Kichwa | |
---|---|
Kichwa Shimi, Runa Shimi | |
Native to | Ecuador, Colombia, Peru |
Ethnicity | Quechua |
Native speakers | 450,000 (2008–2012) [1] |
Quechuan
| |
Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Variously: inb – Inga inj – Jungle Inga qvo – Napo Lowland qup – Southern Pastaza qud – Calderón Highland qxr – Cañar Highland qug – Chimborazo Highland qvi – Imbabura Highland qvj – Loja Highland qvz – Northern Pastaza qxl – Salasaca Highland quw – Tena Lowland |
Glottolog | colo1257 |
ELP | |
![]() Distribution of the Kichwa language. | |
Kichwa (Kichwa shimi, Runashimi, also Spanish Quichua) is a Quechuan language that includes all Quechua varieties of Ecuador and Colombia ( Inga ), as well as extensions into Peru. It has an estimated half million speakers.
The most widely spoken dialects are Chimborazo, Imbabura and Cañar Highland Quechua, with most of the speakers. Kichwa belongs to the Northern Quechua group of Quechua II, according to linguist Alfredo Torero.
Kichwa syntax has undergone some grammatical simplification compared to Southern Quechua, perhaps because of partial creolization with the pre-Inca languages of Ecuador.
A standardized language, with a unified orthography (Kichwa Unificado, Shukyachiska Kichwa), has been developed. It is similar to Chimborazo but lacks some of the phonological peculiarities of that dialect.
The earliest grammatical description of Kichwa was written in the 17th century by Jesuit priest Hernando de Alcocer. [2]
According to linguist Arturo Muyulema, the first steps to teach Kichwa in public schools dates to the 1940s, when Dolores Cacuango founded several indigenous schools in Cayambe. Later, indigenous organizations initiated self-governed schools to provide education in Kichwa in the 1970s and 1980s (Muyulema 2011:234).
Muyulema says that the creation of literary works such as Caimi Ñucanchic Shimuyu-Panca, Ñucanchic Llactapac Shimi, Ñucanchic Causaimanta Yachaicuna, and Antisuyu-Punasuyu provided the catalysts for the standardization of Kichwa. This was initiated by DINEIB (National Board of Intercultural Bilingual Education). [3]
Afterward a new alphabet was created by ALKI (Kichwan Language Academy). It comprises 21 characters; including three vowels (a, i, u); two semi-vowels (w, y); and 16 consonants (ch, h, k, l, ll, m, n, ñ, p, r, s, sh, t, ts, z, zh), according to Muyulema's article "Presente y Futuro de la lengua Quichua desde la perspectiva de la experiencia vasca (Kichwa sisariy ñan)" (Muyulema 2011:234).
Later, the bigger and much more comprehensive dictionary Kichwa Yachakukkunapa Shimiyuk Kamu was published in 2009 by the linguist Fabián Potosí, together with other scholars sponsored by the Ministry of Education of Ecuador. [4]
In contrast to other regional varieties of Quechua, Kichwa does not distinguish between the original (Proto-Quechuan) /k/ and /q/, which are both pronounced [k]. [e] and [o], the allophones of the vowels /i/ and /u/ near /q/, do not exist. Kiru can mean both "tooth" (kiru in Southern Quechua) and "wood" (qiru[qero] in Southern Quechua), and killa can mean both "moon" (killa) and "lazy" (qilla[qeʎa]).
Additionally, Kichwa in both Ecuador and Colombia has lost possessive and bidirectional suffixes (verbal suffixes indicating both subject and object), as well as the distinction between the exclusive and inclusive first person plural:
On the other hand, other particularities of Quechua have been preserved. As in all Quechuan languages, the words for 'brother' and 'sister' differ depending on to whom they refer. There are four different words for siblings: ñaña (sister of a woman), turi (brother of a woman), pani (sister of a man), and wawki (brother of a man). A woman reading "Ñuka wawki Pedromi kan" would read aloud Ñuka turi Pedromi kan (if she referred to her brother). If Pedro has a brother Manuel and the sisters Sisa and Elena, their mother could refer to Pedro as Manuelpak wawki or Sisapaj turi. And to Sisa as Manuelpak pani or as Elenapak ñaña.
Bilabial | Alveolar | Post-alv./ Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ( ŋ ) | ||
Stop | voiceless | p | t | k | ||
aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | |||
voiced | ɡ | |||||
Affricate | ts | tʃ | ||||
Fricative | voiceless | ɸ | s | ʃ | h | |
voiced | ( z ) | ʒ | ||||
Approximant | central | j | w | |||
lateral | l | |||||
Rhotic | ɾ |
Bilabial | Dental/ Alveolar | Post-alv./ Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ( ŋ ) | |||
Stop | voiceless | p | t | k | |||
aspirated | pʰ | tʰ | kʰ | ||||
voiced | b | d | ɡ | ||||
Affricate | voiceless | ts | tʃ | ||||
aspirated | tʃʰ | ||||||
voiced | dʒ | ||||||
Fricative | voiceless | ɸ | s | ʃ | x | h | |
voiced | z | ʒ | |||||
retroflex | ʐ | ||||||
Rhotic | ɾ | ||||||
Approximant | central | j | w | ||||
lateral | l |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i iː | u uː | |
Open | a aː |
The missionary organization FEDEPI (2006) lists eight dialects of Quechua in Ecuador, which it illustrates with "The men will come in two days." Ethnologue 16 (2009) lists nine, distinguishing Cañar from Loja Highland Quechua. Below are the comparisons, along with Standard (Ecuadorian) Kichwa and Standard (Southern) Quechua:
Dialect | ISO code | Speakers per SIL (FEDEPI) | Orthography (SIL or official) + Pronunciation | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Imbabura | [qvi] | 300,000 (1,000,000) | Chai tʃay jaricunaca xarikunaka ishcai iʃkay punllapillami punʒapiʒami shamunga. ʃamuŋga | ⟨ll⟩ = [ ʒ ] |
Calderón (Pichincha) | [qud] | 25,000 | Chai tʃay jaricunaca xarikunaka ishcai iʃkay punllapillami punʒapiʒami shamunga. ʃamuŋga | ⟨ll⟩ = [ ʒ ] |
Salasaca | [qxl] | 15,000 | Chi tʃi c'arigunaga kʰarigunaga ishqui iʃki p'unllallabimi pʰunʒaʒabimi shamunga. ʃamuŋga | ⟨ll⟩ = [ ʒ ] |
Chimborazo | [qug] | 1,000,000 (2,500,000) | Chai tʃay c'aricunaca kʰarikunaka ishqui iʃki punllallapimi punʒaʒapimi shamunga. ʃamuŋga | ⟨ll⟩ = [ ʒ ] |
Cañar–Loja | [qxr] [qvj] | (200,000) qxr: 100,000 qxl: 15,000 | Chai tʃay c'aricunaca kʰarikunaka ishcai iʃkay punzhallapimi punʒaλapimi shamunga. ʃamuŋga | |
Tena Lowland | [quw] | 5,000 (10,000) | Chi tʃi cariunaga kariunaga ishqui iʃki punzhallaimi punʒaλaimi shamunga. ʃamuŋga | |
Napo Lowland | [qvo] | 4,000 Ecu. & 8,000 Peru (15,000) | Chi tʃi carigunaga karigunaga ishcai iʃkay punchallaimi puntʃaλaimi shamunga. ʃamunga. | |
Northern Pastaza | [qvz] | 4,000 Ecu. & 2,000 Peru (10,000) | Chi tʃi carigunaga karigunaga ishcai iʃkay punzhallaimi punʒallaimi shamunga. ʃamunga. | |
Standard Kichwa | — | Chay karikunaka ishkay punllallapimi shamunka. | ||
Standard Southern Quechua (Qhichwa) | — | Chay tʃæy qharikunaqa qʰarikunaqa iskay iskæy p'unchawllapim p'untʃawllapim hamunqa. hamunqa. |
A band from Ecuador, "Los Nin", which raps in Kichwa and Spanish, has toured internationally. The band hails from the town of Otavalo, which is known for its traditional music. [7]
The Ecuadorian band "Yarina", which sings in Kichwa and Spanish, won Best World Music Recording with their album "Nawi" in the 2005 Native American Music Awards. [8]
In the Ecuadorian diaspora, the radio station Kichwa Hatari works to revive use of the Kichwa language, music, and culture in the United States. [9]
Quechua, also called Runasimi in Southern Quechua, is an indigenous language family that originated in central Peru and thereafter spread to other countries of the Andes. Derived from a common ancestral "Proto-Quechua" language, it is today the most widely spoken pre-Columbian language family of the Americas, with the number of speakers estimated at 8–10 million speakers in 2004, and just under 7 million from the most recent census data available up to 2011. Approximately 13.9% of Peruvians speak a Quechua language.
Pichincha is a stratovolcano in Ecuador. The capital Quito wraps around its eastern slopes.
Ecuador is divided into 24 provinces. The provinces of Ecuador and their capitals are:
Imbabura is a province located in the Andes of northern Ecuador. The capital is Ibarra. The people of the province speak Spanish, and a large portion of the population also speaks the Imbaburan Kichwa variety of the Quechua language.
Quechua people or Quichua people may refer to any of the indigenous peoples of South America who speak the Quechua languages, which originated among the Indigenous people of Peru. Although most Quechua speakers are native to Peru, there are some significant populations in Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Argentina.
Luis Benjamín Cordero y Crespo was President of Ecuador 1 July 1892 to 16 April 1895.
Záparo is a nearly dead language spoken by the Sápara, or Záparo, people of Ecuador. As of 2000, it was spoken by only one person out of a total population of 170 in Pastaza Province, between the Curaray and Bobonaza rivers. Záparo is also known as Zápara and Kayapwe. The members of the Záparo ethnic group now speak Quichua, though there is a language revival effort beginning. Záparo is sometimes confused with Andoa, though the two languages are distinct. Záparo has a subject–verb–object word order.
Páez is a language of Colombia, spoken by the Páez people. Crevels (2011) estimates 60,000 speakers out of an ethnic population of 140,000.
Media Lengua, also known as Chaupi-shimiChaupi-lengua, Chaupi-Quichua, Quichuañol, Chapu-shimi or llanga-shimi, is a mixed language with Spanish vocabulary and Kichwa grammar, most conspicuously in its morphology. In terms of vocabulary, almost all lexemes (89%), including core vocabulary, are of Spanish origin and appear to conform to Kichwa phonotactics. Media Lengua is one of the few widely acknowledged examples of a "bilingual mixed language" in both the conventional and narrow linguistic sense because of its split between roots and suffixes. Such extreme and systematic borrowing is only rarely attested, and Media Lengua is not typically described as a variety of either Kichwa or Spanish. Arends et al., list two languages subsumed under the name Media Lengua: Salcedo Media Lengua and Media Lengua of Saraguro. The northern variety of Media Lengua, found in the province of Imbabura, is commonly referred to as Imbabura Media Lengua and more specifically, the dialect varieties within the province are known as Pijal Media Lengua and Angla Media Lengua.
Southern Quechua, or simply Quechua, is the most widely spoken of the major regional groupings of mutually intelligible dialects within the Quechua language family, with about 6.9 million speakers. Besides Guaraní it is the only indigenous language of America with more than 5 million speakers. The term Southern Quechua refers to the Quechuan varieties spoken in regions of the Andes south of a line roughly east–west between the cities of Huancayo and Huancavelica in central Peru. It includes the Quechua varieties spoken in the regions of Ayacucho, Cusco and Puno in Peru, in much of Bolivia and parts of north-west Argentina. The most widely spoken varieties are Cusco, Ayacucho, Puno (Collao), and South Bolivian.
Santiago del Estero Quichua or Santiagueño Quechua is a vulnerable dialect of Southern Quechua spoken by 60,000-100,000 people in Argentina. It is spoken in the province of Santiago del Estero. The estimated coordinates are 27°47′S 64°16′W. Long-standing migration has also resulted in the presence of the language in other provinces of northeastern Argentina and in Buenos Aires.
The Cañari are an indigenous ethnic group traditionally inhabiting the territory of the modern provinces of Azuay and Cañar in Ecuador. They are descended from the independent pre-Columbian tribal confederation of the same name. The historic people are particularly noted for their resistance against the Inca Empire. Eventually conquered by the Inca in the early 16th century shortly before the arrival of the Spanish, the Cañari later allied with the Spanish against the Inca. Today, the population of the Cañari, who include many mestizos, numbers in the thousands.
Amazonian Kichwas are a grouping of indigenous Kichwa peoples in the Ecuadorian Amazon, with minor groups across the borders of Colombia and Peru. Amazonian Kichwas consists of different ethnic peoples, including Napo Kichwa and Canelos Kichwa. There are approximately 419 organized communities of the Amazonian Kichwas. The basic socio-political unit is the ayllu. The ayllus in turn constitute territorial clans, based on common ancestry. Unlike other subgroups, the Napo Kichwa maintain less ethnic duality of acculturated natives or Christians.
Nina Pacari, born as María Estela Vega Conejo is a Kichwa politician, lawyer and indigenous leader from Ecuador.
Spanish is the most-widely spoken language in Ecuador, though great variations are present depending on several factors, the most important one being the geographical region where it is spoken. The three main regional variants are:
Cañar or Cañari is a poorly attested extinct language of the Marañón River basin in Ecuador which is difficult to classify, apart from being apparently related to Puruhá, though it may have been Chimuan or Barbacoan. It was the original language of the Cañari people before its replacement by Kichwa and later Spanish.
Lowland Peruvian Quechua, or Chachapoyas–Lamas Quechua, are Quechuan languages spoken in the lowlands of northern Peru. The two principal varieties are:
Ariruma Kowii is an Ecuadorian poet of Quechua origin. He was born in Otavalo in 1961. He studied at the Central University of Ecuador. He has worked at the Quito newspaper Hoy.
Proto-Quechuan language is the hypothetical mother tongue or proto-language that would have given rise to the various languages of the Quechuan language family. This proto-language is reconstructed based on evidence from modern Quechuan languages, as well as records of ancient forms.
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