[Quechua] Kallaripay: Introduction

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[Quechua] Kallaripay: Introduction

Postby bluechiron » 2005-05-17, 2:38

Have you ever used the following words: cocoa, condor, gaucho, guano, jerky, llama, puma, or quinine? Then you already know some Quechua! And there are many others words that have entered English from Quechua.

Quechua is an indigenous language of South America. It is spoken by more than 13 million people in the Andes, including Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and parts of Chile, Argentina, and Colombia. It falls into the Andean-Equatorial family, the Aymara-Quechua branch. According to Ethnologue, there are a minimum of 46 dialects, many of which are not mutually intelligible. These are grouped into Quecha IA, IB, IIA, and IIB.

Presently, most linguists believe that Quechua was not the primary language spoken by the Incan conquerors (and please note that “Inca” actually only refers to the royalty of this civilization—the actual name is unlikely to be discovered), but rather a trading language that spread across the region along with the mullu (bead) trade. Thus the Incan conquerors “caught up” to Quechua, and as a language already used in trade, it became the easiest form of communication within the expanding empire.

Going further back in time, there is discussion about Quechumaran, a proto-style language that may have been the ancestor of both Quechua and Aymara. Present evidence neither proves nor disproves this theory.

This thread will concern itself primarily with Quichua, not Quechua. Quichua is from the Quechua IIB group (14 dialects), and is used when speaking about Quechua usage in Ecuador. Even within Ecuador, a variety of dialects are used, a fact which prompted Ecuador to produce a standard “national” Quichua language. Today this is referred to as Unified Quichua. Insofar as possible, this course will concentrate on Unified Quichua. Should interest arise, it may also deviate into Amazonian dialects and the unrelated Shuar.
Shukta shimi yuyankapak, kanpa ñawikunata wichkana ushankakunarakmi kanpa shungutawan uyankirakpish.
To know another language, first your eyes will have to be open, and you will have to listen with your heart.

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Postby Luís » 2005-05-19, 22:23

If you don't mind me asking...

Why teach Quechua as it is spoken in Ecuador? I thought Quechua speakers were primarily located in Peru and Bolivia (where Quechua is an official language). The most important places of the Inca civilization are located in Peru as well. So I wonder...


And I know this is a bit off-topic, but do you happen to know of any resources for learning the Mayan language? (Yucatec Maya seems to be the largest dialect spoken nowadays).
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Postby Pittsboy » 2005-05-19, 22:32

Luís wrote:If you don't mind me asking...

Why teach Quechua as it is spoken in Ecuador? I thought Quechua speakers were primarily located in Peru and Bolivia (where Quechua is an official language). The most important places of the Inca civilization are located in Peru as well. So I wonder...


And I know this is a bit off-topic, but do you happen to know of any resources for learning the Mayan language? (Yucatec Maya seems to be the largest dialect spoken nowadays).


Just being provocative: so the place where the most speakers of a language are should be the language taught?
"It is no good to try to stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance is never better than knowledge."
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Postby bluechiron » 2005-05-19, 23:03

Quichua is one of the languages I use in fieldwork, and will be using to complete my dissertation. The distinctions between the two (or 46 possible dialects) is too great to teach them all. The good news is that a large portion of written Quechua can be understood from learning written Quichua, but alas the pronunciation is very distinct.

What I have done is invited several students and native speakers of Peruvian Quechua to visit this forum if they choose. There is no guarantee, but I will continue to invite them to discuss the differences between the languages in our discussion section. Anyone who has studied the Peruvian or Bolivian versions are always welcome to discuss them herein.

But please note, Quechua/Quichua was NOT the language of the Incas (please reread three posts above), but rather a lingua franca, or language used by Tawantinsuyu to govern the empire, similar to how Bahasa Melayu was an early trading language in insular Southeast Asia (minus the empire unless you look at Srivijaya or the Malaysian trading ports).


And to answer the question:

He'le, kin kanik hump'iit maya taan.

There are a number of resources about Yucatec Mayan. A good introductory guide would be Maya: For Travellers and Students (Bevington) and Spoken Yucatec Maya (Robert W. Blair and Refugio Vermont Salas) with tapes! This series isn't as strong as it could be, but was originally based on materials produced by the University of Chicago, but were revamped between 2000-2004 at UNC-Chapel Hill. These newer editions are 100% improved over the older versions. Hope that helps! If there's a lot of interest, a thread should be opened up in the VSL
Last edited by bluechiron on 2005-05-20, 3:11, edited 1 time in total.
Shukta shimi yuyankapak, kanpa ñawikunata wichkana ushankakunarakmi kanpa shungutawan uyankirakpish.
To know another language, first your eyes will have to be open, and you will have to listen with your heart.

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Postby Luís » 2005-05-20, 0:28

I guess that answers my question. :)

You say Quechua is not the language of the Incas and that they just adopted it. However, you also say that no-one actually knows what language they spoke primarily. And I bet they probably had some responsibility in spreading the language too. So, I guess it's not wrong to associate Quechua with the Incas. In fact, they're the main reason for my interest in Quechua. I'd love to go to Peru one day and visit Cuzco, Machu Picchu, Vilcabamba and all those sites. I'll trust you when you say that at least written Quichua and Quechua aren't that different! ;)

bluechiron1 wrote:[size=small]
And to answer the question:

He'le, kin kanik hump'iit maya taan.

There are a number of resources about Yucatec Mayan. A good introductory guide would be Maya: For Travellers and Students (Bevington) and Spoken Yucatec Maya (Robert W. Blair and Refugio Vermont Salas) with tapes! This series isn't as strong as it could be, but was originally based on materials produced by the University of Chicago, but were revamped between 2000-2004 at UNC-Chapel Hill. These newer editions are 100% improved over the older versions. Hope that helps! If there's a lot of interest, a thread should be opened up in the VSL[/size]


Thanks for the recommendations! Do you speak any Mayan?
Once again, I became interested in the Mayan languages after reading about the Maya civilization (yes, I know Yucatec Mayan is very different from Classical Mayan ;)). I was very surprised to learn that it has tones!

Here's a link to a Yucatec Mayan course (with audio and exercises) by the University of Yucatán (in Spanish): http://www.uady.mx/sitios/mayas/curso_m ... ex_01.html

Just a technical note. You need to write a number after 'size=', not 'small', 'large', etc. '9' is small.
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Rikita

Hi...

Postby Rikita » 2005-05-22, 1:30

Greetings from Cuzco, Peru... I just got here to learn Quechua (in this case the Cuzco version - people from here brag with speaking the "purest" form, but this can of course be argued)... Have to be careful I won't get confused when I read here, but anyway, it should be interesting to see some of the differences...

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Postby vijayjohn » 2014-11-30, 21:23

I've been learning Cusco Quechua, too, from the thread that Rikita opened. :)
Luís wrote:And I know this is a bit off-topic, but do you happen to know of any resources for learning the Mayan language? (Yucatec Maya seems to be the largest dialect spoken nowadays).

Nope, that would be K'iche'.


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