Standard Quechua
The Peruvian linguist Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino has devised a standard orthography intended to be viable for all the different regional forms of Quechua that fall under the umbrella term Southern Quechua. This orthography is a compromise of conservative features in the pronunciations of the various regions that speak forms of Southern Quechua. It has been accepted by many institutions in Peru and Bolivia, and is also used on Wikipedia Quechua pages, and by Microsoft in its translations of software into Quechua.
Some examples of regional spellings versus the standard orthography:
Ayacucho | Cuzco | Standard | Translation |
---|---|---|---|
upyay | uhay | upyay | "to drink" |
utqa | usqha | utqha | "fast" |
llamkay | llank'ay | llamk'ay | "to work" |
ñuqanchik | nuqanchis | ñuqanchik | "we (inclusive)" |
-chka- | -sha- | -chka- | (progressive suffix) |
punchaw | p'unchay | p'unchaw | "day" |
In Bolivia, the same standard is used, except for "j", which is used instead of "h" for the sound (like in Spanish).
The following letters are used for the inherited Quechua vocabulary and for loanwords from Aymara:
a, ch, chh, ch', h, i, k, kh, k', l, ll, m, n, ñ, p, ph, p', q, qh, q', r, s, t, th, t', u, w, y.
Instead of "sh" (appearing in the northern and central Quechua varieties), "s" is used.
Instead of "ĉ" (appearing in the Quechua varieties of Junín, Cajamarca, and Lambayeque), "ch" is used.
The following letters are used in loanwords from Spanish and other languages (not from Aymara):
b, d, e, f, g, o.
The letters e and o are not used for native Quechua words, because the corresponding sounds are simply allophones of i and u that appear predictably next to q, qh, and q'. This rule applies to the official Quechua orthography for all varieties in general. Thus the spellings
These letters appear only in proper names or words adopted directly from Spanish:
c, v, x, z; j (in Peru; in Bolivia, it is used instead of h).
Read more about this topic: Southern Quechua
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