Quechua languages

Quechua, Quichua or runa simi is a family of languages originating in the Peruvian Andes that spans the western part of America of the South through seven countries. For the year 2004 the number of speakers of Quechua languages was estimated between eight and ten million in all of South America. According to statistical data from the 2017 census, the population of Quechua speakers in Peru increased from 3 360 331 speakers in 2007 to 3 799 780 speakers in 2017.

This linguistic family would have originated in a territory that would correspond to the central and western region of what is now Peru. In the 5th century, two branches of the family separated: Quechua I to the north and Quechua I to the south. Around the fifteenth century, the so-called general language became an important vehicular and official language for the Inca state. This variant was the most important language used for the catechism of the natives during the Spanish administration. In the 20th century, Spanish surpassed Quechua as the majority language in Peru. Southern Quechua, a descendant of the general colonial language, is the most widespread Quechua language, followed by Northern Quechua (from Ecuador, Colombia, and Loreto) and Ancashino Quechua. In the 1960s, dialectological studies determined the existence of separate languages within Quechua.

Quechua languages have an agglutinative morphology, with regular roots and wide repertoires of productive suffixes, which allow the formation of new words on a regular basis. Among its grammatical features, the source of the information or evidentiality, several nominal cases, an inclusive and an exclusive we, the benefit or attitude of the speaker regarding an action, and optionally the topic can be distinguished.. Transitive verbs agree on the subject and the object. They express nominal predications juxtaposing the subject and the attribute. Unlike Spanish, Quechua works without articles or conjunctions^{[citation required]} and without distinguishing grammatical genders.

There are expressions such as: Urqu mischi (male cat); china mischi (female cat); china mulli (female molle); urqu mulli (male molle). Urqun qucha (male lagoon); chinan qucha (female lagoon): to distinguish dual functionalities; there is no category similar to that of the grammar of the Romance languages. 'urqu', 'china' to the name of an animal or plant or geographical feature to indicate the masculine or feminine gender that corresponds to it. Despite the fact that several of these characteristics are mostly conserved, certain languages have lost some of them over time.

Gluttony

Vocabulary of the general language of the Peruvian Indians, called Quechua (1560). From Santo Tomás Sunday the first Quechua writer.

The Quechua languages did not have autoglotonyms or at least there are no records that they could have been. On the contrary, it is from the studies and chronicles from the time of the Conquest that names are given to the languages of the linguistic mosaic that constituted the Viceroyalty of Peru in the 16th century. Some phrases were used to designate the language with which the rulers of Ancient Peru communicated with the Inca State: the earliest recorded is the general language. However, in the Andean region, not only classical Quechua received this epithet, but also Aymara, Puquina and Mochica later.

The name of Quechua was used for the first time by Fray Domingo de Santo Tomás in his Grammatica... as well as the origin of the expression, also cited by Cieza de León and Bernabé Cobo: al When the chroniclers asked the orejones about the origin of the so-called general language, they answered that they originated from the Quichua nation, which lived in what is today the Province of Andahuaylas. The variant word Quechua began to be used around the middle of the 17th century. Both Quichua and Quechua come from some cognate of the original [qiʈ͡ʂ.wa] ('temperate valley'), which is used for those valleys with a mild climate.

In many variants, such as in southern Quechua, this cognate shows a uvular consonant that, when it appears before /i/, either as a plosive or a fricative, causes an allophone [e] in this vowel. Quechuism Quechua usually corresponds to the regions that keep this allophony. In some others, the transformation of the original */q/ into non-uvular consonants causes the loss of allophony in the vowels, which is why the name quichua tends to correspond rather to these variants. However, there are some exceptions, such as in Santiago del Estero, where the name quichua is used, and some areas where the autonym is not used.

Freelancers

The autoglotonym runa simi ("people's language") is widespread in some varieties of southern Quechua. After the Conquest, the term runa underwent acculturation, since its original meaning of "human being" was distorted and it was used to designate the natives as opposed to wiraqucha, which was used to designate the Spanish. Thus, runa simi can be translated as indigenous language, that is, any native language, to differentiate them from Spanish (kastilla simi; misu simi).

Another possible interpretation is that the expression runa refers to categories of public administration: the runa is the taxing Indian, regardless of whether he is Quechua or not. A strong reason in favor of this hypothesis is the existence of a similar expression for the languages of the Aymara family: The gluttonym jaqaru comes from jaqi + aru, with an identical meaning.

There are no early or late references in the Spanish chronicles to the use of an epithet similar to runa šimi to designate a particular language, but simply as a reference to the fact that the language in question was spoken by Indigenous. One of the first references, cited by Cerrón-Palomino (2008), is that of the Quechuaist Middendorf, barely in 1891.

In both Colombian dialects it is called inka shimi («language of the Incas») because it was the Incas who brought it to those latitudes, while on the outskirts of Huancayo, Quechua Huanca is called as wanka shimi, that is, "language of the huancas", and is not used by the vernaculars or nuna shimi or qichwa shimi .

Language Studies

The first known studies of Quechua linguistics occurred at the beginning of the Viceroyalty of Peru. Catholic missionaries used this and other local languages to evangelize the indigenous people, for which various manuals (artes) and dictionaries (vocabularies) of these languages were written, such as the Aymara, Mochica or Guarani, as well as catechisms.

Fray Domingo de Santo Tomás O.P., a Dominican friar who, according to his own testimony, arrived in Peru in 1540, was the first missionary to learn the language of the central region of Peru during his evangelizing task; then preaching in his own language to the natives of the current departments of La Libertad, Áncash, Lima, Ica, Apurímac, Huancavelica, Ayacucho, Junín and Huánuco. In 1560, as a result of his knowledge of the native language, he published in Valladolid the first two works in Quechua, the Grammar or art of the general language of the Indians of the kingdoms of Peru, and the Lexicon or vocabulary of the general language of Peru.

The Lima representative Juan de Balboa was the first professor of the Quechua language (Quichua language), when the University of San Marcos was organized in 1576, and the first Peruvian who graduated as a doctor there. Later, in 1608 Diego González Holguín (1552-1618) published the Vocabvlario of the general language of all Peru called qquichua or the Inca.

In the second half of the 20th century, the first modern scientific studies of Quechua took place. The linguists Alfredo Torero and Gary Parker published the first studies on the subject, seconded by Rodolfo Cerrón Palomino, Félix Quesada, Antonio Cusihuamán, Clodoaldo Soto Ruiz, Amancio Chávez, Francisco Carranza, among many others, and the anthropologist and writer José María Arguedas. Important studies were also published among foreign linguists, such as those by Willem Adelaar, Gerald Taylor, César Itier, Wolfgang Wolck, Pieter Muysken and others. However, it is also the time of progressivism in the Andes, where the native languages, as well as their customs, were seen as paths for the development of nations, for which reason the incipient rural education was aimed at the direct replacement of them by the Castilian. The work of the Institute of Peruvian Studies and the impulse of Alberto Escobar and the publication of two dictionaries of six varieties of Quechua and their respective grammars. In this regard, Escobar says

"The demand for the Quechua language and its employment began on 27 May 1975 with Law 21156. The most widely disseminated pre-Hispanic language in Peru was legally and socially proscribed since the insurrection of Túpac Amaru in 1780. Its officialization in the country, with rank equivalent to that of the Castilian language, is therefore a decisive measure of cultural policy. "

Genealogy and classification

Quechua has no proven genetic links to other language families. Previously, some hypotheses were put forward that were later discarded, such as the proposal of the Amerindian family by Joseph Greenberg (1987), which placed Quechua within the Andean branch of the Andean-Chibcha-Paezano trunk.

Evolution

Geographical distribution of Quechua languages by official status

Although the thesis of a genetic relationship between Quechua and the Aymara languages is also ruled out, the consensus of specialists accepts an ancient relationship of mutual influence between the proto-languages of these families. An important part of the lexicon of these families is shared and it is unknown from which of both they have come. In this way, after a long period of contact, Proto-Quechua appeared at the beginning of the first millennium in the central-western part of Peru. Proto-Quechua diverged into two branches around the 5th century: Quechua I began a new northerly expansion across the eastern slope to the Callejón de Huailas, and Quechua II expanded southerly along the Pacific slope sierra.

In the 13th century, the most recent expansion of Quechua took place, driven by the trade of the kingdom of Chincha, which produced the adoption of classical Quechua as the lingua franca in much of Ancient Peru and in what is now the Ecuadorian highlands, used by the curacas of diverse towns to communicate between independent rulers for the exchange of products. This advance led to the adoption of Quechua in the equatorial highlands and Amazonia, on the one hand, and towards the southern highlands over Aymara-speaking territory. Finally, the Ecuadorian variant diverged from the southern speech, producing the last split of the Quechua family. However, in several regions it was only the curacas who knew Quechua, while the common people continued to use their own languages, as was the case in the Mochica-speaking region. In the midst of this process, when the Incas began the conquest of Chinchaysuyo, they adopted this language for their administrative affairs, although they were also Aymara speakers, and imposed their learning in the various provinces of their empire, without this meaning that they left aside vernacular languages. Some jungle towns that maintained commercial contact with the Incas were also influenced by Quechua.

During the Viceroyalty of Peru, Catholic missionaries used this and other local languages to evangelize the indigenous people; Several manuals (arts) and lexicons were written for this and other important languages, such as Aymara, Mochica or Guaraní, as well as catechisms. This contributed to the expansion of Quechua in other Andean and Amazonian towns.

Internal sorting

Geographical distribution of the main divisions of the Quechua family

Seminal dialectological studies by linguists Gary Parker (1963) and Alfredo Torero (1964) classified the varieties of the Quechua language family into two subfamilies or branches. One of these branches is called Quechua I in Torero's nomenclature or Quechua B according to Parker. This branch includes the varieties distributed in the central highlands and north central Peru, on both slopes of the Andes mountain range, within the jurisdictions of the Peruvian departments of Lima, Junín, Pasco, Huánuco and Áncash. The other branch is called Quechua II (Bullfighter) or Quechua A (Parker). It extends to the north between southwestern Colombia, Ecuador and northern Peru, while to the south it extends between southern Peru, Bolivia and northwestern Argentina, with probable speakers in the nearby region of Chile. Torero articulated in his work a tripartite subdivision of the Quechua I group.

• Quechua I
  • (without subgroups)
    • Huaylas
    • Plugs
    • Western Huayhuash (Alto Pativilca)
    • Huánuco-Marañón
    • Huánuco-Huallaga
    • Huayhuash medium (Alto Huaura and Chaupihuaranga)
    • Huayhuash Oriental (Pasco and northern Junín)
    • Mantaro Valley (huanca, Alis, possibly Huangáscar)
• Quechua II
  • Quechua II A
    • Pacaraos
    • Lincha
    • Cajamarca (incl. Incahuasi-Cañaris)
  • Quechua II B
    • Lamas
    • Ecuador
    • Coastal Quechua
  • Quechua II C
    • Quechua ayacuchano
    • Quechua cuzqueño (includes Bolivia and Argentina)
    • Santiago del Estero

In a recent review, Adelaar recalls that the taxonomic position of the Quechua II A group was questioned by the author himself and reconsidered in the light of subsequent research in the Yauyos area. Pacaraos Quechua, for mainly morphological considerations, is considered as a branch of Quechua I, divergent from the rest of the Central Quechuas, while the remaining varieties of Torero's initial II A were considered as early separations from proto-Quechua II, prior to a probable bifurcation between Quechua II B and Quechua II C.

Lectal ensembles

In the Peripheral subgroup (II, B, Wampuy), we find highly and moderately defined areas of intelligible dialects. A notable case is the southern Chinchay subbranch, where all the variants are intelligible, a case similar to northern Chinchay. Within the Yungay (QIIa), the Cañaris and Cajamarca dialects communicate easily; while the other two variants Laraos and Lincha intercommunicate with different varieties of other branches, as will be seen later.

In the Central subfamily (I, A, Waywash), the picture is more complex: the speeches from the south of the department of Junín (Jauja and Huanca) are mutually intelligible despite the divergence, while the speeches from the north of this sector (including that of Pacaraos, of the QIIa) make up a tangled dialect continuum, that is, the intercomprehension of the variants is relative to the distance between them. The speeches of the provinces of Yauyos and Chincha (both Waywash and Yungay) are intelligible despite belonging to such different groups.

The linguist Alfredo Torero also proposed a grouping of the multiple varieties used in Peru into seven supralects or languages according to their mutual intelligibility:

• Ancash-Huanuco (I)
• Yaru-Huánuco (I)
• Jauja-Huanca (I)
• Yauyos (I and IIA)
• Cajamarca-Cañaris (IIA)
• Chachapoyas-Lamas (BII)
• Ayacucho-Cuzco (IIC)

Yauyino Quechua is made up of dialects of both branches of Quechua that are mutually intelligible despite their divergences.

The Summer Institute of Linguistics has cataloged the family as macrolanguage, a category created by this institution to describe those lineages that for political or social reasons are considered as if they were a single language against the evidence linguistics. In parallel, it indexes 42 variants as individual languages, regardless of the degree of mutual intelligibility.

Lexicon or Vocabulary of the general language of Peru composed of Domingo de S. Tomás, 1560

Standard and official forms

There is currently no standard language (in the case of Arabic) or common written system (as in Chinese) that users of unintelligible languages use to communicate: before they resort to Spanish, if they know it.

On an official level, the political constitution of Peru speaks of Quechua as a single language; however, the Ministry of Education issues different books for at least six linguistic varieties (Áncash, Ayacucho, Cajamarca-Cañaris, Cuzco, Junín, San Martín). In Bolivia, a single Standardized Quechua (southern) is used in education and in official texts, and in Ecuador a Unified Kichwa. All varieties spoken in these two countries are mutually intelligible.

Diverging from the consensus of specialists, the so-called Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua affirms that Quechua is a single language, with Quechua from Cuzco as the standard dialect and the other variants as deformations of it.

Relationship with other languages

Andean area languages that came into contact with Quechua

After the formative convergence of the Quechua and Aymara families, Quechua continued to have an intense relationship of linguistic contact with the Aymara linguistic family, especially the southern varieties. In many regions, Quechua eventually came to replace Aymara. In fact, many of the characteristics of IIC Quechua seem to be due to the fact that many of these varieties formed on an Aymara substratum.

In addition, Quechua has historically been in contact with Amazonian languages such as Asháninka as well as other languages of the Arawak and Pano families. In the Marañón basin, Quechua completely replaced a significant number of pre-Inca languages. In the south, the Inca empire extended to the linguistic domain of Mapudungun, Cacán and the Huarpe languages.

Quechua also influenced Spanish, contributing many Quechuisms to describe the new realities that the conquistadors met. Similarly, the Spanish language has also left loanwords in various Quechua languages. Subsequently, Spanish-Quechua bilingualism in the Andes has led to the incorporation of voiced stop phonemes into Quechua II, and on the other hand to the formation of Andean Spanish.

Geographic distribution

Quechua languages are spoken in a wide discontinuous geographical range in western South America, from southwestern Colombia to northwestern Argentina.

Colombia Ecuador and Northern Peru

Between southwestern Colombia, Ecuador, and the extreme north of the Peruvian Amazon, the so-called northern or Ecuadorian Quichua predominates. This diverse set extends from discrete regions of the departments of Nariño, Putumayo and Cauca (Colombia) to the northern slopes of the Amazon River in the department of Loreto (Peru), passing through much of the Ecuadorian Sierra and Oriente.

Northwestern Peru

Geographical distribution of persons whose mother tongue is Quechua by districts

Two varieties related to Northern Quichua are spoken in the Peruvian departments of Amazonas and San Martín. Chachapoyan Quechua is used in the Amazonian mountains while Lamista Quechua is used on the slopes of the Mayo and Sisa rivers. To the west, Cajamarquino Quechua extends around the city of Cajamarca, in towns such as Chetilla and Porcón. The Incahuasi-Cañaris variety, intelligible with the Cajamarquina variety, extends to the northeast through the Andean districts of Incahuasi and Cañaris (Lambayeque) and nearby in the provinces of Cutervo and Jaén (Cajamarca), as well as a remote town in the neighboring province. from Huancabamba (Piura)

Central Peru

In the central Sierra of Peru, languages of the Quechua I branch are mainly located. These make up a dialect continuum scattered between the departments of Áncash and Huánuco to the north, and those of Junín, Huancavelica and Ica to the south, including the departments of Pasco and Lima.

The most widely spoken language in these regions is Ancashino Quechua, spoken in the far north (Áncash and northwestern Huánuco). The so-called Quechua huanca or simply huanca is spoken in the provinces of Jauja, Huancayo, Chupaca and Concepción in the department of Junín. To the south, in the department of Lima, two Quechua II dialects share their range with the Quechua I varieties of the Yauyos province; one is located in the district of Laraos and the second is in the south of the province.

Southern Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina

The most widespread macrolect of the Quechua family, Southern Quechua, is spoken between southern Peru and northern Argentina, forming three separate regions. The first includes the southern Sierra of Peru between the department of Huancavelica and those of Puno and Moquegua, projecting in a small region to the central north of the department of La Paz. This region is separated from another one further south by the Aymara linguistic domain, the second which extends in the center and southwest of Bolivia through the departments of Cochabamba Potosí and the northeast of Chuquisaca, as well as bordering parts of other departments, such as the west of Santa Cruz and east of Oruro. In the east of the Antofagasta Region (El Loa Province), close to the border with Bolivia. And in the Argentine north in the Argentine provinces, such as a large part of Jujuy and the west and north of Salta. Finally, Quichua has a "semi-isolated" in the central-western region of the Province of Santiago del Estero, which is the so-called "quichua santiagueño".

Phonology

This article contains symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet. If you look incorrectly, see Help:Special features.

Syllables in Quechua languages are made up of at least one vowel as the nucleus. As a general rule, they accept a consonant in attack and coda position (beginning and end of syllable, respectively); however, more recent loanwords can accept up to two consonants in attack, especially with liquid consonants. Intonation and stress have minor roles.

There are three vowel phonemes: an open vowel /a/ and the closed rounded ones /u/ unrounded /i/. In addition, Central Quechuas distinguish two vowel quantities: short and long vowels /a:/, /i:/, /u: /. The precise pronunciation of these vowel phonemes varies with their phonetic environment. The vicinity of a uvular consonant produces more centralized allophones such as [ɑ], [e], [ɛ], [o], [ɔ] and that of the palatal semiconsonant /j/ also causes an advancement of /a/ to [æ]. Groups such as /aj/ and /aw/ in Chachapoyas Quechua, as well as in some variants of Ancashino Quechua, which also affects the group /uj/.

As for the consonants, there is a high diversification as a result of various diachronic changes that have affected this original inventory. Protoquechua would have had three nasals /m, n, ɲ/ four stops /p, t, k, q/, two affricates /t͡ʃ, ʈ͡ʂ/, three fricatives /s, ʂ, h/, two approximants /j, w/ and two or three liquids /ʎ, ɾ, (l)/. The retroflex fricative /*ʂ/] became voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/] since ancient times, being preserved only in the huanca.

The Proto-Quechua consonant inventory underwent significant reductions more than once in its development process. The initial glottal /*h/ disappeared in Quechua I and in Cajamarca and Incahuasi-Cañaris Quechua. Some consonants merged, such as the uvular plosive /*q/ with the velar /*k/ in the QIIB and sibilants in the QIIC; both groups also merged the affricates into a single postalveolar, just like Huallaga Quechua, with the exception of Chachapoyas and Pastaza Quechua. In the latter, the retroflex affricate was advanced to the alveolar position /t͡s/.

On the other hand, at least two major expansions or additions of the consonant set are recorded. Due to prolonged contact with Spanish, voiced plosives have been incorporated such as /b/, /d/ and / g/, where Quechua originally distinguished between voiced and voiceless, as well as the retroflex fricative [ʐ] among the main loanwords, as in bindiy (to sell), Diyus (God) or karru [kaʐu] (car). In southern Quechua, due to the very probable influence of Aymara and except for the Ayacucho variant, ejectives and aspirates were added to the phonemic repertoire of stops and to the affricate.

A recent important change in Quechua I has affected the articulation of affricates. The postalveolar */t͡ʃ/ was advanced to an alveolar /t͡s/ in much of the north and center of this dialect continuum. Later, some areas also advanced the retroflex */ʈ͡ʂ/ to the postalveolar position left by the preceding change. Some variants, such as Quechua from Cajatambo, even went through a deaffrication of the new alveolar, coinciding with a previous glottalization of the alveolar sibilant */s/.

Writing

Acta de Independencia argentina, written in Spanish and in Quechua (1816)

There has been a long debate about the pre-Hispanic use of some method of Andean writing. It has been proposed that quipus and tocapus could be a writing system, but there are no generally accepted proofs.

The first Spaniards (mainly chroniclers and evangelizers) as well as the aborigines sought to graph the Quechua(s), mainly in classical Quechua and in early forms of the Cuzco variant, using the Latin alphabet; this situation generated multiple spellings for different phonemes and vice versa. However, the Quechua languages remained essentially oral until well into the twentieth century.

On October 29, 1939, there was one of the first attempts to graph Quechua even under the paradigm of a single language. On this occasion, an alphabet for indigenous American languages consisting of 33 signs is approved during the XXVII International Congress of Americanists, in Lima (Peru).

On October 29, 1946, the Ministry of Education of Peru approved the Alphabet of the Quechua and Aimara Languages, with 40 signs usable in the rural literacy primers projected by said institution.

During the week of August 2 to 13, 1954, during the III Inter-American Indigenous Congress, held in La Paz, the Phonetic Alphabet for the Quechua and Aymara languages was created, based on the agreements of the two previous congresses, held in Pátzcuaro (1940) and Cuzco (1949).

On October 16, 1975, at the end of the military government of Juan Velasco Alvarado, the Peruvian Ministry of Education appointed a High Level Commission to implement the Law for the Officialization of the Quechua Language. This informs and recommends the General Basic Alphabet of Quechua, approved by the ministry through Ministerial Resolution No. 4023-75-ED, whose letters were a, aa, ch, e, h, i, ii, k, l, ll, m, n, ñ, o, p, q, r, s, sh, t, tr, ts, u, uu, w, y. Ten years later, through Ministerial Resolution No. 1218-85-ED, the official alphabet suppressed the letters e and o ; only three vowels are used, a, i and u, which corresponds to the phonology of Quechua. However, the Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua in Cuzco still promotes a version of the Cuzco Quechua alphabet with the five vowels of Spanish.

Digit numbers and ten

The digit numbers and ten, zero is not indicated, in different Quechua languages are:

In the previous table the symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet have been used.

Grammar

Quechua languages are agglutinative and the rules for word formation are fairly well preserved. Morphemes are highly regular, they do not usually vary due to the environment in which they are inserted. Words are made up of only two types of morphemes: roots and suffixes. There are independent roots, which form a complete word without being modified, and there are also those dependent on suffixes for this purpose. Suffixes are of two types: derivatives, which modify the meaning of lexemes, and inflectional, which determine the paradigms of grammatical features. Some suffixes are enclitics, which can be attached to the end of any word in the sentence. Suffixes are highly productive, as they make up predictable meanings for the interlocutor.

(Southern Quechua)

Pukllachichkarqaykum

puklla-chi-chka-rqa-yku=m(i)

play-CAUS-PROG-PAST-1PL.SBJ=EXP

'We were making him play.'

Quechua languages are characterized by preferring a variable SOV order, words that fulfill an adjective function and relative clauses always precede the noun they modify (centripetal language). Morphosyntactic alignment is usually of the accusative type, marking the direct object with cognate suffixes of *-kta. The complete possessive phrase is formed by placing the possessor before the possessed and marking with genitive case and personal relative suffixes respectively.

(q. Huarochirí)

Paypa shutin

pay-pa	shuti-n
3-GEN	Name-POS.3

‘Your name’ (from it, her or that)

Grammatical features

Evidentiality is conserved as a grammatical feature throughout the family. Thus, a distinction is always made between face-to-face, reported, conjectured and inferred information. This category is expressed in the form of enclitics or particles that can be freely added to virtually any word in the sentence.

(Q. Cajamarca)

Qayna chay waka waćharqanmy

'Yesterday, this cow stopped' (the speaker has witnessed it)

Awiluyshi wañurqan puñushqanshina.

'My grandfather died while he was sleeping' (the speaker knows about hearing)

Yanapanqaćh warmin.

"Your wife will help you"

On the other hand, Protoquechua would have had four grammatical persons defined simultaneously by the inclusion of the speaker and the listener. The number would not have been grammaticalized initially. This system is maintained in Pacaraos Quechua and shines through in the other variants.

Subsequently, various verbal and nominal grammatical marks for plurals appeared, overlapping the initial scheme. With this change, the pronominal system shifts to one of seven persons: three person singular, two first person plural (inclusive and omitting), and second and third person plurals. Also, the difference between the first two person plurals has disappeared in Northern Quichua.

The number does not seem to have had any major relevance until the advent of the Spanish Conquest. Other grammatical features, such as gender, have not entered the Quechua languages. Only the definiteness was added to the huanca through the suffix -kaq, derived from the agentive of the verb ka- ('to have').

Verb Phrase

Verbal morphology is extremely rich in this family. Quechua languages have extensive repertoires of derivative suffixes. These bind directly to the root in virtually unlimited quantities, forming new stems. Protoquechua had four verbal suffixes that express direction: -rku- ('upward'), -rpu- ('downward'), -yku- ('inwards') and -rqu- ('outwards'). Only in Quechua I and in the case of vertical address suffixes have they been preserved productive, while in other instances they are fossilized or absent.

(chechua ancashino)

Rikaanakuntsik.

rikaa-naku-ntsik

watch-RECP-1SBJ.NFUT

'We see each other.'

(Lame Quechua)

Yaykuchin.

Yayku-chi-n

Come in.CAUS-3SBJ

'It makes him come in.'

Verb stems are dependent on inflectional suffixes of mood and tense, which are specific to the grammatical person of the subject of the sentence. Quechua verbs agree with both the subject and the direct object when they are transitive, with exceptions in Ecuadorian Quichua, a region where the binomial conjugation has been lost.

(Q. Chachapoyas)
makawanki
Maka-wa-Nki
hit-1OBJ-2SBJ
‘You'll hit me.’
(north owl)
Ñukaman	mañarka.
ñuka-man	Maña-rka
I-ACC	order-PAS
'He asked me.'

As for the mood, the inflection of the imperative is distinguished from that of the indicative with different sets of suffixes. Quechua typically distinguishes two tenses: future and non-future. A verb in the non-future mood can be specified for the past by the suffix *-rqa. Aspect is often marked by derivative suffixes.

Noun phrase

The vast majority of nominal roots are morphologically independent; that is, they do not need suffixes to form a complete word. Examples of exceptions are relative pronouns such as kiki- ('oneself') or llapa- ('everyone'), which require possessive suffixes to be complete. See the Ancashina form llapantsik ('all of us'). The nouns and adjectives formed do not present differences. One name modifies another by directly preceding it. Together they make up a nominal phrase that has its nucleus in the final word. Modifiers can be prepended indefinitely.

Nominal inflection admits person-specific possessive suffixes, typically followed by an optional plural suffix such as -kuna; however, the order is reversed in Santiago Quichua. In third place are the case suffixes. Noun phrases are inflected by adding suffixes only to their head. A phrase without a case suffix is considered a nominative. Case suffixes accusative (*-kta), lative (-man), instrumental (-wan), commitative (- ntin), genitive (-pa, except -pi in Laraos), benefactive (-paq) and causative (-rayku) are preserved throughout the Quechua family. There are also case suffixes in which there is variation, such as the locative (*-ćhaw, -pi, -pa, -man), the ablative (-piq, -pita, -manta, -paq, -pa), the prolative (-pa, -nta), the terminative (*-kama, -yaq) and the comparative (*-naw, -hina, -yupay).

As an article

• In the Quechua Áncash-Húanuco when asked allquqaCan you translate by and the dog?
• When expressed: ishkanmi chaayaamushqa, there is determining functional article; prayer is translated: 'pues, the two have arrived.'

Legal aspect

Currently, Quechua is an official language in Bolivia (art. 5 of the 2009 constitution) and "official language of intercultural relations" in Ecuador (art. 2 of the 2008 constitution).

The constitutions of Colombia and Peru stipulate that their respective indigenous languages –among them Quechua– are official in the territories where they predominate.

In Chile and Argentina, Quechua lacks this official recognition.

During the Viceroyalty

During the government of Viceroy Francisco de Toledo, in 1579, the creation of a "Cátedra de la Lengua General de los Indios" at the Royal and Pontifical University of the City of the Kings of Lima, today the National University of San Marcos. The first professor of the Quechua language was Dr. Juan de Balboa. The viceroy established that students could not obtain a bachelor's degree or a baccalaureate without having studied Quechua since it was important for administration and evangelization. This measure occurred after the installation of the first printing press in Peru. For the viceroy, "the only effective thing at that time to teach them the doctrine, was to preserve the runa-simi imposed by the Incas, and to meet this demand, he asked King Felipe II to create Quechua chairs at the University of Lima, and the Authorization to print a catechism in that language". Subsequently, the viceroys mandatorily assigned translators and interpreters to each senior official so that they were instructed in a basic way in the languages of their respective jurisdiction.

The First Council of Lima, in 1551, established the obligatory use of vernacular languages. For the II Council of Lima, the use of interpreters was prohibited to legitimize the use of Quechua as a language of religion. In the III Council of Lima, convened by Archbishop Toribio de Mogrovejo, the creation of a catechism for teaching was ordered of faith. The result was the Christian doctrine and catechism for the instruction of the Indians..., a trilingual catechism (Spanish, Quechua and Aymara) that was published by the printer Antonio Ricardo in 1584, also being the first book printed in South America.

However, for King Felipe III the measures taken by his predecessor had failed. In the mid-17th century, the Spanish authorities promoted a hispanization policy that was applied inconsistently. Printing was discontinued of original linguistic works in Quechua which led to the reprinting of religious works from the 16th century and early XVII while there was a general disinterest by the state in culture and history. This led to the promotion of Quechua by elites Cuzco and the development of a "quechua renaissance" in which the work of professor Juan de Espinosa Medrano would stand out, in addition to the development of regional variants of the language. The Quechua renaissance would come to an end with the rebellion of Túpac Amaru II in 1780 that led to the prohibition of Quechua by from the authorities.

After the Napoleonic invasion of Spain and the subsequent Spanish war of independence, the Parliament of Cádiz was convened, which approved the Constitution of 1812, which changed the structures of the Old Regime. For the government in Cádiz, it was important that the territories from overseas to support the provisional government, for which reason Pedro Alcántara de Toledo issued the "Proclamation to the inhabitants of Overseas" where the advantages of the Constitution were presented. The proclamation was translated into various languages including Quechua. For his part, Bernardo O'Higgins printed the "Proclamation to the Peruvian People" in Quechua to promote the idea of independence among the entire population of the then Peruvian viceroyalty.

Sequence of legal provisions

19th century

In Peru, after President Manuel Pardo y Lavalle came to power in 1872, a process began to "civilize the indigenous" through the construction of railways and the promotion of a linguistic policy of translations from Quechua to Spanish with the aim of improving communication.

20th century

• 1920
  • Peru: the Organic Law on Education of that year, promulgated by Augusto B. Leguía, provided for the Castroization of indigenous peoples.

• 1972
  • Peru: President Juan Velasco Alvarado decreed an educational reform that provided, among other things, bilingual education for Peruvians, users of indigenous languages, which comprised almost half of the population.
• 1973
  • Peru: the Bilingual Education Regulations were stipulated.
• 1975:
  • Peru: Officialization of Quechua by Decree Law No. 21115. The Quechua General Basic Alphabet is approved by R.M. No. 4023-75 ED on 16 October 1975.
• 1977
  • Bolivia: Quechua was declared by law as an official language with Aymara and Spanish.
• 1980
  • Peru: the Experimental Program for Bilingual Education in Puno is launched.
  • Ecuador: the Unified Alfabeto Quichua is officialized.
• 1983
  • Bolivia: establishment of the National Literacy and Popular Education Service (SENALEP).
  • Ecuador: a constitutional reform is carried out to recognize the Quichua and other Aboriginal languages as part of the national culture.
• 1984
  • Bolivia: Officialization of the Unified Alphabet Quechua-Aimara, pursuant to Supreme Decree 202227 of 5 May 1984.
• 1985
  • Peru: Official recognition of the Quechua Unified Alphabet, by Ministerial Resolution No. 1218-85 of 18 November 1985.
• 1986
  • Ecuador: the Bilingual Intercultural Education Project begins; the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) is officially recognized.
• 1988
  • Ecuador: the National Directorate of Bilingual Intercultural Education is established.
• 1991
  • Peru: the National Bilingual Intercultural Education Policy is organized.
  • Bolivia: the Bilingual Intercultural Education Project is launched at an empirical stage and ILO Convention 169 is signed.
• 1993
  • Ecuador: The National Model for Bilingual Intercultural Education is structured.
  • Peru: ILO Convention No. 169 was ratified. The National Intercultural Bilingual Education Unit (UNEBI) is established.
• 1994
  • Bolivia: Law on Education Reform No. 1565 is decreed.
• 1995
  • Bolivia: Bilingual Intercultural Education is promoted throughout the territory.
• 1998:
  • Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru signed the Tabacundo Agreement in order to unify the Quechuas alphabets of Bolivia and Peru, with the Ecuadorian Quichua.
  • Ecuador: ILO Convention 169 is ratified.
• 2000
  • Peru: the National Directorate of Intercultural Bilingual Education (DINEBI) is created, which replaces UNEBI.
• 2000
  • Bolivia: Supreme Decree No. 25894 of 11 September confirms its officiality along with the declaration of 33 other indigenous languages.

21st century

• 2002:
  • Signature Lima Declarationin the framework of the Fifth Latin American Congress of Bilingual Intercultural Education.
• 2003:
  • Peru: On 30 October 2003, Congress passed the Language Act.
• 2009
  • Bolivia: Quechua is included as an official language in the Political Constitution promulgated on 7 February along with 35 other indigenous languages.
• 2011
  • Peru: Act No. 29735, on 26 June 2011, on the use, preservation, development and promotion of Quechua.
• 2014
  • Peru: University Law No. 30220 establishes as a requirement for obtaining a bachelor's degree to dominate a native language or a foreigner.
• 2015
  • Peru: in the department of Ayacucho, the High Court of Justice creates intercultural courts of lawful peace, where cases are dealt with in Quechua ayacuchano. Also in Peru, Congressman Hugo Carrillo Cavero is promoting an initiative to convert Quechua teaching as part of the compulsory curriculum of schools.
• 2016
  • Peru: in the department of Cusco, the health centers serve in Quechua.
  • Peru: a supreme resolution has been promulgated, making the respective Aboriginal language compulsory, within Bilingual Intercultural Education.
  • Peru: TV Peru and Radio Nacional del Perú premiered information in quechua.
• 2018
  • The Peruvian Congress approves the teaching of Quechua in basic education so equal to foreign languages: American English in the majority (Abraham Lincoln College, among others), French (Peruvian Franco College), Hebrew (Leon Pinelo College), Italian (Anthony Raimondi College), German (Alexander Von Humboldt College), Chinese and Japanese in their exclusive schools of the Eastern descendants. All the schools mentioned work in Lima..^{[chuckles]required]}
• 2019
  • Roxana Quispe Collantes is received as a doctor at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos defending a thesis on the Quechua poet Andrés Alencastre Gutiérrez (1909-1984). First doctoral thesis written in the Quechua language