Languages of peru

Small linguistic families and languages isolated from Peru (centuryXVI).

The linguistic map of Peru is quite complex and interesting. The official language is Spanish, which has practically been spread nationwide through schooling since the time of José Pardo, with Quechua, Aymara and other indigenous languages also being official languages, but only in areas where they predominate.

Regarding foreign languages, only 4% of Peruvians speak English.

It is estimated that, at the beginning of the 21st century, a large and heterogeneous group of some fifty vernacular languages was spoken in this multilingual country: It has 47 languages depending on the dialectal division considered.

The vast majority of these languages are indigenous, although the most widespread language is Spanish, the mother tongue of 94.4% of the inhabitants.

Spanish is followed by native languages, mainly Quechua languages (5.6% overall) and the Aymara language (1.1%), as well as Amazonian languages and sign language. In the urban areas of the country, especially in the coastal region, monolingualism of Spanish predominates; while in many rural areas of the country, particularly in the Amazon, Multilingual populations prevail

Language situation

Map of Peru showing the distribution of people whose mother tongue is Quechua by provinces.

Map of Peru showing the distribution of people whose mother tongue is Aymara by provinces.

Map of Peru showing the distribution of people whose mother tongue is Spanish by provinces.

Map of Peru showing the distribution of people whose mother tongue is some other native language (asháninka, Aguaruna, etc.) by provinces.

According to Peter Landerman, the Jesuits translated fragments of the Christian canon into some 150 indigenous languages of the Peruvian Amazon, of which only about 48 survive today.

Language legislation

On a political level, Spanish is the official language and, in areas where they are predominant, Quechua, Aymara and the other aboriginal languages. This date dates back to 1975 with the recognition of Quechua as the official language of the Republic and the publication of Decree Law No. 21156 that established Native Language Day.

Number of speakers

In the Peruvian Amazon, about forty languages are spoken, which are usually grouped into 17 families and diversify into about 120 recognizable local varieties.

Languages

Native languages are spoken mainly in the central Andes and in the Amazon jungle. A considerable number of the northern Andean languages were spoken on the north coast and the northern Andes, but became extinct in this country during the 19th century (see Culli language, Mochica language, Tallan languages, Hibito-Cholón languages).

The only native Andean languages currently in use are Quechua, Aymara, Jaqaru and Kawki; while the Amazon region is home to a greater variety of languages, the most widely spoken being Asháninka and Aguaruna. Currently, more than 15 linguistic families have been defined in the Peruvian territory and still another fifteen or more isolated and unclassified languages.

Currently it is known that the languages that could have been used in Peru easily exceed 300; chroniclers such as Acosta even speak of 700. However, since the time of the conquest, during the Viceroyalty and after independence, the disappearance of the indigenous people (due to epidemics, forced labor and miscegenation) and anti-indigenous discrimination on the part of the white and mestizo population, as well as the Peruvian government (which imposed Spanish) reduced the number of indigenous languages to less than 150 today. Even so, the number is higher, but disproportionate. The following list is of the languages spoken today and those extinct in the 20th century or in extinction (in italics).

Classification

The natives of Peru belong to more than 15 proven linguistic families, and about another fifteen languages are also documented, including isolated languages and unclassified languages, many of them currently extinct (these are marked with the † sign). The following list includes more than 95 languages between living languages and extinct languages:

Quechua

Geographical distribution of the main divisions of the Quechua family.

Quechua is the country's second language, by number of speakers. It has official status where it is predominant, although from a linguistic point of view it should be understood as a family of related languages or as a macrolanguage, for example Ethnologue distinguishes more than 25 varieties of Quechua in Peru. In fact, the 4 main groups into which Quechua is divided (Quechua I, Quechua IIA, Quechua IIB and Quechua IIC), all four are represented in Peru.

Aymara

Aymara is the country's third language, by number of speakers, with nearly half a million speakers in Peru. It currently predominates in the south of the country, in the departments of Puno, Moquegua and Tacna.

Amazonian languages

Pano-Tacan languages: Pano languages (dark green) and takana languages (light green), points indicate the documented location of languages.

The rest of the indigenous languages of Peru have more than 105,000 speakers altogether and are spoken basically in the east and north of the country, in the departments of Loreto, Madre de Dios and Ucayali. Northern Peru (Loreto) is probably the most diverse part of the country from a linguistic point of view, as it is abundant in small language families and isolated languages.

In northern Peru there are five small families: the Cahuapana, Jívara, Zápara, Peba-yagua and Bora-Witoto, these families are spoken mainly in the department of Loreto, as well as in adjacent areas of Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador. Most of these groups were decimated in the "rubber boom" early XX century. In the Putumayo River region the population fell from fifty thousand to between seven thousand and ten thousand in the first decade of the XX century.

In the department of Ucayali, Pano languages predominate, while in the high (mountainous) jungle of the Ucayali river basin, southern Arawak languages predominate.

Sign Languages

Peruvian Sign Language (LSP) is used by the country's deaf community. The 2007 Census did not include any questions about LSP, but that has been corrected in 2017, although the results are not yet available.

Alochthonous languages

An allochthonous language of a territory is a language whose traceable historical origin is known and falls outside that territory and was brought to that territory by conquest, immigration, or colonization.

Peruvian Spanish

The most widespread language in Peru is Spanish, which has twelve dialects in this country: Tumbesian, Piurano and Chiclayano Spanish on the north coast; the riverside, from Trujillo to Lima; Andean Spanish, which is divided into four sub-varieties, Cajamarquino, Central Sierra, Arequipeño, and Southern Sierra; and the Amazonian Spanish, which is divided into the Spanish of the high jungle, the Spanish of the low jungle, and the Spanish of the border with Brazil.

Other allochthonous languages

In addition to Spanish, which is the allochthonous language par excellence, there are other non-native languages of Peru, currently spoken as a result of migratory processes.

Although it is true that there are a large number of colonies of foreigners in Peru, most of them have abandoned their native language. Among the main immigrant communities, Japanese, Chinese and Cantonese are widespread as the clearest examples, and to a much lesser extent, German (central jungle in Pozuzo and Oxapampa), Italian (urban areas of Lima and Arequipa), Arabic and Hindustani (Urdú dialect). These last two are the product of the recent waves of immigrants from Palestine and Pakistan. French is also a language that is taking root in the department of Loreto since, through a campaign of the French Alliance, French was well received by the Peruvian population, especially those from Iquito. Lately, English (Amazon) is also very influential, and due to the number of American and British tourists and residents, Portuguese and Portuñol are widely used in the border regions of Ucayali, Loreto and Madre de Dios.