Southern Quechua facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Southern Quechua
Quechua II-C, Urin Urin Qhichwa
Native to	Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina
Region	Countries of the Andean highlands of South America, minorities in neighboring countries and some parts of Asia and Europe
Ethnicity	In the Andes: Quechua · Diaguita · Qulla In Santiago: Lule · Vilela · Tonocotés · Spaniards
Native speakers	(5 million cited 1987–2014)e24
Language family	Quechuan Quechua II Quechua IIC Southern Quechua
Early forms:	Classical Quechua Southern Quechua
Dialects	Ayacucho Cusco Puno (Collao) North Bolivian South Bolivian     Santiagueño
Writing system	Latin script (Quechua alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	List of countries where Southern Quechua is an official language  Bolivia  Peru List of countries where Southern Quechua is a regional language  Argentina
Recognised minority language in	Chile
Linguasphere	84-FAA-h

Southern Quechua (Quechua: Urin qichwa, Spanish: quechua sureño), also called Quechua (Qichwa or Qhichwa), is a group of related dialects. It is the most widely spoken language in the Quechua language family. About 6.9 million people speak Southern Quechua.

It is one of the few native languages in America with more than 5 million speakers, like the Guaraní language. Southern Quechua is spoken in the Andes mountains, south of a line between the cities of Huancayo and Huancavelica in central Peru. This includes areas like Ayacucho, Cusco, and Puno in Peru. It is also spoken in much of Bolivia and parts of northern Argentina. The most common types are Cusco, Ayacucho, Puno (Collao), and South Bolivian.

Southern Quechua is known as 'Quechua IIc' in the traditional way of classifying Quechua languages. It is different from other Quechua types spoken further north. These include Central Quechua, North Peruvian Quechua, and Kichwa.

What are the Dialects of Southern Quechua?

Southern Quechua has several main dialects. These include Ayacucho Quechua, Cusco Quechua, Puno Quechua (also called Collao Quechua), North Bolivian Quechua (Apolo Quechua), and South Bolivian Quechua.

Santiagueño Quechua in Argentina is a bit different. It seems to be a mix of several dialects, including South Bolivian. Sadly, the Quechua dialects once spoken in Catamarca and La Rioja, Argentina, are no longer used.

One big difference is that Ayacucho Quechua does not use special sounds called aspirated (like 't' with a puff of air) or ejective (like 't' with a popping sound). Other varieties in Bolivia and Southern Peru do use these sounds.

How is Standard Quechua Written?

A linguist named Rodolfo Cerrón Palomino created a standard way to write Southern Quechua. This writing system works for all the different regional forms. It tries to combine the older ways of speaking from various regions.

Many groups in Peru and Bolivia have accepted this standard. It is also used on Wikipedia pages in Quechua. Even Microsoft uses it for software translations into Quechua.

Here are some examples of how words are spelled differently in regions compared to the standard way:

In Bolivia, they use the same standard, but they use "j" instead of "h" for the "h" sound, like in Spanish.

Letters Used in Quechua Words

The following letters are used for words that come from old Quechua or from the Aymara language: a, ch, chh, ch', h, i, k, kh, k', l, ll, m, n, ñ, p, ph, p', q, qh, q', r, s, t, th, t', u, w, y.

Instead of "sh" (which is used in northern and central Quechua), "s" is used. Also, "ch" is used instead of "ĉ" (which is found in some other Quechua types).

Letters for Borrowed Words

The following letters are used for words borrowed from Spanish and other languages (but not from Aymara): b, d, e, f, g, o.

The letters "e" and "o" are not used for native Quechua words. This is because the sounds for "e" and "o" naturally happen when "i" and "u" are next to certain other letters (q, qh, and q'). So, even if you see ⟨qu⟩ or ⟨qi⟩, they might be said as [qo] and [qe].

Some letters appear in proper names or words taken directly from Spanish: c, v, x, z; j (in Peru; in Bolivia, "j" is used instead of "h").

Understanding Quechua Grammar

How Words are Built in Quechua

Quechua is an agglutinating language. This means words are built by adding many small parts, called suffixes, to a main word. Each suffix adds one specific meaning. This allows for many changes in the overall meaning and even small differences in how words are understood.

Quechua languages are very regular in how they add these suffixes. The usual sentence order is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV). This means the person or thing doing the action comes first, then the thing the action is done to, and finally the action itself.

Other cool grammar features include:

• Bipersonal conjugation: Verbs change to match both the person doing the action (subject) and the person or thing receiving the action (object).
• Evidentiality: Speakers show where their information comes from. Did they see it? Did they hear it from someone else? Did they guess it?
• Topic particles: Special small words that highlight the main topic of a sentence.
• Suffixes that show who benefits from an action or how the speaker feels about it.

Pronouns in Quechua

In Quechua, there are seven main pronouns (words like "I," "you," "he/she/it," "we," "they").

For "we," there are two forms:

• Inclusive "we" (ñuqanchik): This means "we, including you."
• Exclusive "we" (ñuqayku): This means "we, but not including you."

To make "you" and "they" plural, the suffix -kuna is added. So, qam (you) becomes qam-kuna (you all), and pay (he/she/it) becomes pay-kuna (they).

Adjectives in Quechua

Adjectives (words that describe nouns) always come before the nouns they describe. They do not change based on gender or whether the noun is singular or plural.

Numbers in Quechua

Here are some basic numbers:

• ch'usaq (0)
• huk (1)
• iskay (2)
• kimsa (3)
• chunka (10)
• pachak (100)
• waranqa (1,000)
• hunu (1,000,000)
• lluna (1,000,000,000,000)

To make ordinal numbers (like "first," "second"), you add the word ñiqin after the number. For example, iskay ñiqin means "second." The only exception is "first," which can be huk ñiqin or ñawpaq. Ñawpaq also means "the oldest" or "the very first."

Nouns in Quechua

Nouns (words for people, places, things) can have suffixes added to them. These suffixes show who owns something, if it's singular or plural, and how the noun is used in the sentence (its case).

Usually, the suffix for who owns it comes before the suffix for singular/plural. However, in the Santiago del Estero dialect, this order is switched. The exact suffixes can also change a bit between different dialects.

Adverbs in Quechua

Adverbs (words that describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs) can be made by adding -ta or -lla to an adjective. For example, allin (good) becomes allinta (well).

Some adverbs are formed by adding suffixes to words like "this" or "that." For example, chay (that) becomes chaypi (there).

An interesting thing about Quechua adverbs is how they talk about time and direction. The word qhipa means both "behind" and "future." The word ñawpa means "ahead" and "past." This is different from European languages. In Quechua, it's like people are moving backwards into the future (because they can't see it). They face the past (because they can remember it).

Verbs in Quechua

The basic form of a verb (the infinitive) ends with the suffix -y. For example, much'a means 'kiss', and much'a-y means 'to kiss'.

Verbs also change their endings to show who is doing the action (the subject). Here are some endings for common verb forms:

These suffixes usually show the subject. But, a suffix can also show the person or thing receiving the action (the object). This object suffix comes before the subject suffix.

Many different suffixes can be added to the verb to change its meaning. For example:

• -chi makes someone cause an action (like "to make someone do something").
• -ku makes the action happen to the person doing it (like "to wash oneself").
• -naku means people are doing an action to each other. For example, marq'ay means 'to hug', so marq'anakuy means 'to hug each other'.
• -chka shows an action that is happening right now. For example, mikhuy means 'to eat', so mikhuchkay means 'to be eating'.

Grammatical Particles in Quechua

Particles are small words that do not change their form. They don't take suffixes. They are not very common, but some important ones are arí (yes) and mana (no). Mana can sometimes take suffixes to make its meaning stronger, like manan (definitely no) or manaraq (not yet).

Other particles include yaw (hey, hi) and some words borrowed from Spanish, like piru (from Spanish pero, meaning 'but').

Showing Where Information Comes From (Evidentiality)

Quechua languages have special suffixes that show where the speaker got their information. This is called evidentiality. It's a system with three main ways to show the source of knowledge:

The letters in parentheses (like (i) or (a)) mean that the vowel can be left out if the word before it ends in a vowel. These suffixes can be used with "I," "you," or "he/she/it." The exact forms of these suffixes can be a little different in various dialects.

See also

• Quechuan and Aymaran spelling shift