decent size class. And it’s cool, as yours is the fourth university in the US that I know of that offers Quechua! Hurray! :silly: Is the class conducted in Spanish?
[flag=]wbp[/flag] [flag=]qu[/flag] [flag=]eo[/flag] [flag=]wo[/flag] [flag=]rom[/flag] [flag=]csb[/flag] [flag=]lkt[/flag]

"Beshav me akana kai le chirikle chi gilaban." kaj, "Beidh ceol, caint agus craic againn."

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Re: Notes on Quechua

Postby culúrien » 2011-04-07, 13:40

The class is conducted in Spanish and English, though as our spanis ranges from rusty to very good, he usually explains the core of the grammar in English, but really it changes day to day.

In exciting news we finally got our books! The book is called Quechua Boliviano and it is written by my teacher (who has taught quechua not just in the US but in Peru and Bolivia too). It is written in Spanish.

Culture

It is offensive to quechua speakers to call them Indians. Since these speakers live mostly in rural areass, in Bolivia Spanish speakers call them campesinos. Campesino is a spanish noun/adjective describing rural areas/people but in Boliv,ia it is used to speak of the indiginous people.

Even though nowadays one can study Quechua in Bolivia and Peru, for a long time the campesinos were not permitted to learn Spanish, and they were not allowed to go to school with those of European (Spanish) descent.

Another aspect of culture is life is at a much slower pace. When asked a question, elaboration is the key.

Grammar


Quechua is a language of many suffixes, and another one is pi (pi as independant word also means who?). Pi refers to location. So by adding pi to our words for this/that/there we get here/there/over there (kaypi/chaypi/jaqaypi respectively). Now if you add pi to a noun it means in or at so wasipi is in the house/at home.

I am teaching in this house.
Noqa kay wasipi yachakisani.

I am here.
Noqa kaypi kasani.

If you talk with native speakers you will notice the norm is to drop -ta (direct object marker) and instead stress the final syllable. Also when asking question using to be the verb is often left out. If adding a suffix starting with q to a preceding letter of u it becomes oq because uq is difficult to pronounce.

Possesives

noqa -y
qan -yki
pay -n

noqayku -yku
noqancheq -ncheq
qankuna -ykicheq
paykuna -nku

So the word for name is suti so to ask what someone's name is you say Ima sutiyki? And to answer you'd say Sutiy (name). Note, if using these with -pi, the possesive comes first.

Maria's in our house.
Mariya wasiykupi kasan.

Last time we learned Imaynalla kasanki? is How are you? but to be polite you should add -ri to the verb making it Imaynalla kasankiri?

Vocabulary


house - wasi
girl of 8 or younger - ch'iriska
young woman - sipas
boy of 8 or younger - ch'iti
young man - wayna
woman - wanmi
mom - mama
dad - tata
name - suti
school - yachawasi
table - mesa (another spanish loan, the quechuan word for table isn't used much anymore)
sweet(s) - m'iski (used both as an adjective meaning something taste sweet or someone is nice and a noun meaning candies)
anywhere - maypipis
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Struthiomimus
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Re: Notes on Quechua

Postby Struthiomimus » 2011-08-17, 23:54

Hey culurien,

Are you going to be putting up any more notes? :D
[flag=]wbp[/flag] [flag=]qu[/flag] [flag=]eo[/flag] [flag=]wo[/flag] [flag=]rom[/flag] [flag=]csb[/flag] [flag=]lkt[/flag]

"Beshav me akana kai le chirikle chi gilaban." kaj, "Beidh ceol, caint agus craic againn."

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Re: Notes on Quechua

Postby vijayjohn » 2014-12-02, 6:16

I've finally started learning stuff from this thread. :mrgreen:


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