Cusco Quechua

Cusco Quechua
Qusqu runasimi
Native to	Peru
Native speakers	(c. 1.5 million cited 1989–2002)[1]
Language family	Quechuan Quechua II Southern Quechua Cusco Quechua
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either:quz – Cuscoqve – Eastern Apurímac
Glottolog	cusc1236  Cuscoeast2551  Eastern Apurímac
ELP	Cuzco Quechua
Quechua of Cusco is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Cusco Quechua (Quechua: Qusqu qhichwa simi) is a dialect of Southern Quechua spoken in Cusco and the Department of Cusco of Peru.

It is the Quechua variety used by the Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua in Cusco, which also prefers the Spanish-based five-vowel alphabet.^[2] On the other hand, the official alphabet used by the ministry of education has only three vowels.^[3]

Phonology

Vowels

Quechua only has three vowel phonemes: /a//i/ and /u/, with no diphthongs. Monolingual speakers pronounce them as [æ,ɪ,ʊ] respectively, but Spanish realizations [ä,i,u] may also be found. When the vowels appear adjacent to uvular consonants (/q/, /qʼ/, and /qʰ/), they are rendered more like [ɑ, ɛ, ɔ], respectively.^[4] There is debate about whether Cusco Quechua has five /a,e,i,o,u/ or three vowel phonemes: /a,ɪ,ʊ/.^[5]

While historically Proto-Quechua clearly had just three vowel phonemes /*a, *ɪ, *ʊ/, and although some other Quechua varieties have an increased number of vowels as a result of phonological vowel length emergence or of monophthongization, the current debate about the Cusco variety seems to be not phonological in matter but just orthographic.^[6]

Phoneme	IPA Phonetic realizations	3-vowel alphabet	5-vowel alphabet
/a/	[æ,a,ɑ]	a	a [æ, a, ɑ]
/i/	[i,ɪ,e,ɛ]	i	i [i, ɪ], e [e, ɛ]
/u/	[u,ʊ,o,ɔ]	u	u [u, ʊ], o [o, ɔ]

Consonants

Cusco Quechua consonant phonemes

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Post-alv./Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ
Stop/Affricate	plain	p	t	tʃ	k	q
	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ	tʃʰ	kʰ	qʰ
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ	tʃʼ	kʼ	qʼ
Fricative			s	ʃ			h
Semivowel				j	w
Liquid	lateral		l	ʎ
	rhotic		ɾ

Gemination of the tap /ɾ/ results in a trill [r].

About 30% of the modern Quechua vocabulary is borrowed from Spanish, and some Spanish sounds (such as /f/, /b/, /d/, /ɡ/) may have become phonemic even among monolingual Quechua speakers.

Grammar

Pronouns

[7]	Cusco Quechua	Northern Quechua	Ancash Quechua	English
1º	noqa/ñoqa	ñuka	nuqa	I
2º	qan	kan	qam	you
3º	pay	pay	pay	he, she, it
4º	noqanchis/ñoqanchis	ñukanchik (ñukapash kanpash)	nuqantsik	we (inclusive)
5º	noqayku/ñoqayku	ñukanchik (shinapash mana kan/kikin)	nuqakuna	we (exclusive)
6º	qankuna	qamkuna	qamkuna	you (plural)
7º	paykuna	paykuna	paykuna	they

Nouns

Examples using the word wasi 'house'

Function		Suffix	Example	Translation
Suffix indicating number	Plural	-kuna	wasikuna	houses
Possessive suffix	1st person singular	-y	wasiy	my house
	2nd person singular	-yki	wasiyki	your house
	3rd person singular	-n	wasin	his/her/its house
	1st person plural (incl.)	-nchis	wasinchis	our house (incl.)
	1st person plural (excl.)	-y-ku	wasiyku	our house (excl.)
	2nd person plural	-yki-chis	wasiykichis	your (pl.) house
	3rd person plural	-n-ku	wasinku	their house
Suffixes indicating case	nominative	–	wasi	the house (subj.)
	accusative	-(k)ta	wasita	the house (obj.)
	instrumental	-wan	wasiwan	with the house, and the house
	abessive	-naq	wasinaq	without the house
	dative	-paq	wasipaq	to the house
	genitive	-q/-pa	wasiq	of the house
	causative	-rayku	wasirayku	because of the house
	benefactive	-paq	wasipaq	for the house
	locative	-pi	wasipi	at the house
	directional	-man	wasiman	towards the house
	inclusive	-piwan, puwan	wasipiwan, wasipuwan	including the house
	terminative	-kama, -yaq	wasikama, wasiyaq	up to the house
	transitive	-(rin)ta	wasinta	through the house
	ablative	-manta, -piqta	wasimanta, wasipiqta	off/from the house
	comitative	-(ni)ntin	wasintin	along with the house
	immediate	-raq	wasiraq	first the house
	intrative	-pura	wasipura	among the houses
	exclusive	-lla(n)	wasilla(n)	only the house
	comparative	-naw, -hina	wasinaw, wasihina	like the house

Adjectives

Verbs

See also

• Quechuan and Aymaran spelling shift

References

1. Cusco at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Eastern Apurímac at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
2. Hornberger, Nancy; King, Kendall (1998). "Authenticity and Unification in Quechua Language Planning". Language, Culture and Curriculum. 11 (3): 390–410. doi:10.1080/07908319808666564. hdl:20.500.14332/35364.
3. Chuquimamani Valer, Nonato Rufino (2005). Yachakuqkunapa Simi Qullqa - Qusqu-Qullaw Qhichwa Simipi [Quechua-Quechua-Spanish dictionary] (PDF). Lima: Ministerio de Educación. ISBN 9972-881-32-6. Archived from the original(PDF) on 24 August 2011.
4. Ebina, Daisuke (2011). "Cusco Quechua". In Yamakoshi, Yasuhiro (ed.). Grammatical Sketches from the Field. Tōkyō: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. pp. 1–39.
5. Parker, Steve (September 2007). "Un análisis acústico del quechua del Cusco (An acoustic analysis of Cusco Quechua)"(PDF). GIALens Electronic Notes Series (in Spanish). 1 (3).
6. Adelaar, Willem F. H. (2014). "The Andean three-vowel system and its effect on the development of a modern orthography for the Aimaran and Quechuan languages". Scripta. 6: 33–46. hdl:1887/71388.
7. "Personal pronouns in Quechua Cusco". Quechua Language. 23 December 2019. Archived from the original on 22 April 2020. Retrieved 5 March 2020.

External links

• Simi Taqe Qheswa - Español - Qheswa (Qheswa simi hamut'ana kuraq suntur), Qosqo, Peru, 2006 (pdf 3,8 MB). Dictionary of the AMLQ: Cusco-Quechua - Spanish, Spanish - Cusco-Quechua.
• Collections in the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin AmericaArchived 19 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine