Quechua

Quechua, also known as Runasimi in Quechua from runa, 'people' + simi,'"speech,' is the most widely distributed of all South American Indian language groups. It is spoken by close to 10 million people in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile (Ethnologue). About one-third of Quechua speakers are monolingual and two-thirds are bilingual in Quechua and Spanish.

Quechua has two main branches:

1. Quechua I, also known as Waywash, is spoken in the central highlands of Peru. It is the most archaic and diverse branch of Quechua. Ethnologue lists 17 varieties of Quechua as belonging to this branch. These varieties are often considered to be separate languages due to lack of mutual intelligibility. The largest groups are Huaylla Wanca, Northern Conchucas Ancash, Southern Concuchos Ancash with 250,000 speakers each, and Huaylas Ancash with 336,000 speakers.

2. Quechua II, also known as Wanp'una consists of 29 varieties that are usually divided into three groups:

•   Group A consists of five varieties spoken in Peru. The largest varieties are Lambayeque with 20,000 speakers and Cajamarca with 20,000 speakers.
•   Group B comprises 14 varieties spoken in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. The largest groups are Chimborazo Highland with 1 million speakers, Imbabura Highland with 300,000 speakers, and Cañar Highland with 100,000 speakers, all three in Ecuador.
•   Group C consists of 10 varieties spoken in Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Peru. This group has the largest number of speakers. The largest varieties are South Bolivian with 2.7 million speakers in Bolivia, Ayacucho with 900,000 speakers, Cuzco with 1.5 million speakers, and Puno with 500,000 speakers, all three in Peru.

It is generally thought that Quechua originated on the central coast of Peru around 2,600 BC. The Inca kings of Cuzco made Quechua their official language. With the Inca conquest of Peru in the 14th century, Quechua became Peru's lingua franca. The Incas spread Quechua to areas that today are the countries of Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 16th century AD, Quechua had already spread throughout a large portion of the South American continent. The spread of Quechua did not stop with the Spanish conquest of Peru. It continued to spread into areas that were not part of the Inca empire such as Colombia, Brazil, and Argentina.

Today, the best known varieties of Quechua are Cuzco spoken by 1.5 million people, and Ayacucho spoken by 900,000 people in Peru.

Aymara has been grouped by some scholars together with Quechua as part of a larger Quechumaran linguistic stock because the two languages share about 30% of their vocabulary. This classification scheme is a matter of dispute because the similarities in vocabulary may be due to borrowing rather than to a common origin. Additionally, the two languages have few similarities in the affixes.

Today, Quechua has the status of an official language in Peru and Bolivia, along with Spanish and Aymara. In Peru education is exclusively in Spanish although many primary-school teachers use a combination of Spanish and Quechua with monolingual Quechua children. In Bolivia and Ecuador the status of Quechua has been improving in recent years due to indigenous movement to revitalize the language. The movement has resulted in the introduction of bilingual education programs in both countries. However, efforts to promote bilingual education in Peru have been unsuccessful. Efforts to introduce the teaching of Quechua in schools in all countries are often stymied by lack of written materials in Quechua in general, and teaching materials in particular.

In rural areas, Quechua is used for everyday communication in informal contexts. Since most native speakers of Quechua are illiterate in their native language Quechua remains largely an oral language. In formal contexts, such as government, administration, commerce, education, and the media, Spanish is used. The only cultural domain where Quechua is used extensively is traditional Andean music.

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