| Quichua | ||
|---|---|---|
| Kichwa | ||
| Spoken in | Ecuador, Colombia | |
| Total speakers | 2,500,000 | |
| Language family | Quechuan
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| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1 | None | |
| ISO 639-2 | que | |
| ISO 639-3 | – | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Kichwa (Kichwa shimi, Runashimi, also Spanish Quichua) is a Quechuan language including all Quechua varieties spoken in Ecuador and Colombia (Inga) by approximately 2,500,000 people. Kichwa belongs to the Northern Quechua group of Quechua II (according to Alfredo Torero).
Kichwa syntax has undergone some essential changes and therefore holds a special position within Quechua.
A unified orthography (Kichwa Unificado, Shukyachiska Kichwa) has been developed.
Particularities
As in all varieties of Quechua, the words for 'brother' and 'sister' differ depending on who is using them. A woman must say ñaña for her sister and turi for her brother. On the other hand, a man must say pani for his sister and wawki for his brother. A woman reading "Ñuka wawki Pedromi kan" would therefore read aloud "Ñuka turi Pedromi kan".
External links
- Map of the regional varieties of Kichwa in Ecuador (quichua.net / FEDEPI.org)
- Otavalos Online: Basic Kichwa Course for Beginners, in Spanish (PDF)
- KU Kechwa Resource Center: Learning Salasaka Kechwa (by Nina Kinti-Moss)
- Pieter Muysken: Semantic transparency in Lowland Ecuadorian Quechua morphosyntax (PDF file)
- Openoffice v3 Kichwa Spellchecker
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