Ayacucho Quechua

Ayacucho (also called Chanca or Chanka, after the former Chancas local tribe that dominated the area before Incan conquest) is one dialect of the Quechua language, spoken in the Ayacucho region of Peru, as well as by immigrants from Ayacucho in Lima. With roughly a million speakers, it is one of the largest dialects of the language along with Cusco Quechua. The literary standard of Southern Quechua is based on these two closely related Quechua varieties.

Sounds

Vowels

Ayacucho Quechua uses only three vowels: IPA|/a/, IPA|/i/, and IPA|/u/, similar to Classical Arabic. Monolingual speakers pronounce these as IPA| [æ] , IPA| [ɪ] , and IPA| [ʊ] respectively, though the Spanish vowels IPA| [ä] , IPA| [i] , and IPA| [u] may also be used. When the vowels appear adjacent to the uvular fricative IPA|/χ/, they are rendered more like IPA| [ɑ] , IPA| [ɛ] , and IPA| [ɔ] respectively.

Consonants

The orthographic representations, if different, are shown in <angled brackets>.

Notable differences from Cusco Quechua:
* There are no glottalized or ejective stops.
* is a fricative in all positions.
* Ayacucho Quechua lacks the characteristic fricativization of stops at the end of a syllable; compare Cusco "nuqanchis" with Ayacucho "ñuqanchik".

Ayacucho Quechua has borrowed hundreds of words from Spanish, and some speakers (even monolinguals) approximate the Spanish pronunciation; for them at least, IPA|/f/ /v/ /b/ /d/ /g/ /e/ /o/ are phonemes.

Morphology

See the main article on Quechua language for an overview of the morphology. The major differences in Ayacucho Quechua:
* Pronouns
** The first person pronoun is "ñuqa", not Cusco Quechua "nuqa". ("Ñuqa" is sometimes found in Cusco as well.)
** The second person pronoun is "qam", not Cusco "qan"; the plural is "qamkuna".
** The first person plural inclusive pronoun is "ñuqanchik", not Cusco "nuqanchis".
* Verbal conjugation
** The first person plural exclusive suffix is "-niku", not Cusco "-yku"; thus "rimaniku" "we speak".
** The first person plural inclusive and second person plural suffix is "-chik", not Cusco "-chis".
** The progressive tense infix is "-chka-", not Cusco "-sha"; thus "rimachkani" "I am speaking".
** In the simple past, the third person singular suffix -n may be omitted: "rimara" "he/she spoke".

References

* Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino, "Lingüística Quechua", Centro de Estudios Rurales Andinos 'Bartolomé de las Casas', 2nd ed. 2003
* Clodoaldo Soto Ruiz, "Quechua: manual de enseñanza", Instituto de Estudios Peruanas, 2nd ed. 1993, ISBN 84-89303-24-X
* Clodoaldo Soto Ruiz, "Gramática Quechua Ayacucho-Chanca", Ministerio de Educación, 1976
* Clodoaldo Soto Ruiz, "Diccionario quechua Ayacucho-Chanca" [- Castellano y vice versa] . Ministerio de educación del Perú, 1976
* Gary Parker, "Ayacucho Grammar and Dictionary", Mouton, 1969